Two American Heroes—Martin Luther King, Jr. and Booker T. Washington—Who Overcame Injustice With a Zero-Victim Attitude

On this episode of Our American Stories, James Ward, author of Zero Victim: Overcoming Injustice With A New Attitude, tells the story of two other black men in American history who have inspired his zero victim mentality.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including yours. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites up next. Pastor and author
James E. Ward Jor came to national prominence after Jacob
Blake Jr. Was shot during an incident involving the Kenosha,

(00:32):
Wisconsin Police. What made his response so unique was his
call to prayer, peace, healing, and forgiveness. In his book
Zero Victim, Overcoming Injustice with a New Attitude, James Ward
tells his story as a zero victim Black American. Here's
James Ward talking about two other African Americans in US

(00:55):
history who inspired his zero victim mentality.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Like researching historical figures to see if there were any
other zero victim thinkers in history, especially in the African
American community. And one of the great zero victim thinkers
in American history is Booker T. Washington, who of course
became the first president of Tuskegee University.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
And I like his writings.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
For example, you know, Up from Slavery is a well
known you know writing of Booker T. Washington, and as
early as nineteen oh one. He was communicating what I
call a zero victim message, speaking to blacks in the
South who had experienced tremendous victimization.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
You're still talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
The area's era of blacks not being considered full human beings.
You're still talking about blacks being subject to you know,
Jim Crow laws and the effects of slavery and racism
that were very, very in the South and was overt
you know, these things were it was a way of life.

(02:06):
And yet during that time, Booker T. Washington was encouraging
blacks in the South to not be victims, to not
see themselves as victims. That despite the injustice that they
were dealing with on a daily basis and historically, in
my words, he was encouraging them to overcome injustice with

(02:26):
the new attitude. And he began to explain, for example,
to blacks in the South who were working in the
cotton fields, who were working on the sugar plantations, who
were working the tobacco plantations. He was reminding the blacks
during that time, listen that even though slavery has been difficult,
you have the intellectual property of commerce. It was the

(02:50):
blacks in South, in the South, on those plantations that
literally knew how to grow tobacco and sugar cane and cotton.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
He tried to explain to them and to teach them.
And this is.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Where you see this really fleshed out and Tuskegan University
with his overall vision.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
For the school.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
But he was on this campaign to teach blacks in
the South that were industrious how they could use their
intellectual capability and the knowledge that they had gained from
slavery to be empowered economically, that they really understood, let's
just say, the basis of how to drive the economy
in the South. And Booker t would take that message

(03:29):
even to the pastors and the black churches, and you
read from some of his writings that he was oftentimes
rejected and scolded by the black pastors for not taking
a much more aggressive stance about slavery and the injustice
that they were dealing with. But he was not dismissive
of that. But he was talking about a new mindset.

(03:50):
He was really trying to encourage them to engage, and
he was asking the pastors to actually help teach what
I call now a zero victim mindset people during that time.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
And so I like his perspective.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
In some situations, it was not well received, but then
we see the effect of a great university, which is
Tuskegee University, coming out of that way of thinking. Even
his successor, Robert Modin, they continued this track where they
were really calling blacks to be empowered with this zero
victim mindset, teaching them how to engage economically with industry,

(04:28):
how to use their hands and their work experience, how
to not be a victim, how to be overcomers, and
to not be overcome by the circumstances that they were
dealing with to help Black America really rise up into
prominence for us to enhance the quality of living for
Black American people. And so I appreciate his voice and

(04:49):
his writings.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
I see so.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Many remnants of zero victim thinking in the life of
doctor Martin Luther King Junior, going through the civil rights
movements in the sixties, calling for non violence, calling for peace,
really using a biblical foundation concerning what justice is.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
He attempted. Although not a perfect man, he wasn't flawless in.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Any way, but I really think he did a great
job of helping to lead our nation and what I
call a zero victim perspective of not seeing you know
himself as a victim, but really speaking and calling for
biblical justice, and not just a cultural perspective of justice,
but really calling for justice from God's perspective, based upon

(05:32):
the truth of God's word. And so I like to
say that doctor King was also a predecessor in the
zero victim thinking, you know, in the zero victim school
of thought. And I tell folks today, doctor King had
a dream. We have a vision now we really want
to see and we can use his mode of thinking
and facing off with some of the things that we're
dealing with today, with some of the socio political and

(05:54):
racial challenges that we see in America. I still think
that there's tremendous benefit and the mindset of a booker T.
Washington and a doctor Martin Luther King Junior and dealing
with some of the challenges.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
That we're facing off with in today's society.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
And a great job on the editing and production of
that piece by Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
James Ward. His book Zero Victim, Overcoming Injustice with a
New Attitude is available on Amazon and all the usual suspects,
and it's great and fun to listen to a hero
talk about his heroes. And by the way, none of
these people are perfect people. We always have to say

(06:32):
that because too often in this world we're judging people
by their flaws and not by what they've overcome and
what they've contributed. And this is a real failure in
American life right now, to judge a person by their
worst day. It's a terrible thing. And my goodness, look
up Booker T. Washington his life, My goodness, we need
to know more and have more stories told about him.

(06:52):
And the same with Reverend King, who can call him
doctor King that always remember he was a reverend and
he loved the Bible and the Lord. The stories of
MLK and Booker T. Washington as told by James E.
Ward here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love

(07:32):
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(07:52):
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