4 Black Business Execs Talk ‘Selma for Students’ Campaign and Dr. King’s Legacy

Michael Littlejohn, executive at IBM:

Why did you join the “Selma for Students” campaign?

For a number of reasons. I think the first and most obvious is that Selma is a story that everyone should know about. While we can’t ensure that everyone sees it, we asked ourselves who was the most important population to see this and I thought that the 7th-9th graders targeted for the NYC project was key.

There was a report that said millennials are less racially tolerant than prior generations, and I thought how could that be? We are a more diverse world than we were 20 years ago, so how can they be less tolerant? That’s why this generation needs to be aware of what happened in the Civil Rights Movement and how it set the tone for all the rights movements of the last 50 years, whether it was gay rights, disability rights, etc. Selma is key to explaining that.

What impact do you hope Selma will have on youth today?

First of all, for African American students, I hope that it gives them some insight into their history and into what it took to get us to where we are today. As of [January 15th], we have raised $2 million in a little over a week, and that couldn’t have happened 40 years ago. So I want all American students to understand where they come from and what had to happen to get us to where we are today. It’s important for all students to understand the Civil Rights Movement and why it’s important for us to be more tolerant today.