Exceptionally Good: Leaders for a Better World
We bring you in-depth interviews with exceptional leaders who drive toward a different bottom line — leaders from health care, philanthropy, non-profits, education and rescue services who are doing exceptional work for the good of the world. Exploring their origin stories, their leadership journey and the lessons they learned on their path -- sometimes the hard way -- we bring you close to understand how exceptional leaders tick.
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Exceptionally Good: Leaders for a Better World
20. Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King — I Have Been to the Mountaintop
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“Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.”
- Dr. King
This year, I’m doing something a bit different. One in what I hope is a yearly series. Instead of our usual conversation with powerful, human and reflective leaders for social good, I’m sharing a reading from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have Been to the Mountaintop” speech — a voice grounded in courage, nonviolence, and moral clarity that still speaks to our work for justice and social good.
Dr. King delivered this speech in Memphis on April 3, 1968, the night before his assassination. In it he lifted up the struggle for human dignity, rooted justice in nonviolent moral force, and reminded us that the arc of history bends toward justice …when and because we choose to push it there.
It does not bend itself. It does not bend when we doomscroll or lament. Those might inform us or motivate us. But it is action that bends that arc.
For all of us working for social good, Dr. King’s words offer two leadership lessons that still matter:
- Justice is pursued through nonviolence and the moral high ground — true power is grounded in love for the humanity of every person: allies and detractors.
- Courage is built in solidarity and community — even when the path is steep and the mountain high, we are not alone.
This reading is offered in the spirit of exceptional good — honoring the courage of all who stand for justice and human rights through non-violent action and civil courage.
Listen to Dr. King’s original speech here:
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm
To all leaders who carry both hope and heaviness, who stand for dignity in the face of fear, who hold fast to justice when the world tests your resolve:
Link arms.
Keep going.
Your work matters.
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Follow us:
More from Exceptionally Good:
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About Exceptionally Good:
https://www.exceptionallygood.org/about
Follow us:
More from Exceptionally Good:
Work with Ryan:
https://www.exceptionallygood.org/services
Exceptionally Good on Substack:
https://substack.com/@exceptionallygood
Producer, editor and host: Ryan Maxwell
Theme music: Ryan Raddatz
Guitar music: Adeline’s Guitar
Credits/Outro Read by: Adeline, Advice and Jess
The views shared on this podcast are those of my guests and the host and do not necessarily reflect those of any employer past or present.