With Gratitude For A Very Special Teacher

As a 5th grader, my small town school had just become integrated, as did our teaching staff. My teacher that year was from the “Negro school.” His name was Mr. Robert Maull. He looked a lot like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, actually. And he, in a single sentence, changed my entire self-perception in class one day.

How did that happen? It was nothing that would have perhaps been remarkable to anyone else. It was simply that he chose me to be a table leader for the cluster of students whose desks adjoined my own “block.” Why that so impressed me, I still don’t know-but it did. It communicated to my fifth-grade sensibility that he saw me as someone capable of leadership.

I never forgot it, especially later when I began to run my own small business and had a family to help support. I thought of Mr. Maull many times over the years. Many years later, I accepted a job in Washington, D.C. Thinking of him once again, I tracked down his phone number and called. I wanted him to know the impact he’s had on this one student. We had a nice talk, and I was afforded the opportunity to thank someone who literally changed my life —just from one comment in a classroom on a day like any other.

How does that relate to Dr. King? Well, if it hadn’t been for him, I would have never had Mr. Maull that year as my teacher. I would have never had Alveda King, his niece, speak at one of my conferences. And I would have missed the richness of the benefits of choices his confidence in me helped me make throughout my life. So, thank you, Dr. King, for what you helped give America, and thank you again, Mr. Maull, for what you gave to your students. I am indebted to you both.