I’LL START THIS ARTICLE OUT with some words to live by: If you want to solve a big problem, it’s often best to start out thinking small. That advice might sound backward, but it is informed by my decades of experience in this space. To illustrate, let’s take a really big problem: the elimination of segregation and racism in the United States.
Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.” Dr. King imagined a world where race no longer mattered. This was a lofty dream that, sadly, he did not achieve in his lifetime. But what he did achieve was leading a movement that forced Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, making racial discrimination illegal. That was a remarkable achievement. How did he do it? Dr. King started small, with the Montgomery bus boycott.
Inspired by ’s campaign of non-violent — boycotted the segregated bus system and went to jail for it. It worked, which inspired the Southern Christian Leadership Council to do it again and again across the south. In turn, that led to the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, where thousands of college and high school students were arrested for sitting at white lunch counters and other segregated venues.
