SOUTH PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Kevin Washington remembers the day vividly. It was October 26, 1967.<\/p>\n
He was a 14 year old ninth grader at what was then Barratt Junior High School.<\/p>\n
The students had been summoned to the auditorium but they had not been told why. They were shocked to see Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr enter the room.<\/p>\n
In a speech dubbed “What Is Your Life’s Blueprint?”, Dr. King challenged the students to find their purpose and strive for excellence.<\/p>\n
For Kevin Washington, the day was life-changing-giving him, he says, “a sense of promise.”<\/p>\n
There was one particular part of the speech that really stuck with him. Dr. King urged the children to not be ashamed of their skin color, to learn to look in the mirror and truly love what they see.<\/p>\n
Washington had joined the Christian Street YMCA 4 years earlier, and he was at the Y when he learned, just 6 months later, that Dr. King had been assassinated.<\/p>\n
He would go on to become the first Black CEO of the national YMCA.<\/p>\n
Now retired, he lived his life in a way he thinks would have made Dr. King proud-always focusing on giving his best effort.<\/p>\n
And that, he believes, is the legacy of Dr. King’s speech.<\/p>\n
There’s a brand new children’s book about the speech Dr. King gave that day nearly 60 years ago, The Dream Builder’s Blueprint: Dr. King’s Message to Young People<\/p>\n
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