Here is a copy of his very well received speech.

THE FUNDAMENTALS

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, Dias guest, our esteemed honorees, congratulations on your well-deserved recognition. And other honored guests and friends. Thank you for inviting me to share a few thoughts with you tonight. Mrs. Price attended one of my book talks a while back at Sunset River Marketplace in Calabash. Before I proceed any further let me acknowledge the presence of my wife, my enduring partner, Dr. Michelle Palmer Lee. Michelle is essential to my well-being. I have geared my remarks toward the young people who are with us tonight for it is they who must carry the torch. Mrs Royster asked me when we last talked what the title of my speech would be and should she announce it. I said, well just say it will be about education, economic development that type of thing. But later, I thought this talk is really about “The Fundamentals. We know if you’re good at the “the fundamentals,” anything you do beyond that is done is more dexterity, and greater efficiency.

From what I have read the Cedar Grove Community Improvement Association has a long and illustrious history going back to 1872.Seven years after the end of the Civil War your forefathers were under harsh and unrelenting resistance in a society, at that time, that was diametrically opposed to black emancipation. Paul Lawrence Dunbar, one of my favorite African American poets wrote a poem entitled the “Path” in it he said: And I will read just few lines:

“THERE are no beaten paths to Glory’s height,
there are no rules to compass greatness known;
each for himself must cleave a path alone,
And press his own way forward in the fight……
The poem ends with……”Nor may he hope to gain the envied crown
Till he hath thrust the looming rocks aside.”

The forefathers of this organization had the vision and courage to embark on a mission of salvation to improve the health and welfare of this community, a community, at that time that suffered from the twin afflictions of deprivation and the extremes of incivility to say the least. Through later generations the ethic of hard work and perseverance continued and it is a challenge to those of you who have taken on the mantle of leadership to perpetuate that legacy.

The old Baptist hymn sums it up, “Faith of our father living Still, In spite of dungeon, fire and sword; O how or hearts beat high with joy, whenever we hear God’s glorious word” Faith of our fathers, holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death.

I noticed when I was driving over here that this center of your organization is located off of Mt. Pisgah Rd. I am sure you know that it was on Mt. Pisgah, also known as Mt. Nebo that God showed Moses the Promised Land, that he would never see. The forefathers of this organization are not here to see what you have accomplished but they planted the seedling that has born this fruit.

As a businessman and a lawyer I admire entrepreneurship, self–help, and the energy and effort of, “up from the bootstraps,” which is defined as, putting forth effort to improve one’s life or circumstances rather than relying on others.) Booker T. Washington said, I think I have learned that the best way to lift one’s self up is to help someone else.” He also said, in 1895 in his Atlanta Compromise speech, “Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are! Fertile waters are right beneath your ship.

When I look at television, which I seldom do except for sports, news and documentaries, or go to the movies and see “period” movie set at a particular time in history, I often wonder, well, what was going on with “my people” during the time of that show. What was going on in the wider world? So, I thought I would research some of what was going on of significance in 1872 in North Carolina and in the United states during that time when the founders of the Cedar Grove Community Improvement Association began its existence.

On March 2, 1867 Howard University, my alma mater, was founded as a training school for black preachers.

In 1868 Hampton Institute was founded to provide education for freedmen.

Through 1877 whites attacked black and white republicans to suppress voting. Every voting cycle was accompanied by violence.

On March 1, 1872 Yellowstone National park was reserved for the people of the United States.

In June of 1872 The Congress of the United States abolished the federal income tax. I am not interested in going back in time but, it would have surely been good to have that relief today. Of course the federal income tax was reenacted on July 2.

And then on November 5, in Rochester N.Y. Susan B. Anthony and other women’s right advocates were arrested for attempting to vote. Women were finally granted the right to vote by enactment on the 19th amendment on August 18, 1920.

Black men were granted the right to vote via the 15th amendment to constitution, which was ratified in 1870. You notice I said “men.”Just a few more: On October 2, 1872 Morgan State University was founded. I had the pleasure and privilege to serve on the faculty of that institution in the late 1970’s.

In North Carolina, James Edward O’Hara became the first African American lawyer admitted to the North Carolina bar.

Charlotte Ray, first African American woman lawyer in USA, graduates from Howard University.

And in 1873 an African American physician, Daniel Hale Williams became the first doctor to perform a “successful” open heart surgery.

So there were a lot of prominent events taking place for black and white folks taking place at the time of the founding of the Cedar Grove Improvement Association.

In contemplating what to talk to you about this evening, I thought about several issues: I have two concepts I want to share with you. Let me begin with one of my favorites from: the Chapter John,2nd verse.
In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you;
Biblical scholars have different interpretations of what this verse means And, I am sure that many of you know much more about the Bible than I do, I am a retired country lawyer from Virginia by way of Philadelphia, not a theologian or a preacher. But my interpretation, however, of this verse is this: There are enough mansions to go around for everybody in God’s heaven.

How do you define the Mansion? Is it academic achievement, is it money and estates, is it professional accomplishment, raising a child successfully, caring for a loved one, or taking that dreamed of vacation

Regardless of how you define it, to obtain that “mansion,” that thing that you most desire, requires everyone who so desires, to be willing to do what is necessary to secure that mansion, that room, that dwelling place, that goal. My friends, as you know, there is a “price to be paid for everything. Even if you want better health there is price to paid, you must exercise, and learn something about nutrition.

The Bible says to get to that “Mansion’ where there are varying degrees of glory, suited to the various capacities and attainments of my followers, the room you inherit will be suited to the worth of the work you have done. A price must be paid, your room is not free. Nothing is free. Religious scholars say “that the souls that are of the faith shall truly inherit the “upper room and better habitations.”

There is a piece of dialogue in the movie about Ray Charles, I am sure many of you have seen it, where Charles’ mother tells him “the only thing free in this world is Jesus,” to that I would say, even “Jesus” is not free you have to work to get to him too.

Alan Greenspan the former chairman of the Federal Reserve was quoted as saying “there is no such thing as a free lunch, it hasn’t been invented yet.”

Moreover, John Gill, the biblical scholar writes in his Exposition of the Entire Bible, “that in his father’s house there are many mansions, abiding or dwelling places; mansions of love, peace, joy and rest which always remain; that there are many of them, bought with the same price, justified with the same righteousness and their glory will be the same.

Next, and finally, I want to share with you a quote that is dear to my heart, from the Greek philosopher Plato. I was reading through a publication while I was in Fort Worth, Texas attending a prestigious musical event and came upon this quote of his, and it rang so true and has so many applications; it is “What is honored in a place is cultivated there.”

So the question I want to leave you with is, what is honored in your place, in your Mansion, in your home and in your house in your neighborhood, in your city, in your town? The application of this quote can be applied to any number of places and situations, in America; we honor justice, freedom, capitalism, the high culture of music and paintings, dance the high arts, heroism such as John McCain. I had the fortune to visit the Hanoi Hilton in North Vietnam and saw where Senator McCain was imprisoned; we honor and pop culture and the divas that have mastered it, such as Aretha Franklin, literature and unfortunately in some quarters “racism.”

In Charlottesville, Virginia, a city that I am very familiar with, they honor the University of Virginia, the founding fathers, James Monroe, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, but have only recently acknowledged Sally Hemings, and unfortunately historically racism has been honored there.

So what will you honor and then cultivate [to foster the growth of…., to grow and to raise…..] will it be the embrace of competition? Thrift, self-help, hard work, reading, academic achievement, excellence; you see my friends it is no longer sufficient to go to a “white school” but you must “excel” in that “white school. We must strive to be competitive in this world.

Recognizing that competition is the bedrock of this society. We must embrace it and give it a place in your mansion!

W.E.B. Dubois, one of Black America’s preeminent scholars, said that when he was in school it was his mission to “beat” that white boy or girl scholastically. Thurgood Marshall and his cohorts got us into the school now it is your job to “excel” in that school, not just attend it!

Lisa Delpit a noted Harvard trained educationalist, author and scholar speaking of having a “voice” by black people in a white conscious world, in education. She said, in 1995, “Too often minority teachers’ voices have been hushed by good intentioned white teachers: a certain paternalism creeps into the speech of some of our liberal colleagues as they explain that “our children” must be “given voice. As difficult as it is for our colleagues to hear our children’s existing voices, it is often equally difficult for them to hear our own…It is vitally important that non-minority educators realize that there is another voice, another reality. Parents and teachers must make sure that they advocate for black children in these “integrated schools.”

When my youngest son was in elementary school he had a dispute with his white teacher about whether the Tower of Piza was leaning or continuing to lean. He told the teacher that it was leaning and she said it was not. She characterize his opinion as being disruptive, out of order. So when I spoke to her about this at a later PTA meeting, I said to her that as long as he expresses himself respectfully he should be allowed to do, that I am not raising a robot, I am teaching to think for himself. You see, he had been to Piza and had seen the tower leaning. She had not.

In Singapore the average student spends just under ten hours a week on homework after attending six hours of classes each day. In China students spend 13 hours a week and in Russia ten hours a week.

Will you be looking for the proverbial “free lunch” that does not exist or will you honor, love, respect of self and for your fellowman and woman, hard work as your forefathers did who founded this organization and scholarship? The founders of Cedar Grove Baptist Church honored the values of hard work, perseverance and love of their brothers and sisters.

If racism is honored in a place that will be the culture of that place. If you honor hard work in your home then that will be the culture of your home, if you honor your African heritage, you will respect your people and respect the history of an honored people whose ancestry goes back thousands of years to the ancient kingdoms of Nubia, Moroe and Kush in Sub-Saharan Africa long before the advent of the European. If you honor reading, competition, the arts, and high culture that will be the culture of your environment. Likewise, if you honor nothing, then that will be the culture of your life, a valueless culture of nothingness.

I tell the story in my book about my great, great, great, great grandfather, Amos Lee who was a slave in southern Georgia. He could neither read nor write, he was a runner for the Confederate Army during the Civil War. His master took him to the war with him. It is said in my family that they treated him like a dog. But six generations later his grandson, finished the University of Maryland Magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with the highest GPA in his entire junior class, went to Harvard Law School and is an enrolled Barrister licensed to practice law in the Royal Courts of Justice in the United Kingdom. So I ask you what is honored in your mansion, what is cultivated in your home, in your community and in your family. In my father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told, you. There are many mansions out there for us, if we honor and cultivate the values of our African and African American forefathers.

Let me close by reciting a quote that is reflective of my state of mind that required each of my children learn by memory before they left home for good. It is from a high level executive from the New York Life Insurance Company, a company I worked for years ago. And it says, “a man truly becomes a man, when, in this competitive world, he realizes, that his fate is in his own hands.”

Thank you.