WASHINGTON – Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell regaled the crowd with his spectacular military and government career that almost never was – had it not been for those who went before him. NBA legend Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, like Powell, is a New York native who provided a moving testimony to how Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Adam Clayton Powell laid a powerful political foundation he would build upon throughout his 61 years. And Earl Graves Sr. extolled the crowd on the virtues of voting for Sen. Barack Obama, electrifying the crowd on opening night of the National Black MBA Association’s 30th annual Conference and Exhibition at the Washington Convention Center. This year’s theme is “Catalyst for Change: Then. Today. Tomorrow.”
“If I had come in five years earlier, I would have come into a segregated Army. I would have never accomplished what I accomplished in the Army,” Powell says, recalling how Pres. Harry Truman finally desegregated the armed forces just before he enlisted. Because of that, Powell says, “I went to graduate school. I became Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff and then U.S. Secretary of State. And NONE of it would have ever happened had it not been for the people that came before me who could not hope to do what I was able to do.”
NBA legend and former Los Angeles Laker Kareem Abdul Jabbar speaks as a special guest
Jabbar was also able to do things far beyond his ability to imagine growing up in Harlem because of Malcolm, Martin and Powell, eventually becoming the most prolific scorer the NBA has ever seen. Born into the era of civil disobedience taught him to delve deeper than the skin to measure a person’s character. So, “when someone asks me how tall I am … I tell them it is not the color of the balloon that makes it go up; it’s what’s inside. Consequently, it is my humble desire that the world sees me not as 7 feet 2 inches tall, but 7 feet 2 inches deep.”
The NBMBAA has gotten deeper, in every sense of the word, in its third decade of existence. Under the guidance president and CEO Barbara L. Thomas, the NBMBAA has grown to over 8,000 members, representing over 125,000 MBAs. The annual conference attracts over 15,000 attendees and offers the nation’s largest career fair with more than 450 of the Fortune 500 in attendance. “Tonight is a celebration of our partnership, acknowledgement of our role models and recognition of the giants whose shoulders we stand on,” says Thomas. terry shropshire
