CNN correspondent Soledad O’Brien, best known for documenting racial tensions in the United States, said Wednesday night that the country still has significant barriers to overcome.
More than 800 people gathered in Memorial Hall to hear O’Brien deliver UNC’s 30th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Lecture.
With grace and candor, O’Brien urged the audience to aspire to live in a manner that honors King’s final vision throughout the hour-long lecture.
“He said he wanted to be remembered as someone who loved people and tried to save humanity,” O’Brien said.
“Leadership is a mindset; regular people are doing extraordinary things. I see it in the stories I cover. There’s a mindset that says, ‘There’s no one else to do this, so it will be me.’”
O’Brien is a product of King’s vision. Her Afro-Cuban mother and Scot-Irish father, who was born in Australia, married in 1958, when it was still illegal for biracial couples to marry in most of the United States.
“My parents taught us there is a moral authority in refusing to capitulate because someone says you have to,” she said.
O’Brien has made a career out of documenting the progress of King’s legacy. She hosted the landmark documentary series, “Black in America,” which began in 2008.
The series sparked so much conversation that CNN created a second series documenting the Latino experience.