Keeping A King’s Legacy Strong in 2022

If we are lucky enough in this life, we may enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with one of our heroes – whether a person or an institution – who has made a lasting impact on the world and whose legacy transcends time and carries on with each generation.

That shining opportunity happened to me when FH4Inclusion, FleishmanHillard’s global pro bono initiative, and True MOSAIC, our DE&I practice, were invited to collaborate with The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change (also known as The King Center) based in Atlanta. During the past few years, we had the esteemed honor of working with The King Center’s CEO Dr. Bernice A. King and The King Center’s PR and communications team.

Our first assignment with The King Center was the BE LOVE campaign. In collaboration with BBDO and Hearts & Science, we helped rally support around creating the Beloved Community – a way of living and a place where we can all work and play in peace and harmony and be treated as equals. We also worked to position Dr. King as a thought leader on voting rights, following the passing of Georgia’s restrictive voting legislation last year.

Since then, starting this January, we worked with The King Center to launch its new digital offering Nonviolence365® (NV365), a learning opportunity that trains people how to use Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy and principles of nonviolence to fight for social change. NV365 was announced a week before MLK Day, which brought on a unique set of challenges for FleishmanHillard and Dr. King’s communications team who was already preparing for one of the most important days of the year for The King Center. We were also asked to promote Dr. King’s new children’s book “It Starts with Me.”

As a result of our efforts, Dr. King was featured on several talk shows and other outlets, including The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, The Real, BBC News and others.

In honor of Black History Month, our True MOSAIC global practice co-lead, Adiya Mobley, facilitated an insightful internal discussion with Chance Patterson and Mina Bryant from The King Center. The conversation introduced the broader FleishmanHillard community to The King Center and discussed the importance of creating a Beloved Community in the corporate environment, among other topics.

The King Center participated in FleishmanHillard’s TRUE Self x True MOSAIC process, a collaborative effort that helps to define an organization’s foundational narrative, positioning and messaging in context to key stakeholders. The team helped define and articulate the work and mission of The King Center over the course of several workshop sessions.

“The work we’ve done alongside The Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Justice has been some of the most rewarding for many of us at FleishmanHillard,” said Jerry Tolk, senior partner & general manager of the FleishmanHillard in Atlanta office. “We were able to raise the profile of The King Center and Dr. King both nationally and internationally and garner visibility for NV365– an online social justice program that is central to the institution’s mission and the legacy it’s constantly growing and evolving.”

We encourage you to sign up for NV365 at thekingcenterinstitute.org to explore MLK’s philosophy of nonviolence and to become a part of creating the Beloved Community we all aspire to live in.