Lessons of Leadership (SD)

"When I went to the movies with other black children, we had to sit in the balcony while the white kids got to sit in the better seats below. We had to walk to school while the white children rode in school buses paid for by our parents' taxes. Such messages, saying we were inferior, were a daily part of our lives." Young Coretta Scott's gift for music and enthusiasm for education led her far beyond the segregated world of her childhood, but when she met the young Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the two resolved to return to the Deep South together and pursue the cause of justice in her own home state of Alabama. The Montgomery bus boycott thrust the young couple to the forefront of a revitalized civil rights movement, even as it exposed their growing family to the retaliation of those who opposed any change in the old system. Braving death threats and surviving the bombing of their home by white supremacists, Coretta Scott King stood by the cause and her husband, from the Birmingham jail to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, from the March on Washington, to a stage in Oslo, Norway where he accepted the Nobel Prize for Peace. After his assassination, she inspired the world with her courage, dignity and tireless devotion to preserving Dr. King's legacy. As founding President, Chair, and Chief Executive Officer of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, she saw that tens of thousands of activists from all over the world were trained in the philosophy and practice of nonviolence. She has served as an advisor to freedom and democracy movements all over the world, and as a consultant to world leaders including President Corazon Aquino of the Philippines, President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, and President Nelson Mandela of South Africa. Coretta Scott King died on January 30th, 2006. One of the world's most admired women, she remained an outspoken champion of justice and human dignity to the end of her days.

By age 23, John Lewis was already recognized as one of the principal leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement, along with Martin Luther King Jr. The son of sharecroppers in rural Alabama, he led his first demonstrations while studying theology in Nashville, Tennessee. As Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he was a leader in many of the most dramatic campaigns of the movement: the lunch counter sit-ins, the Freedom Rides and the March on Washington. He suffered serious injuries from mob violence and personal physical attacks, and would be arrested more than 40 times, but John Lewis would not be dissuaded from the pursuit of justice. In 1965 he led the historic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The marchers were attacked by Alabama State Troopers, but the subsequent march from Selma to Montgomery led directly to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, finally committing the federal government to the enforcement of voting rights for all Americans. Over the following decades John Lewis led an explosion of minority voter registration that has transformed American politics. In 1986, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, representing the city of Atlanta, Georgia, and surrounding counties. He has served in the United States Congress ever since, where he remains one of America's most courageous champions of human rights.

Antonin Scalia was the first American of Italian heritage to be appointed to the Supreme Court. A graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School, he has taught at the University of Virginia and at Stanford. When President Reagan nominated him to the Supreme Court in 1986, the Senate approved the nomination unanimously. His forceful personality, sharp wit and manifest love of legal debate have made him an unusually vivid presence in the traditionally somber atmosphere of the United States Supreme Court. He is frequently characterized as the most conservative justice, but he has always placed adherence to the letter of the law above political ideology. Justice Scalia is heard here in discussion with 200 students from around the world, moderated by Chris Matthews, newspaper columnist and host of the MSNBC program Hardball.

Antonin Scalia was the first American of Italian heritage to be appointed to the Supreme Court. A graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School, he has taught at the University of Virginia and at Stanford. When President Reagan nominated him to the Supreme Court in 1986, the Senate approved the nomination unanimously. His forceful personality, sharp wit and manifest love of legal debate have made him an unusually vivid presence in the traditionally somber atmosphere of the United States Supreme Court. He is frequently characterized as the most conservative justice, but he has always placed adherence to the letter of the law above political ideology. Justice Scalia is heard here in discussion with 200 students from around the world, moderated by Chris Matthews, newspaper columnist and host of the MSNBC program Hardball.

Leonard Lauder is a renowned businessman and philanthropist, the longtime Chairman and CEO of the Estˆ©e Lauder Corporation. He studied business at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and at Columbia University before serving as an officer in the United States Navy. In 1958, he joined the cosmetics firm founded by his parents, where he created the company’Ŵs first research and development laboratory and initiated a wave of international expansion, beginning with the 1960 opening of an Estˆ©e Lauder account at Harrods in London. He introduced a wealth of new brands, including Aramis, Clinique, Prescriptives and Origins, and acquired others, such as MAC, Bobbi Brown and Aveda. Under his leadership, the company became a global enterprise, a leading manufacturer of quality skin care and hair care products, as well as cosmetics and fragrances. Leonard Lauder is also well known for his contributions to the arts, education, philanthropy and governmental affairs. In the 1980s, he served on President Ronald Reagan's Advisory Committee for Trade Negotiations. A passionate art collector, in 2008 Leonard Lauder made a donation of $131 million to New York's Whitney Museum of American Art, the largest gift in the museum's history. In this podcast, recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 2003 Summit in Washington, D.C., Leonard Lauder explores the concept of leadership with the Academy's student delegates, and defines the qualities he believes are essential for leadership in business, including decisiveness, fairness, trust and willingness to listen.

For over 40 years, Robert Strauss has been one of the most influential figures in American politics and diplomacy. Presidents of both major parties have entrusted him with the most difficult and delicate assignments, culminating in his service as Washington's last ambassador to the Soviet Union during the dramatic transition from communism to democracy. Raised in the small West Texas town of Stamford, he served as a Special Agent in the FBI after earning his law degree at the University of Texas. Shortly after World War II, he founded the law firm now known as Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. It has grown to be one of the largest in the world, with offices across the United States and in Belgium, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Russia and Taiwan. Robert Strauss's political experience reaches back as far as future president Lyndon Johnson's first congressional campaign in 1937. He chaired the Democratic National Committee from 1973 to 1976, and Jimmy Carter's successful presidential campaign in 1976. He served in President Carter's cabinet as Special Trade Representative, and was the President's personal representative to the Middle East peace negotiations. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush named him U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union; after its dissolution, he continued to serve as Ambassador to Russia. In 1981, Robert Strauss was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. In this 2003 address to the Academy of Achievement, recorded in Washington, he shares a few stories about his career and his relationships with Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan. He discusses the lessons he has learned over a long life, and the qualities of self-confidence, patience and honesty that he credits for his own success in life.

"When you win a war, your people are united and applaud you. When you make peace, your people are doubtful and resentful." For more than half a century, Shimon Peres has served the State of Israel and the cause of peace with a courage and determination born of intimate familiarity with the horrors of war. He served in the defense forces at the founding of the State of Israel, heading the Navy at age 25; at 29 he was Director-General of the Ministry of Defense. Over the course of a 48-year career in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, he has held every major cabinet post and served as Prime Minister in some of Israel's darkest hours. He first served as Prime Minister in 1977, after the resignation of Yitzhak Rabin. In 1984, he headed a National Unity government that put an end to a ruinous inflation, and extricated Israel from a tortuous military involvement in Lebanon. As Foreign Minister he initiated the negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization, and completed a long-sought peace treaty with Jordan. In 1994, he shared the Nobel Price for Peace with Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Upon Rabin's assassination, Shimon Peres became Prime Minister once again, serving simultaneously as Minister of Defense. He later served once again as Foreign Minister in a government of National Unity. For many years he endured criticism, even within his own Labor Party, for his zealous pursuit of peace, but his determination never wavered. He has always placed the welfare of the nation as a whole ahead of partisan interest. At the age of 82, after serving another term as Party Chairman, he left the Labor Party to support a new centrist formation committed to a negotiated peace with the Palestinians. In June 2007, he was elected to serve as the ninth President of Israel, the country's official Head of State. He is the first former Prime Minister to attain the Presidency of Israel, but long before winning this honor, Shimon Peres had won a place in history as one of his country's greatest statesmen and one of the world's great champions of the cause of peace.

Hamid Karzai was born to a prominent position in his society, but he won his present role by fearless dedication to the cause of Afghanistan as a free and united modern nation. He served as a diplomat and advisor to the anti-Soviet resistance, and was deputy foreign minister in the postwar government. When civil war erupted, the Taliban movement sought Karzai's support, but their regime fell under the influence of foreign terrorists, and Karzai organized an anti-Taliban faction in exile. In October, 2001, Karzai raised an armed revolt. He had a single satellite phone for communication, his troops lacked basic supplies, and he had no certainty of outside support, but by December the Taliban were beaten. Rival factions set aside their differences and in June 2002, the traditional Afghan Grand Council -- the Loya Jirga -- overwhelmingly ratified the choice of Hamid Karzai as Head of State. In 2004 he was elected to a full term as President of Afghanistan in the country's first free election.

President Clinton and Bono join in a unique conversation with 200 students from around the world, moderated by broadcast journalist Sam Donaldson. William Jefferson Clinton was the first Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt to be elected to two full terms in office. During the Clinton administration the United States moved from record deficits to record surpluses and enjoyed the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. In foreign affairs, he fostered the historic peace accord between Israel and Jordan, and helped promote the peace process in Northern Ireland. President Clinton dispatched American military forces to enforce the peace agreement in Bosnia and to avert impending genocide in Kosovo. Born and raised in Dublin, Paul "Bono" Hewson was still in his teens when he answered an ad posted on a school bulletin board to join a fledgling rock band. It became one of the most original, best-loved rock groups of all time: U2. For many, U2's success came to symbolize a new prominence for Ireland in Europe and the world. Bono and U2 lent their support to African famine relief, to Amnesty International and the campaign against apartheid. U2 still fills arenas all over the world and Bono has continued to speak out for Third World debt forgiveness and to raise global awareness of the AIDS epidemic ravaging Africa.

President Clinton and Bono join in a unique conversation with 200 students from around the world, moderated by broadcast journalist Sam Donaldson. William Jefferson Clinton was the first Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt to be elected to two full terms in office. During the Clinton administration the United States moved from record deficits to record surpluses and enjoyed the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. In foreign affairs, he fostered the historic peace accord between Israel and Jordan, and helped promote the peace process in Northern Ireland. President Clinton dispatched American military forces to enforce the peace agreement in Bosnia and to avert impending genocide in Kosovo. Born and raised in Dublin, Paul "Bono" Hewson was still in his teens when he answered an ad posted on a school bulletin board to join a fledgling rock band. It became one of the most original, best-loved rock groups of all time: U2. For many, U2's success came to symbolize a new prominence for Ireland in Europe and the world. Bono and U2 lent their support to African famine relief, to Amnesty International and the campaign against apartheid. U2 still fills arenas all over the world and Bono has continued to speak out for Third World debt forgiveness and to raise global awareness of the AIDS epidemic ravaging Africa.