Every year since 1991, we’ve hosted an event to celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. at Frito-Lay headquarters in Plano, Texas. To the events, we invite a prominent civil rights leader and/or influential member of society to share his or her insights on diversity and inclusion with our employees. This year marked our 20th annual celebration, and we were happy to welcome six-time Grammy Award-winning singer John Legend, who gave a speech and performed.
Last year, I blogged about Frito-Lay's 2009 Martin Luther King Jr. celebration and shared my experiences working as a young copyboy at Detroit Free Press in the summer of 1967 during the Detroit riots -- my "awakening" to the impact of racial prejudice on our society.
This awakening was a deeply moving experience, but as I've gotten older, those memories and feelings have started to slip away. As I prepared to blog about this year's annual MLK activities at Frito-Lay, our 20th anniversary celebration, I went back and reread Dr. King’s 1963 "Letter from Birmingham City Jail." I highly recommend reading it. It's a short but poignant letter that ends with:
"Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, that the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all of their scintillating beauty."
The theme of Frito-Lay’s MLK Celebration this year was "Building Bridges from the Legacy to the Future." Our Black Professionals Association (BPA) employee network brought this to life by recognizing the progress that has been made since Dr. King was jailed in Birmingham, while acknowledging there is still much to be done. "John Legend shared a powerful message with employees and with the students from A. Maceo Smith High School in Dallas, whose jazz band and choir performed at the celebration," Rachel Thomas (pictured right), Group Manager, Strategic Sourcing & Material Supply and BPA member who chaired this year’s event, told me.
Of course, John Legend sang, but he also spoke for 20 minutes, translating Dr. King's messages into language that today's students as well as our employees could identify with. “He said that it was important to grow ourselves as individuals, but it was also important to give back to the community,” Rachel said. “He told a story about a high school teacher who believed in him and how that support gave him the confidence to go to college. He encouraged the students to take advantage of any help their teachers offer because everyone who’s gotten where they are today had help.”
While the annual MLK celebration is the most visible program the BPA sponsors, the employee network also hosts other activities that reinforce Frito-Lay's commitment to diversity and inclusion. Each year, the group sponsors a Thanksgiving food drive to support disadvantaged families, provides input for new product development targeting urban communities, supports product wellness initiatives and leads professional development programs.
During the 30 years I worked at Frito-Lay, I watched the company develop a formal diversity and inclusion program. Since the BPA organized 20 years ago, I’ve seen the company place increased emphasis on creating action plans to attract, develop and retain top talent, and of course, I’ve seen our entire country make tremendous progress since my days in Detroit in 1967. I could appreciate how far we've come -– as a society and at Frito-Lay/PepsiCo -- when Rachel told me about this year's MLK celebration and the great progress the BPA has made. I think Dr. King would approve.
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