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"Have a Plan," Smiley Says

By Kia Hayes
Black College Wire

Tavis Smiley is on a mission. He wants black Americans to think critically and become leaders. Smiley, host of "The Tavis Smiley Show" on National Public Radio and also on public television, spoke to more than 300 HBCU students at the "Think Tank" hosted by North Carolina Central University.

“I hope that you are encouraged to think critically after I speak,” said Smiley. “My mission is to encourage, enlighten and empower,” he said at the Feb. 13 event.

“First and foremost,” said Smiley, “we must learn how to be leaders.” For that, he said, you must show up on time and have a plan. “You’ve got to be prepared when your opportunity comes,” said Smiley. And leadership means “taking positions that are uncomfortable and inconvenient because your conscience says it’s right.”

According to Smiley, many young blacks don’t fully appreciate the struggle that occurred during the civil rights movement.

“The goal of the movement was to gain equal access and equal opportunity,” he said.

“We owe those black leaders who helped us achieve that. We cannot take advantage of our opportunities in the wrong way.”

Smiley has hosted "The Tavis Smiley Show" on radio since 2002; the television show made its debut Jan. 5.

In 2001, Smiley was fired by BET Founder Robert Johnson from his "BET Tonight" talk show after he offered an exclusive interview with former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive Sara Jane Olson to ABC instead of BET. Smiley said the interview didn't fit the format of any BET show and that Olson wanted wider exposure. It was offered to CBS but the network declined, he said at the time.

Smiley graduated from Indiana University, where he studied public policy and law.

“Smiley encouraged me to do better in life and made me look at myself in a different light,” said Thomas Boya, a senior at North Carolina Central.

Kia Hayes, a student at North Carolina Central University, writes for The Campus Echo.

Posted March 1, 2004