Community members and ASU students gathered on the Polytechnic campus Wednesday night to listen to author and Enterprise Magazine founder Russell Goings Jr. speak in honor of Black History Month and Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

Goings served in the U.S. Air Force, was a professional linebacker for the Buffalo Bills and started First Harlem Securities, the first black-owned firm that had a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. He later wrote a book called “The Children of Children Keep Coming: An Epic Griotsong.”

Goings said he didn’t learn to read until he was in the 6th grade and he spoke with a stutter.

“You ever have things to say but can’t get them out? And because I was black, they just thought I was stupid,” he said to a group of about 40 people in the Aravaipa Auditorium.

Goings discussed his life, which he compared to a prose poem that includes many struggles with racism.

“I didn’t want to write a formal poem, with verses and lines. That would be like going back to enslavement,” he said. “I don’t want to be enslaved again.”

The author said the day he was inspired on Oct. 16, 1995 while at the Million Man March. When he was there, Goings realized that on Oct. 16, 1859, a group of men were trying to do the same thing in Harper’s Ferry, Va.: Overturn racism by force.

“I said to myself, ‘What are we doing and what good will come of it?’” he said. “Then when I was on the train back, I heard the words ‘I am, I am. I am my brother’s keeper.’ And I wrote them down.”

He later used that line in the book he wrote.

Earlier on Wednesday, Goings attended a peace luncheon on the Polytechnic campus with other members from various diversity groups.

Goings told the group he thought peace was a responsibility that every single person shares.

“I don’t know what peace is, but if good is the absence of evil, then peace is the absence of something else,” he said. “We are responsible, as a mother is to baby, as a breast is to milk. We are responsible for us to find some common ground in a way that sings the songs of humanity instead of man’s inhumanity.”

Air traffic control freshman Antwan Dandy said he heard about the event from his mentor and wished that more students had attended.

“[Goings] is definitely an interesting person and I learned a few things,” he said. “I think students can learn a lot from him.”

Goings was invited to ASU by Wadell Blackwell, the director of Multicultural Student Affairs at the Polytechnic campus.

It’s important for all students to listen and meet people like Goings, Blackwell said.

“This man is a historical figure, he is not just a man off the street,” he said. “The things students can learn from him are invaluable.”

Reach the reporter at sheydt@asu.edu