Page 150 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

LEADERS TAKE RISKS

However, when Quincy phoned his superiors in Washington for
advice, he was told that he was on his own. It was then that he took mat-
ters into his own hands. The hotel manager let him use the company’s large
black Mercedes-Benz. Quincy mounted U.S. flags on both front bumpers,
put Mrs. King and Dr. King’s sister, Christine King Farris, in the backseat,
and set out to pay a visit to Winnie Mandela.
At the entrance to Soweto, the American delegation was greeted with
chaos and violence as the South African security forces were engaged in a
clash with black protesters, but the Mercedes wended its way through the
township. At one point the protesters realized that Mrs. King was in the
car, and it was surrounded by an estimated 20,000 people with others in
close pursuit. However, they made it safely to Winnie Mandela’s house,
and Quincy took Mrs. King inside to meet her.

“The two of them stood in the middle of the room and embraced and
cried,” Quincy recalled. “Winnie was the face of the antiapartheid move-
ment in South Africa, so for her message to be delivered to the U.S. gov-
ernment by Mrs. King—someone she respected and trusted—was extremely
important. This meeting opened the door for Mrs. King to meet with many
of the black opposition leaders and hear about the issues they believed could
lead our countries toward ending apartheid. She listened to what they had
to say, and she told them that she would go back and report their concerns
and suggestions. No one else had done that, certainly no one else with the
integrity that Mrs. King had. There were plenty of high-level Americans
that had gone over there and had summarily been sent home. She carried a
message of hope, and she was able to complete the majority of her South
African mission because she wasn’t afraid to take a risk.”
In 1991, Coretta Scott King asked Quincy to serve as executive direc-
tor of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, a living memorial
and institutional guardian of Dr. King’s legacy that she established in
39
Atlanta. It was through that work that Quincy was given the opportunity
to travel with Nelson Mandela after his 1990 release from prison after
twenty-seven years of incarceration. Just four years later, Mrs. King danced
with Mandela to celebrate his inauguration as president of South Africa.

39 The King Center’s Mission. Accessed 31 July 2008. Available online at www.thekingcenter
.com/tkc/mission.asp.

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