Interview

“The Colored Waiting Room: Empowering the Original and the New Civil Rights Movements; Conversations Between an MLK Jr. Confidant and a Modern-Day Activist.” This is a book like no other. It’s groundbreaking. As Author Kevin Shird would put it, this timely book connects the dots between the original American civil rights movement and the “second-wave” civil rights movement that we’re experiencing firsthand today. In this book, you’ll see for yourself that Kevin did a fantastic job of recording history. Along with educating the reader on the original and the new civil rights movements, what makes this book even more special is the fact that it was co-authored by Nelson Malden, a confidant and barber to the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Extraordinary conversations between a confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. and a modern-day activist leads to the game-changing realizations that a second-wave civil rights movement is unfolding and that we must embrace the lessons of the past to effect lasting change,” according to the official description of the book.

Nelson met King at a time where he didn’t know how monumental King would be to the history of this country. However, as King’s barber and friend in Montgomery, Alabama, Nelson would learn very quickly just how special his friend was.

In the book, Nelson shares several previously untold stories with Kevin — stories that Kevin and many others were unaware of until now. Even myself, I had the rare opportunity to speak with both of these amazing and courageous Black men, and it was like sitting in the most exclusive Black history session ever.

As both Kevin and Nelson will tell you, we’ve come a long way. That’s evident when you look at my life and their lives as Black men in America. From this country experiencing its very first African American president, Barack Obama, to me once being the youngest and only Black male in a fast-paced newsroom in New York City to Kevin being able to roam freely in Montgomery, AL while writing this book with Nelson, we can’t deny the fact that 50 years after the assassination of Dr. King, the life of the average Black person is night and day compared to the average Black person 50 years ago.

However, many of the events in today’s society are also a reminder that we still have a long way to go, and books like this one push us forward as people, bringing awareness to where we once were, where we are today, and where we need to be focused on going in the future.

“In The Colored Waiting Room, activist Kevin Shird heads from his hometown of Baltimore, MD to Montgomery to meet 84-year-old Nelson Malden and contextualize the significance of recent racially motivated events, and the demonstrations in Charlottesville, Ferguson, Baltimore, and around the country,” according to the book’s description. “The result is a groundbreaking understanding of today’s burgeoning second-wave civil rights movement and the urgent actions necessary for racial equality and change.”

This interview, which features both Kevin and Nelson, comes out as the two begin their media tour for the release of The Colored Waiting Room.

I hope that you enjoy reading excerpts from my sit down interview with Kevin Shird and Nelson Malden (Nelson’s part is located on the next page of my site). I’m confident that you’ll gain a lot from the book and from our conversations. Like Dr. King once said, “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

Q: The title of your book is The Colored Waiting Room: Empowering the Original and the New Civil Rights Movements. That title is very powerful. Can you explain where that title came from and the content of the book overall?

A: I walked in my co-authors barbershop in Montgomery, AL. I was visiting the barbershop, which has been there since 1958. When I looked up at the wall and this sign read, “Colored Waiting Room,” I was stunned. I was angry, sad, depressed, all at the same time. I asked myself, “What does this mean?” As Nelson Malden and I began to talk more about the period of segregation in America, that’s when I really learned the significance of that sign. The sign was actually once located in a transit station in St. Louis, and because of segregation Blacks had to stand near that sign while waiting for their train. They weren’t allowed to stand in other places inside the transit station. Just thinking about that, it blows my mind. Who thought that was okay? This wasn’t an isolated incident. This was American policy. This was the policy of the United States of America. Who thought it was okay from the very beginning to put Black people in this corner? When I first saw this sign, like I said, I was just very emotional.

Q: When we were speaking prior to the interview, you told me that there were Blacks who actually started to collect these types of signs at a particular point in time, right?

A: Well, how the “Colored Waiting Room” sign ended up in the barbershop in Montgomery was that after desegregation in America people started collecting these types of signs all across the country. Nelson got the sign from a collector, and he placed the sign inside the barbershop. There were a couple other one’s. One sign read, “Slave Catcher,” and it was dated 1857. There was a collection of actually two or three signs that I saw in the barbershop, but the “Colored Waiting Room” sign was the one that stood out to me the most, and that’s how the title of the book came about.

Q: You mentioned Nelson, the co-author of the book. For those who may not be familiar with Nelson, explain who he is.

A: Nelson Malden is an 84-year-old former barber of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Nelson became King’s barber in 1954 in Montgomery, AL. King moved to Montgomery to pastor Dexter Avenue Baptist Church shortly after he married Coretta Scott King. Nelson and King met very early in their lives. King was 25 and Nelson was 21. So they were very young men at the time.

Q: So their relationship was organic and coincidental?

A: It was both organic and coincidental, yes. It’s no different from a relationship that you or I would have today. They talked about things. They joked about things. They built a friendship that started before the civil rights movement and lasted throughout and after the civil rights movement.

The civil rights movement didn’t start until December 1955 with the arrest of Activist Rosa Parks. Racial tension was high. The mistreatment of colored people across America was already there. The eagerness for change was already there. The Rosa Parks arrest in Montgomery was the spark – one of the sparks. Just a few months prior to that, it was the murder of Emmett Till. Some say his murder was the spark, especially after those terrible pictures of his body in the casket were made public. Some say Rosa Park’s arrest and the Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted roughly 13 months was the spark. The bus boycott was only supposed to last one day. The plan was for the bus boycott to last one day to bring awareness to this issue about the mistreatment of Black folks, but then it ended up lasting for 13 months.

Q: Something interesting that I read in the description of the book was that in the heart of the civil rights movement, Dr. King and other Black leaders would actually meet at Nelson’s barbershop to organize protests, boycotts, and to write speeches. All of those historic things that took place in that barbershop, I’m sure you and Nelson had conversations about that. What was it like talking to him about those moments?

A: It was powerful. I think one thing people really need to understand is that Nelson wasn’t just a barber for Dr. King. He was a barber for many of the Black leaders who were in Montgomery or traveling to or through Montgomery. Montgomery is like Harlem in the 1980s. That was the place to be for Blacks, but it was in the South. Though it was segregated, Montgomery was still a place for proud Black men and women who were intellectuals. The other thing that people need to understand is that Dr. King lived at 309 Jackson Street. The barbershop was located at 407 Jackson Street, and Alabama State College, which is now Alabama State University, was located in the 900 block of Jackson Street. So it was an area of the city with a lot of educated intellectual Black men, and Nelson interacted with them on a daily basis in the barbershop. There were things going on in that barbershop that are now a part of American history.

Q: As I’m listening to you talk about these things, it’s amazing to me that this barbershop is still standing. For that barbershop to last throughout those times and for Nelson to still be here after all of that to be able to tell his story today, how does that make you feel?

A: It’s mind blowing because it’s just a very important part of our history that most people aren’t even aware of. There were intricate details that Nelson shared with me about his relationship with Dr. King and about the civil rights movement that I have shared with other people, and they were totally unaware. I was totally unaware of a lot of those things as well. I don’t want to be seen as some expert on the civil rights era because I’m definitely not. This whole process was a learning experience for me. But I do feel like I am an expert on Nelson’s stories, and that’s what I want to be known for because I was just enamored by all the information I learned about the time Nelson spent with Dr. King. Also, just in that period, Nelson shared a story with me that I just wasn’t aware of and that most people aren’t aware of. He told me about Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech from 1963 and how it almost never happened. Just prior to The March on Washington, Dr. King gave that same speech in some other places, and according to his staff, it didn’t go well.

Q: The response or the delivery?

A: The response didn’t go well, so they actually told him not to give the “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington. For the most part, Dr. King was taking their advice. When Nelson first told me about this story, I was like “Wow.” And then I started doing some research and found information to corroborate the story from some reliable sources. I had never heard about this story before. Evidently, Dr. King was speaking at The March on Washington and the crowd wasn’t responding the way he would probably have hoped they would.

Q: Prior to The March on Washington when Dr. King gave the speeches, what was the demographic of the audience?

A: I’m not sure what the audience was like, but he definitely gave that speech before. While giving the speech in Washington, he wasn’t getting the response he had hoped for. From everything I read and from Nelson’s conversation about it, there’s a former gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson. She was a very famous Black gospel singer. Mahalia was just a few feet away from Dr. King when he was speaking to the crowd in Washington. She noticed that the crowd wasn’t responding. A report said that she yelled, “Martin! Put the dream in there. Martin, do the dream!” And there’s another report that says one of Dr. King’s staff members said to a guy standing next to Dr. King on the right hand side of him, “These people don’t know what’s getting ready to happen, but they’re about to go to church.” If you ever watch the video, you’ll see at some point just before Dr. King went on to the “I have a dream” portion of the speech, he closes a book that’s in front of him seconds before he goes into the “I have a dream” part of the speech. I’ve watched the video several times, and I was like “Wow. This actually happened.”

He started off with “I have a dream one day,” and that became one of the most important speeches of the 20th century. So when Nelson was first telling me this story, I couldn’t believe it. And when I started doing the research to corroborate the story, I was like “Wow. This is true. This really happened.” So it was just little intricate details that I wasn’t aware of that I wanted to make people aware of. And then there is the personal time that Nelson spent with Dr. King at the barbershop. You have to keep in mind too that Nelson was a young man at the time. He was only 21 years old when they first met. So, at that time, he’s being schooled too. He’s learning and getting information. He’s growing. It wasn’t only happening with Dr. King. It was also happening with the first Black president of Howard University, who also came to the barbershop. The president of Alabama State College, which we now call Alabama State University today. Nelson also cut his hair. He cut hair for a lot of Black leaders – many of whom were unsung heroes in the civil rights movement. Nelson was around and he learned and he grew by just being in that environment.

Q: It’s amazing to me that you met Nelson in Baltimore and after a 30-minute decision you decided to write this book with him, which meant traveling back and forth between Baltimore and Montgomery. 

A: I think you have to have commitment to your craft, but you also have to be consistent with what you do because without the commitment and consistency so many things just fall through the cracks. That’s the difference between being good and being great. Because like you said, most people struggle with being committed to someone or something. Writing this book wasn’t an easy thing. This was a year of hard work, writing, research, speaking with people, and throughout that you still have to live life. But you kind of have to put part of your life aside to focus on whatever that is. It doesn’t have to be writing a book. It could be something else. But if you’re willing to make that sacrifice, great things will happen. That’s why I feel really good that I made that decision. It wasn’t easy and I definitely took losses professionally. I had to turn some stuff down just to make sure that this was a priority because the other thing is we were under a time crunch because I wanted to make this available for the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination.

If things workout, we’ll be in Memphis on that day. I don’t think I’ve had a chance to digest any of this because we’re just running. From the writing to the research to the editing to organizing the tour to putting the PR together. I haven’t really had a chance to even think about it that deeply. Someone left me a Facebook message, and they said that I’m a part of history. That makes sense to a degree, but I’ve never looked at it that way. Here’s the way I see it. I’m a recorder of history. I didn’t play a role in any of these events. I’m just recording the history. The history that I’m a part of is being able to educate the world with these stories, so I’m the author in that sense. I’m a part of that history, and I hope that 20 or 30 years from now this book will be an important part of American discussion in schools among young people. Hopefully, historians will be able to use this book as a reference point.

Q: In the book’s description, it reads, “A second wave of the civil rights movement is unfolding and we must embrace the lessons of the past to affect lasting change.” Can you explain to me what you meant when you said, “second wave of the civil rights movement”?

A: I just feel like history has a way of repeating itself. I truly believe that America is traveling through this narrow tunnel right now, and we’re not sure where we’re going to end up. I think that was part of what was going on during the civil rights movement. There are also a lot of people who are starting to hold on to white supremacy in America. They don’t want to let their position go. There’s so much working against white supremacy to the point where it has no choice but to evolve because the demographic in America is changing. The minorities are becoming the majority. White supremacy is backed up against the wall and it has nowhere to go, and that’s the same thing that happened during the original civil rights movement. We were going through this tunnel and I don’t think anyone knew where we would land.

When Mr. Thurgood Marshall was leading Brown v. Board of Education, early on we knew that we wanted desegregated schools. We knew that we wanted fair opportunities in education, but then when it happened, I don’t think people really knew where this thing would land. With the Voting Rights Act of 1965, we knew that we wanted it, but we weren’t totally sure what the results would be. We were hoping that the results would be good, and they turned out great.

Even now with changes in the way America is policed and with the MeToo movement, what are these things going to mean 10 to 15 years from now? We’ve ushered in a new era of the change that America is involved in and it’s similar to what happened during the original civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s. The world for people of color and minorities was totally transformed. Now, did we land in the greatest place ever as far as in America? No, things aren’t great and we still have a lot of challenges and work to do. America has changed, though.

So when you talk about a new era, a new civil rights movement, America has definitely evolved in the past 50 years, but it’s evolving again, and we don’t know where this thing is going to land. But you have courageous people like the folks in Black Lives Matter and people like Tamika Mallory from the Women’s March on Washington, who actually wrote a blurb for the book. You have courageous people who are willing to put their lives on the line to see that change takes place. Different people, different faces, different eras, different year, different decade, but it’s still similar to what happened 60 years ago in America.