Byron Allen: Standing Up to the Storms of Change (VIDEO)

My Legends & Leaders conversation with Byron Allen opens with an 18-year-old Byron in his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and continues with an often brilliant, sometimes controversial and always passionate call to action for marketers and for Americans to recognize and address the dangers and opportunities facing us all. In my 50-minute conversation with him you'll learn about the Four Major Challenges shared with Allen by Coretta Scott King, the Two Americas, the Three "E's," the Four "D's," the Greatest Weapon, why he wishes he filed activist lawsuits decades earlier, and why the corporate response to his demands should be "don't defend, get to the table, lean in and do business."

Allen closes our conversation with this plea:

"Hear me clearly. We have to remember where we are in this global ecosystem. We are a small village on the planet. We're less than five percent of the global population. There are countries out there who see a world without us and are planning for a world without America as you see it today if at all. There are folks who have no problem with this small village going away. So, you have to make sure every American is bringing their "A" game and you have to position every American to succeed. I believe it is a matter of national security for every American to have access to a free education all the way through PHDs because we don't have enough intellectual capital to survive. We have to come together to make sure we have the strongest intellectual capital to stay at the top of the pyramid. You can no longer segregate. You have to integrate and position every American, your brothers and sisters in all shapes, sizes, colors and sexual orientations to be positioned to succeed and to carry and protect the American flag. And that is education, environmental protection, equal justice and economic inclusion for everyone."

View the full Byron Allen Legends & Leaders conversation here.