Volume XXIII, Number 48 (Issue 1157) December 1, 2025
The Courage of One’s Convictions
It was a cold Monday afternoon in February 1960 as Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr., Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond walked the mile and one-half from their dorm at Agriculture and Mechanical College of North Carolina to the F.W. Woolworth store in downtown Greensboro, NC. Once there they each purchased a couple of items before sitting down at the lunch counter. In taking those seats, they knew they would be refused service as well as face verbal abuse. But more likely, they would be subjected to physical ejection, arrest, brutal attack, or possibly death at the hands of a mob for simply daring to ask for service at the ”whites only” counter.
As you have undoubtedly realized, these four young men were Black. Thus, taking such bold action in the then deeply and long segregated south was simply unheard of. But like Rosa Parks before them, these men demonstrated the courage of their convictions. Granted, it was a small, peaceful, personal protest. Yet by stepping to the lunch counter these four helped to fuel a larger civil rights movement.
In most situations, having the courage to act on our convictions does not involve risking physical life or limbs. What is a possibility is the loss of face or relationship, suffering the ire of others, or crossing a line where there is both a price to pay and absolutely no turning back.
One of the challenges we frequently encounter in our work is the difficulty some leaders have when a tough conversation with a team member is required. The excuses we hear for such avoidance can include the team member might take valuable customer relationships and/or institutional knowledge with them to a competitor, they have been with us a long time and we owe them for their loyalty, this is a small, tight-knit community where our paths routinely cross, we lack bench strength, and the local labor pool is thin, making it nearly impossible to replace him/her.
While such rationalizations seem plausible, reasonable, and perhaps prudent as in better the devil one knows than the one you do not know – the larger reality is that in tolerating poor, ineffective team members, the leader must bear responsibility for any future damage to the organization. Such harm can take numerous forms including, but not limited to, operational stagnation, confusion and conflicting signals, accusations of favoritism or turning a blind eye, a dysfunctional team, and unwanted turnover among those who could make a difference. In other words, inaction carries a steep price.
I would be remiss if I did not mention one additional impediment to having a frank conversation and that is empathy. While empathy is a laudable quality, when it causes one to dodge a difficult situation and conversation, it equates to tyranny of the minority as it ignores the larger good. In other words, it demonstrates a lack of courage in one’s convictions.
Soli Deo Gloria
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise— in God, I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Psalm 56:3-4
J. Keith Hughey
Mobile: (210) 260-0955
E-mail: keith@jkeithhughey.com
Website: www.jkeithhughey.com
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Copyright 2025 by J. Keith Hughey. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for reproduction and redistribution of this essay as provided under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Recent issues of Musings may be found at www.jkeithhughey.com. Your comments are always welcome.