On Tuesday night, civil rights activist, educator and organizer DeRay Mckesson ’07 H’21 spoke to a packed Kresge Auditorium at a panel entitled “One Act at a Time: Leading at Bowdoin and Beyond.” Mckesson, sitting in conversation with two students, Megumi Iwai-Louie ’27 and Ephraim Tutu ’28, discussed his experience at Bowdoin and how it has impacted his leadership.

The conversation was organized by Sara Binkhorst, director of student leadership development. Binkhorst chose Iwai-Louie and Tutu to facilitate the conversation based on their campus leadership.

“One of the goals of this new leadership initiative in Student Affairs is to empower students to lead authentically and with meaningful connection to the causes and communities they care about. DeRay is a role model for just that,” Binkhorst wrote in an email to the Orient.

Mckesson, who is nationally recognized for his activism surrounding police reform, has been featured on major media platforms including NPR, CNN and MSNBC. He hosts a podcast called “Pod Save the People” with Crooked Media.

Mckesson opened the event by reminiscing about his Bowdoin experience. He discussed the community he found at the College, which was especially important for him with an absent mother and a father who struggled with substance issues.

“Bowdoin was the place where I learned the magic of community. It was the first place that I saw everybody be very gifted at something, and also be kind,” Mckesson said.

Mckesson then discussed his activism, speaking against what he says is a common belief that, when working with marginalized communities, love and passion are enough to create change. In his view, love is not enough—you need to put in the work.

“I’ve been in after-school programs where can’t nobody read, can’t nobody write, but it’s a whole lot of love. And that is actually not fair to the people that we serve,” Mckesson said. “Some sort of structural analysis [is needed]. There’s no substitute for doing the work.”

The conversation with Iwai-Louie and Tutu focused on Mckesson’s leadership experience at Bowdoin. In his time at the College, Mckesson served as the president of Bowdoin Student Government, the president of his class and a proctor with the Office of Residential Life, among other roles. The incredible privilege of being at a place like Bowdoin, Mckesson said, influenced his leadership style later in life.

“For me it was being in a place like [Bowdoin that] made me believe that I could literally ask anything, do anything,” Mckesson said.

After his time at Bowdoin, Mckesson became a teacher. But, he was then thrown into activism after the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

“I went to Ferguson just for the weekend. I got tear gassed the second night I was in St. Louis. I was like, I’m gonna stay. And I stayed, essentially for the next year,” Mckesson said. “I don’t think I chose it; it chose me.”

Mckesson discussed his vision of the common good, describing it and its power to students. The common good, Mckesson believes, is a real thing and not just a fancy phrase.

“The common good is, to me, that fundamental belief that our role and responsibility is not just to do right by ourselves but to do right by the world that we’re in,” Mckesson said.

Mckesson ended the conversation by touching on community and relationships. In his vision, building community is important—though it is equally important to be intentional about the relationships you build.

Auri Fernandez ’28, who attended the conversation, said he found Mckesson’s honest discussion of political organizing interesting.

“I think the most interesting part is how, actually, mobilizing a community is hard and that a lot of people are passionate but don’t always actually put the work in,” Fernandez said.

Tutu, who met Mckesson earlier in the day during an event held with various campus affinity groups, appreciated the activist’s message, particularly his commitment to the common good.

“He was urging us to fight for something beyond ourselves. He kept talking about the common good and how Bowdoin actually really instilled in him the common good,” Tutu said.