Honoring the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Tyrone Flowers had a difficult childhood living in Kansas City, MO. Born to two teenage parents, his father was murdered when he was 10. He was in and out of foster homes, sometimes went to bed hungry.

By the time Flowers reached high school he had success on the basketball court and was offered scholarships to college. He turned them down unsure what a scholarship was. He made plans to join the military.

Two weeks shy of his high school graduation Flowers got in a confrontation with a kid on his basketball team. The kid pulled out a gun and shot him three times in the shoulder, hand and neck. Flowers was paralyzed from the waist down.

That moment changed his life. Flowers decided he would move forward and not let the circumstances define who he would become.

"I didn't have instructions, I didn't know how to do it, but I did have that picture, I wanted to be successful somehow, some way," he said.

Today, Flowers is a motivational speaker and founder of Higher M-Pact, a nonprofit organization that works with high-risk youth in Kansas City, MO.

Flowers shared his story of perserverance with a group of community members and students at on Monday. The Black Student Union put together an event to honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In addition to Flowers, students sang, danced and offered a poem. Flowers took questions from the audience, one which asked whether we're making progress toward King's vision for America.

Flowers said he does think progress has been made but that there's a potential for a class of people to move backwards before moving foward. As successful black people move toward the suburbs, few positive examples are left in the urban core, he said. It's up to us to choose to encounter and help those people who need it.

"We cannot be tricked into thinking we don't have a lot of hard work ahead of us," he said.

Flowers left the audience with five "P's" he has used to guide his life, inspired in part by the writing and teaching of Martin Luther King Jr. Check out the video to hear his five "P's".

Head to our Facebook page to see video of the student performances at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.