The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation is marking fifty years of service to this country, and I was honored to contribute to its commemorative issue of the Journal of the Center for Policy Analysis and Research, Rooted in Legacy, Ready for the Future. My essay, “The Drum Major Moment: Why AI Literacy Is the Next Chapter in the Civil Rights Movement,” appears in the journal’s workforce section.

For most of American history, the greatest threat to opportunity was exclusion. It decided who could go to school, who could own land, who could vote, who could borrow, and who could build. Progress for Black communities has often meant fighting our way into systems that were never designed with us in mind. Artificial intelligence presents a different kind of moment, and I believe we have to meet it differently.

AI represents a rare moment where the window is still open. But only for a short time.

In the essay, I make the case that AI literacy has become one of the most important extensions of financial literacy, which I have long called the civil rights issue of this generation. I write about the banker who visited my classroom when I was a boy and changed the direction of my life, about the work we are doing through the HOPE Ethics AI Council and the AI Literacy and Leadership Program at Georgia State, and about why we cannot afford another era of digital redlining.

Dr. King spoke of the drum major instinct, the desire to lead out front. This is our drum major moment. We can stand in front of this technology hoping it slows down, or we can step out front and lead our communities into the future.

I’m grateful to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the editors of JCPAR for including my voice alongside so many leaders I admire. Read the full essay in the JCPAR workforce edition.