My Protege Grows Up

Malcolm Wells II speaks at a Book a Million Open Mic Night (Left). Educator John Lofflin, a former colleague from my days at Indianapolis Public Schools shares his own poetry with the mostly teen and young adult audience.

This evening, the boys and I went to hear a friend of mine, motivational speaker Malcolm Wells II, do his thing at a Books a Million Open Mic Night. I met Malcolm when he was 7 years old and his mother called me one afternoon when I was a reporter at The Indianapolis Star. Malcolm, she said, was being bullied because he was biracial. I hadn't experienced very many problems as a mixed-race child, but I was surprised and angry to find that children could still face problems associated with the decision their parents made to be together.

That was the beginning of that has been a long, sometimes tumultuous, friendship. I wrote to Malcolm a series of open letters containing information that I thought a biracial boy needed to know to become a productive, self-aware biracial adult. We often spoke to groups together, starting with the Circle Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship, the church in which I grew up. I attended his confirmation at North United Methodist Church. We were mystified by the other patrons who scratched their heads at an exhibition of art on multiracial themes at the Indianapolis Art Center.

It was clear from the start that Malcolm would turn out to be something special. He was incredibly intelligent as a child. And he was humble about his ability to captivate audiences of teachers and peers at various conferences and events throughout Indianapolis Public Schools. Malcolm told an audience one day that I was his hero when that night his mother showed me the photos from his confirmation trip to Atlanta. I did a double-take when I realized that the man next to whom he sat was Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu.

Malcolm has followed a long difficult road. When I saw him tonight, he looked like that little boy I knew with a fresh haircut and dressed for success. But he's had a hard row to hoe. There were many years that Malcolm had little more to say to me than a grunt. He became disillusioned with school and fell in with the wrong crowd. He's spent time in jail for robbery.

But Malcolm's is a story of inspiration. He shows young people there's light at the end of the tunnel.