Help those that can’t help themselves. Don’t accept mediocrity. Be the “Good Samaritan.”

“Living With a Purpose” was the theme of the speech given by Jamal-Harrison Bryant, founder of the Empowerment Temple of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Nearly 100 people gathered in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union to hear Bryant’s speech Wednesday night, part of the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration.

In his presentation, Bryant compared the Biblical parable of the man dying on the side of the road between Jericho and Jerusalem to the historical plight of Africans going to America via the slave trade.

“They were stripped of their language and their culture and their identity,” said Bryant, former director of the youth and college division of the NAACP.

The “man on the side of the road” was passed by Democrats, Republicans, liberals and the “traditional” church, Bryant said.

“Your purpose is not to serve yourself but to serve a larger world,” he said.

“I am here because of my grandfather, Booker T. Williams Sr., who could not get into Duke because of his color,” Bryant said. “But my grandfather understood there was someone behind him, someone following him, and he is a great humanitarian and Samaritan because he sacrificed for a grandson he did not know.”

There have been revolutions in the past, he said, but today’s youth lack a goal.

“In the ’60s we had civil rights. In the ’70s we had Vietnam. In the ’80s there was gay rights, but now all we have is the death of Tupac and Biggie,” Bryant said.

He told the audience that their purpose is to be like the Good Samaritan of the old parable and help the man left “half-dead” on the side of the road.

“His purpose is to pick up someone who cannot pick themselves up,” Bryant said.

If he can help someone with a word or a song, then his living will not have been in vain, he said.

“Who will pick up America?” Bryant asked. “I can see further because I am standing on the shoulders of giants. Everyone here is standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Robert Perkins, graduate student in sociology, said Bryant represented successful black males he strives to be like.

“I came in with a purpose and understanding there are challenges between where I am now and my end destination,” Perkins said. “Bryant gave me inspiration, power, strategy, knowledge and confidence to reach that destination.”