Duvalier J. Malone is an accomplished author, political columnist, motivational speaker, community activist, and CEO of Duvalier Malone Enterprises, a global consulting firm delivering services to non-profits and underserved communities throughout America. A native of the small town of Fayette, Mississippi. Mr. Malone discovered his intuitive forte within the realm of service and public speaking while still in high school.
His stellar academic achievements provided travel opportunities; and one trip, a particular visit to the nation’s capital, brought about a paradigm shift in the young Mr. Malone’s mind. It was during this Washington, D.C. trip that the 16-year-old discovered his calling– community outreach and governmental affairs.
Duvalier J. Malone has a B.A. in Political Science from Alcorn State University, and he graduated from Jackson State University with a Master’s Degree in Political Science.
He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the NAACP, Young Government Leaders, Young Government Leaders, Association of Political Science and the Association of Public Administrators.
Mr. Malone is the author of “Those Who Give a Damn” A Manual For Making a Difference, and “Vote Children Vote”. He currently resides in Washington, DC, with his husband, Dr. Adrian Mayse, and their dog, Guy.
DUVALIER J. MALONE’S INTERVIEW
Your profile reads that you are a political commentator, an author, a columnist, a motivational speaker, and an activist. Who are you besides these accolades and what drives you?
Very good question. I am a son, a new husband and I am really a normal, everyday guy with very humble beginnings. When you talk about who I am at my core: I lived my life based on the principles of my grandmother who helped to raise me in Mississippi. I was born and raised in poverty in Mississippi. I mean to a single mother there in Mississippi, we lived on a farm. My father dealt with mental illness. There were days that I went to school and did not know whether I would have food on the table to eat. I lived in a mobile home where I could see the ground through the trailer because we were so poor. It molded me into the man that I am today.
And so, behind all of the accolades that I have, behind my name being credited as an accomplished author and columnist, I probably have over 100 publications in the print in regards to education, poverty, economic development, civil engagement around voting, had the opportunity to interview some really amazing people and my work as a columnist, and I just authored a new book called “Vote Children Vote’. Outside of all of that, I am just an everyday man who wants to leave my blueprint on the world to make it a better place. My grandmother always taught me that when we saw something that needed to be fixed, we are to rise to the occasion and do that. But behind all of that, I am really a normal guy. I love to cook. Before the pandemic, I didn’t do a lot of cooking because I was traveling. But I love to cook. I love being in my yard. I have a flower garden. I like spending time with my family. But what really drives me to your point is:
“The ability to understand that we all have been given a God-given gift on this earth, and it’s up to us to quickly identify what that is and get to the business of doing that.”
I see in this world that so many people struggle with identifying what it is that they’re called to do. And so, one of the things that I know for sure, Perez, is that God has called me on this earth to be able to use my voice and my platform to make a difference. And that when I see something that has that right to speak up and to speak out on those issues, and we live in a society now where people are afraid to use their voices because of what it can do to combat that. And for me, I am driven by a society that sometimes does not understand and knows how to own their voices. I want to be able to train up another generation to be able to do that. I’ve spent a lot of my public service career dealing with a lot of grown people sitting at the table trying to move the needle. I was instrumental in helping to bring down the Confederate flag in Mississippi dealing with adults.
My next drive, post-pandemic, is empowering the next generation of leaders. I believe that we only get so far with adults in this society because the adults’ minds have already been framed by their principles and the way in which they live their lives and what frames their beliefs. And so, the ability sometime to change how adults view the world is very hard. But I do believe that the ability to be able to change the way young people see the world is much more impactful. So, my new quest, even with my new book “Vote Children Vote”, is to empower young people to understand that you are never too young to find your voice, cultivate your voice, and be able to use that for change. My grandmother taught me how to use my voice at a very young age to be able to initiate what I want, to be able to articulate that to the world. And so, that’s how I’ve got into writing and authoring and speaking. But what really drives me is seeing those injustices in the world and wanting to be able to leave the world a better place than where I found it. And I think if all of us are able to find that, this world will be so much better.
Very inspiring! So, you have a book with the title “Those Who Give a Damn” A Manual for Making a Difference. Why did you pick this title?
I was working on a lot of social issues in Mississippi when I first started my activist career. And those were working on the Mississippi Confederate flag, Emmett Till, and a decrease in poverty in the state of Mississippi. As I was engaging in those issues, I found that a lot of people did not give a damn about the people whom they represented every single day. And so, I wanted to create a piece of work that encouraged people to give a damn about the issues that affect their community, whether that’s in the role of medicine, whether that’s in the role of politics, whether that’s in the role of government affairs, whether that’s in the role of LGBTQ rights.
I think it’s important that we really give a damn about those issues. So, when I talk about giving a damn about those issues, it is exuding the ability to use our circles of influence to make a difference. You are making a big difference. I see so many people sharing your quotes and your inspirations on social media, that is moving the needle. People woke up that morning and they were encouraged by the message that you put out, whether you had ten followers or 1000 followers or 20 million, you are making a difference. And so, I wanted to share a message using my life story in Mississippi of about having to overcome adversities like poverty, and then not allowing that to really hold me down. But I then had to start giving a damn about those issues that were affecting my life. I mean by giving a damn about those issues, it also helped to move the needle in my community. So, “Those Who Give a Damn” was to inspire people to find their spot in the world by reading my story about stepping up for Emmett Till. So, for example, I organized a WE DEMAND JUSTICE rally for Emmett Till after the news of Carolyn and Bryant Dunham came out to say that nothing that Emmett Till had done deserved what happened to him in 1955.
I started to speak up on the issues, and I’ll tell you this: the title of the book wasn’t a manual for those who give a damn for making a difference. It was actually going to be about dreaming big and telling my story. But when I started to work on the Emmett Till project, I was like, this has to be bold because so many people don’t give a damn about the things that are affecting our society. Even the political leaders that are representing people every single day, they could care less about those issues and more about their own personal agendas. And so, my hope was to write a read that was a night of the fire in a generation that would say, you know what, I need to give a damn that if I’m in the surgery room and the surgeon made a mistake and it was malpractice, I need to give a damn about that issue and speak up about it. If I am in the courtroom and there is injustice there, I need to speak up and give a damn about those issues.
If I’m in Mississippi and I’m a state legislator and the Mississippi Confederate flag needs to come down, I need to give a damn about those issues. If I am at the Department of Justice and Emmett Till’s case comes before me, I need to give a damn about those issues. And so that was the hope and the desire of that book. And I’ll tell you, I did not know the reach that that book would take. I was on tour for three years traveling the country and people were finding their voices through that read, and I couldn’t be more excited. That’s one of the best pieces of work that I’ve produced in my career.
I came across a statement on your profile and was stunned. You said there are two justice systems in America. If you can’t see that, you are part of the problem. Elaborate on that.
So, when I say the two justice systems, when we look at America, when we look at, for instance, the Emmett Till case. He was not given justice. Carolyn Bryant Dunham has still not been convicted because she is a white woman. And when we look at America, we have young men that are locked up in prison for stealing a sneaker bar. They’re locked up in prison for stealing sneakers out of the mall. And we don’t have a justice system for the rehabilitation of those young people, but we have police officers who are killing black men and women, Breonna Taylor, and Emmett Till, and they are still not getting the justice that they need. And so, there are two justice systems. When we look at how whites are tried versus blacks in this country, they are different.
The sentences are higher. And where I was coming for in that was the mere fact that Carolyn Bryant Dunham, a white woman who came out to Timothy Tyson that part of her story was a lie, and she is still going free today. And there are African Americans that are in prison for marijuana, for theft, and there is no rehabilitation for those African Americans in this country. And we have people who have done even worse crimes that are white, that have gone free in this country. And so, yes, there are two justice systems in America.
You talked about how young people should start voting at a young age from high school in your new book “vote children vote”. Now, do you see any difference or effect between voting as a child and voting as an adult?
So, one of the things I grew up learning about was the right to vote and the fight for voting for my grandmother. My grandmother was born in 1917 and she passed away in 2009. So, my grandmother lived to be like 93 years old. She lived through a lot of the early 1900s. So, I was fortunate enough to be passed down the stories of one generation to the next in regard to the right to vote. I believe that now the African American generation is losing the flavor and the stories of the movement. They grew up in a society where they’ve known an African American could be the president of the United States of America.
They grew up in a society where they have had the right to vote and the pleasure of voting. And they vote at their pleasure, they voted at their leisure, and they vote when it’s in their favor. So, a lot of people go to vote based on issues. And a lot of people in this country don’t vote in every election which is an issue because every election matters in this country, from the state to the local level to the federal level. All election matters because one branch of government helps the other branch of government. And so, what I have noticed in this country is that young people don’t really understand the power of their votes. You would be surprised by the surveys that I get back from African Americans at the age of 18 who graduate from high school, and they have not yet registered to vote because they don’t understand the power of the vote.
They’re not engaged in that hence: the idea and this “Vote Children Vote” book was to write a piece of work in telling a nonfiction story that engages young teenagers about the ability to vote and not to just vote for the president of the United States or for their local officials, but to get engaged by voting for their student body. President. When you’re in high school, you vote for different elections who are presidents of the Future Business Leaders of America. And also, not to just get engaged in voting, but also engage with running for those offices. My goal in the book was to produce a piece of work that encourage young people to get intrigued with the idea of running for office and the idea of voting and particularly in those student elections, and hope that when they graduate that they would understand the power of the vote.
Where do you see the political system of the United States in the next five years?
If we don’t get a hold of this information, our democracy is at risk. What we saw with the election of Donald Trump was based on conspiracy theories, lies, corruption, and self-absorbed power. And so, the political system in America, we must get a hold of this information:
- This information is going to be a stain on our democracy. When we look at this information in America, I was here in the nation’s capital on January 6, and that was domestic terrorism in the nation’s capital: I have meetings in the capital. I go and do photoshoots in the capital for my political columnist work. Never in a million years that I take seriously that we would have such an insurrection at the Capitol. But I believe that that was a daunting warning to America and to politicians that if we don’t get a hold of this information, and that’s on social media and our news outlets and integrity returns to the office of Political Work, then our democracy is stained, and it’s stained for generations to come.
- If we do not train up the next generations of leaders to take on the torch, then our democracy is at risk. And the reason why I say that is when we look at all political systems, the Congressional Black Caucus average is 70 years old. Who are we training up to be the next generation of leaders? And if we don’t truly train those up and if we don’t create a succession plan in the Congress and the Senate, we are going to see a lot of elected officials who are branded by disinformation and conspiracy theories. And we’re going to have a disengaged society because the federal government policies do not match the policies that affect the everyday people in this society.
- And from a global perspective: if we do not build better partnerships with our international allies across this country, we are also going to be looked at as a country that we are standing alone. We saw that with Donald Trump when he pulled us out of Natal. And I know President Biden is doing a great job with trying to build those allies. But we are going to have to keep our relationships internationally strong because we also are a country that cannot stand alone. The world looks at America as a model and they are going to take on that model. And that goes for making sure that we are providing equity when it comes to immigration in this country, providing a path to citizenship for those who want to come to America. We must build partnerships.
Thank you, Duvalier. This was a great conversation.
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