Check out the Inspirefest 2019 talk from Reggie Selma, the first African American CNN cameraman assigned to the White House.

Reggie Selma speaks proudly of his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, but is quick to note the place’s dark past, defined by the institutional racism of Jim Crow laws and the systematic oppression experienced by black people during that time.

Selma credits the people who protested during the civil rights movement as paving the way for him to become the first African American CNN cameraman assigned to the White House.

All of this legacy came flooding back to him during a visit to Ireland in 1984 to film US president Ronald Reagan’s Dublin visit. It would be a visit that would stay with him for years to come and further inspire him in his career, all thanks to a boy called Martin.

To see Selma’s electrifying Inspirefest talk, check out the video above.

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Words by Eva Short