Tony Stewart, a professor of political science at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene, helped form a core of human rights activists who have rallied Kootenai County citizens to counter racist beliefs epitomized by Richard Butler’s Aryan Nations.

For the fourth installment of The Spokesman-Review’s Leadership Dialogues series, Stewart talks to the newspaper’s Rebecca Nappi, Colin Mulvany and Doug Floyd about integrity as a component of leadership.

Here is an excerpt from that conversation. A full transcript can be found online at spokesmanreview.com.

Question: One of your colleagues heard your Southern accent and was caught by surprise that you would be such an advocate for civil rights in Idaho. Should that be an anomaly?

Answer: The closer you are to great challenges and difficulties of prejudice, I think the more clear it is to you the wrongs of those actions. Even as a child, I’ve always been so strongly in support of social justice and fairness, and when I experienced those examples it just magnified my passion for human rights. I brought that from my background here, not knowing that, of course, we would face the long struggle that was here in the Aryan Nations. I also had parents that were strong advocates of treating people with dignity.

Q: Were there glimpses at that time of your willingness to step out and rally others around you?

A: I’ve never been silent. My parents and I from west North Carolina were visiting in Charlotte, N.C., and a group of young white men made a terribly derogatory statement toward a young African-American boy, and I stood up for him. I was very angry with how he was being treated, and they threatened to beat us up. But we were able to move back into the homes where we were, but that imprint has stayed with me. While we were visiting there, this beautiful African-American lady, she had a voice very much like Mahalia Jackson and she sang and played the piano and we wanted to bring her to west North Carolina, my parents did, to be at our church and perform, and the church elders said no. I have never forgotten that.

Q: How do you feel about the strength of integrity to motivate someone to leadership? How’s that different from getting the streets paved or the library built?

A: I am really particularly a follower of a core values system.

The late Dr. Harold Lasswell indicated there were eight core values. Three of his eight values are affection and love for other human beings. And the second value he calls rectitude or justice for others. And the third one he calls deference and respect. I think those have been at the core of my passion for the integrity of all people.

One of Dr. Lasswell’s values is power. Another one is wealth. And I’ve witnessed times in the legislative process where a person had to ask themselves the question, will I opt for that value power so I can stay in office, or will I opt for the three values that I consider the greatest integrity, that I will even take a vote that may defeat me on behalf of the values that I believe are for our society?

A positive leader will work to bring the best out of us. A negative leader, oftentimes to gain power, to keep it, will try to bring out in us the worst, to bring out our fears, our anger, our insecurities.

Q: In an area where passions run so highly, you’re asking people who follow you and follow those ideals to put themselves sometimes at risk. What enters your mind when that’s the issue?

A: There’s a tremendous responsibility in creating an organization that people are willing to follow.

I think Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knew in his nonviolent movement that there were real consequences, including the death of the children in the bombing at the church and others that were killed on the marches, but he, I think, had a very clear vision that even though there may be victims, and he certainly was one himself at age 39, that the alternative is not acceptable. You do all you can to make people safe, but we could never have had a democracy and it will not continue to evolve playing everything safe.

Q: Is leadership something to be sought or is it thrust upon you?

A: I really think there are certain things that are just almost innate in certain people, and one of those is the question of vision. I don’t think you can teach that. Some people can see that certain actions we take now have consequences or importance years from now. Other people are always living in the immediacy of now.

I think there should be a lot of humility in leadership, and once that’s seen in an individual, once one is willing to take a stand, you are chosen by people. I don’t think anyone can ever just say, “I have the map and I’m going to be your leader.” It has to come from the people.

Q: Can you remember a time you experienced great fear during the anti-Aryan movement?

A: Twice I went home late at night, and it was always empty, and I got two telephone calls – not the same night – and one of them was a statement that we know where you live, we’re coming to get you. We’re going to cut your head off and dump it out at the weigh station. We’re going to cut your heart out and send it to the ADL, Anti-Defamation League.

The other one was late in the night. I got a call, they said we know where you are, we’re gonna get you, and then there was a recording of a machine gun going off.

You don’t take those lightly, and you do take some precautions. When Father Bill (Wassmuth) called me when we were so close and worked together, he told me he got a call and they told him to do something that was not physically possible, and he and I laughed about it, and the bombs were the next night.

But he made a very important statement. He said, “I want to live a long life. And I was afraid, but I refuse to live a life of fright and being afraid. I will stand for what I believe in. I refuse to give in.”

Q: Is compassion an important leadership trait, and did you feel any compassion for the Aryans?

A: How can you be supportive of these principles we’re talking about, such as equality and dignity to all persons, if you don’t have compassion? Dr. King said you must not hate. To hate you die inside. So you don’t hate the individual. You certainly stand against them. And so he said you must hate the doctrine. You direct it at the message, and that’s what we’ve tried to do.

The other thing that I’ve tried to do personally is to think of those individuals, particularly young people like racist skinheads who have been brought into it. A lot of times Aryan Nations are families, might have been in jail, and I think of them as tragic figures, because if they refuse to exchange ideas and experience with different cultures, they’re robbed of that richness.

Q: When you look at your students today, what qualities do they need to be a leader like you in the social arena?

A: One is they have to decide what their core values are. But then I think there is a three-step process. One is you have to become an enlightened person and that’s through information, knowledge, education, and then wisdom will follow. You have to be dedicated and enlightened. Number two, you have to be ready if the moment comes where you can possibly be a leader. You have to recognize that moment. And then, three, you have to seize it.

And when you do all that it’ll take some courage, because you will be criticized. And if you don’t want to be criticized you have to stay on the sidelines, and I don’t think that’s a good option.

Q: What do you hope will be the legacy of Tony Stewart?

A: My hope would be that those that I have been in touch with, particularly my students, over 10,000 of them, and others that I’ve associated with and worked with, that I have convinced any of them to be absolutely committed to the dignity and respect of others and not do anything that demeans people or attacks the self-esteem and worth of other individuals. That’s civil rights. That’s human rights.