This week, 50 years after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed on his hotel balcony in Memphis, I spent a few hours in Washington, D.C. with my friend Congressman John Lewis and a group of young men for a My Brother's Keeper Alliance roundtable.

During our time together, we reflected on Dr. King’s remarkable legacy – his teachings of nonviolence, his moral urgency, the courage and strength required to stand up for what you believe in, especially when it’s hard.

John and I weren’t there to lecture these young men. Their generation already knows about justice and fairness, right and wrong, the world as it is and the world as it should be.

We were there to share our experiences across three generations, to ask questions, and to learn from each other. My thanks to John and these young men for participating in this conversation and for teaching me so much.

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Former President Obama and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) met with a group of high schoolers at D.C. high school this week to discuss civil rights and Martin Luther King Jr. on the 50th anniversary of the leader’s assassination.

In a video released Wednesday, Obama and Lewis sat down with the high schoolers at the all-male Ron Brown College Preparatory High School in a roundtable for My Brother’s Keeper, Obama’s initiative to help young men of color.

“If you are speaking on behalf of social justice, then by definition there’s going to be some controversy because if it wasn’t controversial, then somebody would have already fixed it,” Obama told the students.

“Dr. King was controversial, but he studied and thought and crafted what he had to say. He knew, when he spoke, he was expressing a truth as well as he could know it,” he continued.

Lewis also described what it was like to protest alongside King. He shared stories about the March on Washington, where King made his famous “I Have A Dream” speech.

“Being on the right side of history isn’t always popular. And it isn’t always easy,” Obama said to Lewis. “You don’t know when things are going to break your way. You don’t know whether your labors will deliver.”

“When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just you have a moral obligation to do something, to say something. Dr. King inspired us to do just that,” Lewis replied.