Brian Johnson called on the black youth in the Toledo area to look to historic black people as role models and to be aware and informed about the world around them.

“The number one lesson is the importance of education and being an informed citizen in all issues that one confronts,” Mr. Johnson, the president of Tuskegee University, a historically black university in east-central Alabama, said Saturday. “Intelligence plus character, that is the goal of a truly educated person.”

Mr. Johnson spoke before about 300 people who filled the Student Union auditorium at the University of Toledo main campus during a two-hour kickoff celebration of Black History Month.

In his speech, Mr. Johnson invoked civil rights champion Martin Luther King, Jr., and members of the Tuskegee Airmen — officially the 332nd Fighter Squadron — who earned renown for flying fighter support in P-51C Mustangs for Allied bombing missions over southern Germany and Austria during World War II in 1944 and 1945.

Mr. Johnson is also the editor and author of books on American history, and W.E.B. Du Bois, a noted civil-rights activist, historian, and educator. He also wrote an institutional history of Johnson C. Smith University, Mr. Johnson’s alma mater, and a historically black university in Charlotte.

Mr. Johnson’s words left quite an impression on Akeem Suhrweier, 15, of Toledo.

“Look for the stuff in the past to use it for the stuff in the future,” young Suhrweier replied when asked for his takeaway from the speech. “Don’t automatically point out the bad things. Everything is not as bad. Look for what you’ve got to make it better.”

Young Suhrweier, a Woodward High School sophomore and a member of UT’s Upward Bound Program for high school students preparing for college, said he plans to follow Mr. Johnson’s advice. His goals include becoming an engineering major at UT and joining the Black Lives Matter movement.

President Sharon Gaber, who also spoke at the event, told the audience that UT has developed a plan to continue strengthening the school’s commitment to diversity.

Themed “Live for the Movement, not for the Moment,” the event was sponsored by UT and the Study Hour Club, one of the oldest black organizations in the city, according to organizers.

“The university and the community are celebrating the Black History Month,” Ms. Gaber said. “It is important to Toledo. It is important to the U.S. It is important to us.”

Contact Mike Sigov at: sigov@theblade.com, 419-724-6089, or on Twitter @mikesigovblade.

First Published February 7, 2016, 5:00 a.m.