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Quote by Ella Baker

“My association with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is sort of predated by an effort that we were a part of here in New York City regarding the reaction to this 1954 Supreme Court [Brown v Board of Education] decision.”

Quote by Ella Baker

Author

Ella Baker (December 13, 1903 – December 13, 1986) was a prominent African American civil rights activist known for her grassroots organizing and mentorship of young leaders. Born in Norfolk, Virginia, and raised in North Carolina, she was influenced by her grandmother's experience as a slave. Baker joined the NAACP in the 1930s, serving as a field secretary and branch director, expanding its membership across the South. She later worked with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), emphasizing collective action over charismatic leadership. Baker advocated for 'group-centered leadership,' empowering ordinary people and youth. Her work shaped the strategy and structure of the civil rights movement, though she often remained in the background. She died on December 13, 1986, at age 83. more

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“I believe, the NAACP began to try to organize parents of Negro children to file petitions with the boards of education regarding the integration of the school system. You had some very severe economic reprisals against people in Mississippi and in South Carolina. So, in order to try to help to meet some of the physical needs and the economic needs of people in Clarendon County [SC] who had been displaced from the land, and otherwise, and in certain sections of Mississippi, we organized in New York City something called "In Friendship".”

“This In Friendship - out of it came certain connections with the liberal labor establishment. Among the personalities that were involved were Bayard Rustin and a person from the American Jewish Congress, Stanley Levinson.”

Persons Certain Personality Involved Labor Connections Congress Establishment Stanley

Author:Ella Baker

“I don't think that the leadership of Montgomery was prepared to capitalize, let's put it, on the projection that had come out of the Montgomery situation. Certainly, they had not reached the point of developing an organizational format for the expansion of it. So discussions emanated, to a large extent, from up this way.”

Thinking Way Situation Prepared Developing Discussion Expansion Projection Format Organizational Montgomery

Author:Ella Baker

“I think the reasons for not selecting persons like the Reverend Borders and John Wesley Dobbs were, in my book rather obvious reasons: because they were people who were basically oriented in the direction of the established method of not confronting the power structure, but trying to elicit concessions by various and sundry means of, well, let's call it accommodating leadership.”

People Thinking Trying Wells Mean Persons Book Reason Method Structure Obvious Various Borders Confronting Concessions Reverends

Author:Ella Baker

“I think personally, I've always felt that the Association [NAACP] got itself hung-up in what I call its legal successes. Having had so many outstanding legal successes, it definitely seemed to have oriented its thinking in the direction that the way to achieve was through the courts.”

Thinking Way Felt Achieve Court Association Hung Outstanding Naacp

Author:Ella Baker

“When I came out of the Depression, I came out of it with a different point of view as to what constituted success. And that was even just even personal success.”

Different Views Point Of View Different Points Of View Personal Success

Author:Ella Baker

“I began to feel that my greatest sense of success would raise the level of masses of people, rather than the individual being accepted by the Establishment. So, this kind of personal thinking, combined with, say, even the little bit more radical thinking - because at one time the pacifist movement was a very radical concept.”

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Author:Ella Baker

“I had been friendly with people who were in the Communist party and all the rest of the Left forces, which were oriented in the direction of mass action.”

People Action Left Force Party Mass Friendly Communist Communist Party

Author:Ella Baker

“I believe, the [Gunnar] Myrdal study had been made, and if we hadn't had anything else to raise questions, this in itself would have been something to provoke thought in the direction of the value of accommodating leadership.”

Ifs Believe Has Beens Made Values I Believe Study Raises Provoking Raises Questions

Author:Ella Baker

“We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.”

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Author:Carl Jung