“The ink of today’s actions writes the story of tomorrow. Every choice we make is a sentence in the book of our lives—let it be one worth reading.”
“I remembered how tough it was getting black people in large tenements to come together to build a playground. The enemy was not the Klan by the inside-outside lock that racism and classism had on the minds of the people: It operated from the inside through self-hate and self-doubt, and from the outside through the police, carnivorous landlords, and the welfare system.”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
“We were still confined to that corner. More and more people joined us, some black and some white. On the second day, we awoke to learn that somebody must have told Martin Luther King that things were getting out of hand in Montgomery, because rumor had it that he left the line of march from Selma to join us in the hood. Despite myself, I was thrilled at the prospect of marching with King. I knew this was SNCC turf, and I was now with SNCC, but how can you not be thrilled with the prospect of being so close to the big man himself?”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
“Knocking on doors wasn't working. We had to try something else. Remember the kids whose natural curiosity brought them into our little office on the corner? We set up a Freedom School that was fashioned after the SNCC Freedom Schools in Mississippi and other places.”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
“Life was not always so peaceful and rewarding at NAPA (the office). Sometime during 1968, I cam back to the office and found the plate glass window shattered. I asked Ab what happened, and he strangely knew nothing.”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
“We learned how to envision a different neighborhood, fought for the resources to make it happen, and in March 1968, through the Medical School Agreements, had been given the green light to proceed. All we had to do was make it happen--and ascend to a new level of power in the community.”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
“Organizing a working majority proved harder than we thought because we couldn't get a quorum. But one day in December, twelve people showed up, eight from our coalition. So we changed the quorum to eight. You gotta do what you gotta do--this was war, one faction against many others who wanted control of the land.”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
“I had never run a campaign, but I was an organizer. My job was to create momentum by mobilizing the constituency we had, which I was positioned to do.”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
“So on June 16, 1970, history was made in Newark. Ken Gibson became the first black mayor of a major Northeastern city.”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
“The youth were to be trained to be the vanguard of the next battlefront, whatever that was. I knew within my heart that the Gibson experiment in city hall would attract enemies, so I intended to teach these young people how to fight on this new battlefield.”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power