“I had no way of predicting that Selma to Montgomery was indeed to be the last great civil rights march of the era, and that everything afterward would indeed by 'post-civil rights.”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
“But despite the scarcity of confrontation with whites in our neighborhood, race and racism permeated every aspect of our lives. Our parents taught us that in order to succeed, we 'had to be twice as good as white folks.' We were constantly being prepared to enter a world dominated by whites.”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
“Black power showed up in different ways, depending on the goals of the group.”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
“The SNCC base of operation, at the corner of Jackson and High Streets, was in the heart of the black community in Montgomery. I don't remember too much else about the city, but I'll always remember that corner. There were hundreds of young people behind police barricades of some sort. Lots of college students, some white, from up North, and some local black folks and college students. The whole Selma-to-Montgomery push, and this ancillary thrust by SNCC in Montgomery, was because on the other side of that barricade there were white folks who had shown they would stop at nothing, including violence, to protect white supremacy.”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
“There was an aura about King that was unforgettable. I seem him now in my mind's eye: collected, peaceful, calm. He was in his element and totally in command of himself and the situation.”
Source: Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
“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