List of Ella Baker Quotes

I Think, To Be Honest, Sort Of Emanated From The Initial Work Of Somebody Else Instead Of Sclc. If You Take Albany; I Don't Know Whether You Recall How Albany Got Started. There Were Two Little Guys Who Went Up There First. One Was Cordell Hull Who Was Then In His Teens - Not Cordell Hull - Cordell Reagan, Who Came Out Of The Nashville Movement, And Charles Sherrod, Who Came Out Of The Richmond, Virginia, Movement.

One Of The Stories That Dominates Our Family Literature Was The Fact That My Maternal Grandfather Contracted For - I Don't Know Under What Terms - But, For A Large Section Of The Old Slave Plantation. He Established Himself - Sisters And Brothers, Cousins, Etc. On Fifty- And Sixty-acre Plots.

I Think That Walter's [white] Whole Career Is Indicative Of A Large Degree Of Egocentricity. Perhaps To Be Generous, You Would Have To Say That He Was A Product Of His Period, Which Was That Of Self-projection In The Name Of Organizational Interest.

From The Cooperative League, I Suppose, With The Depression Lingering As Long As It Did, The Next Step In Terms Of, As You Call It, Professional Relationship, Was To Go To The National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People [naacp]. I Went There As An Assistant Field Secretary, And So Forth. So, I Suppose That Was The First Organized Step.

My Mother Didn't Feel Very Satisfied About The English Background That I Had Received In The Public Schools In Littleton. So, She Insisted That I Take A Year Under The High School Level. So, I Was In Boarding School Nine Years.

In '32 We Organized The Young Negroes' Cooperative League And Had Some Degree Of Success In Terms Of Establishing Stores And Certainly Buying Clubs In Various Sections Of The Country. I Was Designated As - I Don't Know What Exactly - I Believe It Was Director. I'm Not Sure What It Was, But It Had To Do With Getting Out The Necessary Mail And All Of That - Organization.

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.

One Of The Particular Things That Impressed Me Was One Visitor [of Naacp] - I Think It Was - It Wasn't The Prime Minister Of England. We Were Located Then On 14th Street And Fifth Avenue, Up Several Flights Of Rickety Stairs, And He Came All The Way Up Those Stairs To See Walter [white], Largely Because Of Certain Kinds Of Impact, I Think, That The Association Seemingly Was Having.

Both My Parents Came From North Carolina, In Warren County. My Mother Had A Feeling That There Was Greater Culture In North Carolina Than Obtained In Norfolk, Virginia, Plus The Fact She Just Didn't Like The Lowland-lying Climate There.

I Suppose That The First Organized Effort That Might Be Considered Something Of Civil Rights Was The Young Negroes' Cooperative League. Now, This Offers Certain Contradictions At This Point, Perhaps, Because It Was Stimulated By The Writings Of George Schayler Who, At This Point, Is Considered An Arch-conservative, I Understand.

I Went To What Is Known As, And Was At That Time, Too, Shaw University In Raleigh, North Carolina. In Fact, Because Of The Lack Of Public School Facilities, I Began There. I Began Boarding School At The High School Level; In Fact, A Year Below The High School Level.

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.