I Didn't Break The Rules, But I

After The '57 Initial Meeting - I Was Up This Way Working, Not As A Staff Person - There Became The Need For A Much More Definite Organized Office. What You'd Had Prior To That Time Were These Big Meetings In Different Places, And There Was Nobody To Pull Anything Together. Everything Was Left To [martin Luther] King And The Group That Was Around Him.

I Had Known, Number One, That There Would Never Be Any Role For Me In The Leadership Capacity With Sclc. Why? First, I'm A Woman. Also, I'm Not A Minister. And Second, I Am A Person That Feels That I Have To Maintain Some Degree Of Personal Integrity And Be My Own Barometer Of What Is Important And What Is Not.

I Have Always Thought That What Is Needed Is The Development Of People Who Are Interested Not In Being Leaders As Much As In Developing Leadership In Others.

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.

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.