I Think That Walter's [white] Whole Career

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.

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 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 Didn't Have Any Close Relationship With Him Because, Although [william Edward Burghardt] Dubois May Not Have Been As Egocentric - I Don't Know - He Certainly Was Not The Easiest Person To Approach. I Think, Certainly, Those Of Us Who Were Younger Sort Of Respected That In Terms Of His Preoccupation With Deep Thoughts. So, I Made No Effort To Establish Any Relationship With Him. However, He Was In And Out Then.

In Order For Us As Poor And Oppressed People To Become Part Of A Society That Is Meaningful, The System Under Which We Now Exist Has To Be Radically Changed... It Means Facing A System That Does Not Lend Its Self To Your Needs And Devising Means By Which You Change That System.