In Order To See Where We Are

I Think Personally, I've Always Felt That The Association [naacp] Got Itself Hung-up In What I Call Its Legal Successes. Having Had So Many Outstanding Legal Successes, It Definitely Seemed To Have Oriented Its Thinking In The Direction That The Way To Achieve Was Through The Courts.

I Guess The Best Way To Describe That Would Be To Connect With The Fact That I Came Out Of College Just Before The Big Depression, And I Came To New York.

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 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.

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.