My Theory Is, Strong People Don't Need

You Didn't See Me On Television, You Didn't See News Stories About Me. The Kind Of Role That I Tried To Play Was To Pick Up Pieces Or Put Together Pieces Out Of Which I Hoped Organization Might Come. My Theory Is, Strong People Don't Need Strong Leaders.

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 Don't Know, Except That The Only Simple Answer, I Think, Is That Sclc [southern Christian Leadership Conference] Had Never Really Developed An Organizing Technique. I've Always Characterized The Difference In Saying That They Went In For Mobilization. And, To Be Honest, In Terms Of The Historical Facts, Their Mobilization Usually Was Predicated Upon Some Effort At Organizing By Someone Else. And, At This Stage, It Was Largely Sncc.

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.

Until The Killing Of Black Men, Black Mothers' Sons, Becomes As Important To The Rest Of The Country As The Killing Of A White Mother's Sons, We Who Believe In Freedom Cannot Rest Until This Happens.