Oppressed People, Whatever Their Level Of Formal

There Is Also The Danger In Our Culture That Because A Person Is Called Upon To Give Public Statements And Is Acclaimed By The Establishment, Such A Person Gets To The Point Of Believing That He Is The Movement.

Nixon Was The One Force In Montgomery For A Number Of Years That Made Any Effort In The Direction Of Challenging The Power Structure. Ed Nixon's Source Of Direction For That Comes Out Of His Relationship With The Brotherhood Of Sleeping Care Porters And The Randolph Philosophy Of Mass Action. So, Ed Nixon Really Was The Force That Conceived Of The Boycott And Drew Up The Original Papers For The Boycott.

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.

I, Perhaps, At That Stage, Had The Kind Of Ambition That Others May Have Had; You Know, Namely Based On The Concept That If You Were Trained The World Was Out There Waiting For You To Provide A Certain Kind Of Leadership And Give You An Opportunity. But With The Depression, I Began To See That There Were Certain Social Forces Over Which The Individual Had Very Little Control.

In Order To See Where We Are Going, We Not Only Must Remember Where We Have Been, But We Must Understand Where We Have Been.