Strong People Do Not Need Strong Leaders.

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 Think That Walter's [white] Whole Career Is Indicative Of A Large Degree Of Egocentricity. Perhaps To Be Generous, You Would Have To Say That He Was A Product Of His Period, Which Was That Of Self-projection In The Name Of Organizational Interest.

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.

Unless You Had Developed A Certain Independence Of Value, A Certain Independent System Of Value, A System Of Values That Was Independent From This Middle-class Drive For Recognition. This Has Been My Explanation Of Part Of [martin Luther King] General Role. So, He Accepted This Without Too Much Resistance. In Fact, None That I Could Ever See, And At Certain Points I Was Close Enough To See Something.

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.