In Order To See Where We Are

Give Light, And People Will Find The Way...

My Association With The Southern Christian Leadership Conference Is Sort Of Predated By An Effort That We Were A Part Of Here In New York City Regarding The Reaction To This 1954 Supreme Court [brown V Board Of Education] Decision.

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.

I Began To Feel That My Greatest Sense Of Success Would Raise The Level Of Masses Of People, Rather Than The Individual Being Accepted By The Establishment. So, This Kind Of Personal Thinking, Combined With, Say, Even The Little Bit More Radical Thinking - Because At One Time The Pacifist Movement Was A Very Radical Concept.

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.