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.
Ella BakerI had been friendly with people who were in the Communist party and all the rest of the Left forces, which were oriented in the direction of mass action.
Ella BakerI think you can find some rationales for that if we look at the background out of which he came. Martin [Luther King] had come out of a highly competitive, black, middle-class background.
Ella BakerI 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.
Ella Baker