I Had Been Friendly With People Who

Martin [luther King] Wasn't One To Buck Forces Too Much.

I Believe, The Naacp Began To Try To Organize Parents Of Negro Children To File Petitions With The Boards Of Education Regarding The Integration Of The School System. You Had Some Very Severe Economic Reprisals Against People In Mississippi And In South Carolina. So, In Order To Try To Help To Meet Some Of The Physical Needs And The Economic Needs Of People In Clarendon County [sc] Who Had Been Displaced From The Land, And Otherwise, And In Certain Sections Of Mississippi, We Organized In New York City Something Called "in Friendship".

Oppressed People, Whatever Their Level Of Formal Education, Have The Ability To Understand And Interpret The World Around Them, To See The World For What It Is, And Move To Transform It.

From The Cooperative League, I Suppose, With The Depression Lingering As Long As It Did, The Next Step In Terms Of, As You Call It, Professional Relationship, Was To Go To The National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People [naacp]. I Went There As An Assistant Field Secretary, And So Forth. So, I Suppose That Was The First Organized Step.

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.