Carolina Quotes"You didn't see me on television, you didn't see news stories about me," she told two writers, Ellen Cantarow and Susan Gushee O'Malley. "The kind of role that I tried to play was to pick up pieces or put together pieces out of which I hoped organization might come. My theory is, strong people don't need strong leaders."
Ella Josephine Baker Connected to the Carolinas
Source
The New York Times, Obituary, by C. Gerald Fraser, December 17, 1986
- year
- 1986
Cite this record
“"You didn't see me on television, you didn't see news storie…” Ella Josephine Baker. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-9ECA3388F3. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/9eca3388f3
More from Ella Josephine Baker
I have always thought what is needed is the development of people who are interested not in being leaders as much as in developing leadership among other people.
My basic sense of it has always been to get people to understand that in the long run they themselves are the only protection they have against violence or injustice.
You would go into areas where people were not yet organized in the NAACP and try to get them more involved. Maybe you would start with some simple thing like the fact that they had no street lights, or the fact that in the given area somebody had been arrested or had been jailed in a manner that was considered illegal and unfair, and the like. You would deal with whatever the local problem was, and on the basis of the needs of the people you would try to organize them in the NAACP.