to me, when people themselves know what they are looking for and recognize that they can exercise some influence by action, that's progress. - Ella Josephine Baker

Every time I see a young person who has come through the system to a stage where he could profit from the system and identify with it, but who identifies more with the struggle of black people who have not had his chance, every time I find such a person I take new hope. I feel a new life as a result of

When the 1954 Supreme Court decision on school desegregation came, I was serving as chairman of the Educational Committee of the New York branch. We began to deal with the problems of de facto segregation, and the results of the de facto segregation which were evidenced largely in the achievement levels of black children, going down instead of going up after they entered public school.

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.