appointed herself a kind of socialist-secular-humanist den mother while still attached to the SCLC executive. She warned the students that the SCLC would attempt to take over their movement and insisted, in good secular-humanist-socialist-proto-feminist fashion, that the students be left to function without any adult supervision (you know, that --out of the mouths of babes-- thing).
While undermining the SCLC in the minds of the SNCC students, Ella Baker continued to --serve-- in her role as acting executive director (I would assume that Rustin, Levison and Coretta had pressured Martin Luther King to advance Ella Baker to such lofty heights in what was now a Christian organization only in the most ostensible sense), a position which she would ultimately resign:
Baker's departure, however left a legacy of strained feelings [emphasis mine] in its wake. She had never held King or Abernathy in high regard and, once she had formally left the organization, she made no secret of her attitude. Baker had found them unwilling to discuss substantive issues with her as an equal [emphasis mine] and unreceptive to any critical comments she might offer. To James Lawson [an SCLC staff member], the root of the problem was simple: --Martin had real problems with having a woman in a high position.-- Baker also did not support a --leader-centred-- approach to organizing a movement and felt no special awe for King. --I was not a person to be enamoured of anyone,-- she noted. The ministers of the SCLC, on the othe
|
