A Greener Eph: Ella Baker on Organizing

For Ella Baker, the increased reliance on the press and th need of leaders for public recognition was a common element in the degeneration of social movement, a part of the pattern by which initially progressive American movements have traditionally been
rendered ineffective. She contended that the labor movement had succumbed to what she called the American weakness of receiving some recognition from the powers that be and then taking on some of the characteristics and values of their former enemies. Similarly, in the NAACP of the forties and fifties, she thought that the thirst for
recognition was one of the factors leading to accommodationist politics at a time when many of the members were ready for a more militant program. Too many leaders thought that as long as they were getting some attention from the press, as long as they could call important whites on the phone, the Race was making progress. In the
1960s, she thought that some Black Power spokespersons became so enamored of the coverage they were receiving from the press as to begin performing for the press. ...

The substance of Black Power didn't trouble her; the lack of organizing did. She noted that she had seen Carmichael explain Black Power in ways that should have made sense to any person willing to look at the facts.

"But this began to be taken up, you see, by youngsters who had not gone through any experiences of any steps of thinking and it did become a slogan, much more of a slogan, and the rhetoric was far in advance of the organization for achieving that which you say you're out to achieve. What was needed was a greater
degree of real concentration on organizing people. I keep bringing this up. I'm sorry, but it's part of me. I just don't see anything to be substituted for having people understand their position and understand their potential power and how to use it. This can only be done, as I see it, through the long route, almost, of actually
organizing people in small groups and parlaying those groups into larger groups."

I've Got the Light of Freedom, Charles Payne