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 other hand, thought Baker was
haughty and aloof with what they felt was a disdain for anyone who was a
black male preacher. The resulting bitterness would not mellow with
time.
In fairness to Baker, she did warn King early in her participation with
the movement that --we are losing the initiative in the Civil Rights
struggle in the south, mainly because of the absence of a dynamic
philosophy or spiritual force-- [italics mine]. Had King --stayed the
course
.
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