(murmuring)
Female: This is not the same thing.
(laughs)
Alright I'll soon be there, I'll be in good company.
(murmuring)
-: How are you.
This is Dr. Miller.
-: Hello, pleasure to meet you.
(laughs)
-: I want to say good morning to everyone.
Good morning again, we are ready to begin.
Again good morning to this lovely Saturday morning
in Raleigh North Carolina.
Every morning in Raleigh North Carolina is a lovely morning.
I am Dr. H C Miller.
I'm the senior pastor here Tupper Memorial Baptist Church.
I stand this morning with great joy and pleasure
to greet you and to welcome you
to the facilities here at Tupper
with the faint attempt to lay aside my biases
I want to say that you should be at Tupper this morning.
Tupper Memorial Baptist Church has a unique connection
with Shaw University and the community here.
Unique in the sense that Tupper Memorial Baptist Church
is 132 years old.
It is named after Henry Martin Tupper
who was the founding president of Shaw University
so we have that connection with the university
and with this community.
So subsequently again I insist that
you should be here this morning.
Welcome to Tupper.
Welcome to our facilities, please make yourselves at home.
We're excited about having you here,
and we bless the Lord
that you were able to be with us this morning
and again please be at home and know that
you are in the right place at the right time
and you certainly are about the right things.
I greet you in the name of our Christ,
I greet you in the name of the Tupper rights
who dwell and worship here,
I greet you in the name and in the sense
of the residents of this area.
Again we're glad to have you here.
If there's anything that we can do
to make your stay more pleasant,
please don't hesitate to let us know.
Thank for being here this morning again,
good morning to you.
(applause)
-: Good morning everyone.
Sorry that we're running late and because of that
we will have to cut short both sessions
because as you know if you are invited to a luncheon
you must be there on time
so we will attempt to cut everything fairly short
but leave enough time to at least
have a general discussion about the topic
which is going to be the legacy of Mrs. Baker.
Now you may want to know who I am.
I am Jacqueline Brokinton and Ms. Baker's niece
for all purposes, she was my mother because
I lived with her since I was nine
so to me she is my mom so if I refer to her as
Aunt Ella, you will understand because that's just
a natural name.
I wanted to first of all say to you
that think when we speak of Aunt Ella,
it will vary as to what people might think
her legaCy would be depending on where you worked with her
and when you worked with her.
She has been involved in a lot of areas
and when I think of Shaw University,
I want to just give you my first memory
of Aunt Ella talking about Shaw
and the memory was regarding organizing some of the students
her first organization because they didn't allow
the young people to walk across the campus and hold hands.
So to her this was important.
If you had some affection for someone
you should be able to show it so she felt that
this was a cause so this was one of her first causes at Shaw
and my first memory of Shaw.
So I just wanted to throw that in
so you will understand that this legacy goes back
many, many, many years.
Now initially what I'd like to do
is to let the two panelists introduce themselves
and tell you something about them
and then we will discuss some of the legacies
that various people might think should be given to Aunt Ella
and then we would like to ask a few people from the audience
who had an opportunity to work with her
to also give a few of their ideas related to the subject.
If you will remember being in a meeting with Aunt Ella,
she always said we are having this meeting,
we're together and I want you to think about
what you're going to do after this meeting.
So while you're doing this, I want you to think
of what we're going to do after this meeting.
So I want to introduce first the panelists
and then they will tell you something about themselves
and then we will continue and I will take over after that.
Thank you.
-: Good morning.
Audience: Good morning.
-: I usually don't do my greeting in this manner
but because we're running about an hour late,
I'm going to modify my porch.
I do want to say thank you for the opportunity
for being a participant in this most appropriate
and necessary event.
Appropriate and necessary event.
And in the African tradition
always at a gathering this sort invite those of us present
to both acknowledge the ancestors,
those are no longer with us, those who paved the way,
those who went before us.
I'd like to acknowledge their presence
because in keeping with my faith tradition
I do believe they are present.
I do believe that Mrs. Baker is very much present
this morning and very many others
and so in acknowledgement and welcome
to this invisible cloud of witnesses
I invite you to join me and just take a moment
and call the name of one that you remember.
Usually we do a moment of silence
in memory, respect et cetera.
I say do a moment of silence and then
the one or ones that you remember.
Say where we can all hear you,
the name of one of those people.
Call their names.
There's a thing in the African tradition that says
as long as the names are called, they're with us.
So I invite you now to take a moment of silence
and I will break the silence by calling the name
of the one whom I'm welcoming this morning.
Acknowledging and welcoming.
Mrs. Baker.
Thank you.
By all means, thank you.
Thank you.
Yes.
Hotep.
Shalom.
Thank you, thank you,
thank you.
Shalom.
Yes.
Male: Andy Moore.
-: Yes.
Female: Martin King.
-: By all means.
Yes, yes.
Yes, thank you.
Shalom, peace.
Hotep and thank you.
Thank you for your enthusiasm
and willingness to join us
in this moment of acknowledgement and welcome
and greetings both to the visible
and the invisible.
Alright now then, let's see.
Where we go from here.
The heart of my sharing really can be found
in the anthology of the Mississippi Movement
edited by Susan Hurwich, I don't know
if Susan is here or not but this is it.
I was invited to do an article for this anthology
and I chose to do mine on Mrs. Baker
you can really find the heart of my message there
in the the event the lady starts to pull my dress tail
or something back there because of the time limits.
Preparing my tribute to Mrs. Baker
was a journey within itself and it helped me to understand
as Chuck McDew shared yesterday the deeper meaning
of some of our spiritual teachings.
For example, and I'd like to use this one
because says what I feel.
There is no greater love than this,
that a person laid down his or her life for their friends,
their brothers, their sisters.
For me, this is the perfect description of Mrs. Baker.
She laid down her life for you and for me
and for the many who will come after us.
She might have lived her life genius that she was
in a much different more personally profitable manner
but instead,
she lived it for the liberation of her people
which for Mrs. Baker meant all people
and she has been
a perfect example of one who lived
the servant life as many who said
who perceive me on this panel,
they never heard her talk about her faith tradition.
I say she didn't need to talk it.
She walked her talk.
I say again greater love hath no one than this.
To lay down, to offer to give one's life
for others, for one's friends.
The legacy of Mrs. Baker was, is the legacy of love
in its most unconditional wardrobe
and now let me share with you what I wrote,
what I discovered on my journey
of defining Mrs. Baker.
Describing this lady
who was my mentor.
My script got misplaced here.
I'm sorry, give me a moment to find it.
Should be right here.
Ella Josephine Baker.
Communicator, initiator, enabler and prophetess.
And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
When I think of Mrs. Baker, when I attempt
or I'm asked to describe her,
the wild words come to mind and for me they say it all.
For many of the writings of the Bible are perceived
as stories about people and other beings
from other timed and places but for me
self described Christian activist amended to
spiritual activists.
The Bible is a guide book.
A handbook, a blue print on becoming.
Consequently, the opening statement
"And the word became flesh and dwelt among us"
is an attempt to give context to my offering
only about Mrs. Baker.
I'm not really sure when first Mrs. Baker
and by the way she was always Mrs. Baker to me
as my cousin Joyce indicated for her when she was here
I believe yesterday.
What is clearly remembered is the mutual respect
and affection that we shared
and the knowledge of our being kindred spirits.
Remembered too is a tremendous admiration I had for her
and the equally endless inspiration she was
and continues to be for me.
As a communicator Mrs. Baker was second to none.
She clearly understood the importance
of effective communication and its elements:
speech, attitudes, actions and had the ability
to relate both appropriately and positively
to the target audience.
Mrs. Baker said so well in referring to her experience
with the stUdent coordinating committee.
She said, "I had no difficulty relating to the young people.
"I spoke their language in terms of the meaning
"of what they had to say.
"I didn't change my speech pattern
"and they didn't have to change their speech pattern
"and we were able to communicate."
Mrs. Baker was equally proficient in communicating
with whatever segment of the society
with which she was interacting.
Her secret of having the ability to talk with people
and not at or about them.
As Mrs. Baker put it in an interview,
"Your success depends on both your disposition,"
personality that is,
"And your capacity to sort of stimulate people
"and how you carry yourself in terms of
"not being above people."
Truly she was a great communicator.
As an initiator, Mrs. Baker exhibited again and again
her ability to move ideas, dreams,
strategies and people from paper and read it to reality.
Each of the major civil rights organizations
and many other significant groups and agencies
were beneficiaries of her unique ability
to define the need, develop the strategies
and implement actions to meet the need.
She was a savior and a redeemer according to Victoria,
to the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People.
Commonly know as the NWACP
at all levels of the organization.
At one time or another, she inspired and prodded Dr. King
to call the meeting of the south key black leaders
which resulted in the formation
of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
the first southern based, south wide civilized organization.
She was the key person in support of the formation
and organization or the student organization non-violent
coordinating committee.
The student organization that energized and inspired
Southern black communities from the Mississippi Delta
and across the South to stand up
and take responsibility for their lives.
She was there when the idea of organizing
an alternative political party evolved,
following the 1963 successful vote.
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
which became a model for effective
independent political organizing and action
and it affected the abolition
of all white Democratic Party in Mississippi.
Therefore, altering the direction of the Democratic party
in the state of Mississippi and all across America.
The list goes on.
Mrs. Baker, the initiator was called into service
in many diverse communities of our society
to include federal government agencies.
As an initiator she had few peers and left as a legacy
untold numbers of innovators, many of who
are seated here this morning and who are in attendance
at this gathering.
I believe that Mrs. Baker's most profound contribution
was that of enabler.
She had the ability to inspire people
of every imaginable ill.
This genius flowed from her deep faith in people's capacity
to do what is necessary to respond to their needs
and to resolve the contradictions of their lives
once they obtain the understanding, acquire the information
and the support person or system
to work and share with them.
Mrs. Baker believed, insisted that the salvation of a person
and people must come from them
but the struggle must be engaged by the struggler
in cooperation with significant others,
having the compassion and needed elements
which they themselves do not possess.
She was equipped by training, experience, courage
and compassion to offer and share the missing elements
where indicated.
Thus she assisted people in discovering their own gifts
and talents and to release these
into the larger community.
This deep conviction and belief in giving of oneself
to the development of the larger community
was her way of being "B-E-I-N-G"
Her way of being.
In so doing she inspired created
a broad body of leadership, expands the country
and reaches into every segment of the society.
Mrs. Baker the enabler dedicated her life to the premise
that a strong people have no need for strong leaders.
Finally, Mrs. Baker was a prophetess.
One who envisioned the future,
predicted possible outcomes of situations,
conditions and events and called to accountability
all whose lives touched hers,
imploring us to vision the impossible,
the not yet.
To define the contradictions,
to develop proposals and strategies
to overcome and eliminate the blocks or contradictions.
To determine the tactics required
to actualize the proposals,
to implement the tactics that will release
the impossible dream into the possible.
The ears capital,
eye capital.
Today Mrs. Baker's prophecy, her conviction
os a strong enabled people standing up
and taking responsibility for their destinies
is taking place in communities around the globe.
As far ways, Eastern Europe, South Africa et cetera.
The great civil rights campaign of the 50s and 60s
inspired people under oppressive regimes
to take part and deliver themselves by their own
collective actions in unbelievable time frames.
People would say, "No way can you do this or that
"in this amount of time,"
but they have done so.
I do not consider it an exaggeration to say that
the long and white shadow Mrs. Baker may very well
have influenced the actions taking place in South Africa.
As we celebrate in these times,
sharing our impressions and experiences
of living in her time and her world
it seems to me that the one word which has it all together
is educator.
In all of different areas that Mrs. Baker served,
under all of the different hats that she wore,
she taught.
She taught a new set of the three Rs.
Relationships, first and respect differences,
responsibility for ours and all life
and risk-taking so as to free rather than control people.
The greatest tribute that we can pay Mrs. Baker
is to be like her.
Commit our lives to becoming the embodied words of love,
justice, freedom and peace.
Let me end this sharing with an adage
that encapsulates the legacy of Mrs. Baker for me.
Accomplishing task through people
is a different paradigm than building a people
through the accomplishment of task.
With one, you get things done.
With the other, you get them done
with far greater creativity,
synergy and effectiveness and in the process
you build the capacity to do more in the future as well.
Thank you.
(applause)
-: As everyone might have known, initially
when the conference was held at Shaw
Aunt Ella wanted to make sure that the young people
would be involved in the activities.
There were some people who felt that
it should not be that way but she always felt that
the youth should be involved.
They should be able to make their mistakes
and learn from them.
They should have some assistance from the old people
and at this point, I wanted to introduce
one of the people who worked with her in this program
and one of the people that she called her child.
Each of the young people that she worked with
were considered her children so at this point
I want introduce you to one of her children.
(applause)
-: I think what I would like to say is that
Tony Morrison has a phrase
characterizing
some of the movement people and she said
they did the walk in the trees.
So Ella did the walk of the trees for us
and as I think about her walk, there are three ways
that I think it was
ways for us to look at it.
One was that there's a way to live in this country
and struggle.
The second was that the struggle
should be radical in her sense that
you go to the root of something.
And in that way we're thinking about the people
that we struggle with and so Ella taught us
to struggle with the people at the bottom.
And then the third way was a sense which Jackie
reminds us of, our sense of family
that in this walk, that you don't sacrifice family.
So those are the three legacies for the that
you have this long, long walk
and you learn how to do it.
You're in struggle and you consciously in struggle
and you can carve out a life
in this country in struggle.
Your struggle should be radical.
It should go to the root of some problem.
And it should work with the people who are at the bottom
and you should carve out as you go your family.
Thank you.
(applause)
-: Now as I said, I want to include some of the people
in the audience who might want to add something
and then I will have a slight discussion regarding this
on any people who would want to include anything.
I always want to include anyone that wants to be
but do not feel pressured.
Only if you'd like to.
If not, what I wanted to include.
Oh I'm sorry.
Male: This is the second session going to be held?
-: Yes, it will be.
I'm going to limit this so that each one can have
their own sessions.
I'm sorry.
We were so delayed in time so we will include everyone.
Yes.
Female: I just wanted to know if Ms. Diane
whether she's with us.
(applause)
-: Thank you.
Now as it has often been that
Mrs. Baker and I will attempt to do that,
Mrs. Baker was not well known.
A lot of people didn't know her
and there's a reason for that.
It's because she felt that her job
was to help as Bob stated the people who wanted to join
as a unit and work and oftentimes people would say,
"There's nothing that I can do.
"I didn't go to college, I didn't do this
"I can't do that,"
so she would always find something that the person could do
to feel included an I'll give you an example
of a project that she had in New York city
which was to get the community involved in school the system
and at numerous meetings that I would attend with her
and do my homework in the back of the room
she would say to the people that
we're all gonna do this together
and someone might stand and say again
that I can't do anything so she would say,
"Can you lick a stamp?
"Can you go to the post office?
"Can you babysit so that those people
"who want to come to the meeting can,"
to show everyone that everyone must be included
and I also think that's why in the 60s
everything was so successful because everyone had a job.
Your job could be transporting people
who were not riding a bus.
Your job could be feeding people
who had nothing to eat or no place to stay in people's homes
so an effort to work with people,
I think one of the main things that we must remember
is that she wanted to inclUde everyone
and there's a phrase that is used
that we have the grass root people
and Aunt Ella felt that she was one of those people
and if you think about the root of a tree
the roots are the parts of the tree
that provide nourishment and strength
and those branches at the top rely on those roots
and if those roots are not very strong
then the tree will not be very strong.
So the people who may be on those top branches
must remember that the people at the bottom of the tree
are the ones who are supporting them
so when you think of being a grass root person,
remember that that's a very, very strong person.
Again we are beginning to see that
the young people want more to be involved and they shOuld be
and all of us should remember at the time that we felt that
we wanted to be involved and the elders
wouldn't allow us to do that
so now as we become elders, we must remember that
we have to allow the youth to begin to take over
and as Aunt Ella woUld say,
she would never indicate that the young person was wrong.
She might feel that what you were saying
was absolutely wrong but she was able to get you
to understand that it was wrong by her conversation
and a contribution to whatever you were suggesting
and making it feel that you were the one
who were able to come to the conclusion
that it should be done in another way.
So that in itself is an art.
Being able to get people to realize that they themselves
may have not been doing the right thing at first
but due to growth and development, they have.
There was a time that there were groups,
older people who felt that the younger group
should not be involved and I know that there were times
when Aunt Ella had nightly meetings
discussing the fact that she would stand up
and support the young people at all times no matter what
so I think one of the legacies is that
she was able to organize and to organize
with the purpose to organize those people
who are most interested, give everyone an opportunity
to be included and be successful at the end.
So I think one of the legacies would be in my estimation
the fact that she was an organizer as stated.
She felt anything did you did, you should do it
to the best of your abiLity, no matter what it might be
oftentimes she would say,
"If you have a job, you work at it
"to the best of your ability."
If that evening you decide that you're going out to a party
then you want to enjoy that to the best of your ability
So whatever you do, do it the best that you can
and at the end you'll find out that you have succeeded.
Oftentimes you will take on a job and
we will attempt to do too many jobs.
That's very difficult to have too many jobs.
To focus on one job at a time is most important
and to do that is difficult at this time
because we're branching out to different things each day
but let's all begin to think of
focusing on one particular thing,
getting those people who are interested
in what we are interested in and working towards
a particular goal.
I have been told that we have an announcement
by Hansen Jeffreys and I wanted to allow that
before we end it because I might forget.
Wold you please do that now.
Hansen: Good Morning.
Audience: Goo morning.
-: Friday group center leadership session
decided that we would focus on one task
that being the participant profile
in an effort to facilitate communication
at end of the conference and to ease som of the burden
on our already overburdened but much successful
conference organizers.
Hopefully you should have received one of these
as you walked in.
If you didn't, someone will be coming down the aisles
to pass one to you
and if you would just take a moment to fill it out
and for those of you who have already filled it out,
if you could pass it to the aisles,
we will now come and collect them.
For those who are not here, if you could please
spread the word that we the are doing this
and we'll keep these around so that
we can keep in touch afterwards.
Thank you.
-: As Aunt Ella would say thank you young man.
(laughs)
We can see that the young man is focusing on tests.
We are very happy about that.
I think there's a young lady in the back
who doesn't have one so we want to make sure that
everyone gets one please.
(murmuring)
(laughs)
-: Don't use that old word.
We don't use that word.
The more mature people, right.
(murmuring)
I didn't understand the first part about the younger people
and the more mature people.
What did you want?
Male: She meant younger and older students.
-: Okay, thank you.
(laughs)
I think that they want to make sure that
this is filled out so they would have
some way of keeping in touch and hopefully
everyone will ever so often get together for support.
I'm going to end with a statement regarding
one of Aunt Ella's favorite songs
and it has gotten to be a favorite of mine
and the song is This Little Light of Mine
and sometimes in driving, I hum it to myself
and I always like to sort of end things with that song
because I want everyone to think of
where your light is going to shine.
There are many places that your light can shine.
It can shine at home,
it can shine in your neighborhood.
It can shine in your job, it can shine i=on the street,
it can shine any place that you might be in attendance
and sometimes we have to make a definite effort
to make that light shine.
Sometimes we get a little down and we say
that I'm not up to this or I don't feel like doing this
but you think of your light
and the accumulation of all the lights
and how bright things could be and how much better
the world could be because all of us
have something to contribute.
It may not be my interest.
My interest may not be your interest
but all of us have something to contribute
so I want if you don't mind and I'm not a singer
I would like if we could just end with that song.
This Little Light of Mine
and I will also just point a couple of people to tell me
where your light is going to shine.
♪ This little light of mine ♪
-: Thank you.
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ This little light of mine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ This little light of mine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ Let it shine, let it shine ♪
♪ Let it shine ♪
♪ This little light of mine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ This little light of mine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ This little light of mine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ Let it shine, let it shine ♪
♪ Let it shine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ This little light of mine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ Tell everybody ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ Let it shine, let it shine ♪
♪ Let it shine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ Everywhere I go ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ Everywhere I go ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ Let it shine, let it shine ♪
♪ Let it shine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ This little light of mine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ This little light of mine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ Let it shine, let it shine ♪
♪ Let it shine ♪
Okay thank you so much.
(applause)
I'm very sorry we had to be delayed but the last minute
I understand we had to move to another facility
so in order to include the next group
we're going to stop at this point and hopefully
we will all meet at the luncheon and be able
to have some conversation.
Yes, we have a--
(murmuring)
No no, we are only going to have a stretch.
Those people who'd like to stand and stretch may stretch.
We want to continue right away.
(murmuring)