Ella Baker - May 11, 2011
Activism
Yes, and how have you been active to try and do this, to accomplish this?
Yeah. So uh, for that, that I protecting everyone's rights. 1 experience comes to my mind is, I was on the advisory board of the mental state hospital then in Northville. I was a self-appointed troubleshooter everywhere I was, for the elderly, for the youth, for the mentally ill--there was a priest, Kharkovski, from uh, originally from Poland. Who was among them he was on staff, and among things he had to see to it that all religions have their religious services.
Mm-hm.
And being a troubleshooter from all people, I have noticed and that was uh, end of '70s, '80s, I noticed that the Muslims don't have any.
Oh, interesting.
That's, very hard to do for me those days because all of the activities then. It was just up there, but I was able to, to separate that because I says, "today the Muslim tomorrow the Jew." You have to kill it where it is; they are there as mentally ill people, tho...those days. So, never the less, I sum, m1d the priest to uh, council meeting for questioning. And as we are questioning him he burst out that he did not provide for them services, with a big hate.
Oh.
Oh, you don't do things for them because you're raised on hate that, that has no space in my life, the hate. This was--I am a victim of hate.
Yes.
Yeah. So uh, I became personal and I told him, if you wouldn't be wearing that white collar, I wouldn't know you were a man of God.
Uh-huh.
No listen there uh, conclusion of this 1. There I made a different because I shook his conscious.
Uh-huh.
Uh, I was passing by his office and he calls me in he, I don't know if he knew I am Jewish or not. Nobody asked so I had nothing to say. So he's telling me the story that his family in Poland was wiped out because they were Catholics.
Mm-hm.
And I shook his conscious, I could see that ??? and to me I had high regards for him. Somebody who is living their life always right and properly is 1 thing, but he was off the track.
Mm-hm.
And going back this is uh, soul searching and...
Yeah.
And conscious.
Yeah.
And he, and he have uh, realized that and things were different. And uh, another thing which coincides with this 1 here, was, and I'm not gonna because I have many, many, many things...
Mm-hm.
Uh, another 1 was, there was and maybe it, he was associated uh, nationally with, many things, but that mentally health in the group homes, he was the co-founder or founder Jerry ???, does that ring a bell?
No.
Anyways, he had a keynote speaker at Northville State hospital and I noticed actually, it was not so much bigger than about stereotyping people and I couldn't believe that. So it wasn't the proper time to ask him that question because the subject was different, I thought I will when he leaves, but he was very much leaving as he wouldn't hear me anyway...
Uh-huh.
So, I didn't. But it was staying with me a week later and I says, look like this is bothering me and I have to get to the bottom of it and move on, make a conclusion of that I have written for, to him a letter. I am, I'm, my confrontation was always the positive way.
Mm-hm.
Never put anybody on the defensive...
Uh-huh.
You get nowhere.
Uh-huh.
I have written to him a letter and he is responding to me that we are walking on the same road he didn't realize, you see this was a big man nationally. What he was saying and sending me a $4.80 printer documentation what he's doing nationally.
Uh-huh.
Then I was responding to them, to him. And I was telling him why uh, uh, why I feel the way I feel.
Mm-hm.
Why I'm not letting things go.
Mm-hm.
As I was writing to him...
Mm-hm.
He's saying here are a, a few, uh...
Quotes.
Yeah uh, it was.
"There are a few quotes from your letter to me that confirmed this. It's nice to have you for a friend. Best regards, Jerry ???."
Yeah, okay. So, he was making quotations out of that and uh, and we always had lunch each time he was here.
Mm-hm.
And...
Oh nice.
The things is...
Mm-hm.
What, was he took out of it, and I liked to send this message...
Uh-huh.
To the visitors.
Uh-huh, to the Holocaust, Uh-huh.
Okay. The personal freedom--I was just writing a letter, but he just took it out, you know, out of...
Personal freedom, oh this is your, from your letter to him?
Yes, yes, yes.
"That personal freedom begins with the other persons rights has been over and over again reaffirmed with the history of persecutions and denial of equality. Where there is a social problem there is also a scapegoat being created based on myths. To maintain or protect liberties there are also duties."
Yeah, you have to get involved.
Mm-hm, mm-hm, you have to get involved. "Blessed be or is the opportunity to challenge and question because freedom is not free." Quotes from Ella Baker, June 13, 1984.
He was observing that leaflet that, this is wherever...
Mm-hm.
Uh, wherever he was speaking, you know, when the pamphlets and whatever...
Mm-hm.
On each chair, for the, for the community and, so this is the very, very message what I really liked to, certainly to the visitors...
Mm-hm.
Watch out, what to watch out and you feel my rights it's not enough, it's somebody else's right that like that, like that uh, Muslim person...
Yeah.
Thinks begins there that because today the Muslims, tomorrow the Jew.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, it has to be cured wherever it is and this is my commitment. Back to the, to the, and this is the 2 things why because I have awful lot of, awful lots of uh, well uh, ???...
Mm-hm.
On a board, I was there for about 20 years, and each 3 years you are re-running and the who is who is printed...
Can I see that?
The who is who is printed...
Uh-huh.
To the uh, to the membership.
Mm-hm.
And the question was my affiliations with uh, organizations.
Uh-huh.
So I was Red Cross internationally for peace and freedom and Jewish and non-Jewish. But it was plenty of Jewish like them in Jewish American Congress B'nai B'rith and uh, the Jewish Association for Retarded Person, lots of Jewish things there. And the person didn't print it.
No, no.
The question was asked and I answered it. And it angered me terribly and that person loved me very much. I, in my opinion, he was worried, in his, her mind being Jewish is not such a kosher thing.
Oh.
So, if she's gonna print they not gonna elect me.
Really?
The, this was in my mind over there putting together. Never the less, I, I, so I was somebody Jewish but very acceptable and this line don't accept either, I want to be 1 of the crowd.
Yeah, yeah.
So uh, I made an issue out of it.
Uh-huh, Uh-huh.
Right to the administrator and I says, "I feel very offended."
Mm-hm.
"Everything was printed but my Jewish affiliation, you asked and I answered."
Yeah.
Yeah, and she made a big deal out of it.
Uh-huh.
Went to the executive board and they didn't want to be called racist...
Uh-huh.
Because just then they, they passed a resolution, I told you, at the convention to, to fight the bigotism wherever that exist. And so, the answer to it was that they have established oodles of programs, anti-racist things.
Oh, I see.
So you, so that's uh, I, I, I have, I have uh, confronted many, many things uh, wherever existed I couldn't...
That's wonderful.
Tolerate it, you know. And you make a difference. You see here I made a difference by this, here I made a difference by the Father Kharkovski.
That's right.
I made a difference, you know, if this is everybody just do...does really 1 you save the world.
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