Thinking in Radical Terms - Ella Baker

“In order for us as poor and oppressed people to become part of a society that is meaningful, the system under which we now exist has to be radically changed. This means that we are going to have to think in radical terms.

I use the term “radical” in its original meaning – getting down to and understanding the root cause. It means facing a system that does not lend itself to your needs and devising means by which you change that system.

That is easier said than done. But one of the things that has to be faced is, in the process of wanting to change that system, how much have we got to do to find out who we are, where we have come from and where we are going….I am saying, as you must say too, that in order to see where we are going, we not only must remember where we have been, but we must understand where we have been.” – Ella Baker, 1969