"In his final book, published just a year before his death, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, he argued that we were standing at a crossroads: one path leading toward chaos deepening poverty, violence, and repression while the other required us to collectively choose and build community. Too few of us answered his call. At times, we chose distraction, comfort and complacency. At others, we turned away from the violence this country inflicted on the world."
"If we want a model for that responsibility, the activist Ella Baker is essential. Often working behind the scenes, she helped build some of the most important organizations of the civil rights movement. One of her most enduring contributions was her insistence on building strong people so they would no longer need strong leaders. Baker, who died in 1986, believed that people must organize where they are: in their neighborhoods, workplaces and schools. Not by waiting for charismatic saviors, but by developing leadership from below."
Martin Luther King Jr framed a crossroads between chaos—deepening poverty, violence, and repression—and collective community-building. Societal choices often favored distraction, comfort, complacency, and turning away from violence and corruption, leaving shared responsibility unaddressed. Effective response requires active protection of one another, reclaiming power, and moving beyond passive commemorations like hashtags, curated quotes, safe tributes, and parades. Meaningful change depends on learning how change was achieved and taking responsibility to continue it. Ella Baker exemplified grassroots responsibility by building organizations, insisting on developing strong people rather than strong leaders, and fostering local leadership among young, poor, and working-class communities.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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