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Wonderful description of the importance of the Highlander trainings and Septima Clark's emphasis on involving the people for whom the fight for social justice most affected (not just influencing those around them or persuading others on their behalf). The NAACP's Crusade for Citizenship in the late 1950s with the organizational skills of Ella Baker showed this kind of work could be done in the deep South, but needed more cross-organizational support infrastructures to stave off the violent reactions of segregationists. The greatest impact would have to happen at the local grassroots levels -. and this meant empowerment of local leaders.

Great article showing how Rosa Parks "the first lady of civil rights" and the "mother of the freedom movement" grew to become the great leader she was at the national level by starting from the personal - and at the local level. How many women in Kentucky learned from her when they met her at the Highland Center or at regional or national conventions?

Sociological study of the history and impact of the ideas of participatory democracy - emphasizing the strategic components of this leadership approach: builds trust among members, leads to better and more innovative decisions, develops leaders among those whose perspectives have been systematically devalued, effects change without reproducing the very socio-political structures that it fights. The strategies for participatory decision-making comes out of the 1930s legacy of the great American educator, John Dewey - both Ella Baker and Miles Horton were trained at Brookwood Labor College in Katonah, New York. Established leaders are often uncomfortable with real, democratic decisionmaking since it fundamentally challenges implicit hierarchies.