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You've mentioned how close you were, especially, to Martin Luther King and to Whitney Young. You've discussed them at various times throughout your reminiscing. Can you think of anything that you might not have discussed about your inter-relationships?
With them?
Yes.
No. I think I've told you that Martin and I didn't always agree on philosophical or psychological terms. I felt that Martin's approach to loving the oppressor was an additional burden to put on the backs of oppressed people. He spent some time trying to convince me that the term “love” had different meanings at times. I always felt that these distinctions, approaches, were much too sophisticated for the masses of people to understand. They were certainly more sophisticated than I could understand. Anyway, that was the kind of thing. The argument that I had with him about J. Edgar Hoover, where again some of his other advisors thought that he should try to make his peace with J. Edgar Hoover, and I (looking back might modify a little) took the position that you can't make your peace with J. Edgar Hoover. Those were the kinds of things. There were not disagreements that interfered with our mutual respect. I considered Martin a very important public proponent of the struggle for justice. He played a role that the others who were also part of the struggle--Jim Farmer, Roy Wilkins, Whitney, Dorothy Height--could not
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