Ella Baker

Ella Baker was one of the leading figures in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. She was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on December 13, 1903. Baker was close to her grandmother, a former slave. Her grandmother told her many stories about her life, including a whipping she had received at the hands of her owner.

Ella Baker was a bright student. She eventually went to Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina and she was the class valedictorian when she graduated in 1927. After she completed her degree, Baker moved to New York City. There she worked a number of jobs while trying to make ends meet. It was then in the 1930s, Baker helped start the Young Negroes' Cooperative League, a federation of local groups that sponsored the growth and development of local consumer cooperatives and buying clubs in major cities throughout the country. This allowed its members to pool their funds to get better deals on goods and services.

Around 1940, Baker became a field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She traveled extensively, raising funds and recruiting new members to the organization. In 1946, Baker became the NAACP's national director of branches. She took over care for her niece a few years later, which forced Baker to resign from her NAACP post. She felt her position required too much travel. Staying in New York, Baker worked for a number of local organizations, including the New York Urban League, whose goal is to empower the community through education and employment services. She also helped out at the New York chapter of the NAACP.

In 1957, Baker joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as its executive director at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The SCLC was a civil rights group created by African American ministers and community leaders. During her time with the SCLC, Baker set up the event that led to the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. She offered her support and counsel to this organization of student activists. SNCC played a major role in the sit-ins and freedom rides, a leading role in the 1963 March on Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. SNCC's major contribution was in its field work, organizing voter registration drives all over the South, especially in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.

While she left the SCLC in 1960, Baker remained active in the SNCC for many years. She helped them form the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1964 as an alternative to the state's Democratic Party, which held segregationist views. The party even tried to get their delegates to serve as replacements for the Mississippi delegates at the National Democratic Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey that same year. While they were unsuccessful in this effort, the party’s actions brought a lot of attention to their cause.

Ella Baker continued to fight for social justice and equality for the rest of her life. With her many years of experience as a protester and organizer, she gave her wise counsel to numerous organizations and causes, including the Third World Women's Coordinating Committee and the Puerto Rican Solidarity Committee. She became known by the nickname “Fundi”, which comes from a Swahili word that means a person who passes down a craft to the next generation.

Ella Baker died on her 83rd birthday, on December 13, 1986, in New York City.