Ella Baker

"In order for us as poor and oppressed people to become a 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 learn to think in radical terms. I use the term radical in its original meaning- getting down 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."
- Ella Baker 1964

Ella Baker born on December 13, 1903 was a Civil Rights and Human Rights Activist who began her long career in the 1930s. Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia and when she was seven, her family moved to her mother's hometown of Littleton in rural North Carolina.

As a girl, Baker listened to her grandmother tell stories about slave revolts. Baker attended Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, graduating as class valedictorian in 1927 at the age of 24. As a student she challenged school policies that she thought were unfair. After graduating, she moved to New York City. During 1929-1930 she was an editorial staff member of the American West Indian News and at the Negro National News.

She was a behind-the-scenes activist for over five decades working alongside some of the most famous civil rights leaders of the 20th century. Including: W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Rosa Parks, and John Lewis.

She also had high positions in some of the greatest civil rights organizations in history including: NAACP (1938–1953), Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957–1960), Southern Conference Education Fund (1962–1967), and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

It is widely written that Ella Baker and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as other SCLC members, differed in opinion and philosophy. She once claimed that the "movement made Martin, and not Martin the movement”.

#EllaBaker was a very private person. People close to her did not know that she was married for twenty years to T. J. "Bob" Roberts. She left no diaries.

The 1981 documentary Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker, directed by Joanne Grant, revealed her important role in the Civil Rights Movement. She remained an activist until her death in 1986 on her 83rd birthday.
In 2009 Ella Baker was honored on a U.S. postage stamp.

Source: https://snccdigital.org/people/ella-baker/

Source: https://ellabakercenter.org/who-was-ella-baker/

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Baker

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