Ella Josephine 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 Josephine Baker- born December 13, 1903, and died December 13, 1986
Ella J. Baker was the granddaughter of enslaved grandparents. She was the daughter of Georgia Anna Ross and Blake Baker of Elams, NC. She was born in Norfolk Virginia. The family returned to North Carolina when she was seven years old to a home on East End Avenue in the town of Littleton. Her home remains today and is maintained by family. She was a civil and human rights activist, affectionately known as the, "Fundi", a Swahili word meaning a person who teaches a craft to the next generation.
She has quietly worked behind the scenes with Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall and alongside of Rosa Parks, Diane Nash and Stokely Carmichael.
She graduated Valedictorian Class of 1927 from Shaw University and then moved on to New York City. Her activism included joining the NAACP to work on school desegregation and police brutality issues. She served two and a half years at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta before returning to the campus of Shaw University to organize college students for SNCC, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee with a focus on voter registration.
There are several books about her but the one entitled, Ella Baker, Freedom Bound by Joanne Grant was made into the documentary, "Fundi", the Ella Baker Story.
Her legacy continues at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights located in Oakland, California and at The Ella Baker School in Manhattan, N.Y.
She is remembered in her hometown with the designation of the Historic Highway Marker and recognition of April 15th as Ella Baker Day.
The Ella Baker NC State Mile Marker
Inscription:: Civil rights leader. She organized the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, April 1960, at Shaw University. Her childhood home ¼ mi. E..
Erected: in 2012 by North Carolina Office of Archives and History. (Marker Number E 120.)
Location: 36° 26.308′ N, 77° 54.145′ W. Marker is in Littleton, North Carolina, in Halifax County. Marker is at the intersection of East South Main Street (U.S. 158) and Kirkland Street, on the right when traveling east on East South Main Street. Marker is in this post office area: Littleton NC 27850, United States of America.
Here Are A Few Important Facts About Ella J. Baker That You May Not Know.
1. North Carolina was the scene of two nationally significant civil rights landmark events in 1960, the first being the Woolworth sit-ins in February in Greensboro, and the second being the organization of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in April at Shaw University.
2.North Carolina lays claim to Ella Baker, who though born in Norfolk, moved to Littleton, NC at age seven and went on to attend Shaw University.
3.Ella Baker challenged the president of Shaw over issues including the dress code and how visitors were treated.
4. Young Miss Baker “came of age” in Harlem, absorbing the output of the musical, political, and literary geniuses of the Harlem Renaissance.
5. In 1940 Baker began work for the NAACP as a field secretary, rising by 1943 to director of branches.
6. Ella Baker was the only woman present at the creation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957.
7. The role played by Ella Baker in organizing the SNCC conference eclipses the appearance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that same weekend at Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh. (King received the headlines that weekend but history books today place the greater importance on Baker.)
7. Ella Baker is described as “the mother of the civil rights movement”.
8. In 2000 veterans of SNCC gathered in Raleigh to dedicate the state marker and mark the group’s fortieth anniversary.
“Give light and people will find the way . . .The struggle is eternal. The tribe increase. Somebody else carries on.” -- Ella Baker