Historian Howard Zinn introduced Ella Baker as "one of the most consequential and yet one of the least honored people in America." Barbara Ransby, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, A Radical Democratic Vision Baker had worked with the organization from the late 1950s. 2001-present, Susan B. Anthony "7 Baker died on her 83rd birthday in her Harlem apartment. 1900-1940 I’ve heard a lot of singing in my day. Ella Baker, an official for the Southern Conference Educational Fund, speaks at the Jeannette Rankin news conference on January 3, 1968. For much of the 1940s, she travelled the South building membership and recruiting local leaders. Baker begins the interview by describing how her work in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from the late 1930s into … United we can, and will, overcome this season of darkness in America. A portrait of Ella Baker on the BeltLine in Atlanta, Georgia (Thomas Cizauskas / Flickr) “In government service and political life I have always felt … As a young adult, Ella Baker attended Shaw University. [7] And so in conclusion let me quote one of my favorite or improvise one of my favorite thoughts in scripture. Historian Charles M. Payne says Baker's vast travels for the NAACP were a kind of "practicum" in grassroots social change.3 Early on, Baker recognized the dangers inherent in having well-educated outsiders arrive in local communities to organize. Speaking to the conference Ella Baker told the students that their struggle was “much bigger than a hamburger or even a giant-sized coke.” In presenting this bigger picture and encouraging them to form their own organization, Ella Baker displayed a talent she had been employing for more than two decades: assisting people to empower themselves. 2130 Skinner Building Baker was born on December 13, 1903, in Norfolk, Virginia, and grew up in North Carolina.… 3. See the Duke University Libraries Digital Repository for another version of this speech. The Bradens were journalists and radical activists from Louisville, Kentucky who challenged racial oppression in their hometown and across the South. Education. Here is a transcript of Mr. Biden’s remarks as they were prepared for delivery. Ella Josephine Baker was a civil rights activist whose organizational, behind-the-scenes work made her one of the most important figures in the Civil Rights Movement. Sources. In 1954, the Bradens purchased a home on behalf of a black couple in a segregated white suburb of Louisville. 1941-1960 William Apess College Park, MD 20742-7635, Questions/comments about the VOD website may be directed to After graduating in 1927, Baker moved to Harlem to live with a cousin and look for work. Ella Baker was born on December 18, 1903, in Norfolk, Virginia, USA.Her parents were Georgiana and Blake Baker. That tomorrow if we were to call up all the able-bodied men in our country, who could do some work, we wouldn’t have work for them to do. [9] They have been fooled, and they have been fooled by those who told them the “big lie.” The “big lie” was to the effect that they could do what they wanted in Mississippi with the Negro question. Karrin Vasby Anderson This lesson introduces students to the life and times of civil rights activist Ella Baker (1903-1986). Joe Biden Accepts Presidential Nomination: Full Transcript - The … Ella Baker & The Black Freedom Movement) This may only be a dream of mine, but I think it can be made real. University of Maryland Ella Josephine Baker was a civil rights activist whose organizational, behind-the-scenes work made her one of the most important figures in the Civil Rights Movement. I’ve been a part of a lot of singing, but I know, and you must know, that singing alone will not do it for us. ... besides voting rights, were discussed by civil rights activists at the time of Baker’s speech. It's time for us, for We the People, to come together. She was the granddaughter of slaves, one of three children born into an extended family of modest means and strong social ideals. J. Todd Moye, Ella Baker: Community Organizer of the Civil Rights Movement (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2013). Ella Baker was a tireless fighter for the social equality of Black Americans. Main Activity: Jigsaw on Ella Baker. Joe Biden opened his acceptance speech Thursday night by quoting someone whom most of the audience -- indeed, most American -- have never heard of. She emphasized the importance of a grassroots approach over charismatic leadership within the movement. Shawn J. Parry-Giles From The Southern Patriot, June 1960. We are really just beginning. The granddaughter of a slave who was beaten for refusing to marry a man her master chose for her, Ella Baker spent her life working behind the scenes to organize the Civil Rights Movement. U.S. Internationalism 6. With her years of ground-level organizing across the South, Baker had a wealth of local networks and connections to help spread the SCLC message. This speech was recorded at New York's Roosevelt Hotel at a dinner honoring Ella Baker. People cannot, pardon me, people cannot be free until there is enough work in the land to give everybody a job. [4] We are not in the final stages of the freedom struggle. This transcript is the result of a tape-recorded interview conducted by John H. Britton, staff associate, Civil Rights Documentation Project, with Miss Ella Baker in Washington, D.C., June 19, 1968. Ella Baker stayed involved in progressive politics and collective action well into her later years. The Student Leadership Conference made it crystal clear that current sit-ins and other demonstrations She'd kept her maiden name and was universally referred to as Miss Ella Baker. Raleigh, NC — The Student Leadership Conference made it crystal clear that current sit-ins and other demonstrations are … From The Southern Patriot, June 1960. Ella Baker, a giant of the civil rights movement, left … (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1935), 85. Baker had worked with the organization from the late 1950s. Ella Baker: Bigger Than a Hamburger Baker wrote this summary of the speech she gave at the Southwide Student Leadership Conference on Nonviolent Resistance to Segregation, Shaw University, April 1960. "Such a person gets to the point of believing that he is the movement," she said. And you know what? Ella Baker played a key role in Civil Rights organizations including the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.This song celebrates her life and reminds us that working for justice has always been a … Though Baker had misgivings about King's top-down leadership style, she signed on as the provisional director of the SCLC's voter rights campaign. Her memorial service was attended by Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Julian Bond and others who considered themselves her movement "children."8. Her mother had been trained as a teacher. And so we must come to grips with a lot of problems. In 1927, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree and with the status of class Valedictorian. [10] And so all of us stand guilty at this moment for having waited so long to lend ourselves to a fight for the freedom, not of Negroes, not of the Negroes of Mississippi, but for the freedom of the American spirit, for the freedom of the human spirit for freedom, and this is the reason I am here tonight, and this is the reason, I think, that these young men who have worked and given their bodies in the movement for freedom. Ella Baker, Key Note Speech before the State Convention of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, August 6, 1964 Let Nobody Turn Us Around : An African American Anthology by Manning Marable (Editor); Leith Mullings (Editor) Patrick Buchanan She also had three siblings. She was speaking at the state convention of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as it prepared for the national Democratic Convention. A nice gathering like today is not enough. “Ella Baker used her powerful voice to speak out for the world she believed in, one in which every human being is respected, regardless of race, gender, and ethnicity,” said Dana Rubin, founder of The Speaking While Female Speech Bank which celebrates women’s public speech with more than 1,800 examples of women using their voices for change. Baker was regarded as a powerful and inspiring figure, but she consciously avoided the limelight. George W. Bush "Ella Baker, a giant of the civil rights movement, left us with this wisdom: Give people light and they will find a way," Biden said. The women workers were routinely approached by white men wanting to pay for sex. Stokely Carmichael Soon after the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott erupted, Baker, Bayard Rustin, and Stanley Levinson (a close adviser to Martin Luther King Jr.) used their connections with northern liberals and unions to establish In Friendship, which raised funds and provided support for the boycott campaign. American Public Media's online services are supported by users like you. In 1935, Baker went undercover to report on the dismal conditions of itinerant black domestic workers in New York. Ella Baker > Quotes > Quotable Quote “Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's son, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens.” [6] And unless we see this thing in its larger perspective, unless we realize that certainly we must sing, we must have the inspiration of song, the inspiration that comes from songs like this one that was created and demonstrated here tonight, but we also must have the information that comes from lots and lots of study. AP Photo/Jack Harris And although Baker had a reputation as a powerful orator, she "did not give many formal speeches before large audiences that were recorded by the media or published in manuscript form. Ella Baker was a tireless fighter for the social equality of Black Americans. Aaron Henry said that I had had my fling with all the civil rights organizations. After graduating from Shaw University, she organized consumer cooperatives in New York and worked on consumer affairs for the Works Progress … Ella Baker was a behind-the-scene strategist in many of the American progressive movements of the 20th century. 4. An early civil rights activist, Ella Baker is an inspiration whose work helped put the 1960s civil rights movement in motion. ELLA BAKER, “ADDRESS AT THE HATTIESBURG FREEDOM DAY RALLY” (21 JANUARY 1964) Classroom Activities. [5] And I’m not talking about Negroes, I’m talking about people. Having worked with the NAACP, SCLC, SNCC and now SCE… Baker had many friends who were socialists and communists. Social & Economic Justice The right to be men and women, to grow and to develop to the fullest capacity with which He has endowed us. Ashley Barrett Ransby, 228. Put another way, does Baker’s speech seem typical or unusual when compared to other speeches by civil rights leaders at the time? The drive to serve her people powered Ella Baker's life. How has grassroots activism changed today given the importance of the Internet, especially social media? After more than two years, Baker left the SCLC because she felt it had become excessively centered on King's persona and authority. Joanne Grant, Ella Baker: Freedom Bound (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998). Religion & Morality in Public Life Helen Caldicott We will choose hope over fear, … One activist praised Baker as "the mortar between the bricks," holding together the often unsettled foundations of the American civil rights struggle.1. 1961-1980 Whether Baker was supporting local branches of the NAACP, working behind the scenes to establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) with Martin Luther King Jr., or mentoring college students through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), she was … Kalen M. A. Churcher, Voices of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project As an obvious nod to Black women who are the most loyal constituency of the Democratic party, Biden used a quote from “a giant of the civil rights movement,” Ella Baker, to frame the core theme of his speech – “Give the people light, and they will find a way.” Throughout the speech, Biden drew “light versus dark” contrasts with Trump. People cannot be free until they realize that peace—we can talk about peace—that peace is not the absence of war or struggle, it is the presence of justice. Ella Baker, official of the Southern Conference Educational Fund, speaks at the Jeannette Rankin news conference on Jan. 3, 1968. And if we don’t have liberty it is because somebody else has stood between us and that which God has granted us. She left the national organization in 1946 to care for a young niece, but eventually took the helm of the New York City NAACP branch. At the end of the discussion, explain that they will be studying the author of the quotation, Ella Baker. The rest of the country for a long time tacitly agreed. We are going to have to be concerned about the kinds of education our children are getting in school, and all of this has to be done along at the same time that we also recognize that our white brothers, the very white brothers in Hattiesburg and in other parts of Mississippi who have kept us in bondage, that they did it because they did not know any better. She posed as a job seeker among the black women who waited each morning on designated Bronx street corners for white women to hire them for a day of low-paid labor. Equality for all, that was what I wanted, And that is what I would work for my whole life. Site by, Shawn Parry-Giles, University of Maryland. Although the Great Depression made jobs scarce, Baker thrived intellectually in the political and cultural ferment of the Harlem Renaissance. Ibid, 15. (Joanne Grant, Ella Baker: Freedom Bound, 163) 3 7 quotes from Ella Baker: 'Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's son, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens. She notably helped form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She believed that local African Americans could best lead themselves in their efforts to overturn Jim Crow segregation, rather than relying on charismatic preachers or outside experts. Ella Baker, Puerto Rico solidarity rally, 1974. She remained true to her self-effacing style, leaving relatively few personal records or intimate interviews for historians and biographers to work with. George H.W. We must also know that we are in, in the final analysis, the only group that can make your free is yourself, because we must free ourselves from all of things that keep us back. Anne Braden was present at the testimonial dinner in New York. At the end of the weekend, the conference goers created a new group, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The event was sponsored by the Southern Conference Education Fund (SCEF). The family was hardly well-to-do, but they had much compared to the desperate poverty endured by so many other African Americans, and they believed much was expected of them in return. Read about Speech to Southern Conference Education Fund by Ella Baker and see the artwork, lyrics and similar artists. Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and grew up in rural Littleton, North Carolina. Good evening. Ella Baker (1903—1986) played an instrumental role in the development of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. King to John Lee Tilley, 3 April 1959, in Papers 5:179.. Ransby, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, 2003. ~ Ella Baker, 1944 (Source: Ransby, Barbara. From left -- Emory Harris, Stokely Carmichael (in hat), Sam Block, Eleanor Holmes, and Ella Baker. Because even tomorrow if every vestige of racial discrimination were wiped out, if all of us became free enough to go down and to associate with all the people we wanted to associate, we still are not free. The Ella Baker quotes featured below show her opinions on activism, the fight for civil rights, and prominent civil rights activists like Martin Luther King Jr. What have you learned about the civil rights […] Let me tell you why. Ella Baker, American community organizer and political activist who brought her skills and principles to bear in the major civil rights organizations of the mid-20th century. Ella Baker was an instrumental figure in the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) during the late 1950s and in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the early 1960s. Ella Baker (1903—1986) played an instrumental role in the development of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. ELLA BAKER, “ADDRESS AT THE HATTIESBURG FREEDOM DAY RALLY” (21 JANUARY 1964) [1] This is rather unusual. Kicking Bear In the final analysis, [she felt] the major political decisions had to be theirs."5. Bigger than any group of people, and it is the cause of humanity. “I found a greater sense of importance by being a part of those who were growing,” Baker told filmmaker Joanne Grant in her 1981 documentary Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker. -- Ella Baker #History #Waiting #African American “I have always felt it was a handicap for oppressed peoples to depend so largely upon a leader, because unfortunately in our culture, the charismatic leader usually becomes a leader because he has found a spot in the public limelight.” 8. Baker's method, with the SNCC cadre and local southern communities, was to create "conditions of possibility for others to find their voices and develop leadership. In 1960, a wave of student-led lunch counter sit-ins offered new promise. Ella Baker – organizer, activist, radical – a commanding five feet, two inches tall – spoke those words in August of 1964. She was also involved in the federal Workers Education Project, the Harlem YWCA, the Women's Day Workers and Industrial Leagues, and other left-wing and pro-union organizations. Tim Barney "It was the opportunity to dig in and work shoulder to shoulder with local activists that most appealed to Baker," Ransby writes. Ibid. The Student Leadership Conference made it crystal clear that current sit-ins and other demonstrations "2 Baker's father was railroad dining-car waiter. She was born in 1903 in Norfolk, Virginia, and was raised in North Carolina where she would go on to attend Shaw University in Raleigh. Ella Baker with William Kunstler and Marilyn Clement, 1980 206 Ella Baker in her Harlem apartment, 1984 207 Ella Baker, Jackie Brockington, and Carolyn Brockington, 1985 208. acknowledgments This book has taken me on a long and circuitous path, which began in 1989 when I chose to research the life of Ella Baker as a dissertation topic. The commission had been appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to study the causes of rioting in African American urban neighborhoods in 1967. In Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, Barbara Ransby argues that Baker and King had radically different philosophies of change. After graduating from Shaw University, Ella Baker moved to New York City and began her career as a grassroots organizer. A group of people were down at the station among us; we were there for the purpose of identifying with the great tragedy that had occurred in his being shot to death. This speech was recorded at New York's Roosevelt Hotel at a dinner honoring Ella Baker. Citizenship & Civic Identity Barbara Ransby, Ella Baker & the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003). Diane M. Blair If she could have changed anything about the movement, it might have been to persuade the men leading it that they, too, should do more work behind the scenes. Maegan Parker Brooks Baker mentions her, and also refers to the recently released report of the President's Commission on Civil Disorders. Baker was born on December 13, 1903, in Norfolk, Virginia, and grew up in North Carolina.… From left -- Emory Harris, Stokely Carmichael (in hat), Sam Block, Eleanor Holmes, and Ella Baker. ), also located at the top of this lesson plan. Tomorrow, tomorrow if we were able to vote our full strength and we still voted our full strength, until we recognize that in this country in a land of great and plenty and great wealth there are millions of people who go to bed hungry every night. She emphasized the importance of a grassroots approach over charismatic leadership within the movement. Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and grew up in rural Littleton, North Carolina. Baker co-authored an expose titled "The Bronx Slave Market" which appeared in the NAACP's magazine, Crisis. 2. Read about Speech to Southern Conference Education Fund by Ella Baker and see the artwork, lyrics and similar artists. Baker, Interview by John Britton, 19 June 1968, RBOH-DHU-MS. Grant, Ella Baker, 1998. Show a clip from the film Fundi (11:31 min. Freedom of Speech Whether Baker was supporting local branches of the NAACP, working behind the scenes to establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) with Martin Luther King Jr., or mentoring college students through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), she was … Baker, Interview by John Britton, 19 June 1968, RBOH-DHU-MS. Grant, Ella Baker, 1998. SCEF was an interracial civil rights group. After attending the high school boarding program at all-black Shaw University in Raleigh, Baker got her B.A. Baker worked well in the NAACP, hence her reputation. Baker biographer Barbara Ransby says the family belonged to a particular class "who saw themselves as representatives of the race to the white world and as role models for those less fortunate within the black community. Ella Baker played a key role in Civil Rights organizations including the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.This song celebrates her life and reminds us that working for justice has always been a … Does Baker address any of those other issues? And we are going to have to have these freedom schools and we are going to have to learn a lot of things in them. And after the ceremony, the little ceremony in the station, one of the leading civil right leaders (I won’t name any because leadership is one of those things, you know, I won’t talk about them too much) but this person said, “We are in the final stages of the freedom struggle.” And I challenge that. War & Peace, 1700-1899 While all sorts of rhetoric was going on, all kinds of grandstanding was going on, that's what she was doing."9. She admired their principles and some of their organizing methods, but she never joined their parties. 9. I learned from my grandmother's stories about her life as a slave, And that is when it began, my want for social justice. Reddick, “Notes on Southern Christian Leadership Conference Administrative Committee Meeting,” April 1959, in Papers 5:171-179.. Young, An Easy Burden, … Baker often spent a half of each year on the road. For King, it was "top down." Patricia Bizzell Ella Baker, Key Note Speech before the State Convention of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, August 6, 1964 Let Nobody Turn Us Around : An African American Anthology by Manning Marable (Editor); Leith Mullings (Editor) Marilyn Bordwell Delaure, "Planting Seeds of Change: Ella Baker's Radical Rhetoric," Women's Studies in Communication, 2008, 1. Ella Josephine Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1903 and raised in Littleton, North Carolina. She was an excellent student. King to John Lee Tilley, 3 April 1959, in Papers 5:179.. Ransby, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, 2003. Baker’s career as an activist, leader (a title she would never have used to identify ... Baker gave a major speech for the at Madison Square Garden in New York City, in 1974 . Brown attended the dinner, having been recently released from a Louisiana prison on a weapons charge. I went to school like everyone else, But I did not follow all of the rules. Baker put her theory that “strong people don’t need strong leaders” into action when she encouraged college students to create an autonomous organization free of … Ella Baker once said, “This may only be a dream of mine, but I think it can be made real.” This dream of Baker’s can continue to be made real. Civil Rights For make no mistake. And it has to do with the whole struggle I think because it says, “For now we are nearer than when we first believed.” I forgot the exact quote, but let us “cast aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”. 1981-2000 Albert Beveridge in sociology from Shaw. We are just beginning the freedom struggle. Ella Baker was my name and civil rights was my game. And until that day, we will never turn back. You can join her legacy and be a part of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights today. "6 With Baker's help, the Mississippi civil rights movement would become one of the most successful chapters of the freedom story in the South. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., "The Spirit of Ella Baker Lives On," Washington Afro-American, January 27, 1987. Unfortunately, there is no Selma for Ella Josephine Baker. “Fundi” is a Swahili word, and Baker’s nickname, meaning someone who passes on her wisdom on to other generations. Baker encouraged the young people to be their own leaders rather than get absorbed in existing organizations. Ella Baker & The Black Freedom Movement) Give people light and they will find a way. Denise M. Bostdorff [During the Poor Peoples Campaign"Solidarity Day" mass rally.] We aren’t free until within us we have that deep sense of freedom from a lot of things that we don’t even mention in these meetings. She has devoted most of her life to the cause of civil rights. Baker yearned for a genuinely grassroots, democratic way to make change. Oppressed people, whatever their level of formal education, have the ability to understand and interpret the world around them, to see the world for what it is, and move to transform it. Read Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's speech to the 2020 Democratic National Convention, as prepared for delivery: Cesar Chavez, Heather Brook Adams Ella Baker championed grassroots activism. Ella Baker, “The Black Woman in the Civil Rights Struggle,” address given at Institute of the Black World, Atlanta, Georgia, 1969; Joanne Grant, “Appendix,” in Ella Baker: Freedom Bound (New York: John Wiley, 1998), 227–231. It was headed by two of her closest friends, Anne and Carl Braden, who were white. Shawn Parry-Giles, University of Maryland, Copyright © Voices of Democracy. By Ella Baker The Southern Patriot May, 1960 [After SNCC's founding conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, NC, Ella Baker wrote the following article that summarized the address she gave at the conference.See SNCC Founded for background] . Carmichael was there, too, flanked by bodyguards because of the increasing controversy caused by his black power rhetoric. It was headed by two of her closest friends, Anne and Carl Braden, who were white. Learn more about Baker… (Jack Harris / AP Photo) SCEF was an interracial civil rights group. Jason Edward Black That is, they didn’t do anything about it. Ella Baker was a master strategist and visionary in the civil rights movement. Well, my greatest fling has still to be flung, because as far as I’m concerned I was never working for an organization, I have always tried to work for a cause, and the cause to me is bigger than any organization. Charles M. Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle "Local people would be there long after she had gone. She showed an early interest in activism, leading campus protests against strict social rules such as a ban on silk stockings and the obligation to sing spirituals to visiting guests. Raleigh, NC — The Student Leadership Conference made it crystal clear that current sit-ins and other demonstrations are … Ella Baker: Bigger Than a Hamburger Baker wrote this summary of the speech she gave at the Southwide Student Leadership Conference on Nonviolent Resistance to Segregation, Shaw University, April 1960. It brought together a new generation of organizers, including Stokely Carmichael, Bob Moses, Diane Nash, Julian Bond, and John Lewis. 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