This week we recognize Ella Baker
Ella Josephine Baker (December 13, 1903 – December 13, 1986) was born on December 13th, 1903 and was a devoted civil rights and human rights activist. She spent more than fifty years working to make America more just and equal. She often worked behind the scenes and her influence was powerful and far-reaching. In New York City and throughout the South, she collaborated with well-known leaders of the civil rights movement, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King Jr. During that same time she tirelessly worked into mentoring young activists like Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, and Bob Moses, helping them grow into leaders within the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
Baker believed deeply in ordinary people’s ability to create change. She questioned leadership styles that centered on a single charismatic figure and instead encouraged grassroots organizing and shared decision-making. She trusted that people facing injustice understood their own struggles best and could speak and act for themselves. In the 1960s, she brought these beliefs to life as a key advisor and strategist for SNCC, shaping the direction of the movement in lasting ways. Remembered as one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century civil rights movement, Baker also spoke openly about both racism in American society and sexism within the movement itself, insisting that true justice had to address both.