Ella Baker
| Ella Baker | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Ella Josephine Baker December 13, 1903 Norfolk, Virginia, USA |
| Died | December 13, 1986 (aged 83) Manhattan, New York City, USA |
| Alma mater | Shaw University |
| Organization |
NAACP (1938–1953) SCLC (1957–1960) SNCC (1960–1962) |
| Movement | Civil Rights Movement |
| Spouse(s) | T.J. (Bob) Roberts, divorced 1958 |
Ella Josephine Baker (December 13, 1903 – December 13, 1986) was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist born in Virginia, who grew up in North Carolina and graduated from college there, and worked for most of her life based in New York City. She was a largely behind-the-scenes organizer whose career spanned more than five decades. She worked 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. She also mentored many emerging activists, such as Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Rosa Parks, and Bob Moses.
Baker criticized professionalized, charismatic leadership; she promoted grassroots organizing, radical democracy, and the ability of the oppressed to understand their worlds and advocate for themselves. She has been ranked as "One of the most important African American leaders of the twentieth century and perhaps the most influential woman in the Civil Rights Movement," known for her critiques not only of racism within American culture, but also the sexism and classism within the Civil Rights Movement.
Ella Josephine Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and raised by her parents Georgiana and Blake Baker. When she was seven, her family moved to her mother's rural hometown of Littleton, North Carolina. As a girl, Baker listened to her grandmother tell stories about slave revolts. Baker's maternal grandmother Josephine Elizabeth "Bet" Ross, had been born into slavery. She was whipped as a young woman for refusing to marry a man chosen for her by the slave master.
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