Invisible Leaders: Ella Baker

As an American human rights activist, she aided the fight for equality by focusing on the details 

Dominic Urquidez/Asst. Feature Editor/The USD Vista

“The major job was getting people to understand that they had something within their power that they could use, and it could only be used if they understood what was happening and how group action could counter violence…”  – Ella Baker

The legendary life of Ella Jo Baker began on Dec. 13, 1903, in Norfolk, Virginia. Throughout her activism, she played a central role in many well-known organizations dedicated to racial justice, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Baker’s commitment toward social justice started at a young age when her grandmother would tell her stories of what it was like living under slavery. One harrowing experience her grandmother relayed was when she was whipped as a result of not marrying the man her slave owner chose for her. Baker was inspired by her grandmother’s ability to live through such trauma. The anecdotes from her grandmother motivated Baker to join in the fight for racial justice. 

Intelligent and dedicated, Baker studied at Shaw University where she graduated as valedictorian. She then moved to New York to join several social activist organizations, including the Young Negroes Cooperative League (YNCL). The YNCL focused on developing Black economic power. Baker also took part in multiple women’s organizations. 

Baker joined the NAACP in 1940, working as the field secretary and then later the director of various branches. To combat the Jim Crow laws in the South, she co-founded the organization In Friendship in 1955. The group aimed to assist grassroots activists who were struggling in their fight against segregation. 

Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies and Affiliate Faculty in Africana Studies at USD, Jamall Calloway, discussed Baker’s ability to organize various programs. Baker believed that there should not be a top-down form of authority, but rather a coalition that allowed people to be in charge of their own destiny. 

“She was a radical democratic leader,”  Calloway said. “And what I mean by radical democratic leader is she was completely against any sort of movement or resistance that centered around one messianic figure … she was against that one figure, that one Moses, who symbolized the resistance.” 

In 1957, she worked alongside Martin Luther King to help organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. However it was not all easy for Baker — she clashed with many male leaders, including King. Baker was a strong-willed woman who pushed back against the idea of male dominance in social activism. She quit the organization in 1960.

Baker’s gender, race, and age all played a role in the challenges she faced in her activism. She was older than King, and the god-mother of SNCC. Her position of maintaining and keeping an organization afloat was often overlooked by male figures. Whereas Baker focused on the details of the establishment, the priorities of men were centered around the spokesperson. 

“She clashed with a lot of the men who had issues with seeing women as equally authoritative figures,” Calloway said. “From her position, it was ludicrous because both the civil rights movement and the African-American Church, the membership were primarily Black Women.”

SNCC was developed in 1960 after Baker set up a meeting at Shaw University to assist Black student activists who were denied service at a lunch counter in North Carolina. Due to her dedication and organizational skills, SNCC became one of the most well-known human rights advocacy organizations in the country. 

Baker believed that young student leaders were an instrumental resource to the movement toward racial justice. SNCC, along with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), adopted the Gandhian view of direct action through non-violence. The organization helped form the Freedom Rides of 1961 and Freedom Summer, an attempt to register Black voters and to highlight Mississippi’s racism. 

Toward the end of her life, Baker continued to fight for racial justice. She died on Dec. 13, 1986, in New York at age 83. Her contributions toward civil rights through the creation of multiple organizations should be celebrated and honored. She was purposeful, coordinated, and bold. Her name, along with the names of those who are undervalued, deserves to be recognized and celebrated during Black History Month and beyond.

“I want (students) to understand Black history month as a living thing,” Calloway said. “It’s not exclusively a collection of relics, it’s not just a collection of past heroes … Sometimes Black History Month can be like a “who’s who” of the past and we celebrate them without necessarily recognizing the social conditions under which they had to do whatever it is that they did.”

To value Black History Month is to recognize the many activists whose names are often overlooked and undervalued. They are the church leaders, the school teachers, and the students. February is a month to honor Black leaders who have helped this country become more equal, but it is also a time to remember that there is much more work to be done.