Ella Baker born December 13, 1903 in Norfolk, Virginia, and was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist who fought alongside Martin Luther King in their fight for civil rights and desegregation.
In 1930, Baker worked as editorial assistant at the Negro National News. She also worked for the Workers Education Project of the Works Progress Administration and taught courses in consumer education, labor history, and African history. In 1938, Baker began her long association with the NAACP, and worked as a secretary who helped to recruit, raise money and organize local chapters.
Baker is famously known for being the premiere behind the scenes organizer and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference headed by Martin Luther King. Barker helped assist the boycotts in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955-1957. This began shortly after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white person. Ella Baker brought her skills and principles to bear fight in the major civil rights organizations of the mid-20th century. She was instrumental in forming the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Baker saw the potential for a special type of leadership by the young sit-in leaders, who were not yet prominent in the movement. This would revitalize the Black Freedom Movement and take it in a new direction. Baker wanted to bring the sit-in participants together in a way that would sustain the momentum of their actions, teach them the skills necessary, provide resources, and also help them to organize into a more militant and democratic force
Baker remained an activist until her death on December 13, 1986, her 83rd birthday. For more information, please visit the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.
