Birthday of Ella Josephine Baker
Photo by George Ballis, 1964 / Civil Rights Movement Photographs, Civil Rights Movement Archive
Ella Baker speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, August 1964.
Ella Baker was born on December 13, 1903, in Norfolk, Virginia. Her grandmother shared stories with her about experiences as a slave. Baker’s commitment to fighting for justice was fueled by her grandmother’s pride and resilience in the face of systemic racism and oppression.
Baker attended Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and graduated as class valedictorian in 1927. She moved to New York City and began working with organizations like the Young Negroes Cooperative League, which focused on helping Black people achieve economic independence.
Baker is often referred to as a “behind the scenes” leader and organizer in the Civil Rights Movement. She believed every person had the power within them to strengthen their communities and help shape a better future. She was an advocate for local action and grassroots campaigns for social change.
Her major accomplishments include co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; an inspiring force behind the creation of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); a staff member in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); and adviser to the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party, which helped overturn the all-white Democratic Party delegation to the party conventions.
As an activist, Baker believed the issues facing an unjust society were bigger than any one organization. Baker’s legacy can serve as inspiration for all of us to be more united behind addressing the systemic causes that lead to inequity and to be less about who or what organization gets public recognition.
Speaking at the Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Freedom Day Rally, Baker said:
“Aaron Henry [head of the Mississippi branch of the NAACP] said that I’d had my fling with all the civil rights organizations. 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, the cause to me is bigger than any organization. Bigger than any group of people, and it is the cause of humanity. The cause is the cause that brings us together, the drive of the human spirit for freedom.”
~ Ella Baker, “Address at the Hattiesburg Freedom Day Rally,” January 21, 1964.
Ella Baker is one of the great leaders of the civil rights movement.