BHS Day 14: Ella Baker

Hi and Happy Valentine's (or Galentine's) Day! We're officially at the halfway mark for this year's Black History Spotlight and we're going to be bringing the second week to a close with someone from the Activist half of this category. Now just to clarify, I know a lot of people I feature or have already featured also have 'activist' as part of their professions. The difference between them and the people I put in the 'Activist' category is that the activism was a secondary part of the person's career, while those in the Activist category primarily focused their efforts on their activism. Not that anyone asked me to clarify, but I wanted to anyway. lol Let's get to today's entrant!

Source

Name: Ella Josephine Baker, 1903-1986

Profession: Civil rights activist and organizer

Why is the Spotlight on her today? For her work during the civil rights movement and her influence on some of the movement's leaders

Notables:
--Organized the founding conference for what would become the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
--Got her entry into the civil rights activism world by first working as a field secretary, then as a director of branches for the NAACP
--Helped Martin Luther King Jr. organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, MLK's signature organization as its executive secretary
--Graduated as valedictorian from her high school
--Ran a campaign to increase Black voters while working for the SCLC called the Crusade for Leadership
--Was initially inspired to activism by her grandmother, who was a former slave and her mother, who was a member of the local missionary organization  
--Helped fight Jim Crow laws in the south through an organization called In Friendship
--Served as interim executive director of the SCLC 
--Maintained a long-term relationship with the SNCC even after leaving SCLC
--Was posthumously honored with a center called the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights to keep her spirit and legacy of activism alive
--Early in her career, was national director of the Young Negroes Cooperative League
--Was integral to the civil rights movement by helping to empower local communities to help themselves through training, support and learning materials

Further reading links: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4


Quote of the Day: 
"In order for us as poor and oppressed people to become a part of a society that is meaningful, the system under which we now exist has to be radically changed. It means facing a system that does not lend itself to your needs and devising means by which you can change that system. That is easier said than done."
--Ella Baker