Ella Baker and her role in the Civil Rights Movement

Ella Baker (1903-1986)

Ella Baker played a significant role in the development of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and the 1960s.[1] Baker had devoted her entire adult life to building organisations that believed in social change by encouraging and empowering individual growth. In 1927, Baker graduated from Shaw University in North Carolina, and later she went on to joining the National Association for the Advancement for Coloured People (NAACP) as a field secretary in 1938. This saw to Baker travelling across the South, trying to persuade people that they could make “extraordinary changes”[2] in their lives. Although Baker was apart of the largest and oldest civil rights organisations in America who believed in ending racial segregation and discrimination, she later left her full time position within the organisation in 1946 as she became “disaffected”[3] by the hierarchical model of the organisation. The structure of the organisation meant that the decision process was largely being held in the national office, whereas Baker believed it should be distributed equally amongst the brand organisations. According to Aprele Elliot, Baker also “rejected”[4] the hierarchical system that was in place because she felt that it forced women into the position of the servants. Not only is Baker crucial in developing the Civil Rights Movement throughout the sixties, but she is also crucial in the development of women’s rights with regards to the movement.

In 1957 Baker joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as an associate director, where she worked alongside the infamous Martin Luther King Jr. Baker began to encourage the younger generation to continue the fight for civil rights within American by creating their own organisation, as she “opposed”[5] the notion that the younger generation should become an arm of the NAACP or the SCLC. Because of this, Baker became known as the women who encouraged the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

The SNCC consisted of college students who believed in taking a nonviolent approach towards dismantling racial segregation and discrimination in the United States by partaking in Sit-in movements. The aim of the sit-ins were to highlight how immoral segregation was by walking into a ‘white only’ establishment, and taking a sit next to a white individual and show peacefully that they were both the same, and therefore, should be treated the same. Baker used her extensive contacts that she had accumulated throughout the years of working with older Civil Rights Movement activists to help spread awareness for the youths movement. Because of Bakers actions, not only did she ensure the survival of the Civil Rights Movements future by making sure the younger generation have the freedom to create their own movement, but she also gave the SNCC a platform, which helped the newly founded organisation gain a respectable reputation, not only from the older civil rights organisations, but also the Kennedy Administration.[6] Baker played a crucial role in the development of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and the 1960s with regards to the older organisations, but she also played a crucial role in the formation of future organisations which were founded by the younger generation, ensuring that they also had the freedom to do so.

By Emma Ritchie

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[1] Ella Baker “Bigger Than a Hamburger,” The Southern Patriot, vol.18 (June 1960) in Manning Marable and Leith Mullings, ed., Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices on Resistance, Reform and Renewal, 2nd Ed. (Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, 2009) pp. 375

[2] Elliott, Aprele. “Ella Baker: Free Agent in the Civil Rights Movement.” Journal of Black Studies, vol. 26, no. 5, Sage Publications, Inc., 1996, pp.595

[3] Ella Baker “Bigger Than a Hamburger,” The Southern Patriot, vol.18 (June 1960) in Manning Marable and Leith Mullings, ed., Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices on Resistance, Reform and Renewal, 2nd Ed. (Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, 2009) pp. 375

[4] Ibid, pp.594

[5] Ibid, pp. 375

[6] Raiford, Leigh. “‘Come Let Us Build a New World Together’: SNCC and Photography of the Civil Rights Movement.” American Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 4, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, pp.1130