Civil Rights Activist Ella Baker Dies
Ella Baker, an important figure in the civil rights movement who worked quietly behind the scenes for decades and rarely received much public recognition, died on this day.
Baker is perhaps most famous for encouraging sit-in leaders in 1960 to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, founded April 15, 1960).
She began working for the NAACP in 1938 and became director of all of its local branches in 1943. In 1957, she went to work for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Dr. Martin Luther King’s organization. And in 1962, she began work with the Southern Conference Education Fund (SCEF).
In 2009, Ella Baker was honored by a U.S. postage stamp. Her work is carried on by the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, California (see below).
Read: Barbara Ransby, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement (2003)
Watch the movie: Fundi: The story of Ella Baker (1981)
Visit the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights: http://ellabakercenter.org/
Learn more about Ella Baker: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/baker-ella-1903-1986
Learn about Ella Baker at the SNCC Digital Gateway here
Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture here