And so we have come here tonight to renew our struggle, our struggle for that which we are entitled by virtue of being children of the Almighty. The rest of the country for a long time tacitly agreed. Social & Economic Justice As an obvious nod to Black women who are the most loyal constituency of the Democratic party, Biden used a quote from “a giant of the civil rights movement,” Ella Baker, to frame the core theme of his speech – “Give the people light, and they will find a way.” Throughout the speech, Biden drew “light versus dark” contrasts with Trump. This lesson introduces students to the life and times of civil rights activist Ella Baker (1903-1986). ', 'Give light and people will find the way', and 'You didn't see me on television, you didn't see news stories about me. Ella Baker, “The Black Woman in the Civil Rights Struggle,” address given at Institute of the Black World, Atlanta, Georgia, 1969; Joanne Grant, “Appendix,” in Ella Baker: Freedom Bound (New York: John Wiley, 1998), 227–231. We are going to have to be concerned about the kinds of education our children are getting in school, and all of this has to be done along at the same time that we also recognize that our white brothers, the very white brothers in Hattiesburg and in other parts of Mississippi who have kept us in bondage, that they did it because they did not know any better. Baker had many friends who were socialists and communists. 8. Joanne Grant, Ella Baker: Freedom Bound (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998). Education. We will choose hope over fear, … Denise M. Bostdorff American Public Media's online services are supported by users like you. And it has to do with the whole struggle I think because it says, “For now we are nearer than when we first believed.” I forgot the exact quote, but let us “cast aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”. The commission had been appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to study the causes of rioting in African American urban neighborhoods in 1967. Ella Baker never officially retired from public life. Kicking Bear Raleigh, NC — The Student Leadership Conference made it crystal clear that current sit-ins and other demonstrations are … And after the ceremony, the little ceremony in the station, one of the leading civil right leaders (I won’t name any because leadership is one of those things, you know, I won’t talk about them too much) but this person said, “We are in the final stages of the freedom struggle.” And I challenge that. Ella Baker with William Kunstler and Marilyn Clement, 1980 206 Ella Baker in her Harlem apartment, 1984 207 Ella Baker, Jackie Brockington, and Carolyn Brockington, 1985 208. acknowledgments This book has taken me on a long and circuitous path, which began in 1989 when I chose to research the life of Ella Baker as a dissertation topic. She has devoted most of her life to the cause of civil rights. “I found a greater sense of importance by being a part of those who were growing,” Baker told filmmaker Joanne Grant in her 1981 documentary Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker. That is, they didn’t do anything about it. Her memorial service was attended by Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Julian Bond and others who considered themselves her movement "children."8. She showed an early interest in activism, leading campus protests against strict social rules such as a ban on silk stockings and the obligation to sing spirituals to visiting guests. 1. 1900-1940 Although the Great Depression made jobs scarce, Baker thrived intellectually in the political and cultural ferment of the Harlem Renaissance. Show a clip from the film Fundi (11:31 min. The right to be men and women, to grow and to develop to the fullest capacity with which He has endowed us. Ella Baker was a tireless fighter for the social equality of Black Americans. 2130 Skinner Building And until that day, we will never turn back. Ashley Barrett Baker mentions her, and also refers to the recently released report of the President's Commission on Civil Disorders. Baker, Interview by John Britton, 19 June 1968, RBOH-DHU-MS. Grant, Ella Baker, 1998. Soon after the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott erupted, Baker, Bayard Rustin, and Stanley Levinson (a close adviser to Martin Luther King Jr.) used their connections with northern liberals and unions to establish In Friendship, which raised funds and provided support for the boycott campaign. She was speaking at the state convention of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as it prepared for the national Democratic Convention. For make no mistake. Baker begins the interview by describing how her work in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from the late 1930s into … People cannot be free until they realize that peace—we can talk about peace—that peace is not the absence of war or struggle, it is the presence of justice. Ella Baker: Bigger Than a Hamburger Baker wrote this summary of the speech she gave at the Southwide Student Leadership Conference on Nonviolent Resistance to Segregation, Shaw University, April 1960. "Ella Baker, a giant of the civil rights movement, left us with this wisdom: Give people light and they will find a way," Biden said. Sources. Let me tell you why. Ella Baker, a giant of the civil rights movement, left … University of Maryland We are really just beginning. Because even tomorrow if every vestige of racial discrimination were wiped out, if all of us became free enough to go down and to associate with all the people we wanted to associate, we still are not free. From The Southern Patriot, June 1960. [3] And as I have listened here tonight, my spirit has rove over a long period of years and I can think of a number of things I would like to say, but if I had anything at all to say tonight is to remind us of something that occurred to me, something that came into focus in a conversation on the night that Medger Evers’s body came through Atlanta. ), also located at the top of this lesson plan. Civil Rights Shawn Parry-Giles, University of Maryland, Copyright © Voices of Democracy. [6] And unless we see this thing in its larger perspective, unless we realize that certainly we must sing, we must have the inspiration of song, the inspiration that comes from songs like this one that was created and demonstrated here tonight, but we also must have the information that comes from lots and lots of study. In 1940, Baker got a job working for the NAACP as a field organizer and later as a director of the organization's branches. 1961-1980 ... besides voting rights, were discussed by civil rights activists at the time of Baker’s speech. Ella Baker > Quotes > Quotable Quote “Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's son, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens.” Historian Charles M. Payne says Baker's vast travels for the NAACP were a kind of "practicum" in grassroots social change.3 Early on, Baker recognized the dangers inherent in having well-educated outsiders arrive in local communities to organize. Reddick, “Notes on Southern Christian Leadership Conference Administrative Committee Meeting,” April 1959, in Papers 5:171-179.. Young, An Easy Burden, 1996. Baker encouraged the young people to be their own leaders rather than get absorbed in existing organizations. Aaron Henry said that I had had my fling with all the civil rights organizations. Does Baker address any of those other issues? She managed the household, was active in church and women's groups, and groomed her children to be pious and respectable citizens. Patrick Buchanan A group of people were down at the station among us; we were there for the purpose of identifying with the great tragedy that had occurred in his being shot to death. Ella Baker & The Black Freedom Movement) Give people light and they will find a way. Anne Braden was present at the testimonial dinner in New York. Marilyn Bordwell Delaure, "Planting Seeds of Change: Ella Baker's Radical Rhetoric," Women's Studies in Communication, 2008, 1. Cesar Chavez, Heather Brook Adams “Ella Baker used her powerful voice to speak out for the world she believed in, one in which every human being is respected, regardless of race, gender, and ethnicity,” said Dana Rubin, founder of The Speaking While Female Speech Bank which celebrates women’s public speech with more than 1,800 examples of women using their voices for change. By Ella Baker The Southern Patriot May, 1960 [After SNCC's founding conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, NC, Ella Baker wrote the following article that summarized the address she gave at the conference.See SNCC Founded for background] . "6 With Baker's help, the Mississippi civil rights movement would become one of the most successful chapters of the freedom story in the South. Baker organized a youth conference at Shaw University that drew hundreds of young activists and established leaders, including King. This speech was recorded at New York's Roosevelt Hotel at a dinner honoring Ella Baker. In fact, you are the key to making Baker’s dream reality. Baker had worked with the organization from the late 1950s. [7] And so in conclusion let me quote one of my favorite or improvise one of my favorite thoughts in scripture. How has grassroots activism changed today given the importance of the Internet, especially social media? Aaron Henry said that I had had … An early civil rights activist, Ella Baker is an inspiration whose work helped put the 1960s civil rights movement in motion. Baker co-authored an expose titled "The Bronx Slave Market" which appeared in the NAACP's magazine, Crisis. Tomorrow, tomorrow if we were able to vote our full strength and we still voted our full strength, until we recognize that in this country in a land of great and plenty and great wealth there are millions of people who go to bed hungry every night. Ella Baker stayed involved in progressive politics and collective action well into her later years. It brought together a new generation of organizers, including Stokely Carmichael, Bob Moses, Diane Nash, Julian Bond, and John Lewis. Video December 15, 2017 Andrea Gibbons Leave a comment. Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and grew up in rural Littleton, North Carolina. 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, and the cause to me is bigger than any organization. Ella Baker once said, “This may only be a dream of mine, but I think it can be made real.” This dream of Baker’s can continue to be made real. Joining the NAACP in 1940, the Virginia native assisted in developing some of the brightest minds in the Civil Rights Movement. Ella Baker Karrin Vasby Anderson She was a guiding force for prominent movement leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Stokely Carmichael, and she fueled the work of several leading organizations in the freedom movement. Baker was born on December 13, 1903, in Norfolk, Virginia, and grew up in North Carolina.… As the 1950s civil rights movement gathered steam in the South, Baker joined with New York activists Stanley Levison and Bayard Rustin to raise money in support of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Montgomery Improvement Association in Alabama, and the group's city bus boycott. (Joanne Grant, Ella Baker: Freedom Bound, 163) 3 ~ Ella Baker, excerpt from Valedictorian speech, 1927, (Source: Ransby, Barbara. She was born in 1903 in Norfolk, Virginia, and was raised in North Carolina where she would go on to attend Shaw University in Raleigh. Oppressed people, whatever their level of formal education, have the ability to understand and interpret the world around them, to see the world for what it is, and move to transform it. The Student Leadership Conference made it crystal clear that current sit-ins and other demonstrations She believed that local African Americans could best lead themselves in their efforts to overturn Jim Crow segregation, rather than relying on charismatic preachers or outside experts. Ella Baker was a behind-the-scene strategist in many of the American progressive movements of the 20th century. She left the national organization in 1946 to care for a young niece, but eventually took the helm of the New York City NAACP branch. There’s no tasteful homage to her powers of speech, nary a commemorative magazine issue nor … Joe Biden Accepts Presidential Nomination: Full Transcript - The … She posed as a job seeker among the black women who waited each morning on designated Bronx street corners for white women to hire them for a day of low-paid labor. They are here not because they want to see something take place just for the fun of it, they are here because they should know, and I think they do know, that the freedom which they seek is a larger freedom that encompasses all mankind. Historian Howard Zinn introduced Ella Baker as "one of the most consequential and yet one of the least honored people in America." Department of Communication United we can, and will, overcome this season of darkness in America. She emphasized the importance of a grassroots approach over charismatic leadership within the movement. She notably helped form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. For Baker change came from the bottom up. Though Baker had misgivings about King's top-down leadership style, she signed on as the provisional director of the SCLC's voter rights campaign. In 1960, a wave of student-led lunch counter sit-ins offered new promise. Kalen M. A. Churcher, Voices of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project Reddick, “Notes on Southern Christian Leadership Conference Administrative Committee Meeting,” April 1959, in Papers 5:171-179.. Young, An Easy Burden, … It was headed by two of her closest friends, Anne and Carl Braden, who were white. [10] And so all of us stand guilty at this moment for having waited so long to lend ourselves to a fight for the freedom, not of Negroes, not of the Negroes of Mississippi, but for the freedom of the American spirit, for the freedom of the human spirit for freedom, and this is the reason I am here tonight, and this is the reason, I think, that these young men who have worked and given their bodies in the movement for freedom. Ella Josephine Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1903 and raised in Littleton, North Carolina. Human rigthts activist Ella Baker Joe Biden opened his acceptance speech Thursday night by quoting someone whom most of the audience -- indeed, most American -- have never heard of. "Ella Baker, a giant of the civil rights movement, left us with this wisdom: Give people light and they will find a way," Biden said. Ella Baker > Quotes > Quotable Quote “Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's son, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens.” ELLA BAKER, “ADDRESS AT THE HATTIESBURG FREEDOM DAY RALLY” (21 JANUARY 1964) Classroom Activities. At 57 years old, Baker was "the godmother of SNCC," urging the group to move deep into the rural South to recruit and support local leaders like Fannie Lou Hamer of Ruleville, Mississippi. Baker's method, with the SNCC cadre and local southern communities, was to create "conditions of possibility for others to find their voices and develop leadership. Citizenship & Civic Identity Consider the context in which Baker gave her address and who was present in the audience. "7 Baker died on her 83rd birthday in her Harlem apartment. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1935), 85. Brown attended the dinner, having been recently released from a Louisiana prison on a weapons charge. Ella Baker was a civil rights activist and important member of some of the most influential organizations in the civil rights movement. From The Southern Patriot, June 1960. [2] You know, I always like to think that the very God who gave us life, gave us liberty. In 1954, the Bradens purchased a home on behalf of a black couple in a segregated white suburb of Louisville. 1981-2000 For King, it was "top down." Site by, Shawn Parry-Giles, University of Maryland. George W. Bush 6. 3. SCEF was an interracial civil rights group. Baker biographer Barbara Ransby says the family belonged to a particular class "who saw themselves as representatives of the race to the white world and as role models for those less fortunate within the black community. Baker was regarded as a powerful and inspiring figure, but she consciously avoided the limelight. (Jack Harris / AP Photo) Ella Baker, Key Note Speech before the State Convention of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, August 6, 1964 Let Nobody Turn Us Around : An African American Anthology by Manning Marable (Editor); Leith Mullings (Editor) In Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, Barbara Ransby argues that Baker and King had radically different philosophies of change. Tim Barney Ella Baker, an official for the Southern Conference Educational Fund, speaks at the Jeannette Rankin news conference on January 3, 1968. The drive to serve her people powered Ella Baker's life. And we are going to have to have these freedom schools and we are going to have to learn a lot of things in them. I went to school like everyone else, But I did not follow all of the rules. She was also involved in the federal Workers Education Project, the Harlem YWCA, the Women's Day Workers and Industrial Leagues, and other left-wing and pro-union organizations. Jason Edward Black Ella Baker was an instrumental figure in the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) during the late 1950s and in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the early 1960s. Baker put her theory that “strong people don’t need strong leaders” into action when she encouraged college students to create an autonomous organization free of … She remained true to her self-effacing style, leaving relatively few personal records or intimate interviews for historians and biographers to work with. I’ve heard a lot of singing in my day. She also had three siblings. [5] And I’m not talking about Negroes, I’m talking about people. Baker yearned for a genuinely grassroots, democratic way to make change. We are just beginning the freedom struggle. Unfortunately, there is no Selma for Ella Josephine Baker. "Local people would be there long after she had gone. Ella Baker, her life, her witness, her words, and her deeds as one who exemplifies the glory of creation: a human being fully alive! The family was hardly well-to-do, but they had much compared to the desperate poverty endured by so many other African Americans, and they believed much was expected of them in return. In 1927, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree and with the status of class Valedictorian. Whether Baker was supporting local branches of the NAACP, working behind the scenes to establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) with Martin Luther King Jr., or mentoring college students through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), she was … Equality for all, that was what I wanted, And that is what I would work for my whole life. With her years of ground-level organizing across the South, Baker had a wealth of local networks and connections to help spread the SCLC message. Baker often spent a half of each year on the road. This speech was recorded at New York's Roosevelt Hotel at a dinner honoring Ella Baker. After more than two years, Baker left the SCLC because she felt it had become excessively centered on King's persona and authority. At the end of the discussion, explain that they will be studying the author of the quotation, Ella Baker. Bigger than any group of people, and it is the cause of humanity. While all sorts of rhetoric was going on, all kinds of grandstanding was going on, that's what she was doing."9. Patricia Bizzell Ella Josephine Baker was a civil rights activist whose organizational, behind-the-scenes work made her one of the most important figures in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1957, Rustin and Baker travelled south to help the young King create a new organization that would coordinate protest activities across the region, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., "The Spirit of Ella Baker Lives On," Washington Afro-American, January 27, 1987. At the end of the weekend, the conference goers created a new group, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Shawn J. Parry-Giles Ella Baker in an interview with Gerda Lerner, a historian, described her role in the NAACP; “you would deal with whatever the local problem was and on the basis of the needs of the people you would try to organise them in the NAACP” (Lerner, 1972, p.347). After attending the high school boarding program at all-black Shaw University in Raleigh, Baker got her B.A. A nice gathering like today is not enough. And although Baker had a reputation as a powerful orator, she "did not give many formal speeches before large audiences that were recorded by the media or published in manuscript form. You can join her legacy and be a part of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights today. Personal records or intimate interviews for historians and biographers to work with flanked by bodyguards because the! Whites burned a cross on the dismal conditions of itinerant black domestic workers in New:... Be there long after she had gone are not in the development of the discussion, that. 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