Ella Baker Biography: December 13, 1903, was Ella Josephine Baker’s birthday. She was an African American woman who fought for women’s rights and civil rights. Ella Baker is well known for calling out racism in American culture and sexism in the civil rights movement. She criticized professionalized charismatic leadership and promoted radical democracy, grassroots organizing, and the ability of the oppressed to understand their situation and speak up for themselves. She was one of the most important American leaders of the 20th century and a remarkable figure for women in the civil rights movement. Let’s honor her.
Ella Baker Biography
Early Life
Blake and Georgiana Baker, Ella Josephine Baker’s parents, reared her in Norfolk, Virginia. During a racial riot in Norfolk in 1910, white people attacked black shipyard workers. Her mother made the decision to return the family to North Carolina, even though their father kept working for the shipping company. Baker’s childhood had little influence. Her grandfather Mitchell had passed away, and her father’s parents were a day’s ride away. Her grandmother, Josephine Elizabeth “Bet” Ross, used to tell her stories about leaving the South to avoid its harsh culture, and she listened to them often. Ella graduated from Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, with valedictorian honors. She came back to Shaw University years later to help with the founding of S.N.C.C.
Career
Then she moved to New York in search of employment. She met people there who were coping with the devastation and poverty brought on by the Great Depression, and she was first exposed to the radical political action that would eventually become her life’s work. After moving to New York in the late 1920s, she became a member of the Young Negroes Cooperative League (Y.N.C.L.), which enabled its members to pool their funds to obtain better deals on goods and services. She advanced fast to become national director.
Around 1940, Baker began working for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.) as a field secretary. In her capacity as the group’s recruiter and fund-raiser, she made a lot of trips. In order to care for her niece Jackie Brockington, she resigned from her post as national director of branches of the NAACP three years after being appointed to it in 1943. Ella Baker nevertheless persisted in working with the New York branch to improve the educational opportunities for Black students and integrate neighborhood schools. She stayed in New York and worked for several local companies, such as the New York Urban League. She was named director of the New York chapter of N.A.A.C.P. in 1952.
Baker participated in the 1957 founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C.) under the direction of Martin Luther King Jr. She was the acting executive director of the S.C.L.C. and oversaw the organization’s Atlanta, Georgia office. However, before departing the organization in 1960, she also had conflicts with King and other male SCL officials, who weren’t used to dealing with a strong-willed woman like her.
Ella Bakertook part in the planning of the 1960 event that led to the formation of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (S.N.C.C.) while working for the S.C.L.C. She offered guidance and support to this group of student activists. She advised organizations like the Third World Women’s Coordinating Committee and the Puerto Rican Solidarity Committee, fighting for social justice and equality even in her advanced years. Baker married T.J. Roberts in the late 1930s, and the two parted ways in 1958. Baker was eighty-three when she passed away in New York City on December 13, 1986.
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Ella Baker: Net Worth and Height
| Name |
Ella Josephine Baker |
| Date of Birth | December 13, 1903 |
| Date of death | December 13, 1986 (age 83) |
| Zodiac sign | Sagittarius |
| Height | 4′ 11″ |
| Relationship Status | – |
| Net Worth | $1 million |
| Social Media |
Why we Love Ella Baker
Her purpose in life was to serve others.
Her entire life, she dedicated herself to combating racial injustice and segregation. Ella Baker supported others and contributed to the advancement of Black people.
She promoted equality.
She kept her personal life private for the sake of equality and to ensure her acceptance as a unique person. Like everyone else, she simply carried on with her life, concentrating only on the struggle for equal rights.
Ella Baker served as an inspiration.
She was fearless, an inspiration to young girls and the African American community. She supported her community and encouraged a great deal of people to take up the struggle against injustice.
5 Facts
Her life is the subject of a documentary.
“Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker,” directed by Joanne Grant in 1981, explores Baker’s important role in the civil rights movement.
“Ella’s Song”
It was composed for “Fundi” by Bernice Johnson Reagon as a tribute to Baker.
Historian and fervent activist
Barbara Ransby wrote a book titled “Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision,” which describes her life and hardships.
She received a Candace Award.
She received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women.
No documentation of children
She had no kids and lived her entire life focused on her career.
