Jazmine Lopez Ms. Overton English lll 23-2-2024 Black History Project Ella Baker once said, “Strong people don’t need strong leaders”. In particular, that means the goal of becoming a leader, an educator, or an organizer, is not to be the strangest, the most overpowering, or even the most knowledgeable. Ella Josephine Baker was an African American civil rights activist. She was a largely behind-the-scenes organizer whose career spanned more than five decades. In New York City and the South, she worked alongside some of the most noted Civil Rights leaders of the 20th century, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Phillip Randolph, and Martin Luther King Jr. She also mentored many emerging activists. In the 1960s, Miss Baker organized
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People also know her for her critiques of both racism in American culture and sexism in the civil rights movement. Biographer Barbara Ransby calls Baker “One of the most important American leaders of the twentieth century and perhaps the most influential women in the Civil Rights movement“. Ella Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia on December 13, 1903. Baker spent most of her childhood in rural North Carolina. She was raised on the same land where her grandparents worked as slaves. She was the second of the three surviving children, bracketed by her older brother Blake Curtis, and younger sister Maggie. Her father Blake Baker worked on a steamship line that sailed out of Norfolk, and so was often away. Her mother Georgianna Ross Baker took in boarders to earn extra money. As a child, Baker grew up with little influence. Her grandfather Mitchell had died, and her father’s parents lived a day’s ride away. She often listened to her grandmother, Josephine Elizabeth. Josephine Elizabeth “Bet” Ross, tells stories about slavery and leaving the South to escape its oppressive
People also know her for her critiques of both racism in American culture and sexism in the civil rights movement. Biographer Barbara Ransby calls Baker “One of the most important American leaders of the twentieth century and perhaps the most influential women in the Civil Rights movement“. Ella Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia on December 13, 1903. Baker spent most of her childhood in rural North Carolina. She was raised on the same land where her grandparents worked as slaves. She was the second of the three surviving children, bracketed by her older brother Blake Curtis, and younger sister Maggie. Her father Blake Baker worked on a steamship line that sailed out of Norfolk, and so was often away. Her mother Georgianna Ross Baker took in boarders to earn extra money. As a child, Baker grew up with little influence. Her grandfather Mitchell had died, and her father’s parents lived a day’s ride away. She often listened to her grandmother, Josephine Elizabeth. Josephine Elizabeth “Bet” Ross, tells stories about slavery and leaving the South to escape its oppressive