From Humble to the Honorable- Ms. Ella J. Baker

Coming from a small town may be one of the best ways to learn about yourself and from others. It produces a kind of wisdom that you will eventually pass on to someone else. Ella Josephine Baker did just that with people she met throughout her life in her role as a friend, mentor, great-aunt, cousin, co-worker, community organizer and social justice and human rights activist.

Ms. Baker was born on Dec. 13, 1903. A graduate of Shaw University, she played a key role in civil and human rights organizations across the nation working alongside noted civil rights leaders W.E.B Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King Jr. She is ranked as one of the most important African American leaders of the twentieth century having mentored many emerging activists including Diane Nash, Rosa Parks Bob Moses and Stokely Carmichael through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She was born right here in the small town of Littleton N.C. – great things can generate from small places. A woman of great wisdom, she was fond of saying “Give light and people will find the way.”

Ms. Baker believed in getting things done and left a profound mark on all those who knew her, especially those where were blessed to be close. During a recent forum her great-niece, Dr. Carolyn Brockington spoke at a panel discussion about Ms. Baker. She described her great-aunt, who was very much a part of her childhood, as a patient woman and good listener. Dr. Brockington said Ms. Baker instilled the value of a good education and said that she encouraged her to achieve beyond the limits of her own past. Ms. Baker watched with pride, as she did with all those she taught, as Dr. Brockington progressed to become a successful neurosurgeon and renowned researcher.

Preserving Ms. Baker’s legacy has become an important goal to many in the community and her childhood home in Littleton continues to be maintained by her great-niece. There are plans for its restoration and development as a historic destination for educators and families and an Ella Baker Historic Highway marker has been placed on Highway 158 East located near the home.

Ms. Baker’s legacy as facilitator and a resource for community engagement are set the tone of Ella Baker Day events held on April 15 each year and organized by the Ella Baker Educational Project of NC, Inc.

Ella Baker Day is recognized in North Carolina with annual celebrations held in Halifax and Warren Counties. Freedom Rider Bob Zellner recently spoke to a group of divinity students during an Ella Baker tour in Littleton and stated that he believes Ms. Baker’s style of organizing people was greatly influenced by a concern for the needs of one’s neighbor that she witnessed from her extended family in the Elam community. That same collaborative style of organizing has been adopted in the learning environment that exists at the Ella Baker School in New York. Her concern for the needs of one’s neighbor and respect for the dignity of all is demonstrated at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland California. A collection of her writings is currently being prepared for an exhibit at the Schomburg Center in New York.

Much work has been done in the past 20 years to preserve the legacy of Ella Baker or “Fundi” as she was often fondly called. One such work, the documentary, “Fundi”, the story of Ella Baker, records segments of Ms. Baker’s life and her interaction with others. One of those segments is of a family gathering where Ms. Baker gave her undivided attention to a ten-year old boy who was facing challenges at school. It was her engaging voice and and demeanor that instinctively made him open up to comfortably sharing. She is remembered fondly for her extraordinary way of connecting with people. Ms. Baker was known for her interaction with college students and young adults in discussions that went on on for hours and sometimes days. Groups of young people would wade through their emotional responses to the turbulent circumstances during the 1960’s in the south. She thought of herself as the conduit for those conversations and guided the decisionsof the students as they prepared to protest social injustices that werean affront to equity and respect for the dignity of all human beings.Ms. Baker may be best remembered for mentoring a group of collegestudents at Shaw University that eventually formed the StudentNon-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). 2020 will mark 60 years since that well noted event. In commemoration, the Ella Baker EducationalProject of NC is making plans to highlight that milestone and will produce a special commemorative resource magazine.

Ella Baker worked with other notable organizations such as Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the NAACP and has been recognized as the mother of the Civil Rights Movement.

Whether in the company of a young family member, college students, or her contemporaries she was considered a reliable constant, forthright, honest and authentically caring force. She never sought media attention for her work, but her influence can be measured by the number of institutes, lecture series and training centers across the country bearing her name. They keep emerging and currently there is the Ella Baker Intern Program of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, the Harvard Divinity School’s Ella J. Baker and Amzie Moore Memorial Lecture Series, the University of Michigan’s Ella Baker-Nelson Mandela Center for Anti-Racist Education, the Children’s Defense Fund’s Haley farm in Clinton, Tenn. as referenced from Ella Baker, Freedom Bound by Joann Grant.

Ms. Baker was 83 when she passed away on her birthday Dec. 13, 1986 in New York City leaving a respected legacy that continues today in the form of organizations that educate and stimulate the conscience to create a more just and ethical society.

For more information about Ella Baker and local Ella Baker events visit ellabakereducationalprojectofnc.org and Like them on Facebook.