Ella Baker Research Paper

Give light and people will find the way, Said Ella Baker. She was a woman, who even in the darkest hour, gave light to people everywhere. Being a Civil Rights activist in the 1930’s, she was one of the leading figures in the Civil Rights Movement. She dedicated her life to fighting for freedom and equality, and she deserves to be recognized worldwide.

A brilliant woman once said, “I believe if the white and colored people could get together and be left alone, they would understand each other and consequently love each other” (Josephine Baker). Originally born Freda Josephine McDonald, Baker lived an oppressed early life as an African American girl with little to hardly any money. At the time, African Americans faced hardships due to the white supremacists that believed dark-colored people would not be of equal value to caucasians. Baker decided that she could overcome her persecution by moving to France and making herself into an idol. She was an independent and courageous woman who opened the doors for equality to many. Josephine Baker greatly impacted America due to her influence on women; therefore, leading to more women involved in education and working, her civil rights speeches that opened opportunities for equal races, as well as advocating for equality among men and women.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Black Panther Party (BPP) are two of the most influential organizational groups. They both fought for desegregation and stood for justice. They fought day in and day out to get equal social, economic and political rights for African Americans. During this time of desegregation, lynching, organized hate crimes organization such as the KKK and police brutality caused African Americans to protested and stand up for what they deserved. The SCLC was created in 1957 and believed that they could get their voices heard without violence. Bayard Rustin and Ella Baker along with Martian Luther King organized the protest in Alabama, the Montgomery Bus Boycott. They also joined local movements

The NAACP organizers, particularly the leader, E.D. Nixon decided the most way to gain support and spread the word in black communities in Alabama to enlist the help of local ministers and church leaders. Nixon and NAACP established the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to arrange the boycott and at it, they appointed a twenty-six year old minister, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr as its president. King studied writings of Henry David Thoreau and Mohandas Gandhi. Their teachings prescribed civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance to social justice. As they saw King at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and heard him say, “the once dormant and quiescent Negro community was now fully awake.” After what Nixon heard and learned from King, he thought King would be a good leader for this boycott.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was founded in 1957 and headed by Martin Luther King until his assassination in 1968. It grew out of the Montgomery Improvement Association, which has organized a successful boycott of the segregated city bus system in 1955-56, which resulted in the city's segregation laws being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Rosa Parks, the NAACP secretary in Montgomery, had become the test case to challenge segregated buses after she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. In 1963, SCLC organized the protests against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama and the protests for voting rights in Selma, Alabama in 1965, which gained international publicity for the civil rights movement and led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These were the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history and two key parts of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society agenda. King later broke with Johnson openly over the Vietnam War, which other mainstream civil rights leaders were very reluctant to do, and was assassinated in Memphis in 1968, where he had gone to support striking sanitation workers.

Ella Baker is a, African American, Civil Rights activist. She is an important part of North Carolina history because for her commitment and loyalty to the organizations that she worked for. Ella Baker was apart of the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She was an inspiration to many rising leaders and helped guide them in the right direction.

The book Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision, by Dr. Barbara Ransby was an incredible and extremely moving book. I really enjoy learning about history and significant people who have impacted the history and culture of our country. However, I have never learned of Ella Baker nor have I ever heard her name mentioned once. Barbara Ransby's book provides a well-structured and insightful biography of one of the most important, yet least well-known, leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. After reading Ransby's book, I have learned of the immense contributions that Ella Baker has contributed to history, more specifically the Civil Rights Movement. Furthermore, I have gained a greater understanding of the

Born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, Josephine Baker spent her youth in poverty before learning to dance and finding success on Broadway. Josephine was apart of the first black musical in New York. She took her stand against racism when she, refused to perform for segregated audiences and devoted the rest of her life to the civil right movement. Baker became famous for her theatrical performances, but she devoted her life to the idea that people of all nationalities can live peacefully together.

(Boisseau 154). This quote shows Josephine’s positive acts made many people see her as a weapon against Jim Crow Laws. In addition, she influenced Civil Rights for society in a positive way by encouraging other civil rights leaders to keep up their work. In a letter written by Josephine Baker to Martin Luther King, she said, “We cannot stop now—on the contrary, we must double our

Josephine baker a civil rights activist ,soldier ,and a vocal opponent of segregation and discrimination .the only women to address the audience during the march on Washington Josephine hoped for a land where minorities would not be judged by the color of their skin but the way they carry their character she wanted children to have the ability to go to school and learn "protect your self with the pen ....not the gun" stated Josephine . she was truly a phenomenal women who understood what the wanted and would not sit still until she achieved that goal she believed that every one had equal rights she fought for justice ,freedom and those who could not she bravely stood up for

She has remained a civil-rights activist throughout her life. At Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s request, she became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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