How Did Ella Baker Influence The Civil Rights Movement

Ella Baker

"In order for us as poor and oppressed people to become a part of a society that is meaningful, the system under which we now exist has to be radically changed. It means facing a system that does not lend itself to your needs and devising means by which you can change that system. That is easier said than done –Ella Jo Baker (Shetterly)."

Ella Josephine Baker, was an African American civil right activist born in Norfolk, Virginia on December 13, 1903. Ella grew up in the North where she developed an intellect for social justice. Ella’s grandmother had informed her on her own experience with slavery because she had been beaten by her slave master for refusing to marry a man he had chosen for her. With her grandmother telling her

But was used until 1960 that sit-ins was used widely as a form of protest. “A sit-in was used by four black college students that didn’t received any service because it was a white’s only café”, this generated publicity for the civil rights movement for change. Baker left SCLC after the Greensboro sit-ins. She wanted to support new student activists because she observed young, developing activists as a resource and an advantage to the movement (Ransby). In 1960, Miss Baker organized a meeting at Shaw University for the student leaders of the sit-ins. After that meeting, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was born. With Ella’s direction and inspiration, SNCC became one of the leading advocates for human rights in the country (“Who Was Ella Baker?”). The SNCC became the most active organizations and it was somewhat open to women. Ella persuaded the SNCC to form two wings: One wing for direct action and the Second wing for voter registration. She pushed the idea of “Participatory Democracy”, she wanted each person to get involved independently. 1964, she helped establish the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) as a substitute to the all-white Mississippi Democratic Party. She worked as the coordinator of the Washington office of the MFDP and attended a delegation of the MFDP to the National Democratic Party convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The group’s purpose was to challenge the national party to sustain the rights of African Americans to partake in party elections in the South