Ella Baker. Ella Josephine Baker (December 13, 1903 December 13, 1986) was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist. Her grandmother was beaten and whipped for refusing to marry an enslaved man her owner chose,[13] and told Ella other stories of life as an African-American woman during this period. What school did Bessie Coleman go to as a child? Drew helped develop Americas first large-scale blood banking program in the 1940s, earning him accolades as the father of the blood bank.. In 1940, Drew led an effort to transport desperately needed blood and plasma to Great Britain, then under attack by Germany. "[39], SNCC became the most active organization in the deeply oppressed Mississippi Delta. Ella Baker Elementary School serves 504 students in grades Kindergarten-5. Motley wrote the legal brief for the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case, which struck down racial segregation in American public schools. Chien-shiung Wu (1912-1997), professor of physics at Columbia University, 1963. His images of life on Chicagos South Side in the early 1940s won him a job documenting rural poverty for the federal government. Born in 1903, she grew up heavily involved in the struggle for equal rights. Choose a language from the menu above to view a computer-translated version of this page. However, she respected that SNCC was moving in a new direction. Unidentified African American woman in uniform, 1861. Learn about the women's rights movement of the 1960s and '70s, its inspirations, goals, and successes. Weve been busy, working hard to bring you new features and an updated design. The late Marsha P. Johnson is celebrated today as a veteran of the Stonewall Inn protests, a pioneering transgender activist and a pivotal figure in the gay liberation movement. He was reportedly a spectator at a Homestead Grays game in Pittsburgh in 1930 when the catcher hurt his hand. (Bob) Roberts. Unable to redirect the organizations focus toward grassroots organizing, Baker resigned from her position in 1946. In 1927, she graduated as the class valedictorian. The black church then had largely female membership and male leadership. Ella Baker was born in 1903 in Norfolk, Virginia. Gender: Female. From 1962 to 1967, Baker worked as the staff of the Southern Conference Education Fund (SCEF). He was fired the next day. provided crucial intelligence that helped defeat the British and end the war. After serving in World War I, he returned to his Minnesota town and built a transmitter for its new radio station. They were drawn to new ideas of Black self-defense and Black Power. ELLA BAKER SCHOOL AT A GLANCE 2020-21. She got top officials to deliver lectures, offer welcoming remarks, and conduct workshops. With its youthful energy, SNCC members worked on the ground, helping people in rural communities vote, educate themselves, and combat racism. I have always thought what is needed is the development of people who are interested not in being leaders as much as in developing leadership among other people. Not long after, she was invited to Atlanta to support the creation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Ella also believed that women were the unappreciated and unrecognized backbone of the movement. In the early 1930s, in one of her first efforts at implementing social improvement, she helped organize the Young Negroes Cooperative League, which was created to form cooperative groups that would pool community resources and thus provide less-expensive goods and services to members. King to John Lee Tilley, 3 April 1959, in, The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. The work was dangerous for a young, Black woman to undertake. Wilson never got the attention of big band arrangers like Duke Ellington, but he was also a major innovator in jazz music. Naturally, she rose to director of that branch and became the first female leader in that chapters history. Ella Baker, in full Ella Josephine Baker, (born December 13, 1903, Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.died December 13, 1986, New York, New York), American community organizer and political activist who brought her skills and principles to bear in the major civil rights organizations of the mid-20th century. This personalized approach was one important aspect of Baker's effectiveness in recruiting more NAACP members. Also, much as she had done while in University, Baker sought to fight bureaucracy within the NAACP. Instead, she moved to New York City in search of work. Most of the action took place in court rooms, where members could not participate. Her influence was reflected in her nickname, Fundi. It is a Swahili word meaning a person who teaches a craft to the next generation. With her guidance and encouragement, SNCC became one of the foremost advocates for human rights in the country. What did Elizabeth Eckford do after high school? Also, there were over 400,000 members in the mid-1940s, but the NAACP did very little organizing. In 1992, Johnsons body was found floating in the Hudson River. His arrangements were archived by the Library of Congress and in 1990, the National Endowment for the Arts honored him with a Jazz Masters Award. 317 E 67th St New York NY 10065 (212) 717-8809. Like Baker, Parks adopted a philosophy of nonviolent protesting. He never looked back. For instance, the Students for a Democratic Society, the major antiwar group of the day, promoted participatory democracy. For the next three years, she traveled throughout the Deep South, recruiting members, raising money, and spreading awareness about the importance of civil rights. Claim this business (425) 936-2790. Photo: Library of Congress / Getty Images, inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, told people the P in her name stood for Pay It No Mind, first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, suddenly opened a global market for fresh produce, parlayed his invention into a successful company, the National Association of Black Journalists, the first Black woman to earn a pilots license, some judges turned their backs when she spoke, already married to a dentist and had a son, attack by White officers against peaceful Black demonstrators. This caught the attention of a businessman, Joseph Numero, who offered Jones a job developing sound equipment for the fledgling movie industry. 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. According to her biographer Barbara Ransby, Baker believed that black power was a relief from the "stale and unmoving demands and language of the more mainstream civil rights groups at the time. Baker also supported the Puerto Rican independence movement and spoke out against apartheid in South Africa. The school is part of HOUSTON ISD. On April 30, 1926, she was practicing for a May Day celebration in Jacksonville, Florida, when her plane, piloted by her mechanic, flipped during a dive. But by the time of her death in 2010, Height had taken her place among the movements towering figures. Nicole Chavez, CNNPhoto: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images. View all 8 active rentals today. The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights continues her work today. George Ballis (photographer), Black Delegates Challenge Mississippi Democrats, 1964. Leah Asmelash, CNNPhoto: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images. [4][5][6][7], Ella Josephine Baker was born on December 13, 1903, in Norfolk, Virginia,[8] to Georgiana (called Anna) and Blake Baker, and first raised there. Historians say her contributions to the civil rights movement were overlooked at the time because of her sex. What elementary school did Thurgood Marshall go to? Baker continued her college education at Shaw, graduating as valedictorian in 1927. What elementary school did George Washington Carver go to? Every Black History Month, we tend to celebrate the same cast of historic figures. One was a mystic, another was a spy who posed as a slave, and another was a brilliant but troubled poet dubbed the Godfather of Rap. Few were household names. [49] Federal civil rights legislation was passed by Congress and signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and 1965, but implementation took years. An outspoken woman, Baker believed in egalitarian ideals. She left the SCLC in 1960 to help student leaders of college activist groups organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She eventually helped plan the NAACPs strategy for desegregating schools, leading to her involvement with the Little Rock Nine. American political activist Ella Baker helped found some of the major civil rights organizations of the mid-20th century. A new, third level of content, designed specially to meet the advanced needs of the sophisticated scholar. Its time for these American heroes to get their due. [CDATA[//>