The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change
Baker, Ella
b. 1903 - d. 1986
Born in Virginia, the granddaughter of slaves, Ella Baker was one of the most significant women leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. Moving to Harlem she worked to establish consumer cooperatives during the Depression. She became a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), especially in building branches. A co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), she served two terms as acting director, emphasizing grassroots rather than top-down leadership. Building on the momentum of the sit-ins she helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. With Stanley Levison and Bayard Rustin, she co-founded In Friendship to provide aid to local movements in the South.
Associated Archive Content : 8 results
Letter from MLK to Mr. John Lee TilleyDr. King writes Mr. Tilley, the executive director of the SCLC, after nearly being stabbed to death at a book signing in Harlem, New York. He requests that Mr. Tilley attend to several organizational and book related matters. |
Mass Meeting Featuring MLKThis document is a program for a mass meeting sponsored by the SCLC and the Raleigh Citizens Association. Dr. King is the principal speaker of this meeting. |
Program for the SCLC Mass MeetingThis program is for a SCLC Mass Meeting that took place, at the Norfok Municipal Auditorium, on October 1, 1958. |
Recommendations to Committee on Future ProgramDr. King outlines several initiatives of the SCLC and other civil rights leaders. |
The Meaning of the Sit-InsThis document describes the growing civil rights movement. It discusses the tactics various civil rights organizations are using and briefly touches on the tactics of opposition groups. |
The Southern Struggle - What Can You Do?Corretta Scott King discusses the privilege of being able to experience a great social revolution based on love and nonviolence, as inspired by the teachings of Jesus and Gandhi. She identifies Rosa Park's personal protest on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama as the beginning of the southern struggle and consequent revolution. She goes on to describe how this simple act aroused a great movement across the south, ultimately leading to the creation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in January of 1957. |
Two Noted Rights Workers Added to Staff of SCEFThis article explains Ella J. Baker and John R. Salter were added to the New Orleans based Southern Christian Educational Fund shortly before its headquarters were raided by more than 100 policemen on October 4th. |
Women's International League ConferenceThis pamphlet provides information regarding the upcoming Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Conference. |