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Ella Baker: Freedom Bound
Praise for ELLA BAKER
"Splendid biography . . . a valuable contribution to the growing body of literature on the critical roles of women in civil rights."--Joyce A. Ladner, The Washington Post Book World
"The definitive biography of Ella Baker, a force behind the civil rights movement and almost every social justice movement of this century."--Gloria Steinem
"This book will be received with plaudits for its empathy, insightfulness, and gendered narration of an astonishingly neglected life that was pivotal in the pursuit of American justice and humanity."--David Levering Lewis Pulitzer Prize-winning author of W. E. B. Du Bois
"Pathbreaking. By illuminating the little-known story of how profoundly Ella Baker influenced the most radical activists of the era, Grant's graceful portrayal reveals Miss Baker's transformative impact on recent history."--Kathleen Cleaver
"Splendid biography . . . a valuable contribution to the growing body of literature on the critical roles of women in civil rights."--Joyce A. Ladner, The Washington Post Book World
"The definitive biography of Ella Baker, a force behind the civil rights movement and almost every social justice movement of this century."--Gloria Steinem
"This book will be received with plaudits for its empathy, insightfulness, and gendered narration of an astonishingly neglected life that was pivotal in the pursuit of American justice and humanity."--David Levering Lewis Pulitzer Prize-winning author of W. E. B. Du Bois
"Pathbreaking. By illuminating the little-known story of how profoundly Ella Baker influenced the most radical activists of the era, Grant's graceful portrayal reveals Miss Baker's transformative impact on recent history."--Kathleen Cleaver
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 11, 2010
A biography of Ella Baker. A history of the Civil Rights Movements from the NAACP in the 1940s to the SCLC in the 50s to the very founding of SNCC in the 1960s. A guidebook for grassroots, challenging, empowering activism. I fucking adore this woman, her philosophy that extended beyond any single organization, her unwavering commitment to the liberation of people by the people themselves, and her years of dedicated behind the scenes activism and organizing to enable all this fucking shit to go down!
Ella Baker is a hero. Joanne Grant, the author of this bio, gets mad props not just for recognizing the phenomenal, often hidden organizing by Miss Baker and publicizing it so the world would not overlook the incredible contributions Baker made to so many major moments in the Freedom struggle, but also for elucidating the radical ideology that pervades all of her work.
In the NAACP and the SCLC (Martin Luther King's organization), Baker's was the voice of mass organizing, the dissident force pushing against charismatic, intellectual leaders, urging them to let the people lead. She backed up her words with months of hard travel on Jim Crow roads to get out to meet, listen to, offer guidance to, and form close relationships with African American people living throughout the rural South. When she eventually quit the NAACP because she felt its leadership was too concentrated, there was a general uproar from the local chapters, who claimed Baker was the only NAACP staff who they knew; to many, she was the only reason they needed that organization. Baker felt that local people knew best what affected their particular locality and should therefore be the ones deciding their chapter's priorities and funding needs. She saw a use for national organizations-- indeed, almost always worked for them-- but seemed to use them as tools to get resources to local organizers and as networks to spread ideas and energy (and sometimes volunteers) out to other locally-based, contextualized struggles. She advocated for "group-centered leadership" and against "leadership centered groups" (p. 123).
Baker was always prepared to do the shit work that enables a movement to move. During the Freedom Rides, Baker did legal support, asking protesters if they'd told their parents and if they were prepared for "jail-no-bail." She pushed for education and leadership trainings. She fought her own organizations for basics like office space and clear job descriptions. A. Philip Randolph explained, "Ella has the unique quality of having the necessary sense of struggle for an oppressed people to achieve the alleviation of oppression, and at the same time she is capable of understanding certain principles of organizing that are necessary to achieve an objective. Many militants don't understand that. They think that part of militancy is to disregard organized procedure" (p.111). By creating explicit methods of communication and process, Baker made participation in the movement more accessible to a wider range of people. She emphasized that meeting the material and emotional needs of activists make for capable activists.
When waves of students began sit-in campaigns across the South, Baker immediately saw the potential and strength of these youth. She was totally inspired, and yet is recalled by so many in the movement as their inspiration and support. Baker quickly began organizing with student strikers, and somehow managed to be quietly in the background (often not quietly-- but never overpowering) at all of the organizing meetings and strategy sessions that eventually became SNCC. When older movement organizers grew concerned that SNCC was getting too radical, Baker's own radical politics rooted her the evolving movement.
Realize, all of this with bombs going off in Movement people's homes and churches. Horrible lynchings, mob violence against Black people, arson in the spaces they inhabited, politicized or not. Economic violence-- blacklisting against employment as a slow death. Student volunteers to register people to vote were getting shot at; some were murdered. These were all people with whom Ella Baker worked and formed close ties. Baker lived through, witnessed, and comforted the victims of extreme violence-- and the daily violences, the consuming oppression. When a bomb exploded in Louisiana and organizers decided to put out a statement demanding an inquiry from the federal government, Baker waited patiently for the local office-- the one that was bombed-- to regroup, recover, and issue the statement themselves, rather than simply drafting it herself 'in their words'. Grant calls this "a subtlety in terms of organizing, an Ella Baker specialty." Always, meeting people on a human level, demonstrating that it is their participation that makes a movement liberatory, the means are the ends.
Ella Baker is a hero. Joanne Grant, the author of this bio, gets mad props not just for recognizing the phenomenal, often hidden organizing by Miss Baker and publicizing it so the world would not overlook the incredible contributions Baker made to so many major moments in the Freedom struggle, but also for elucidating the radical ideology that pervades all of her work.
In the NAACP and the SCLC (Martin Luther King's organization), Baker's was the voice of mass organizing, the dissident force pushing against charismatic, intellectual leaders, urging them to let the people lead. She backed up her words with months of hard travel on Jim Crow roads to get out to meet, listen to, offer guidance to, and form close relationships with African American people living throughout the rural South. When she eventually quit the NAACP because she felt its leadership was too concentrated, there was a general uproar from the local chapters, who claimed Baker was the only NAACP staff who they knew; to many, she was the only reason they needed that organization. Baker felt that local people knew best what affected their particular locality and should therefore be the ones deciding their chapter's priorities and funding needs. She saw a use for national organizations-- indeed, almost always worked for them-- but seemed to use them as tools to get resources to local organizers and as networks to spread ideas and energy (and sometimes volunteers) out to other locally-based, contextualized struggles. She advocated for "group-centered leadership" and against "leadership centered groups" (p. 123).
Baker was always prepared to do the shit work that enables a movement to move. During the Freedom Rides, Baker did legal support, asking protesters if they'd told their parents and if they were prepared for "jail-no-bail." She pushed for education and leadership trainings. She fought her own organizations for basics like office space and clear job descriptions. A. Philip Randolph explained, "Ella has the unique quality of having the necessary sense of struggle for an oppressed people to achieve the alleviation of oppression, and at the same time she is capable of understanding certain principles of organizing that are necessary to achieve an objective. Many militants don't understand that. They think that part of militancy is to disregard organized procedure" (p.111). By creating explicit methods of communication and process, Baker made participation in the movement more accessible to a wider range of people. She emphasized that meeting the material and emotional needs of activists make for capable activists.
When waves of students began sit-in campaigns across the South, Baker immediately saw the potential and strength of these youth. She was totally inspired, and yet is recalled by so many in the movement as their inspiration and support. Baker quickly began organizing with student strikers, and somehow managed to be quietly in the background (often not quietly-- but never overpowering) at all of the organizing meetings and strategy sessions that eventually became SNCC. When older movement organizers grew concerned that SNCC was getting too radical, Baker's own radical politics rooted her the evolving movement.
Realize, all of this with bombs going off in Movement people's homes and churches. Horrible lynchings, mob violence against Black people, arson in the spaces they inhabited, politicized or not. Economic violence-- blacklisting against employment as a slow death. Student volunteers to register people to vote were getting shot at; some were murdered. These were all people with whom Ella Baker worked and formed close ties. Baker lived through, witnessed, and comforted the victims of extreme violence-- and the daily violences, the consuming oppression. When a bomb exploded in Louisiana and organizers decided to put out a statement demanding an inquiry from the federal government, Baker waited patiently for the local office-- the one that was bombed-- to regroup, recover, and issue the statement themselves, rather than simply drafting it herself 'in their words'. Grant calls this "a subtlety in terms of organizing, an Ella Baker specialty." Always, meeting people on a human level, demonstrating that it is their participation that makes a movement liberatory, the means are the ends.
July 23, 2016
This is the first biography written about Ella Baker by one who knew her personally. Joanne Grant, an early member of SNCC, met Ella Baker in 1960 when Ella was in her late 50's. The first part of the book is a bit stilted, but from the point where the author begins occasionally speaking in the first person, the account takes on a power and intimacy that helps the reader get a feel for Ella Baker, as both a leader and a person. Grant makes clear that throughout her life Baker had a commitment to grassroots leadership that reached its near fulfillment in the work of SNCC. The first part of the book (pre-1960) lacks the intimacy and polish and so the work is a bit uneven. For someone interested in gaining an outline of Baker's life, this book is a good start, but for a fuller picture of Ella Baker, this book does match Barbara Ransby 's more recent work.
September 26, 2017
2017 Reading Challenge - A book about an interesting woman
This biography of Ella Baker is engaging. I knew of Baker's work through other studies of history, this book offered a chance to learn about her work and ethos in an in depth personal manner since it was authored by one of her close friends. Bakers lifelong advocacy of young activists is inspiring. She supported them and had faith that they knew how to grow their own movements. This faith in others to realize their own potentials also was strongly reflected in her championing of grassroots activism within communities. To her credit she shunned top down leadership and advanced the idea that the people who were most affected by a political movement - sharecroppers, students, whomever was on the front lines - should be leading the movement. The author describes how Baker would sit back in meetings listening for hours as people worked through problems and ideas. She would take in everything before she brought forth her ideas, and she never tried to push her agenda, she simply reflected and offered sage advice. This is such a strength, to listen and really hear what people have to say, and then to support them. Her patience, acceptance, listening ear and fortitude are inspiring. I recommend this book.
This biography of Ella Baker is engaging. I knew of Baker's work through other studies of history, this book offered a chance to learn about her work and ethos in an in depth personal manner since it was authored by one of her close friends. Bakers lifelong advocacy of young activists is inspiring. She supported them and had faith that they knew how to grow their own movements. This faith in others to realize their own potentials also was strongly reflected in her championing of grassroots activism within communities. To her credit she shunned top down leadership and advanced the idea that the people who were most affected by a political movement - sharecroppers, students, whomever was on the front lines - should be leading the movement. The author describes how Baker would sit back in meetings listening for hours as people worked through problems and ideas. She would take in everything before she brought forth her ideas, and she never tried to push her agenda, she simply reflected and offered sage advice. This is such a strength, to listen and really hear what people have to say, and then to support them. Her patience, acceptance, listening ear and fortitude are inspiring. I recommend this book.
October 21, 2018
Ella Baker was right on target. Listen to the people in the field. Don’t just stand in front of a crowd and shout. Really listen. ENA, are you paying attention? No? Vote Yes on Question 1 on Nov 6th. Ella Baker, thank you for all you did!
March 31, 2016
I am not a really big fan of biography. I am interested in history, though, and I am more interested in some historical periods than others. The civil rights movement is a part of history that I do have a pretty strong interest in and especially the civil rights movement in the 1960s. This biography of Ella Baker is a book of history on just that subject. She was born in 1903 and was an early member of the NAACP and all of that history is covered, but the narration becomes a good deal more detailed when the book reaches the late 1950s and the decade of the 1960s. It covers the founding of the SCLC and the SNCC too. Altogether it was quite interesting and educational. My criticism is that it just touches on and skims over the influence of communists on the civil rights movement. I happen to think that is an underrated aspect of the movement that is all too often swept under the rug and this book does its part to sweep the communist participation under the rug too even if it does barely acknowledge it.
November 8, 2016
A straightforward history of Miss Ella Baker's life and work. Written plainly, but Ella's story is worth telling, and the work itself is so inspiring. The case is clear that Ella Baker was a central figure in the civil rights movement of the 60's, not for her oratory skills and inspiring, nurturing presence, but for her faith in youth and ability to organize and teach others to organize themselves and get active in their communities. The story is told in facts and with love. Also has a few photographs, a speech, and an epilogue on her last days, which are not readily found online.
May 19, 2009
Great subject, but the book was nothing special. Sort of written like a high school research paper, not a illuminating biography. I also found the bouncing around between dates and time periods to be distracting. Worth reading, but hardly inspiring or engaging, unlike Baker herself. Wondering if there is a better Ella Baker biography out there.
September 4, 2007
This is a excellent book on the life and work of Ella Baker and the Civil Rights Movement. How the raw energy of young people can be both nutured and given guidance.
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January 10, 2008Another tribute to Baker I have put on my "must-read" list.
January 5, 2016
I bought this book because it was the best of the books I read on Ella Baker.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews