Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision

One of the most important African American leaders of the 20th century and perhaps the most influential woman in the civil rights movement, Ella Baker (1903-1986) was an activist whose remarkable career spanned 50 years and touched thousands of lives.;A gifted grassroots organizer, Baker shunned the spotlight in favour of vital behind-the-scenes work that helped power the black freedom stuggle. She was a national officer and key figure in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and a prime mover in the creation of the Studetn Noviolent Co-ordinating Committee. Baker made a place for herself in the predominantly male political circles that included W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King Jr, all the while maintaining relationships with a vibrant group of women, students and activists both black and white.;In this deeply researched biography, Barbara Ransby chronicles Baker's long and rich political career as an organizer, an intellectual and a teacher, from her early experiences in depression-era Harlem to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Ransby shows Baker to be a complex figure whose radical, democratic worldview, commitment to empowering the black poor, and emphasis on group-centred, grassroots leadership set her apart from most of her political contemporaries. Beyond documenting an extraordinary life, the book paints a vivid picture of the African American fight for justice and its intersections with other progressive struggles worldwide across the 20th century.