Ella Baker: Freedom Bound Book

"A warm, tender, and incisive portrait of an unheralded mover in this century's struggle for the rights of African Americans, women, local people, and especially the young." — Marian Wright Edelman President, The Children's Defense Fund "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 "Definitive biography of Ella Baker. Those who knew Miss Baker will be grateful to find her walking again through these pages, hat and heart firmly in place. Those who did not will be surprised to discover how crucial she was to U.S. history." — Gloria Steinem "An affectionate, informal, and perceptive biography of one of the leading civil rights figures of this century . . . whose indefatigable work with the NAACP, SCLC, and SNCC on behalf of the cause of social justice should never be forgotten." — Arnold Rampersad Program in African American Studies Princeton University and author of Jackie Robinson "Lyrically written and inspiring . . . a powerful, vivid, exciting triumph." — Blanche Wiesen Cook author of Eleanor Roosevelt "A wonderful long life story." — Pete Seeger "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: Biography of a Race and King: A Biography Ella Baker came out of slavery, and this fact lived with her. That is a difficult thing for people in the late twentieth century to grasp. She came out of a family that rebelled against the status quo and she carried on the family tradition. But she was not against; she was for. She was for the participation of people in whatever affected their lives. She was for the best in all of us.—from the Introduction Shining a guiding light on the path to freedom, Ella J. Baker stood at the forefront of the great struggle for civil rights. The battles she fought, the organizations she helped build, the prominent leaders she worked with, shoulder to shoulder—all these make her story a history of the movement itself. In Ella Baker, noted journalist and movement veteran Joanne Grant gives us the first full portrait of the incomparable Ella Baker. Born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1903, Baker grew up in a largely self-sufficient African American community where she was nurtured by a loving extended family and a mother who instilled in her a strong sense of responsibility. After attending Shaw University in North Carolina, Ella Baker moved north to the social and artistic ferment of the Harlem Renaissance. For an eager and determined young woman, Harlem in 1927 offered the excitement of new ideas, new relationships, and new freedoms. Before long she was actively organizing consumer cooperatives and working for the then leading civil rights organization, the NAACP. Ella Josephine Baker had found her calling, and the rest is riveting history. Although she shunned the spotlight, believing the glare of the media more a hindrance than a help to her work, Miss Baker, as she was known to all, nonetheless found herself center stage in the struggle for civil rights. Throughout the nineteen forties, fifties, and into the sixties, she fought to desegregate the schools, to increase voter registration, and to encourage participation of African Americans in electoral politics. Above all, she strove to get people everywhere more involved in the decisions that affected their own lives. In addition to her position as a national officer of the NAACP, Baker helped found Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In a political world dominated by men, there were those who did not always know what to make of this driven, feisty, intensely focused woman. Her unceasing efforts brought her into confiict with Martin Luther King Jr. himself. Joanne Grant first met Ella Baker in 1960, and they remained friends and coworkers until Miss Baker's death in 1986. In Ella Baker, Ms. Grant draws on hundreds of sources, including extensive interviews with Ella Baker and her friends, relatives, and colleagues. The result is a vivid, "you-are-there" experience that celebrates the enduring legacy of the woman whose determination and courageous achievements continue to inspire succeeding generations. Read More