Ella J. Baker and the Black radical tradition.

Abstract

Ella Baker was a pivotal figure in the modern Civil Rights Movement from the 1930's until her death in 1986. At every critical juncture of the civil and human rights movement she made vital contributions, often tacitly and without fanfare. She was a leader of the Black cooperative campaigns in Harlem during the Depression. She worked as a grassroots organizer and national leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1940's. and she served as the first full-time staff person for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the 1950's. She was a colleague and a critic of Martin Luther King Jr., and was a co-founder of, and adult mentor for the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee in the early 1960's. Her contribution to the movement of the 1950's and 60's was pivotal, however, the roots of her activism, which is the focus of this study, extend beyond the temporal boundaries of those historic decades. This biography of Baker's early life surveys the origins and evolution of her political ideology and examines some of the personal and historical factors that contributed to the birth and articulation of her radical political consciousness; a consciousness, characterized by a harsh critique of economic injustice, an uncompromising indictment of racism, a commitment to participatory democracy, an intolerance of gender inequality, and a vision of a more egalitarian and humane social order. Ella Baker's political philosophy consisted of a radical humanism which grew out of two distinct traditions. One was the black Social Gospel tradition exemplified by the work of her mother and the black women's missionary movement in the first half of the twentieth century. This woman-centered tradition celebrated humility, social activism, and Christian charity. The second tradition was the black left tradition of Harlem in the 1920's and 30's. During her years in Harlem, Baker worked with the Young Negroes Cooperative League, the Harlem Library, the Works Progress Administration and various trade union and women's groups. It was during these critical years that Ella Baker forged a political vision that would guide her life's work. Baker's political philosophy opposed elitism, emphasized participatory democracy, stressed local decentralized organizations and placed confidence in the ability of ordinary people to transform their own lives. A survey of Ella Baker's rich political career parallels the evolution of the African American Freedom Movement itself for the better part of the twentieth century, and situates black women prominently within that tradition. Her complex political philosophy offers a broadened vision of leadership, social change, internal movement politics, the roots of the African-American feminist and womanist movements, and the black radical tradition as a whole.