Ella Baker

A leader in the fight to end discrimination against African Americans, Ella Baker inspired several generations in struggles against racism, poverty, and injustice throughout the world. Baker had a gift for organizing people. For nearly twenty years, she worked for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She then cofounded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced "snick"), and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). All of these groups made historic gains in the struggle for civil rights for black Americans.

Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1903. She grew up in North Carolina, in a small, rural community where working together and looking after others was seen as...