Spotlight: Ella Baker

Spotlight: Ella Baker

Ella Baker (1903-1986) was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and became an important African-American civil rights and human rights activist. Although she mostly worked behind-the-scenes, she assisted many prominent figures such as WEB Dubois, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr., and A. Philip Randolph. She mentored and advised several young, emerging activists, specifically Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Rosa Parks, and Bob Moses. Baker was eventually nicknamed “Fundi,” which is Swahili for “a person who teaches craft to the next generation,” as she taught the emerging generation of activists.

She strongly believed in the ability of the oppressed to advocate for themselves and economic justice for all, while critiquing the numerous instances of sexism perpetuated by activists during the Civil Rights Movement, as many men were unwilling to let her decisions overpower theirs. However, she still had a large impact throughout the Civil Rights Movement, having a major role in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Baker assisted leaders with the creation of campaigns against lynching and unfair treatment, even teaching Rosa Parks in one of her workshops with the NAACP. She soon became one of the most prominent women in the Civil Rights unit, becoming the first female president of the NAACP New York chapter. In 1994, she was inducted to the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and in 1984, she received the Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, solidifying her position as a woman of significance throughout the Civil Rights Movement.

Anniversary of the Black Panther Party 

The Black Panther Party was a political organization founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in October of 1966. After meeting through their mutual protest of their college’s “Pioneer Day” celebration, they later formed together the Negro History Fact Group, which called on the school to offer classes in black history. The organization, Black Panthers, was originally founded in response to the assassination of black nationalist Malcolm X and the murder of Matthew Johnson, an unarmed black teen shot by the police in San Francisco. Their goal was to provide self-defense for Black communities in Oakland against police brutality. 

As they began to institute social programs and engage in political activities their popularity among other large minority communities grew tremendously. The Black Panther Party famously outlined a Ten Point Program which addressed their principle stance on justice for all and their political objectives. Many of their initial beliefs mirrored a Marxist ideology. In May 1967, The Black Panther Party reached national spotlight and were well known with regard to their challenges of police brutality and their launch of over 35 Survival Programs. By the early 1970s, FBI counterintelligence efforts, criminal activities, and an internal rift between group members weakened the party as a political force. Because of the violent conflicts within the party itself and the FBI frequently targeting the group, The Black Panther Party officially dissolved in 1982. In October we recount the anniversary of The Black Panther Party noting their fight for the larger Black Power movement. 

Citiation: 

Editors, History.com. “Black Panthers.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 3 Nov. 2017, www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement/black-panthers. 

Duncan, Garrett Albert. “Black Panther Party.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2020, www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Panther-Party. 

Saturday was Black Poetry Day, so to celebrate, we’re sharing a poem from one of our favorite poets, Jericho Brown. We hope you enjoy his words as much as we do.

‘N’em by Jericho Brown

They said to say goodnight

And not goodbye, unplugged

The TV when it rained. They hid

Money in mattresses

So to sleep on decisions.

Some of their children

Were not their children. Some

Of their parents had no birthdates.

They could sweat a cold out

Of you. They'd wake without

An alarm telling them to.

Even the short ones reached

Certain shelves. Even the skinny

Cooked animals too quick

To get caught. And I don't care

How ugly one of them arrived,

That one got married

To somebody fine. They fed

Families with change and wiped

Their kitchens clean.

Then another century came.

People like me forgot their names.

Brown, Jericho. “‘N’em.” The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database. Split This Rock, 2015. Web. October 16, 2020.

https://www.splitthisrock.org/poetry-database/poem/nem