"Give Light and People Will Find the Way" -Ella Baker

As Ella Baker gave her class valedictorian speech at Shaw University, she left these words and these words led her life. Arguably, one of the most effective and committed grassroots organizer of the 20th century. Ella Baker was an architect behind the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and a leader that believed in the power of everyday people doing extraordinary things. In this episode, Revolutionary Baddies attempt to capture this hero and how she navigated the decades of powerful change. From her time as a student at Shaw University, the oldest HBCU in the South, to her founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Mrs. Baker brought tenacity, resilience, clarity, and resourcefulness to her vision of freedom. Her life and legacy deserves celebration, study, and praise. Hope you enjoy!Links for the show: Season 2. Episode 18The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honorée Fanonne JeffersThe Slave Market by Ella Baker and Marvel Cooke, NAACPYoung Negroes Cooperative LeagueIn Friendship, a fundraising organization founded by Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin, and othersElla Baker and the Radical Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara RansbyBlack Scare/Red Scare by Charisse Burden-StellyElla Baker Organizes NAACP Chapters in the SouthRoyal Ice Cream Parlour Sit-InSouthern Christian Leadership Conference, S.C.L.C.Ella Baker’s Impact On Civil Rights MovementCongress of Racial Equality, C.O.R.E.Robert F. WilliamsWant To Start A Revolution? By Dayo F. Gore, Jeanne Theoharis, Komozi WoodardFreedom Summer by Doug McAdamBlack Visions: The Roots of African-American Contemporary Ideologies by Michael C. DawsonBrother Hollis: The Sankofa of A Movement Man by Hollis WatkinsThis Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible by Charles E. Cobb JrOn The Freedom Side: How Five Decades of Youth Activists Have Remixed American History by Wesley HoganSend us Fan MailSupport the showInstagram & Threads: @revolutionarybaddiesYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@RevolutionaryBaddiesPatreon: patreon.com/RevolutionaryBaddies