Ella Baker was a civil rights activist born in 1903 in Norfolk, Virginia who played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement. She helped establish organizations that promoted black economic empowerment and was involved with the NAACP starting in 1940. In 1960, she organized a meeting of student leaders from the sit-in movement that led to the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), an important organization in the Civil Rights Movement. Baker believed in empowering young people and grassroots leadership.

1. Ella Baker Tamra Walker

2. Ella Baker

3. Ella Jo Baker Born December 13,1903 in Norfolk, Virginia Died December 13,1986 on her 83rd birthday

4. Career/Job Baker studied at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. As a student she challenged school policies that she thought were unfair. After graduating in 1927 as class valedictorian, she moved to New York City and began joining social activist organizations. In 1930, she joined the Young Negroes Cooperative League, whose purpose was to develop black economic power through collective planning.

5. Career/Jobs cont. Ella Baker began her involvement with the NAACP in 1940. Miss Baker organized a meeting at Shaw University for the student leaders of the sit-ins in April 1960. From that meeting, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee -- SNCC -- was born.

6. Ella Baker words "Long before I would ever hear the name of Ella Jo Baker, I was living inside of the world her leadership help create. As a child of Oakland I grew up hearing about the role of young people as front line fighters for freedom in the Civil Rights Movement. I got my start in the movement in youth programs that were based on the work Ms. Baker had done with SNCC, leadership programs based in the idea that young folks had something special to contribute to the struggle for freedom. That's now part of my DNA and I take it everywhere I go."