Ella Josephine Baker
One of the nation’s most influential women in the American civil rights movement, Ella Josephine Baker was born on December 13, 1903 in Norfolk, Virginia and died on her birthday, December 13, 1986 in New York City, New York at age 83. Just name a major personality in the height of the civil rights movement and you may find a connection to Ella Baker. She worked with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the NAACP, SNCC and many other individuals and organizations in fighting discrimination and promoting equal rights during the turbulent decades of blatant racial injustice in the twentieth century.
She was educated at Shaw University where she graduated as class valedictorian 1927. She left a legacy of a life committed to serving mankind in it’s struggle for the betterment of social and civil rights across America.