Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby

Author:Barbara Ransby [Ransby, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Political Science, Civil Rights, History, United States, 20th Century, Social Science, Ethnic Studies, African American Studies, Biography & Autobiography, Cultural Heritage
ISBN: 9780807862704
Google: SEfOhvXSvZsC
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Published: 2003-11-20T05:00:00+00:00

Ella Baker understood that the struggles in Louisiana and Alabama represented only the tip of the iceberg of southern racism and injustice and gave only a hint of black people’s willingness to resist oppression. She was committed to the struggle for the long haul, having devoted thirty years to progressive causes. In 1959, she had not yet found the right political organization to serve as her base of operations, but she was finding like-minded allies in the mass movements that were emerging in the South.

One way that she sustained herself physically during times of intense struggle, and psychologically and emotionally during lulls, was by reconnecting with old friends and comrades. They took care of her and provided her with refueling stations and respite from battle as she continued her itinerant insurgency across the South. One such person was Odette Harper Hines, a woman who had overlapped with Baker in Harlem in the 1930s and worked alongside her during her NAACP days in the 1940s. By 1959, Hines had relocated to Alexandria, Louisiana, not far from Shreveport; after several weeks of tireless work in Shreveport, Baker took time out to visit Hines for a few days to relax and regenerate herself. Hines was a true fan of Baker’s, describing her as “a person with great integrity … very human and warm,” with a sharp “clarity of analysis” about political matters-overall, “an extraordinary woman.“79 The two middle-aged activists “talked politics a little,” but the purpose of the trip was really to give Ella a break. Hines recalled that when her old friend arrived, “her tongue was hanging out. She was exhausted.“80 So Hines was content to pamper her a bit, make her her favorite shrimp salad, and provide her with some rare moments of solitude and calm. After her stay in Alexandria, Ella Baker went back to the battlefield in Shreveport for a few weeks more and then on to Birmingham, Atlanta, and New York for meetings and mobilizations.

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