American poet and writer Margaret Walker presented the truest hypothesis regarding women and the civil rights movement. Her thoughts were that even before the days of the Civil War, women were forerunners and champions of equal rights. They campaigned for liberty from the bondages of slavery and the recognition of women as partners with men in every endeavor of life. Insofar as this was the case, the gruesome nature of American history rendered them inaudible. Such a history as segregation and slavery made the lives and names of African American women leaders unrecognized and unknown in the society of America. In a way, Margaret Walker was right. From the initial days of the Civil Rights Movement, black women have been at the center role when it comes to the fight for racial impartiality. Nonetheless, as the history of the Civil Rights Movement unfolds, one always gets the impression that there are only a few women involved such as Fannie Lou, Daisy Bates, Rosa Parks and Ella Baker (Gyant, 1996). This is so because most people view the leaders of the civil rights movement as being men. In the history books, most leaders of the civil rights movement were men like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Although this is the case, women played a central role as organizers and mobilizers in the movement.
The role of women as primary organizers and decisive mobilizers, leading and transforming the Civil Rights Movement proved pivotal and significantly important in forming and keeping the movement’s rhythm of bringing liberty. Consequently, women did play a major role in the struggle for equality and liberty. Such struggles as those of the suffrage, the anti-lynching laws, the provision of full employment and going against Jim Crow’s laws, were the sole undertaking of women in the Civil Rights Movement (Atwater, 1996). Inasmuch as women played significant roles in the civil rights movement, their overall impact on the Civil Rights Movement received minimal recognition. The contributions they made to the emancipation of black bondages are immense, yet unrecognized. In the writings of Mrs J. Gyant, her thoughts show and reflect the character of women in the Civil Rights Movement. She talked about these women as being incredibly strong. Women who some had not finished grade school, not to mention high school and who had not attended college came out of the fields and placed their passion on a bright future, which they had to fight to attain. These women presented a lesson on persistence, strength and encouragement. Through it all, especially in the burning down of their homes and the losing of their jobs, they were still able to stand for what they believed in. This paper works to reduce the perception that men alone played a pivotal role of leading in the Civil Rights Movement and that this alone does not justify their involvement. In addition, it leads to an unwarranted and biased interpretation of the movement.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Women from all spheres of life played a role in the Civil Rights Movement. These women, who also had the name ‘sisters in struggle’ comprised of service and domestic workers, schoolteachers, professors of colleges, secretaries in offices, sharecroppers, beauticians, housewives, students among others. Using their shared resources, skills, talents, courage, patience and strength, they were able to form a formidable bond of sisterhood and used this cohesion in their work pertaining to the movement. In this Civil Rights work, black women crossed all barriers and social class and not only did they fulfill traditional female roles such as nurturing and additional roles of caretaking, but they were also prime contributors and motivators to the Civil Rights Movement. Women such as Rosa Parks did not accept to give up her seat to a white woman in the struggle for the integration of Little Rock Central High School. In addition, JoAnn Robinson and the Political Council of Women called for bus boycotts in the city (Crawford, 1987). Such occurrences inspired the Civil Rights Movement and led to the liberty of the African American communities. Civil Rights activists like Ella Baker, Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Harmer did great things in setting the stage for a social revolution that resulted in a turn of the American societal stereotypes. Such women exhibited sound and timely leadership. Inasmuch as they faced stiff male dominance, especially in this political field, they rarely followed the perspective of these male representatives and leaders. Ella Baker, the most notable of these female revolutionists is famously known for saying that the movement of the fifties and sixties was possible because the number of women involved was much more than that of men (Christopher & Luker, 2014). In simpler terms, women did not allow themselves to be overwhelmed by the numbers of men present.
At the height of the Civil Rights Movement in 1964, civil rights activist and advocator Ella Josephine Baker spoke these words, which forever echo in the hearts of all Americans. She said, “Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest.” In these times of the movement, protests spread all through Ferguson to Los Angeles. These protests, sparked and incited by the constant killing of young African-American men, led to a rebirth of the Civil Rights Movement. At these times, gaps between whites and blacks existed and persisted and numerous issues such as unemployment, poverty and the disparities in race continued to double as they were in 1963, a time that saw African Americans carry placards that advocated for decent housing, equal rights, integration of schools and an end to racial bias. All through the Civil Rights Movement, Ella Baker’s crafts and words reflected a great sense of urgency and relevance that is still felt even in today’s revolutionary spheres and movements like those of the Black Lives Matter movement that had its most notable effect in 2015 (Dingemans, 2015). According to University professors, Ella Baker was not just a common name in the Civil Rights Movement; she worked more than most women, especially in causing additional people to join the movement. In the long run, her regard in the Civil Rights Movement was that of the backbone of the movement, making her role the most pivotal of all the women’s’ roles. To understand her impactful involvement, a closer look at her philosophy on activism and leadership is of utmost importance.
The career of Ella Baker as an organizer and strategist in the movement spanned the years 1930 to 1986. In 1927, she commenced working for civil rights organizations at the height of the renaissance in Harlem that was sparked by Malcolm X. During these times, she became exposed to a hotbed of thinking that had the reference of being radical. By 1930, her involvement with the Young Negroes Cooperative League led to the goal of establishing economic opportunities for African American communities who were impoverished. From working in such an organization, Ella Baker’s belief in leadership that was group centered became strong and this was her prime objective all through her career as an activist. She is notable for taking center stage in encouraging women and young people to take active roles in leadership and key positions within an organization instead of exclusive men. Baker further argued that women who had high positions had the consideration as being leaders inasmuch as most female activists did not consider themselves as being leaders. Through her advocacy as being a leader, she was vocal in her position, and many times, she said that she had the label of being a leader and this was due to the fact that most of the times, she responded to that which needed to be done (Dingemans, 2015). Ella Baker tended to the daily occurrences that presented themselves in African American communities and was appreciated by them for the good works she had done. The fact that most of Bakers leadership involvement were community-based meant that she held the responsibility of elevating the community.
Throughout Baker’s life, the significance of community service, and the solidarity of people who have a common agenda was important to her, and she always stressed on this issues. Her belief was that the achievement of Civil Rights would only take place through people committed to this struggle and the making of important decisions in their communities. In this, she reflected the importance of the existence of a bond among the activists of the Civil Rights Movement. Thus, involvement in the movement had to be and feel like an “affair of the family” exhibited clearly by the fact that women invited workers of the civil rights movements to their homes and gave them a place to eat and sleep. Through such community service, black women understood the existence of different degrees of activism based on domestic responsibilities, economic dependency and fear. As such, activists such as Ella Baker showed other women activists the need of helping each other.
A major theme that is clearly exhibited in the life of Ella Baker was the awareness of “participatory democracy.” This word refers to an explosion and eventual outgrowth of socially inclined participations, which require long-term communal commitment and a change in the societal systems. According to Ransby, for poor and oppressed people to become part of the system of meaningful societies, the norms within the initial systems need to undergo radical changes, and a new regime takes on the thinking and implementation process (Ransby, 2003). The term radical here indicates that the cause of the initial system need sound comprehension before any new implementation occurs. This inferred three pivotal strategies that required sound observance, which is the involvement of the community in decisions that affect their lives; the reduction of hierarchies and professional degrees in organizations that strived for social change; and direct affirmative action on sources of injustice. In a career that spanned twenty years, Ella Baker was able to fulfill these aspects and continued to inspire more people to the cause of the Civil Rights Movement. Baker’s idiosyncratic leadership tendencies helped in achieving participatory democracy and later consolidated her efforts in her plight for the equality of rights of black American communities (Ransby, 2003).
Ella Baker’s leadership role within the Civil Rights Movement saw her work in various positions and on different capacities. She saw herself as a bridge that acted across the differing social class divisions within the black community and as such earned the title of the female bridge leader. In a description by Robnett, the term “bridge leaders” reflects those who kept their hands on the rhythm of the community, as in the overall atmosphere within the community (Robnett, 1999). In essence, the sole goal of bridge leaders was to build the trust of the community and act in accordance to the desires of their constituents. Through such kind of commitment, bridge leaders acted as a backbone of the community and represented an adhesive force that held the different classes of people within the black community. Through Baker’s commitment, the bridge within the community was fused together, and the Civil Rights Movement was able to work effectively towards achieving liberty among African Americans.
While working for the NAACP after being the national director of the Young Negroes Cooperative, Ella Baker took on the role of field secretary. Her primary duties were building membership, supporting fundraising activities and the fostering of black awareness in the movement of civil rights (Moon, 2011). Such activities were characteristic of a bridge leader since they involved working with people on a daily basis. Baker was intensely involved with the people, which was an asset she used and served her well in achieving her success as an activist. After the Bus Boycott in Montgomery in 1957, Baker formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) together with Bayard Rustin and Stanley Levison, eventually creating, and organizing a base for Martin Luther King Jr. Baker’s involvement with SCLC was on executive director’s perspective. However, this organization did not champion for the leadership philosophies of Baker, and she went ahead to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). This organization, founded upon the principles of Baker’s leadership that are a group-centered leadership and mutual decision-making, saw Baker become its adult supervisor in 1964. She encouraged democracy within the group and discouraged personal leadership struggles. Eventually, through this group, she was able to produce community organizers who acted in an autonomous way resulting in the advancement of the Civil Rights Movement.
In conclusion, Ella Baker’s role as a Civil Rights activist is clear. Her belief based on participatory democracy leadership aided people who were ordinary to have a say in determining their future. She acted as a beacon of hope and light to subsequent leaders such as Marian Wright Edelman, Southern Poverty Law Center founder, who applied the same leadership philosophies in achieving civil rights goals. Subsequently, grassroots organizing and the rallying of local support has become an emblem in young activists who were inspired by the actions of Ella Baker.
References
Atwater, D. (1996). The Voices of African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement. Journal of lac Studies , 26 (5), 539.
Christopher, M., & Luker, R. (2014). Historical Dictionary of the Civil Rights Movement (1st ed). Rowman & Littlefield
Crawford, L. (1987). We shall not be moved: Black Female Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights movement (Doctoral Dissertation). Emory University.
Dingemans, A. (2015). Letting Their Voices be Heard: Black Female Activism in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s -1960s (Masters Thesis). Utrecht University.
Gyant, L. (1996). Passing the Torch: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement. Journal of lac Studies , 26 (5), 630.
Moon, D. (2011). Daily Life of Women during the Civil Rights Era (1st ed). ABC-CLIO.
Ransby, B. (2003). Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (1st ed). The University of North Carolina Press.
Robnett, B. (1999). How Long? How Long? African-American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights (1st ed). Oxford University Press.
