John Wiley and Sons, 1998

Until this biography, students had to be content with only morsels of information from other publications about civil-rights activist Ella Baker, but Joanne Grant’s narrative traces Baker’s combative spirit back to the legacy of her grandparents, who were former slaves, and stresses a continuity of resistance within the African American community. The book covers Baker’s upbringing in a middle-class family, her education and graduation from Shaw University, her exposure to the Harlem Renaissance, and her stints as newspaper reporter, librarian, WPA teacher, and NAACP recruiter. The heart of the text is devoted to Baker’s years as director of branches of the NAACP and SCLC, as well as her aid to the young people of SNCC. Through Baker’s eyes the reader finds a critical view of Martin Luther King Jr. and NAACP president Walter White. The discussion of Baker’s influence on SNCC, however, is the book’s highlight. Grant weaves autobiographical references and recollections with the broader story of the civil rights organization and depicts Baker’s preference for grassroots leadership at the expense of her own. Baker’s persona, though, does not fully emanate from the text, nor does the extent of her commitment to grassroots organization. In addition, Grant’s attempt to remedy the oversight of the role of women in the Civil Rights movement ultimately fails; gender politics are not central to this biography. Despite these problems, though, this is a very significant contribution to Civil Rights movement history.