Lessons from Our Political Grandmother: Ella J. Baker - Chapter 3, Bynoe

In Chapter 3 of Stand and Deliver, Bynoe urges Black Americans to revisit their history and past leaders in the civil rights movement. One specific person that was not always in the light but played a vital role in the movement and founding of different organization is Ella Baker. Baker worked with several different organizations and helped found the Southern Christina Leadership Council, an organization that helped MLK Jr. and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating America, which produced several influential student activists.

The reason Bynoe urges Black Americans to look civil right leaders is because Baker believed in equality between Blacks and White, the importance of being treated fairly, and the strength in local leadership. As a member of the Hip Hop generation, we have often looked to historical and prominent figures in history such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and assume that they were the reasons why the civil rights movement has come so far. However, these people were the voice of the movement, but as Bynoe touches on, they were not the heart or groups of people that also pushed for strong Black leadership.

Bynoe believes that the most significant form of leadership is those that take place at the local level, not the higher levels or spokesmen of the Black race. Local level leaders are able to identify critical issue within the community. Spokesmen or higher up leaders then voice these issues, trying to speak for their community. Essentially, both high and local leaders are needed to make a change and therefore complement each other.

Besides voicing the need for local leadership, Ella Baker also fought to make sure generations were knowledgeable about their causes and components. She didn’t believe that you had to have a college degree in order to be informed but what mattered was that you were willing to learn. Often times she set up conferences, leadership trainings based on the ideology of “Give Light and the People Will Find the Way.” This ideology reiterated the impact individuals could have on their communities if they were educated and applied what they learned. Local leaders need facts and statistics to give to the Spokesmen or larger leaders. These workshops and conferences provided a way for members of the community to get involved.

From this reading, I too agree that local leadership or grassroots organizations are what help makes changes in society and in the civil rights movement. Local leaders know what is going on in their community because they live there. They know what the need and or desire. However, without leaders who are willing to be the voice and image of these communities, the spokesman, then these changes will not prevail.