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African American, Black Activist, Black History, Black History leaders, Black History Month, Black Leaders, Black Leaders list, Civil Rights, Ella Baker, Influential, Influential Black Leaders, Martin Luther King - June 10, 2017

Ella Baker: Influential Black Leaders

Proof that visibility is not necessary to make an impact, Ella Baker is one of history’s lesser-known civil rights heroes, yet one of the most important. If Martin Luther King Jr. was the head of the civil rights movement, Ella Baker was its backbone. Born on Dec. 13, 1903, in Norfolk, Virginia, and raised in North Carolina, Baker cultivated her passion and desire for social justice at a young age. Her grandmother, who was a slave, once told her a story of being whipped for refusing to marry a man of her slave owner’s choosing — fueling Baker’s desire for...

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