Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (Gender and American Culture) - Softcover

Ensures that all who wish to know about Baker's tireless work can find a detailed account in one volume. ("Black Issues Book Review") "YRansby's passionate and demanding book offers a striking, thorough exposition of Baker's expansive, radical, humanist vision. ("Chicago Tribune")" "An excellent biographYy based on extensive research into manuscript collections, personal interviews, and secondary sources. . . . YA significant biographYy of Ya significant womYan. . . . ShowYs what strong, dedicated women could do for social change during decades when women weren't supposed to do anything but support their husbands and care for their children. . . . Not only teachYes us about the past but warnYs us about a possible future. ("Women's Review of Books")" "[Ransby's] passionate and demanding book offers a striking, thorough exposition of Baker's expansive, radical, humanist vision. ("Chicago Tribune")" "An] excellent biograph[y] based on extensive research into manuscript collections, personal interviews, and secondary sources. . . . [A] significant biograph[y] of [a] significant wom[an]. . . . Show[s] what strong, dedicated women could do for social change during decades when women weren't supposed to do anything but support their husbands and care for their children. . . . Not only teach[es] us about the past but warn[s] us about a possible future. ("Women's Review of Books")" Moving and invaluable. ("The Nation")

One of the most important African American leaders of the twentieth century and perhaps the most influential woman in the civil rights movement, Ella Baker (1903-1986) was an activist whose remarkable career spanned fifty years and touched thousands of lives. In this deeply researched biography, Barbara Ransby chronicles Baker's long and rich political career as an organizer, an intellectual, and a teacher, from her early experiences in depression-era Harlem to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Ransby paints a vivid picture of the African American fight for justice and its intersections with other progressive struggles worldwide across the twentieth century.