A review by seeceeread
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby

4.5

Radical change for Ella Baker was about a persistent and protracted process of discourse, debate, consensus, reflection and struggle.

Ransby thoroughly tromps Baker's path. We start with a childhood steeped in Black Baptist women's good deeds, followed by college, where Baker announced her intention to become anything but what her mother wanted (a teacher). Then into NYC, where she rubbed elbows, swapped ideas, and joined salons with soap box theorists of every leftist tradition. Through her commitments – paid, formal and unsung – to some of the most powerful freedom organizations of the century, including National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. With admirable steadfastness, Baker put in miles, hours, calls, handwritten notes and well-timed guiding questions to get ever closer to liberation.

I'm still curious about just how Baker's rolodex got so substantive, and what kinds of stories filled her clippings journal. What became of her hidden away husband after they split? And who did Ella most admire? But these kinds of questions are only possible because Ransby is so thorough. Her synthesis often felt repetitive. At the same time, this is a long book and some revisiting of key ideas works. I appreciated her candor at the difficulty of wrestling such a principled, dynamic giantess onto the page.