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A review by outcolder
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby
5.0
Wow. I knew she was supercool and did lots of behind the scenes work while men like Martin Luther King Jr and NAACP Walter White took all the credit, but I did not now how much influence she had on SNCC. She played a huge role in guiding individuals in SNCC towards more inclusive discussion and debate, towards direct action instead of legislative or electoral tactics, and she was always firmly for a big picture victory... it was never about just integrating lunch counters or small reformist struggles. She was working for a whole new world built on inclusion and fairness. I also did not know that she was one of the main instigators in setting up SNCC in the first place or later the broad movement to free Angela Davis.
Not only is the subject of this book exciting and amazing, but it is also fun to read. The concluding chapter has names like Gramsci and Freire in the title, and I was like, uh oh, here comes the impenetrable academic analysis... but no, that chapter was also awesome. I got to get more books about the women in SNCC, man. And about these smaller, whiter groups that she was down with who did fund raising and other support work.
But it isn't just the 1960s stuff that makes this book so great. Baker is active from the 1920s on. And looking at these struggles from her perspective is fascinating. Early in the book and her political life, Baker had an alliance with George Schuyler. They were working on building a network of African American consumer cooperatives... like Black food coops... He doesn't play a big role in the book, but I think his influence on Baker is there and that is another "wow" thing for me. Up til reading this book, I mainly knew Schuyler from an excerpt of his [b:Black No More|827686|Black No More|George S. Schuyler|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320471953s/827686.jpg|813407] that appeared in [b:Dark Matter: Reading the Bones|286077|Dark Matter Reading the Bones|Sheree Thomas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344267699s/286077.jpg|277543] and some mention of him in [b:On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy|1721026|On the Real Side A History of African American Comedy|Mel Watkins|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328757733s/1721026.jpg|1718402]... so more his literary work, the stuff that gets him compared to Mencken. The Internet considers him a Conservative, but that doesn't seem quite right. Anyway, he's a very small part of this book and now a significant part of this review and that also doesn't seem fair. The point is, that Baker was very active with a lot of amazing groups and even if SNCC is for me the jewel in the crown, there is a lot more to her even than that.
Not only is the subject of this book exciting and amazing, but it is also fun to read. The concluding chapter has names like Gramsci and Freire in the title, and I was like, uh oh, here comes the impenetrable academic analysis... but no, that chapter was also awesome. I got to get more books about the women in SNCC, man. And about these smaller, whiter groups that she was down with who did fund raising and other support work.
But it isn't just the 1960s stuff that makes this book so great. Baker is active from the 1920s on. And looking at these struggles from her perspective is fascinating. Early in the book and her political life, Baker had an alliance with George Schuyler. They were working on building a network of African American consumer cooperatives... like Black food coops... He doesn't play a big role in the book, but I think his influence on Baker is there and that is another "wow" thing for me. Up til reading this book, I mainly knew Schuyler from an excerpt of his [b:Black No More|827686|Black No More|George S. Schuyler|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320471953s/827686.jpg|813407] that appeared in [b:Dark Matter: Reading the Bones|286077|Dark Matter Reading the Bones|Sheree Thomas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344267699s/286077.jpg|277543] and some mention of him in [b:On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy|1721026|On the Real Side A History of African American Comedy|Mel Watkins|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328757733s/1721026.jpg|1718402]... so more his literary work, the stuff that gets him compared to Mencken. The Internet considers him a Conservative, but that doesn't seem quite right. Anyway, he's a very small part of this book and now a significant part of this review and that also doesn't seem fair. The point is, that Baker was very active with a lot of amazing groups and even if SNCC is for me the jewel in the crown, there is a lot more to her even than that.