In early 1960, Ella Baker had the presence of mind, social networks and credibility to bring together mostly young Black people from across the nation who had participated in the early movement for a “Youth Leadership Meeting.” This meeting would quickly lead to the formation of one of the most critical organizations in our nation\u2019s history, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 1960s Freedom Movement would have been unrecognizably different without SNCC\u2019s key role in the 1960 sit-ins, 1961 Freedom Rides, 1962 Albany, Georgia desegregation campaign, 1963 participation in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (including the young John Lewis\u2019 speech on behalf of SNCC), 1964 Freedom Summer, and the 1965 Selma, Alabama right-to-vote campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, who is the modern-day Ella Baker who has the same kind of credibility and networks to be able to pull young folks of color (along with others) together today? What organizations today, like Martin Luther King\u2019s Southern Christian Leadership Council back then, could or should sponsor a \u201cYouth Leadership Meeting\u201d? What organizations, like the AFL-CIO did in 1960, could or should provide funding for an effort like that? What issues should be focused upon to galvanize the nation at this vital moment? Given the COVID-19 pandemic, there could be many young people with time to focus on building a movement, as they miss out on their college education or attend classes online. Will we seize upon this critical time which will, one way or another, shape our nation\u2019s future for years to come?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ella Baker\u2019s legacy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For years, I have studied SNCC and believed that we need a modern-day version of SNCC today. In studying SNCC, it does not take long to learn that even among SNCC veterans one person \u2014 Bob Moses \u2014 is greatly admired by all the others. Much loved and recently departed John Lewis mentions in his autobiography, “Walking with the Wind,” that Bob Moses was the only one who could have united SNCC at a critical movement in the mid-1960s because he was universally respected. This seems to be partly because Moses was and remains a community organizer devoted to Ella Baker\u2019s teachings. Even Ella Baker\u2019s niece, Jacqueline Baker Brockington (who considered Baker her mother), said that Baker considered Moses one of her children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A crucial piece to building any movement is having a structure where people can devote their lives, full-time with no distractions, to the cause.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n A youthful, pre-politician Barack Obama also dreamed of being a Bob Moses-like community organizer. Unlike Obama, Lewis, Bernie or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Moses was not focused on electoral politics, but was more oriented toward movements of engaged people taking collective action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moses seems to recognize that people in the United States could not vote our way out of the entrenched mess of contemporary society. True and lasting change will require an \u201cearned insurgency\u201d with sacrifice, strategy, training and nonviolent resistance. In short, if Moses called for a \u201cYouth Leadership Meeting\u201d today, I believe young people would come. It would also likely get support from key universities with which he was connected. Of course, we cannot rely on just one person to carry on Ella Baker\u2019s legacy or to shape our collective destiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organizational strength and support<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In order for SNCC to meet and form a movement organization, it took resources and organizational strength. Again, the faith-based Southern Christian Leadership Council sponsored and organized the initial event, the national labor federation AFL-CIO provided funds, and Ella Baker\u2019s alma matter Shaw University held the founding conference on its campus. For this to happen today, I think it would require a similar commitment from progressive labor organizations, faith groups and universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Would the Chicago Teachers Union, the United Teachers of Los Angeles, or the Oakland Education Association provide the funds for this kind of event? How can we engage in this effort the thousands of Red for Ed teachers across the country who have gone on strike over the last few years? They should be asked to fulfill this role, as they have proven in recent years that they are willing to take intense and radical action, which requires sacrifice, losing wages, and often defying the law with \u201cillegal\u201d strikes to fight for the schools our children deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would also ask the progressive churches, many of whom have already come together in the new Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, to provide resources and facility space. Some, like the Episcopal Church, have embraced community organizing as a part of their seminary training and in the past have brought in SNCC veterans such as Ruby Sales and Marshall Ganz to train their clergy. Labor, faith and young people\u2019s organizations were critical in the 1960s Freedom Movement and they will likely be critical today. But, like Ella Baker, we must be organized and focused on building a movement for justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A crucial piece to building any movement is having a structure where people can survive so they can devote their lives, full-time with no distractions, to the cause. SNCC workers were paid $10 a week while they worked full-time to dismantle legal segregation. Today, labor and faith organizations (because their funds come directly from working people not corporations) will need to fund a new independent SNCC built on the legacy of nonviolent resistance for young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new SNCC\u2019s demands could look very much like the \u201cVision for Black Lives\u201d or Bernie Sanders\u2019 platform.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Its structure could be drawn from a combination of SNCC and successful national service models, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s and more modern versions of the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, City Year, Episcopal Service Corps and Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Participants could get a basic living allowance and an education award at the end of their service to pay for college education in the future in exchange for working full-time for the movement now. Even SNCC chairs, such as John Lewis and Stokely Carmichael (aka Kwame Ture), lived on humble SNCC salaries that nevertheless allowed them to focus all of their energies on working for the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n