Abstract:
I am saying as you must say too, that in order to see where we are going, we must not only
remember where we have been, but we must understand where we have been. - Ella Baker
I first encountered the incredible life and story of Ella Baker in the summer of 2020,
when an independent research project led me to read Ella Baker and the Black Freedom
Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (2003)-a masterful and breathtaking account of Miss
Baker's personal and political life as an organizer written by Barbara Rans by. In many ways, this
text became the gateway into what has since become a two-year and multifaceted exploration of
the Black Freedom Movement. In fact, so inspired by my reading, I reached out to Dr. Ransby
directly. An excerpt of that email reads:
