text: Ella Baker, the granddaughter of slaves, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1903. After graduating from Shaw University in Rayleigh, North Carolina, Baker moved to New York City. Baker joined the Young Negroes Cooperative League and in 1931 was appointed its national director. She was also employed by the Works Progress Administration to provide literacy and consumer education to workers.\n\nIn 1940 Baker became a field secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). Over the next few years Baker attempted to persuade the organization to become involved in community-based activism. Baker also played a leading role in the campaign to desegregate New York City public schools. \n\nIn 1956 Baker and Bayard Rustin established Friendship, an organization dedicated to raising money for the fight against Jim Crow Laws in the Deep South. The following year she moved to Atlanta to work with Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). \n\nWhile in Atlanta she also ran the Crusade for Citizenship, a voter registration campaign. Baker disagreed with the SCLC's policy of having a strong central leadership. Baker, who favoured local, grassroots action, left the organization in 1959. \n\nIn February 1960, Greensboro, North Carolina, a small group of black students started a student sit-in at the restaurant of their local Woolworth's store which had a policy of not serving black people. In the days that followed they were joined by other black students until they occupied all the seats in the restaurant. The students were often physically assaulted, but following the teachings of Martin Luther King they did not hit back. \n\nBaker became involved in this campaign and in October, 1960, helped to establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The organization adopted the Gandhian theory of nonviolent direct action. This included participation in the Freedom Rides during 1961. Leading figures in the organization included Robert Moses, Marion Barry, James Lawson, Charles McDew, James Forman and John Lewis. \n\nIn 1964 Baker returned to New York City and remained active in the civil rights movement until her death in 1986.