By Garry Blanson
When we examine the problems of today, it’s good to go back and take a look at the problems of the past, which just happen to also be problems of today!
During the early 1900s,”Mrs Ella Baker,” a Negro civil rights activist, human rights activist, and community organizer, helped unite & organize black people for black economic development. For more than five decades, Ella Baker worked tirelessly to get Negroes to support themselves economically so that they wouldn’t have to depend on outside assistance. Also, she often worked with other well-known black Civil Rights figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, and others to help establish black economic networks and cooperatives.
In short, Ella Baker took a proactive approach to solve the economic problems of the Negro In America.
Furthermore, I would like to say that I believe as Mrs. Baker believed. She believed that the bedrock of any social change organization is not its leaders’ eloquence or credentials, but the commitment and hard work of the rank and file membership and their willingness and ability to engage in discussion, debate, and decision-making.
Additionally, she especially stressed the importance of young people and women in the organization as well as the strong leadership of black men. Today, we are still fighting some of the same economic problems that existed back in the early 1900s.
We all know what some of them are, but few of us are uniting and organizing the black people collectively to solve these economic problems!
