Turn Everything Turn. Welcome to Hello Somebody, a production of The Black Effect Podcast Network and I Heart Media. Where we rage against the machine, where we raise our voices against injustice and stand up for justice. Where we embrace hope and joy with an optimism for a bright or more justus future. Each week I'll be dropping knowledge, whether it's a solo episode from me or a hearty discussion with esteem guests doing great things in spaces and places of politics, entertainment, social justice, and beyond. We get real, baby, I mean really real. We get honest. We get up close and personal for you, Yes, you, because everybody is somebody. Before we begin, I want to give a special shout out to my team, Thank you, Sam, Tiffany, Sam and the team over at Good Juju Studios, Erica, England, Pepper Chambers, the Hot One, and my social media team. Hello Somebody, How's everybody? I hope you're doing okay. I know that a lot is happening in the world, in our country, in your community, in our lives. But I do hope that as you are listening to this edition of Hello Somebody, that you're doing okay. You know, I'm never really dedicated in the entire show to inspiration. But I'm gonna try that out today and I want you to come on this journey with me. I am going to talk about the incredible civil rights leader, icon foot soldier, the woman that made so much happen, and she's not often talked about enough, and that is the one and only Great Ellen Baker. But before I get to Ella Baker, you know, I love, love, love to center our time together on a quote or two, or a series of quotes, and in thinking about the Great Ella Baker, another great woman came to mind, the poet herself, the one and only Dr Maya Angelou, and one of my favorite, favorite favorite poems of hers is Still Our Rise. I'm not going to recite all of it, just a little bit of it, just to get us in the right mindset for our conversation about Ella Baker. We know that the poem Still Our Rise was published in nineteen seventy eight, and it's, you know, not only about her experiences as a black woman in America. It's really a frame, if you will, a foundation, a peer into beating back ratio and social injustice. And there's landed out there that no matter what you throw at us, we're gonna rise. That poem takes me so many places. Hell, I can do a whole show on just the poem. Still O Rise. It means so much to a lot of the different struggles that those of African descent, African Americans in this country have had to endure. It's just really powerful. And then for those who are not African American to peer into and to think very deeply about what these words written by Dr Maya Angelo, what Angelo, what they really mean for all of us? I mean, this poem is about hope, It's about resilience, It's about fight, it's about survival, proudness, it's about fearlessness, it's about liberation and just a small bit of joy, the pride that one takes when you know that you are and overcome or like that is some stuff right there. So out of the huts of history shame our eyes up from a past that's rooted in pain. Our eyes, I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, welling and swelling. I bear to tide, leaving behind nights of terror and fear. I rise into a daybreak that's wonderlessly clear. Our rise, bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave I am the dream and the hope of the slaves our rise, you know, and just even thinking about that, I know why now, Justice Brown Jackson, why she recited that, Because that's it. I mean, have you seen those T shirts that I am my ancestors wildest dreams. We're thinking about still our Eyes. It reminds me of that T shirt and all of its simplicity. That's so deep, that's generations deep. I am the wildest dreams of my ancestors. And when Dr Mine Angelou penn this poem, every single word that she wrote in the expression of those words, when you think about the struggle, it's that if we had to just and sum up still our Rises, I am my ancestors wildest dreams me and no matter what you take me through, baby, I'm gonna rise. I will not be written out of history. Hello, somebody, I am going to do that. And how could you not be inspired by I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I am the dream and the hope of the enslaved. You know Dr b Angelo wrote this poem. Not many folks work making the distinction between slave and enslaved, and you can historians or other social scientists may disagree a little bit, but the notion of using the word enslaved is to bring the humanity back to the person that's being in enslave, the person that is in slavery, and not just as an object the slave. But we get it. We get it either way anybody says it, especially if they say it in a way that that brings that power and that respect to the people who had to endure one of the most traumatic experiences in the world in this country, to be enslaved, to be chatteled, maybe that's something you never ever get over. And America, Lord Howmers, I'm going down the path to day that I said I wasn't gonna go down. Let me going back to inspiration, you know, let me let me do that. Dr My Angelo certainly gave us a chance to really go deep with that and and really to take away boundaries, and those those boundless words were acts of love and short the sacrifice. It really was a love letter not just to the ancestors, but I believe to the African American community as a whole that we we're gonna rise no matter what they do. I'm hoping that you are feeling that that even in the heaviness of those words. It really is about rising above and that is really what leads me to talk about another very inspiring woman who lived her life without limits, and that is the one and only Ella Baker. She in the nineties sixties used her voice. She made a choice to be a voice, and she shook the ground. She was a movement maker, an enormous part of American history and especially the history of the Civil rights movement. Her force and her presence will never and should never be forgotten. She certainly has not talked about as often as she should be. So I am lifting her up in this episode, and I hope that others of you will lift her up and feel compelled to go and research more about her, to quote her from time to time speaking of quotes, to look her up and just shower on her. I know she's in the ancestral plane, but her presence nevertheless is felt. Miss Baker. Ellen Baker really believed in younger people and empowering young people. She didn't believe that there should be one singular leader. She she believed in the power of the people. I mean truly the power of the people. And that is one of the things that made her such a force in this movement, standing up for a type of truth and justice and just bringing empowerment to people in ways that had not quite been done, especially younger people. And you know what, she was born in December, my birth month. So I'm just oh, just thinking about this woman and the footprints and the steps that she put forward, because that gives me great pride to know that she was born in December. She was born December, and she was in nineteen o three, and she died on December in nineteen eight six. I mean, the irony of that that is quite something. And I was still in high school in the eighties, but wow, I I sighed with the just great respect for her because I know that a lot of the work that she did was behind the scenes. But anybody and everyone that was engaged in that civil rights work at that time, they knew a little Baker and they knew, as we know today that she was definitely a force of nature. As I had mentioned, she really was about empowering other people, particularly young people. I'm gonna pull a couple of my favorite quotes and then let's just go in here and talk about her a bit. One of the quotes that people often use we're talking about her, and I'm guilty of this too. We only talk about the final part of a quote that had more depth than the parts that we use. And it is we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens. And usually what you hear, you probably hear the words we who believe in freedom cannot rest. Let me back up on that and put the other parts to this particular quote, which I too need to use the fullness of it. But I understand why people just pull out that part because that encapsulates everything that needs to be said, especially when you are on a justice journey, when you are fighting for a type of freedom. We believe in freedom cannot rest, that says at all. But the totality of that was this, until the killing of black men, black mother's sons becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens. Oh my god. And it is as if Ella Baker was speaking those words right in this moment, and she was just laying it down, just making it clear that certain things have got to happen if we truly believe in freedom. And we can expand that, I mean, even the movement for Black Lives was about this. The civil rights movement certainly was about this. We can add the totality of the Black community as a whole just even reflected on that. I mean, Ellen Baker was speaking about the physical murder, but their psychological murder too. That this country does not recognize the pure and true suffering of black folks, of those whose skin has been kissed by the son. To quote the great Zora Neil Hurston, it doesn't and so we can't get freedom for many reasons, socially, economically, politically, environmentally, and physically. So until the killing a black men black mother's sons become as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's son, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens. She laid that down another one oppress people, whatever their level of formal education, have the ability to understand and interpret the world around them, to see the world for what it is and move to transform it. Again. Ella Baker talked often about the empowerment of people, and she certainly encouraged people to see not only their intrinsic value, but that they had power as well, that they did not have to wait on any single person to empower them, that they had the power. And so, just in her very words of encouragement and also pushing within the civil rights movement to remind every day people that they had the power, she herself was empowering people to recognize that they had the power. Or more before we get deeper and to this, in order for us, as poor and oppressed people to become part of a society that is meaningful, the system under which we now exist has to be radically changed. It means facing a system that does not lend itself to your needs and devising means by which you change that system. Kind of get a hello somebody on that? Can I get a hello somebody on that? I mean, Mother Elba laying it down, she said, we gotta do it. We gotta devise the means to change a system that does not love us, a system that does not recognize us, a system that does not been to our wheel. I mean, there's so much that we can wrap into this right now, looking at what is happening in twenty one century. Don't get me started on the gas. Don't get me started on the fact that the child tax credit has expired, a catapulting children back into poverty. Don't get me starting on the fact that we right now are not only enduring a pandemic that has to do with COVID, but we're dealing with a pandemic of consciousness in this country. When you have babies, literal elementary school babies, and you've all day Texas gunn down nineteen of them along with two teachers. And you have mo fos who are actually willing to say some ship but they ain't gonna do shit that's real or the people they were black. Most of the babies a gunned down in that shooting in Texas, at that elementary school Hispanic community. You know, in Buffalo, load right before that, we got a mass shooting by white supremacists at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York. We're barely talking about that. It is incredible how quickly our mind goes from one thing to the next. And you know what, because these people are people of color, that throwaways in the minds of the system, because if they were not, people would be out in the streets raising Holy hill about this. And then we got the gun lobby that's still letting folks know they are not going to let elected officials do a damn thing. They made it clear this change is nothing, and then you have elected officials who just going along to get along with this nonsense. Lord, have mercy on my soul. In order for us, as poor and oppressed people, to become part of a society that is meaningful, the system of the which we now exist has to be radically change. It means facing a system that does not lend itself to your needs and devising means by which you change the system. I think a change in the system, a radical change within the system, is needed. It's been needed, we long overdue. But God knows, it's show enough. Quote my grandmama. It's show enough needed right now and people should be mad as hell. We need the elevator spirit right about now for a whole bunch of things. Can't find baby formula and baby food. You know, I talked about the damn gas prices are crazy high. People can't afford their food, medicine. I mean, how do we expect people to live so between? Still our rise and the one and only ele Baker landed down about the things that we need to do her courage to speak that kind of truth to power. It's the same type of courage that it's needed right now in this moment. And we can never overlook women like her who had the courage to stand up in the face of both sexualized challenges, you know, sexism, and also in the face of the challenge of her fenal type of how she was born into this world, which is a black woman mother. Baker. She is known as the mother of the civil rights movement. Many scholars call her that, and I want to encourage you to read a book that was written by Dr Barbara Ransby about Ella Baker. It is a tremendous It is a very good book. So do that. Look Ella Baker up and do some more research on her and lift her. Please do that. Let me pause for a minute. I want to welcome the new listeners to the show. I appreciate you and I'm happy that you are choosing to spend a little time with me today. To my trying to true listeners, thank you, thank you, thank you for being on this journey with me. I really do appreciate you too, So to both new and old listeners. Here we are together end at this moment to learn something, to feel something. We got to feel something to do something. I'm a firm believer in that got to feel something to do something that is real. Now, as many of you may know, I was an educator. I as a college professor at Cuijo Community College. I am an educator at heart. No matter what I'm doing, I am an educator, and I certainly I'm a true believer that we all must educate ourselves on the history of this country, the history of your respective people's uh no matter what the race and ethnicity of the people who have joined in today, we all should learn the respective histories of our ancestors. We must learn America's history in all of its forms and all of its dimensions. And the history of African Americans is indeed the history of America and the people that help shape where we are today, the people who shaped where we are not today. You know all the good, the bad and and ugly. Where we can go, what we can do, What does it mean to make progress? It's always a extraordinary responsibility and opportunity to learn and to get to see through different lenses. It was James Baldwin who once said, know from what you came. If you know from what you came, this virtually nowhere that you cannot go. That is both uniquely knowing where you came in terms of your people, your family, ancestry, but it's also the communal knowing where you came from in terms of your community and a whole group of people. It is knowing where we came from in terms of this nation, this country, how did we form, what makes us tick? Those are the things that are important for us to know, to explore in order for us to move forward. So just maybe maybe in that studying, that realization and dipping back and being able to look back in time, we can use what we learned to make this world a better place. We have to have a better understanding about each other. We gotta have a better understanding about this nation, and God knows we need a better understanding about the world. But I I digress. Let me go on back. So outside of fighting for the progressive initiatives, even though Ella Baker was so much I mean, she was ahead of her time, she really was to fight that good fight. It was a passion that she had for the work that she did. And it is because of women like her and women like Dr Maya angel and women like Angela Davis. I mean, we we know our historic grads and all of these women are women of history. But you know, it is because of women like this that we have that that spirit, the ability to keep on, keep it on, because they laid the footprints there out there, people like Sister Nash from Shy Town. It is because of women like that, Rosa Parks, no doubt, Harry tell Ms a journal truth, no doubt, claud At Covid, no doubt. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. We must honor these women. So Ella Baker was born in Norfork, Virginia. She grew up in the rural parts of North Carolina and it was in that community upbringing that gave her her deep sense of who she is and a sense of self respect. Her grandmother told her a story about how she endured a savage whipping rather than to marry a man chosen for her by her mother. Her grandmother was a slave or in an slaved person. So Ella Baker's grandmother shared those stories, and you gotta know that because her grandmother was able to plant those seeds and planting those seeds and cultivating them, they brought for fruit, and that fruit was the fierce leadership of Ella Baker. Ella Baker graduated as a vala Victorian from Raleigh Shaw University in nineteen and she spent almost a half a century raising the political consciousness of Americans and played a major role. As I've said, all along, as we looked back over her life, played a major role in the shaping of the civil rights movement in the twentieth century. She certainly navigated the depths of the a c P, the Southern Leadership Conference SNICK. She was in the first field secretary for the a CP, and she later became a direct There are several branches. She traveled all over this country from small town a small town, working to convince you want to talk about plenty seeds, to convince everyday black citizens who had been enslaved and terrorized to join the resistance. Now they didn't call it that have but my words, to join the resistance, to stand up for freedom, pouring into their spirit and their hearts that they deserve basic human rights. That is hard work to do, to travel all over I got a dose so that myself both in not so. But you gotta imagine in the forties where it was not as safe for black people to travel. Many of you may have heard of the Green Book, and this book was created by the black community to let black folks know where they could sleep, where they could eat. They could not just walk into any hotel and get a room. This stuff is real. It's not that long ago. Sometimes we talk about this stuff like its ancient history. No, it was just yesterday in terms of the historical spectrum, just yesterday, nineteen. That was just yesterday. It wasn't a long time ago. And so the fact that she had that type of courage to travel all over this country and to pump up, to encourage, to plant the seeds to the black community, to ask them to get involved, and to remind them that they did in factors are and still due to this day, basic human rights. And she was a strategist. I mean, we don't often see her in that light of talk about her that way, but she was a strategist talking to local leaders, helping to craft and implement campaigns against lynching. Reminds me of another lady that totally pulled back the veil on lynching. And that is and none other than you want to talk about being an investigative porter that otta by Wales. Baby Barnett did that thing when it comes to pulling back the veil and letting letting folks know what it was in this country when it came to whites a lynching black people. She did that. So all of these women are worthy of uplift and further research and understanding. We gotta do it. Ella Baker was a motivator. She helped push the rank and file. She helped people to know that they are leaders in their own right. She pushed that. She did that and at one of her workshops was a woman that we hold in the highest regard and we should continue to do that. And that was an inn double a CP member from Montgomery, Alabama by the name of Rosa Parks. Yes, even Rosa Parks. I mean she traveled as well. She went into the South and was investigating rapes and assaults of black women. We don't talk about that enough either. There's a really good book about her, I think I believe the title was Mrs Rosa Parks. Definitely pull that one out and read that as well. And oh that book, that book, I was trying to find it while I was talking to you all and I have it so again Dr Barbara Ramsby, who's a dear friend of mine, a tremendous scholar. The book that I was recommending for you all to read about Ella Baker, the title is Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, A Radical Democratic Vision. Let me get that to you one more time, Ellen Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, A Radical Democratic Vision. Pick that book up, baby, read it or listen to it. Either way you like to get your books, but do that. Maybe we'll do a book club too. I don't know, let me think about that. But if we did do a book club, I would love some suggestions on what we should collectively read. That would be amazing. But in this book, Dr Ramsby lays it out that it was really Ella Baker who who framed the issues and set the group's agenda. It was her, She was the strategist. She did that and she doesn't get a lot of credit, as most women do not get credit for the work that they do. And in ninety eight, Ella Baker moved to Atlanta to spearhead what had become the s CLC as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and that group was principally associated as we all know, with the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr. At the end of the day or at the beginning of the day, why we always got the end of the day. Ella J. Baker devoted her life to justice. She had a passion for justice and equality and a passion for community. She is and was, and I say is in a sense of that the spirit that is Ella Baker is still lingering here. But she was a thought leader. She was fearless, and she was fighting very hard for a type of justice that edify and that would lift. Then when I think about the words to form a more perfect union, that certainly was the journey that Miss Ellen Baker was on, working every single day as the activists that she was to form a more perfect union. I know even at times when I and I brought up the Reverend Dr mart Luther King Jr. Briefly know her, Her and Dr King, they had to fight it out, They had to workshop it out many times because they just saw leadership in a different way. And there's a wonderful, wonderful article. If you don't have time to read an entire book at this particular moment, there was a wonderful article that came out in seventeen. It was written by Julie south Flow. I hope I'm prodouncing her last name, right, Lord, forgive me if I'm not. But the article on MLK Day honor the mother of the civil rights movement and tremendous, and we'll make sure that we put that in the show No World. We will also put in the notes of the title of the book I was referencing about Rosa Parks, and certainly the book that was written by Dr ramsby Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement a radical democratic vision. But to quote something that was in the article that I just referenced, the author noted about Ella Baker and m OK and I quote. Her relationship with Dr King, however, was tense. Despite her level of experience improven track record, he had difficulty allowing a woman's decision to trump his own, and her idea was that the organization should devote its resources more to promoting and enabling its overall mission, rather than celebrating a charismatic leader. In the quote, I'm gonna stop right there, and it goes on even more. This ties very nicely back to what I was saying at the beginning, which is Ella. Baker was a believer in empowering people, and there is a lot of merit to that. I could see it both ways. There are many things that could be true all at once. That if we focus on one charismatic leader, sometimes what the mission is can get lost in that leader. And also if something happens to that leader, then what the collector was fighting for could just die out. The fight might not go on because you lose that one person. But if you have a series of leaders who are fighting and who are recognized and uplift and not just one, that way you empower that if something does happen to that one leader, the mission continues. But she believed in uplifting just everyday people, that everybody was a leader in their own right, and not that everybody can do everything, because everybody cannot do everything. There's a role for everybody to play, but to promote and push for multiple leaders instead of one charismatic leader. Now, obviously the Reverend Dr Martin Luke Jr. Did not agree with that sentiment and still on on this article. It was Wyatt T. Walker and early SCLC board member, who told the filmmaker Joe and Grant that the minister's refusal to follow Baker's advice was in practice with the eras norms and other words. In the twentieth century, especially this mid part of the twentieth century, it was unheard of for women. It was harder and and rare that women would take on those outward leadership roles and be recognized for those roles. We also know that women of that era had to do even though they were the leaders, they were the movers and shakers. A lot of times they were disregarded and disrespected. This comes from just the male domination in this country, the belief that men are the leaders and women should always follow, and so breaking through that. We still even have to break through that in the twenty one century. It was even even harder to do that in the twentieth century, but the one and only Ellen Baker certainly stood her ground. And in thinking about that, the norms of that era, and we're talking about the twentieth century, we know that that is still the norms even in the twenty one century. We gotta continue to push back against this. Let me quote something here again. This was before the days of women's liberation. This is what a Wyatt T. Walker is explaining about why Dr King did not take Ella Baker's advice. While it was hard, it wasn't just Dr King, was others. This was the methods of that moment of that time. Again, this was before the days of women's liberation, he says in the film Fundi, the story of Ella Baker going to Great Lens to avoid the word chauvinists. Going back to the article, we can understand why he did not want to use that word, and instead he explains how unless someone was male and a member of the inner circle of the church, that it could be difficult to overcome quote quote quote quote the preachers ego. We got got a lot of that going on right now, the male ego, the preachers ego, all of that, all of that ego, all of we, all of us have egos. But we know that the way that society was set up, the way that it was formed in this country, it was set up in a way that men dominated, and all of us, each and every one of us, are products of our environment, of our of our time. And that was true for Dr King or anybody else. That's just the way that it was. And to have women who were able to transform that or just not accepted was spectacular and certainly Ellen Baker was one that would not be controlled or minimized in that way, and she was able to push against that as she helped to build a movement. And the film Foondi that tells the story of Ella Baker is really good, so I do encourage you to watch that if you get a chance to do that. And the nickname that Ella Baker was given, the word Fundi is a Swahili word meaning a person who teaches a craft to the next generation. What an absolute honor, and that word certainly describes her to the t Ella Baker was a force of nature, certainly a she roll in the civil rights movement, the movement for freedom that was her Ella Joe Baker, Baby, don't play with her, understand her And another magnificentent, magnificent quote by the one and only Ella Baker. One of the things that has to be faced is the process of waiting to change the system. How much we have got to do to find out who we are, where we have come from, and where we are going. Strong people don't need strong leaders. Give light and people will find the way. That's the one and only Ella Baker. She laid it out. She said what she meant, and she meant what she said, baby, strong people don't need strong leaders. Give light and people will find a way. A man to that, give light and people will find the way. And we must continue to help people find a way. Will you join me in that help somebody find the way and it can be great. It could be macro or it could be micro macro or micro, but let's all be on the journey of helping people find the way. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of Hello somebody. I'm sending love and light. I want you to keep the faith and I want you to keep the fight until next time. Mary stry things or somebody and make somebody time sweet. Yeah, change is coming. The pain is nothing trying to shoot for the stars. If you're gonna aim for something, embrace the love for your brother and sister. You need these the mission brush. We need to puzzle this pictures, pain it up, frame it up for the world to see. Ain't to hate you it up. Enough is enough, It's enough making changes enough in turn of a voice of the truth to wise world. Despire the youth to keep their eyes on the roof. It's the end never give up, keep conquering goals. To the eye intelligence silver, wisdom is gold. That to the end. Now is your time. Stay firm, don't fold to the a or you need is the three bones. That's what Randie said. Now I'm gonna make sure these words from Randie spread for all the hair. To give it your hair. She can take him to the promised Land. I swear world pieces what they fear. Queen's to cleveand Ohio, we're here, famous Famous, turn up any calls? Hello, somebody you don't need to turn up? Why it's spanning somebody to turn up the queen? Hell, somebody you need to turn times Brothers going on hand. Hello Somebody. Is a production of I Heart Radio and the Black Effect Network. For more podcast from our Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Turn Everything Turn. Welcome to Hello Somebody, a production of The Black Effect Podcast Network and I Heart Media. Where we rage against the machine, where we raise our voices against injustice and stand up for justice. Where we embrace hope and joy with an optimism for a bright or more justus future. Each week I'll be dropping knowledge, whether it's a solo episode from me or a hearty discussion with esteem guests doing great things in spaces and places of politics, entertainment, social justice, and beyond. We get real, baby, I mean really real. We get honest. We get up close and personal for you, Yes, you, because everybody is somebody. Before we begin, I want to give a special shout out to my team, Thank you, Sam, Tiffany, Sam and the team over at Good Juju Studios, Erica, England, Pepper Chambers, the Hot One, and my social media team. Hello Somebody, How's everybody? I hope you're doing okay. I know that a lot is happening in the world, in our country, in your community, in our lives. But I do hope that as you are listening to this edition of Hello Somebody, that you're doing okay. You know, I'm never really dedicated in the entire show to inspiration. But I'm gonna try that out today and I want you to come on this journey with me. I am going to talk about the incredible civil rights leader, icon foot soldier, the woman that made so much happen, and she's not often talked about enough, and that is the one and only Great Ellen Baker. But before I get to Ella Baker, you know, I love, love, love to center our time together on a quote or two, or a series of quotes, and in thinking about the Great Ella Baker, another great woman came to mind, the poet herself, the one and only Dr Maya Angelou, and one of my favorite, favorite favorite poems of hers is Still Our Rise. I'm not going to recite all of it, just a little bit of it, just to get us in the right mindset for our conversation about Ella Baker. We know that the poem Still Our Rise was published in nineteen seventy eight, and it's, you know, not only about her experiences as a black woman in America. It's really a frame, if you will, a foundation, a peer into beating back ratio and social injustice. And there's landed out there that no matter what you throw at us, we're gonna rise. That poem takes me so many places. Hell, I can do a whole show on just the poem. Still O Rise. It means so much to a lot of the different struggles that those of African descent, African Americans in this country have had to endure. It's just really powerful. And then for those who are not African American to peer into and to think very deeply about what these words written by Dr Maya Angelo, what Angelo, what they really mean for all of us? I mean, this poem is about hope, It's about resilience, It's about fight, it's about survival, proudness, it's about fearlessness, it's about liberation and just a small bit of joy, the pride that one takes when you know that you are and overcome or like that is some stuff right there. So out of the huts of history shame our eyes up from a past that's rooted in pain. Our eyes, I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, welling and swelling. I bear to tide, leaving behind nights of terror and fear. I rise into a daybreak that's wonderlessly clear. Our rise, bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave I am the dream and the hope of the slaves our rise, you know, and just even thinking about that, I know why now, Justice Brown Jackson, why she recited that, Because that's it. I mean, have you seen those T shirts that I am my ancestors wildest dreams. We're thinking about still our Eyes. It reminds me of that T shirt and all of its simplicity. That's so deep, that's generations deep. I am the wildest dreams of my ancestors. And when Dr Mine Angelou penn this poem, every single word that she wrote in the expression of those words, when you think about the struggle, it's that if we had to just and sum up still our Rises, I am my ancestors wildest dreams me and no matter what you take me through, baby, I'm gonna rise. I will not be written out of history. Hello, somebody, I am going to do that. And how could you not be inspired by I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I am the dream and the hope of the enslaved. You know Dr b Angelo wrote this poem. Not many folks work making the distinction between slave and enslaved, and you can historians or other social scientists may disagree a little bit, but the notion of using the word enslaved is to bring the humanity back to the person that's being in enslave, the person that is in slavery, and not just as an object the slave. But we get it. We get it either way anybody says it, especially if they say it in a way that that brings that power and that respect to the people who had to endure one of the most traumatic experiences in the world in this country, to be enslaved, to be chatteled, maybe that's something you never ever get over. And America, Lord Howmers, I'm going down the path to day that I said I wasn't gonna go down. Let me going back to inspiration, you know, let me let me do that. Dr My Angelo certainly gave us a chance to really go deep with that and and really to take away boundaries, and those those boundless words were acts of love and short the sacrifice. It really was a love letter not just to the ancestors, but I believe to the African American community as a whole that we we're gonna rise no matter what they do. I'm hoping that you are feeling that that even in the heaviness of those words. It really is about rising above and that is really what leads me to talk about another very inspiring woman who lived her life without limits, and that is the one and only Ella Baker. She in the nineties sixties used her voice. She made a choice to be a voice, and she shook the ground. She was a movement maker, an enormous part of American history and especially the history of the Civil rights movement. Her force and her presence will never and should never be forgotten. She certainly has not talked about as often as she should be. So I am lifting her up in this episode, and I hope that others of you will lift her up and feel compelled to go and research more about her, to quote her from time to time speaking of quotes, to look her up and just shower on her. I know she's in the ancestral plane, but her presence nevertheless is felt. Miss Baker. Ellen Baker really believed in younger people and empowering young people. She didn't believe that there should be one singular leader. She she believed in the power of the people. I mean truly the power of the people. And that is one of the things that made her such a force in this movement, standing up for a type of truth and justice and just bringing empowerment to people in ways that had not quite been done, especially younger people. And you know what, she was born in December, my birth month. So I'm just oh, just thinking about this woman and the footprints and the steps that she put forward, because that gives me great pride to know that she was born in December. She was born December, and she was in nineteen o three, and she died on December in nineteen eight six. I mean, the irony of that that is quite something. And I was still in high school in the eighties, but wow, I I sighed with the just great respect for her because I know that a lot of the work that she did was behind the scenes. But anybody and everyone that was engaged in that civil rights work at that time, they knew a little Baker and they knew, as we know today that she was definitely a force of nature. As I had mentioned, she really was about empowering other people, particularly young people. I'm gonna pull a couple of my favorite quotes and then let's just go in here and talk about her a bit. One of the quotes that people often use we're talking about her, and I'm guilty of this too. We only talk about the final part of a quote that had more depth than the parts that we use. And it is we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens. And usually what you hear, you probably hear the words we who believe in freedom cannot rest. Let me back up on that and put the other parts to this particular quote, which I too need to use the fullness of it. But I understand why people just pull out that part because that encapsulates everything that needs to be said, especially when you are on a justice journey, when you are fighting for a type of freedom. We believe in freedom cannot rest, that says at all. But the totality of that was this, until the killing of black men, black mother's sons becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens. Oh my god. And it is as if Ella Baker was speaking those words right in this moment, and she was just laying it down, just making it clear that certain things have got to happen if we truly believe in freedom. And we can expand that, I mean, even the movement for Black Lives was about this. The civil rights movement certainly was about this. We can add the totality of the Black community as a whole just even reflected on that. I mean, Ellen Baker was speaking about the physical murder, but their psychological murder too. That this country does not recognize the pure and true suffering of black folks, of those whose skin has been kissed by the son. To quote the great Zora Neil Hurston, it doesn't and so we can't get freedom for many reasons, socially, economically, politically, environmentally, and physically. So until the killing a black men black mother's sons become as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's son, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens. She laid that down another one oppress people, whatever their level of formal education, have the ability to understand and interpret the world around them, to see the world for what it is and move to transform it. Again. Ella Baker talked often about the empowerment of people, and she certainly encouraged people to see not only their intrinsic value, but that they had power as well, that they did not have to wait on any single person to empower them, that they had the power. And so, just in her very words of encouragement and also pushing within the civil rights movement to remind every day people that they had the power, she herself was empowering people to recognize that they had the power. Or more before we get deeper and to this, in order for us, as poor and oppressed people to become part of a society that is meaningful, the system under which we now exist has to be radically changed. It means facing a system that does not lend itself to your needs and devising means by which you change that system. Kind of get a hello somebody on that? Can I get a hello somebody on that? I mean, Mother Elba laying it down, she said, we gotta do it. We gotta devise the means to change a system that does not love us, a system that does not recognize us, a system that does not been to our wheel. I mean, there's so much that we can wrap into this right now, looking at what is happening in twenty one century. Don't get me started on the gas. Don't get me started on the fact that the child tax credit has expired, a catapulting children back into poverty. Don't get me starting on the fact that we right now are not only enduring a pandemic that has to do with COVID, but we're dealing with a pandemic of consciousness in this country. When you have babies, literal elementary school babies, and you've all day Texas gunn down nineteen of them along with two teachers. And you have mo fos who are actually willing to say some ship but they ain't gonna do shit that's real or the people they were black. Most of the babies a gunned down in that shooting in Texas, at that elementary school Hispanic community. You know, in Buffalo, load right before that, we got a mass shooting by white supremacists at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York. We're barely talking about that. It is incredible how quickly our mind goes from one thing to the next. And you know what, because these people are people of color, that throwaways in the minds of the system, because if they were not, people would be out in the streets raising Holy hill about this. And then we got the gun lobby that's still letting folks know they are not going to let elected officials do a damn thing. They made it clear this change is nothing, and then you have elected officials who just going along to get along with this nonsense. Lord, have mercy on my soul. In order for us, as poor and oppressed people, to become part of a society that is meaningful, the system of the which we now exist has to be radically change. It means facing a system that does not lend itself to your needs and devising means by which you change the system. I think a change in the system, a radical change within the system, is needed. It's been needed, we long overdue. But God knows, it's show enough. Quote my grandmama. It's show enough needed right now and people should be mad as hell. We need the elevator spirit right about now for a whole bunch of things. Can't find baby formula and baby food. You know, I talked about the damn gas prices are crazy high. People can't afford their food, medicine. I mean, how do we expect people to live so between? Still our rise and the one and only ele Baker landed down about the things that we need to do her courage to speak that kind of truth to power. It's the same type of courage that it's needed right now in this moment. And we can never overlook women like her who had the courage to stand up in the face of both sexualized challenges, you know, sexism, and also in the face of the challenge of her fenal type of how she was born into this world, which is a black woman mother. Baker. She is known as the mother of the civil rights movement. Many scholars call her that, and I want to encourage you to read a book that was written by Dr Barbara Ransby about Ella Baker. It is a tremendous It is a very good book. So do that. Look Ella Baker up and do some more research on her and lift her. Please do that. Let me pause for a minute. I want to welcome the new listeners to the show. I appreciate you and I'm happy that you are choosing to spend a little time with me today. To my trying to true listeners, thank you, thank you, thank you for being on this journey with me. I really do appreciate you too, So to both new and old listeners. Here we are together end at this moment to learn something, to feel something. We got to feel something to do something. I'm a firm believer in that got to feel something to do something that is real. Now, as many of you may know, I was an educator. I as a college professor at Cuijo Community College. I am an educator at heart. No matter what I'm doing, I am an educator, and I certainly I'm a true believer that we all must educate ourselves on the history of this country, the history of your respective people's uh no matter what the race and ethnicity of the people who have joined in today, we all should learn the respective histories of our ancestors. We must learn America's history in all of its forms and all of its dimensions. And the history of African Americans is indeed the history of America and the people that help shape where we are today, the people who shaped where we are not today. You know all the good, the bad and and ugly. Where we can go, what we can do, What does it mean to make progress? It's always a extraordinary responsibility and opportunity to learn and to get to see through different lenses. It was James Baldwin who once said, know from what you came. If you know from what you came, this virtually nowhere that you cannot go. That is both uniquely knowing where you came in terms of your people, your family, ancestry, but it's also the communal knowing where you came from in terms of your community and a whole group of people. It is knowing where we came from in terms of this nation, this country, how did we form, what makes us tick? Those are the things that are important for us to know, to explore in order for us to move forward. So just maybe maybe in that studying, that realization and dipping back and being able to look back in time, we can use what we learned to make this world a better place. We have to have a better understanding about each other. We gotta have a better understanding about this nation, and God knows we need a better understanding about the world. But I I digress. Let me go on back. So outside of fighting for the progressive initiatives, even though Ella Baker was so much I mean, she was ahead of her time, she really was to fight that good fight. It was a passion that she had for the work that she did. And it is because of women like her and women like Dr Maya angel and women like Angela Davis. I mean, we we know our historic grads and all of these women are women of history. But you know, it is because of women like this that we have that that spirit, the ability to keep on, keep it on, because they laid the footprints there out there, people like Sister Nash from Shy Town. It is because of women like that, Rosa Parks, no doubt, Harry tell Ms a journal truth, no doubt, claud At Covid, no doubt. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. We must honor these women. So Ella Baker was born in Norfork, Virginia. She grew up in the rural parts of North Carolina and it was in that community upbringing that gave her her deep sense of who she is and a sense of self respect. Her grandmother told her a story about how she endured a savage whipping rather than to marry a man chosen for her by her mother. Her grandmother was a slave or in an slaved person. So Ella Baker's grandmother shared those stories, and you gotta know that because her grandmother was able to plant those seeds and planting those seeds and cultivating them, they brought for fruit, and that fruit was the fierce leadership of Ella Baker. Ella Baker graduated as a vala Victorian from Raleigh Shaw University in nineteen and she spent almost a half a century raising the political consciousness of Americans and played a major role. As I've said, all along, as we looked back over her life, played a major role in the shaping of the civil rights movement in the twentieth century. She certainly navigated the depths of the a c P, the Southern Leadership Conference SNICK. She was in the first field secretary for the a CP, and she later became a direct There are several branches. She traveled all over this country from small town a small town, working to convince you want to talk about plenty seeds, to convince everyday black citizens who had been enslaved and terrorized to join the resistance. Now they didn't call it that have but my words, to join the resistance, to stand up for freedom, pouring into their spirit and their hearts that they deserve basic human rights. That is hard work to do, to travel all over I got a dose so that myself both in not so. But you gotta imagine in the forties where it was not as safe for black people to travel. Many of you may have heard of the Green Book, and this book was created by the black community to let black folks know where they could sleep, where they could eat. They could not just walk into any hotel and get a room. This stuff is real. It's not that long ago. Sometimes we talk about this stuff like its ancient history. No, it was just yesterday in terms of the historical spectrum, just yesterday, nineteen. That was just yesterday. It wasn't a long time ago. And so the fact that she had that type of courage to travel all over this country and to pump up, to encourage, to plant the seeds to the black community, to ask them to get involved, and to remind them that they did in factors are and still due to this day, basic human rights. And she was a strategist. I mean, we don't often see her in that light of talk about her that way, but she was a strategist talking to local leaders, helping to craft and implement campaigns against lynching. Reminds me of another lady that totally pulled back the veil on lynching. And that is and none other than you want to talk about being an investigative porter that otta by Wales. Baby Barnett did that thing when it comes to pulling back the veil and letting letting folks know what it was in this country when it came to whites a lynching black people. She did that. So all of these women are worthy of uplift and further research and understanding. We gotta do it. Ella Baker was a motivator. She helped push the rank and file. She helped people to know that they are leaders in their own right. She pushed that. She did that and at one of her workshops was a woman that we hold in the highest regard and we should continue to do that. And that was an inn double a CP member from Montgomery, Alabama by the name of Rosa Parks. Yes, even Rosa Parks. I mean she traveled as well. She went into the South and was investigating rapes and assaults of black women. We don't talk about that enough either. There's a really good book about her, I think I believe the title was Mrs Rosa Parks. Definitely pull that one out and read that as well. And oh that book, that book, I was trying to find it while I was talking to you all and I have it so again Dr Barbara Ramsby, who's a dear friend of mine, a tremendous scholar. The book that I was recommending for you all to read about Ella Baker, the title is Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, A Radical Democratic Vision. Let me get that to you one more time, Ellen Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, A Radical Democratic Vision. Pick that book up, baby, read it or listen to it. Either way you like to get your books, but do that. Maybe we'll do a book club too. I don't know, let me think about that. But if we did do a book club, I would love some suggestions on what we should collectively read. That would be amazing. But in this book, Dr Ramsby lays it out that it was really Ella Baker who who framed the issues and set the group's agenda. It was her, She was the strategist. She did that and she doesn't get a lot of credit, as most women do not get credit for the work that they do. And in ninety eight, Ella Baker moved to Atlanta to spearhead what had become the s CLC as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and that group was principally associated as we all know, with the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr. At the end of the day or at the beginning of the day, why we always got the end of the day. Ella J. Baker devoted her life to justice. She had a passion for justice and equality and a passion for community. She is and was, and I say is in a sense of that the spirit that is Ella Baker is still lingering here. But she was a thought leader. She was fearless, and she was fighting very hard for a type of justice that edify and that would lift. Then when I think about the words to form a more perfect union, that certainly was the journey that Miss Ellen Baker was on, working every single day as the activists that she was to form a more perfect union. I know even at times when I and I brought up the Reverend Dr mart Luther King Jr. Briefly know her, Her and Dr King, they had to fight it out, They had to workshop it out many times because they just saw leadership in a different way. And there's a wonderful, wonderful article. If you don't have time to read an entire book at this particular moment, there was a wonderful article that came out in seventeen. It was written by Julie south Flow. I hope I'm prodouncing her last name, right, Lord, forgive me if I'm not. But the article on MLK Day honor the mother of the civil rights movement and tremendous, and we'll make sure that we put that in the show No World. We will also put in the notes of the title of the book I was referencing about Rosa Parks, and certainly the book that was written by Dr ramsby Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement a radical democratic vision. But to quote something that was in the article that I just referenced, the author noted about Ella Baker and m OK and I quote. Her relationship with Dr King, however, was tense. Despite her level of experience improven track record, he had difficulty allowing a woman's decision to trump his own, and her idea was that the organization should devote its resources more to promoting and enabling its overall mission, rather than celebrating a charismatic leader. In the quote, I'm gonna stop right there, and it goes on even more. This ties very nicely back to what I was saying at the beginning, which is Ella. Baker was a believer in empowering people, and there is a lot of merit to that. I could see it both ways. There are many things that could be true all at once. That if we focus on one charismatic leader, sometimes what the mission is can get lost in that leader. And also if something happens to that leader, then what the collector was fighting for could just die out. The fight might not go on because you lose that one person. But if you have a series of leaders who are fighting and who are recognized and uplift and not just one, that way you empower that if something does happen to that one leader, the mission continues. But she believed in uplifting just everyday people, that everybody was a leader in their own right, and not that everybody can do everything, because everybody cannot do everything. There's a role for everybody to play, but to promote and push for multiple leaders instead of one charismatic leader. Now, obviously the Reverend Dr Martin Luke Jr. Did not agree with that sentiment and still on on this article. It was Wyatt T. Walker and early SCLC board member, who told the filmmaker Joe and Grant that the minister's refusal to follow Baker's advice was in practice with the eras norms and other words. In the twentieth century, especially this mid part of the twentieth century, it was unheard of for women. It was harder and and rare that women would take on those outward leadership roles and be recognized for those roles. We also know that women of that era had to do even though they were the leaders, they were the movers and shakers. A lot of times they were disregarded and disrespected. This comes from just the male domination in this country, the belief that men are the leaders and women should always follow, and so breaking through that. We still even have to break through that in the twenty one century. It was even even harder to do that in the twentieth century, but the one and only Ellen Baker certainly stood her ground. And in thinking about that, the norms of that era, and we're talking about the twentieth century, we know that that is still the norms even in the twenty one century. We gotta continue to push back against this. Let me quote something here again. This was before the days of women's liberation. This is what a Wyatt T. Walker is explaining about why Dr King did not take Ella Baker's advice. While it was hard, it wasn't just Dr King, was others. This was the methods of that moment of that time. Again, this was before the days of women's liberation, he says in the film Fundi, the story of Ella Baker going to Great Lens to avoid the word chauvinists. Going back to the article, we can understand why he did not want to use that word, and instead he explains how unless someone was male and a member of the inner circle of the church, that it could be difficult to overcome quote quote quote quote the preachers ego. We got got a lot of that going on right now, the male ego, the preachers ego, all of that, all of that ego, all of we, all of us have egos. But we know that the way that society was set up, the way that it was formed in this country, it was set up in a way that men dominated, and all of us, each and every one of us, are products of our environment, of our of our time. And that was true for Dr King or anybody else. That's just the way that it was. And to have women who were able to transform that or just not accepted was spectacular and certainly Ellen Baker was one that would not be controlled or minimized in that way, and she was able to push against that as she helped to build a movement. And the film Foondi that tells the story of Ella Baker is really good, so I do encourage you to watch that if you get a chance to do that. And the nickname that Ella Baker was given, the word Fundi is a Swahili word meaning a person who teaches a craft to the next generation. What an absolute honor, and that word certainly describes her to the t Ella Baker was a force of nature, certainly a she roll in the civil rights movement, the movement for freedom that was her Ella Joe Baker, Baby, don't play with her, understand her And another magnificentent, magnificent quote by the one and only Ella Baker. One of the things that has to be faced is the process of waiting to change the system. How much we have got to do to find out who we are, where we have come from, and where we are going. Strong people don't need strong leaders. Give light and people will find the way. That's the one and only Ella Baker. She laid it out. She said what she meant, and she meant what she said, baby, strong people don't need strong leaders. Give light and people will find a way. A man to that, give light and people will find the way. And we must continue to help people find a way. Will you join me in that help somebody find the way and it can be great. It could be macro or it could be micro macro or micro, but let's all be on the journey of helping people find the way. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of Hello somebody. I'm sending love and light. I want you to keep the faith and I want you to keep the fight until next time. Mary stry things or somebody and make somebody time sweet. Yeah, change is coming. The pain is nothing trying to shoot for the stars. If you're gonna aim for something, embrace the love for your brother and sister. You need these the mission brush. We need to puzzle this pictures, pain it up, frame it up for the world to see. Ain't to hate you it up. Enough is enough, It's enough making changes enough in turn of a voice of the truth to wise world. Despire the youth to keep their eyes on the roof. It's the end never give up, keep conquering goals. To the eye intelligence silver, wisdom is gold. That to the end. Now is your time. Stay firm, don't fold to the a or you need is the three bones. That's what Randie said. Now I'm gonna make sure these words from Randie spread for all the hair. To give it your hair. She can take him to the promised Land. I swear world pieces what they fear. Queen's to cleveand Ohio, we're here, famous Famous, turn up any calls? Hello, somebody you don't need to turn up? Why it's spanning somebody to turn up the queen? Hell, somebody you need to turn times Brothers going on hand. Hello Somebody. Is a production of I Heart Radio and the Black Effect Network. For more podcast from our Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.