Who is Ella Baker?

Ella Baker was a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement — the most important American social movement of the 20th century — yet has often gone unrecognized. Although as influential as Martin Luther King Jr., Baker’s work as a black woman has been comparatively invisible. Scholars attribute this not just to her gender and the dominance of a simplistic, King-centered narrative of the Civil Rights Movement, but to the decentralized leadership style she modeled. She focused not on imparting wisdom but on empowering individuals and local groups to recognize their own potential and find their own solutions.

Baker’s radical vision of participatory democracy recognized the knowledge of members of marginalized and oppressed groups. In the 1960s, she guided the next generation toward the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. It was her support and mentorship that empowered students, invigorated with new ideas of leadership, to found SNCC and a new youth-led phase of the Civil Rights Movement. For these reasons, Baker is the ideal choice to be recognized on a college campus.

About the artist

Frederick Hightower is a master sculptor, muralist and portraitist. His sculptures are curated by using centuries-old classical techniques by Donatello. Hightower likes to transform clay into a living work of classical beauty, exactly in line with the aesthetics of figurative art.

His works are displayed at museums and universities and include sculptures in Baltimore, Maryland, of educator Fanny Jackson Coppin; and in Huntington, West Virginia, of basketball player Hal Greer and mathematician Katherine Johnson, the African American woman whose work for NASA was featured in the film “Hidden Figures.” Examples of his work may be found at frederickhightowerfineart.com.