Haymarket Books | Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement @HaymarketBooks | Uploaded September 2023 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
Join us for a live streamed session from the Socialism 2023 conference, in Chicago.
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Ella Baker (1903-1986) was a grassroots organizer who shunned the spotlight in favor of vital behind-the-scenes work that helped power the Black freedom struggle. What not everyone knows is that she was also a radical with socialist politics. Barbara Ransby discusses Baker's life and her political contributions, many of which hold lessons for organizers struggling for justice today.
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Speakers:
Dr. Barbara Ransby is Distinguished Professor, in the Departments of Black Studies, Gender
and Women’s Studies, and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where she
directs the campus-wide Social Justice Initiative.
Dr. Ransby is author of two award-winning books: Ella Baker and the Black Freedom
Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision; and Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of
Mrs. Paul Robeson. Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement received 8 national book
awards, and was applauded as “one of the most influential books of the last twenty years” by the
Chronicle of Higher Education in 2018. She is also author of a third book, Making All Black
Lives Matter: Re-imagining Freedom in the 21st Century.
Asha Ransby-Sporn is a Chicago-based community organizer and writer. She was a co-founder of Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), served as Director of Organizing at anti-war youth organization Dissenters and has led community based campaigns that have won ballot referenda on investing in non-police mental health programs, blocked a weapons manufacturer from a multi-million dollar tax break, and pressured institutions to divest from the private prison industry. Recently, Asha was the South Side Field Director for Brandon Johnson’s winning mayoral campaign in Chicago with United Working Families.
Join us for a live streamed session from the Socialism 2023 conference, in Chicago.
———————————————————————
Ella Baker (1903-1986) was a grassroots organizer who shunned the spotlight in favor of vital behind-the-scenes work that helped power the Black freedom struggle. What not everyone knows is that she was also a radical with socialist politics. Barbara Ransby discusses Baker's life and her political contributions, many of which hold lessons for organizers struggling for justice today.
———————————————————————
Speakers:
Dr. Barbara Ransby is Distinguished Professor, in the Departments of Black Studies, Gender
and Women’s Studies, and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where she
directs the campus-wide Social Justice Initiative.
Dr. Ransby is author of two award-winning books: Ella Baker and the Black Freedom
Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision; and Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of
Mrs. Paul Robeson. Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement received 8 national book
awards, and was applauded as “one of the most influential books of the last twenty years” by the
Chronicle of Higher Education in 2018. She is also author of a third book, Making All Black
Lives Matter: Re-imagining Freedom in the 21st Century.
Asha Ransby-Sporn is a Chicago-based community organizer and writer. She was a co-founder of Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), served as Director of Organizing at anti-war youth organization Dissenters and has led community based campaigns that have won ballot referenda on investing in non-police mental health programs, blocked a weapons manufacturer from a multi-million dollar tax break, and pressured institutions to divest from the private prison industry. Recently, Asha was the South Side Field Director for Brandon Johnson’s winning mayoral campaign in Chicago with United Working Families.
