Ella Baker founds the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

Ella Baker convened a conference at Shaw University that led to the founding of SNCC in 1960, insisting on student-led organizing rather than top-down leadership. Her philosophy of participatory democracy and grassroots power shaped SNCC's approach and influenced generations of organizers. She is widely regarded as one of the most important and under-recognized architects of the civil rights movement.