Most people have probably never heard of Ella Baker.

But she was one of the most important civil rights activists of the 20th century.

During the 1940s, Ms. Baker, as she came to be called, served as the

NAACP's director of branches. In this capacity, she helped grow the organization's membership

from 150,000 to 600,000. In the 1950,000, she helped organize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s new organization,

the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She also spearheaded a major voter registration

campaign for them called the Crusade for Citizenship. And in the 1960s, she guided the student

nonviolent coordinating committee.

She brought together sitting activists such as John Lewis and Diane Nash to form the group

and was the organization's most influential advisor.

Miss Baker was a skilled grassroots organizer who believed that everyday people were fully capable

of making the decisions that impacted their lives. Ms. Baker was uninterested in telling people

what to do and fully invested in providing people with the knowledge and skills they needed to bring about the change they wanted.

Ms. Baker was fond of saying, give light, and people will find the way.

And while the results of her organizing always differed, depending on the people's vision of their own future, she always

began in the same place. To all who would listen, Ms. Baker advised, start where the people

are, with what they know and what they think they know, and with what they understand, and what they

misunderstand. And then, you build from there.

Two years ago, I participated in a keynote conversation on teaching hard history at the annual

conference of the Virginia Council for the Social Studies with elementary school educator

Chris Matthews.

After our chat, a teacher approached me.

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