Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (Gender and American Culture)

by Barbara Ransby

Baker's feeling was that even though “I had the oratorical chords, I resented oratory. You should be able to have some speech making that has some purpose,” rather than simply dazzling an audience to boost your ego.21 Again, Baker's views on social action and the formulation and exchange of ideas were consistent with Gramsci's. He wrote: “The mode of being of the new intellectual can no longer consist in eloquence, which is an exterior and momentary mover of feelings and passions, but in active participation in practical life, as constructor, organizer, ‘permanent persuader’ not just a simple orator.”22 Baker expanded on this notion, insisting that one's words are important “only as they help people to do things that are of value to themselves. And we've had too much of the mesmerizing type of talking.”23