Planting Seeds of Change: Ella Baker's Radical Rhetoric

Abstract

Ella Baker was a central but largely unknown figure of the American Civil Rights movement. In her grassroots organizing work, she eschewed the “charismatic orator” model of social movement leadership, seeking instead to empower ordinary people. This paper argues that Baker's community organizing rhetoric offers a valuable contribution to feminism and rhetorical theory, revealing both the promise and limitations of invitational rhetoric, and pointing the way to a more politically viable practice of invitational principles.

Keywords:

• Ella Baker
• American Civil Rights Movement
• Invitational Rhetoric
• community organizing
• feminism
• rhetoric