tina

 

Ella Baker wanted to title her autobiography Making a Life, Not Making a Living. Bernice Johnson Reagon wrote a song that told listeners Joan Little's struggle was their struggle too. Both women understood that history is personal. In this reflection, you will make it personal, too.

Choose one of the following formats: 

• Letter Across Time: A letter to Ella Baker or Joan Little explaining what her story means to you and to North Carolina today. 
• Original song, poem, or spoken word: Your own piece inspired by Reagon's anthem, plus a written artist's statement. 
   

Your piece must be original. Do not copy song lyrics or long passages from the readings. Each reflection must: 

• Draw on both readings, with at least two specific references total and page numbers. 
• Address at least one of these themes: sisterhood, leadership, resistance, identity, or class. 
• Connect the history to the present, to your own life, or to your community. 

Question to Get you Started: 

• What would Ella Baker say about how leaders and organizations work today?
• How has Joan Little's case shaped the way we talk about sexual violence, incarceration, or self-defense?
• Where do you see the kind of women's networks that sustained Baker, like the church women, the YWCA, and her friends at the NAACP?
• Who in your life "picks people up and dusts them off" the way Diane Nash said Baker did for her?