Available From UC Press

Ella Baker (1903–1986) was an influential African American civil rights and human rights activist. For five decades, she worked behind the scenes with people in vulnerable communities to catalyze social justice leadership. Her steadfast belief in the power of ordinary people to create change continues to inspire social justice activists around the world. This book describes a case study that translates Ella Baker’s community engagement philosophy into a catalytic leadership praxis, which others can adapt for their work. Catalytic leadership is a concrete set of communication practices for social justice leadership produced in equitable partnership with, instead of on, communities. The case centers the voices of African American teenage girls who were living in a segregated neighborhood of an affluent college town and became part of a small collective of college students, parents, university faculty, and community activists learning leadership in the spirit of Ella Baker. 

Patricia S. Parker is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Patricia S. Parker's book revisits Ella Baker's extraordinary legacy and the ways in which her vision of catalytic leadership can be modeled and practiced in contemporary social movements. Parker's meticulously detailed case study of the carefully crafted Ella Baker Women's Center for Leadership and Community Activism, which she founded in 2007, is the best example of a university-community partnership committed to the empowerment of African American girls. This primer provides a road map for producing community-engaged scholarship and also shows what it means to seriously and ethically engage in social justice leadership across generations."––Beverly Guy-Sheftall, founding director of the Women's Research and Resource Center at Spelman College

"Anyone trying to understand the waves of social activism now changing the country would do well to start with this analysis of Ella Baker’s thinking about collective leadership, which is rooted in a case study of a dynamic contemporary activist organization that works to make participatory democracy more than a phrase." ––Charles M. Payne, author of I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle

"A significant and timely contribution to community-engaged scholarship. Detailing the catalytic leadership of Ella Baker and focusing on Black teen girls following in Baker's footsteps, Patricia S. Parker offers an innovative guide to communication and coalition-building for social change."––Sarah J. Jackson, Presidential Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

"With fluid, accessible prose, insightful analysis, and compelling stories, Patricia S. Parker’s new book Ella Baker’s Catalytic Leadership embodies Black feminist praxis. Providing a rich connection between Baker’s theories and practices and Parker’s own community engaged practices, this innovative approach offers a path for activist/scholars to develop a model of truly reciprocal, meaningful, change-making work. "––Ralina L. Joseph, author of Postracial Resistance: Black Women, Media, and the Uses of Strategic Ambiguity

"Parker excites the imagination by providing a vivid, conversational, thought-provoking opportunity to envision change in our daily lives. Grounded deeply in theoretical insights and practical strategies, this work details how Ella Baker engaged in grassroots and community change, but also offers a new form of leadership premised on social justice to address issues that matter today. Juxtaposing historical and contemporary movements that demonstrate Black women’s and girls’ roles in community organizing for equity and well being, this book showcases positive and replicable examples of how ordinary people can work toward and visualize themselves as leaders for a more just and sustainable world."––Patrice M. Buzzanell, Professor and Chair, Department of Communication, University of South Florida