Who is Ella Baker?
Ella Baker was a brilliant, Black hero of the Civil Rights Movement who inspired and guided emerging leaders. Ella Jo Baker was born on December 13, 1903, in Norfolk, Virginia and grew up in North Carolina. She played a key role in some of the most influential organizations of the time, including the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Growing up in North Carolina, she developed a sense for social justice early, due in part to her grandmother’s stories about life under slavery. Ella Baker studied at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina and challenged school policies that she thought were unfair. After graduating in 1927 as class valedictorian, she moved to New York City and began joining social activist organizations. In 1930, she joined the Young Negroes Cooperative League, whose purpose was to develop black economic power through collective planning. Baker was committed to economic justice for all people and recognized the need to provide funding for social movements. In fact, Ella Baker was inspired by the historic 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery and co-founded the organization In Friendship to raise money to fight against Jim Crow Laws in the deep South.
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History of Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBCHR)
The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, founded in 1996 by Van Jones and Diana Frappier; and grew out of Bay Area PoliceWatch, a small initiative founded in 1995 as a hotline for victims of police brutality. The hotline was based in a closet-sized office donated by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. The need for assistance was great, so Bay Area PoliceWatch quickly outgrew the space and Van Jones officially launched the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights on September 1, 1996. The organization was named after Ella Baker (1903-1986), a largely behind-the-scenes organizer and architect of the civil rights movement, who believed in the power of everyday people to change lives. This Center conducts justice work to ensure dignity and opportunity for low-income people and people of color. Throughout our history, we have held campaigns related to civic engagement, violence prevention, justice reform, and police brutality.
In the Ella Baker Center’s 30 years of existence, it has been at the forefront of political movements at the intersection of state-sponsored violence, criminal justice reform, and economic development. This Center has been leading policy reform efforts to advance a new vision for the way forward. This new vision is called Truth and Reinvestment, and involves an honest and authentic assessment of the past while setting new priorities that invests energy in people-centered solutions. The “Truth” means reckoning with the reality of racial injustice and talking about how our country has continuously profited from shackles, walls, and jails in communities of color. “Reinvestment” means advancing solutions that create opportunity for families and neighborhoods.
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Our Mission and Values
Mission: The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights organizes to shift resources away from prisons and punishment towards opportunities that make our communities safe, healthy, and strong. Named after civil rights hero Ella Baker, we mobilize Black, Brown, and low-income people to build power and prosperity in our communities.
Values: At the Ella Baker Center, we win by doing our liberation work in alignment with and guided by our core values:
- Prioritize people most impacted by policing and prisons
- Accountability
- Black Liberation
- Interconnection
- Transformation
- Culture of Care and Healing
- Self-Determination
For a full description of each of our values, please visit our website at ellabakercenter.org/faq/our-values/.
About Our Internship Program
Our internship and fellowship programs at Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBCHR) provide valuable opportunities for individuals passionate about social justice and criminal justice reform. They are critical pathways for professional growth and leadership development while advancing EBCHR’s mission and goals.
We offer semester and academic-year long unpaid internships to undergraduates, graduate students, and non-students who are passionate about our movement work. We recognize that interns bring excitement, enthusiasm, and fresh ideas to EBCHR and help move our work forward by supporting our current projects.
This internship program is designed to meet these primary objectives:
- Provide the organization with part-time help to maximize productivity.
- Organizational exposure to diverse and energetic voices to support the evolution of our work
- Provide students with work experience related to their academic programs and personal interests.
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Benefits of Interning with EBC
In the essence of Ella J. Baker’s commitment to developing and empowering emerging leaders, EBCHR’s program carefully cultivates and monitors a meaningful learning experience for all participants. To ensure the best outcomes for all interns and fellows, we focus on leadership development, skill development, professional growth, industry exposure, and alignment with each individual’s academic or professional aspirations.
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Internship Information
EBCHR remains committed to developing the leadership of individuals directly impacted by the criminal justice system, individuals who are underrepresented in the legal/policy field, and other groups that have been marginalized are strongly encouraged to apply to our program.
We also source interns and fellows from our neighbors, local community colleges, California State University (CSU) campuses, University of California (UC) campuses, and other colleges and universities. This intention reflects our organization’s values and our dedication to creating opportunities and expanding access to students from various socioeconomic backgrounds to challenge disparities in educational and professional opportunities.
The organization offers a food and travel stipend to participants. The expectant time commitment to the program is for a minimum of 10 weeks and 16 to 20 hours per week.
Each department provides a tailored learning experience with leadership development, skill development, professional growth, and industry exposure serving as the foundation for the following areas of work:
- Administration – support the administration team with clerical and daily operations to enable the organization to fulfill its mission.
- Communications – support the communication’s team to amplify voices in racial justice and criminal reform.
- Development – support the development team with its nonprofit fundraising efforts.
- Programs – support the programs team in working on various issues within one of its three sub-teams including Pathways to Freedom (Legal), Policy, and Membership/Organizing. This work is carried out at the state and local levels.
Select this link to access the full job descriptions.
The expectant time commitment to the program is for a minimum of 10 weeks and 16 to 20 hours per week.
We strongly encourage all to apply to our program.
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How to Apply
All applicants should submit an application by selecting “Apply Now” and completing the application form. A complete application package consist of the following materials:
- Completed Application Questions
- Cover Letter
- Resume
- Writing Sample
- Prompt: Discuss the moment you knew you wanted to work within the criminal justice reform, economic and racial justice, community empowerment, and/or restorative justice field (s).
Please note: Only upload an application package to one area of interest (department) per submission. If you are interested in the Programs department, please indicate which sub-team you are interested in when drafting your cover letter.
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Timeline:
| Internship Term | Application Period | Interview Period | Start Date |
| Fall | June 1 – 31 | July 1 – 31 | Aug – September |
| Winter/Spring | November 1 – 30 | December 1 – 20 | January |
| Summer | April 1 – 30 | May 1 – 20 | May – June |