http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Baker

Ella Josephine Baker (December 13, 1903 ΓÇô December 13, 1986) was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist beginning in the 1930s. She was a behind-the-scenes activist, whose career spanned over five decades. She worked alongside some of the most famous civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King Jr. She also mentored such then-young civil rights stalwarts as Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Rosa Parks and Bob Moses.