The Ella Baker Tour came to ETSU on Monday as part of African American Arts Week. The tour is designed to spread awareness on issues of race and social change. Baker devoted her life to civil rights activism, helping to found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
Ash-Lee Henderson, president of the Black Affairs Association, moderated the open forum. Featured guest speakers included SNCC veterans Theresa El-Amin, founder of the Southern Anti-Racism Network, folk musician and social activist Guy Carawan and his wife and fellow musician and activist Candie Carawan. Guy brought his guitar and the Carawans performed a song before the discussion began.
“We are wanting to do this to talk with young people about what you are thinking, what you feel, and what you want to see changed and some of the ways of doing that,” said El-Amin.
Baker wanted students should form their own organization instead of being a youth branch of another organization. She helped to gather 200 students to initially serve as a youth of division of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) but then chose to break away into a separate entity known as SNCC.
“SNCC was more than an organization, it was a movement,” said El-Amin.
The youth became the vanguards of the Civil Rights Movement. Without concerns such as protecting their jobs they could afford to be more outspoken.
“Young people were not afraid to lead,” said El-Amin. “Young people were coming forward and facing down the hoses and the dogs and so many other things going on in the south to end Jim Crow.”
While in SNCC, the Carawans met at the Highlander Education and Research Center in New Market, Tenn. “Pete Seeger told me there’s a place in Tennessee you ought to visit, and that was the Highlander Center,” he said.
The center was one of the few integrated locations in the South, providing a place for musicians of every race to interact. “Music and culture played a big part in those years,” said Guy Carawan. “Through all the hard times people were having, it helped keep people’s spirits up.”
During the forum, the topic of diversity in education was addressed. Lindsey Garth, 23, from Chattanooga, voiced concern regarding student retention. African-American student retention rates tend to decline beyond the sophomore year.
ETSU’s claims to promote diversity were questioned by Henderson. “As much as people talk about diversity, inclusion and how we tolerate everyone at this university, they’re preaching one thing and using minorities as this flag to draw people in, without giving us the education we want,” she said.
Henderson said racial issues on campus have needed to be discussed since the Ludacris controversy three years ago. “Faculty want to organize a forum, but the students have already been having these discussions,” she said.
El-Amin urged students to take advantage of opportunities that were not available in the past.
Following the forum, a candlelight vigil to honor fallen civil rights leaders was held at the carillon. Students lit candles and named civil rights activists such as James Cheney and Coretta Scott King.
After each name the crowd responded by saying “ashe,” which is similar in meaning to “amen.” The ceremony concluded with a moment of silence for all those who had given their lives for the Civil Rights Movement.

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