Which individual is credited with mentoring many SNCC activists and helping form the organization?

• A. Rosa Parks
• B. Ella Baker
• C. Fannie Lou Hamer
• D. Shirley Chisholm

Answer: (B)

This item tests your understanding of who helped shape SNCC by guiding its founders and teaching them how to lead. Ella Baker was a seasoned organizer who believed in empowering ordinary people, especially students, to take charge of their own movement rather than following a single charismatic leader. She worked with young activists, urging them to form their own organization and decide their methods and goals.

Her involvement at the pivotal Raleigh planning meetings in 1960 helped establish SNCC’s approach: grassroots, student-led organizing, emphasis on local action, and participatory democracy where leadership came from the collective rather than a central figure. Baker’s mentorship helped many early SNCC leaders develop the skills and confidence to run campaigns and sustain the movement.

Rosa Parks is renowned for sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a broader Civil Rights milestone. Fannie Lou Hamer became a key voice in Mississippi voting rights and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Shirley Chisholm later made her mark in politics as a groundbreaking congresswoman. While these figures contributed significantly to civil rights, the question focuses on the person who mentored SNCC activists and helped form the organization, which is Ella Baker.