Which organizer is known for grassroots leadership and shaping the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)?

• A. Septima Clark
• B. Rosa Parks
• C. Ella Baker
• D. Thurgood Marshall

Answer: (C)

Grassroots leadership means building power from the ground up by empowering local organizers. Ella Baker is the figure most closely associated with that approach and with shaping SNCC. She advocated for student activists to take the lead, run the organization themselves, and develop leadership from within the communities most affected by segregation. This bottom-up, participatory philosophy became the core way SNCC operated—emphasizing direct action, community organizing, and voter registration rather than relying on a single national leader.

Septima Clark is renowned for the Citizenship Schools and adult education work that expanded Black civic participation; Rosa Parks is famous for sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott; Thurgood Marshall was a groundbreaking lawyer who argued Brown v. Board and later served on the Supreme Court.