Scatter Brained

ELLA BAKER (1903–1986)
Overshadowed by:
 Stokely Carmichael
The Story:
 Ella Baker was 54 years old—hardly a student—
in 1960, when she became the organizational force behind 
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (known as 
SNCC, pron. SNICK). SNCC became a leading arm of the civil 
rights movement, working with Martin Luther King’s South-
ern Christian Leadership Conference to organize sit-ins and 
eat-ins and drink-water-at-water-fountain-ins and the like. 
Baker was also a driving force behind the Freedom Riders.
MARION BARRY (B. 1936)
Overshadowed by:
 his own crack cocaine abuse
The Story:
 Before he was shot by Islamic terrorists (1977), be-
fore he was elected mayor of Washington, D.C. (1978), and be-
fore he was videotaped buying and smoking crack cocaine 
(1980), Marion Barry was the fi rst chairman of the aforemen-
tioned SNCC. Barry left his doctoral program in chemistry 
(chemistry, eh?) when the opportunity appeared and has spent 
the time since in politics. Despite several drug-related brushes