She was primarily responsible for the establishment of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization that grew out of the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-1956, but her most significant contribution to the civil rights struggle was SNCC - the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the cutting edge of the 1960s movement for civil rights. She is also an important figure because she constantly fought to make the voice of the ordinary person heard. She held firmly to the concept of group-centered leadership rather than a leadership-centered group, and grappled with the civil rights leaders of her day to make this paramount.

Baker traveled for six months each year, usually beginning in February in Florida and working her way from Tampa to Jacksonville to Tallahassee. From there she would travel to Mobile and on up through Alabama to Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. As often as she could fit it into her schedule she would stop in Littleton to visit her mother and her niece Jackie, who was in Anna Baker's care. Often her husband would join them in North Carolina for a day or two.