Born Charlene Alexander in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 8, 1930,[5] she moved with her parents and seven siblings to Chicago at the age of nine.

[1] During the Second World War, she grew up in the Frances Cabrini Rowhouses in the Near North Side of Chicago and took classes at the Moody Bible Institute.

[1][7] In Chicago, her father was a precinct captain for Rep. William L. Dawson, a Pullman porter, a hod carrier, and a labor activist.

[12][9] According to Sol Stern at the New York Times in 1971, it was "the best-organized, most broad-based defense effort in the recent history of radical political trials--more potent than that afforded to any of the Panther leaders or the Chicago Seven.

"[9] Davis later described the effort as "one of the most impressive mass international campaigns of the 20th century" and said about Mitchell, "I have never known anyone as consistent in her values, as collective in her outlook on life, as firm in her trajectory as a freedom fighter.

"[7] After the acquittal of Davis in 1972, Mitchell founded the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, with a focus on police brutality and the legal system.

[5][2] Mitchell began to focus on anti-apartheid efforts in the 1970s, and visited Nelson Mandela in South Africa after his release from prison in 1990.

[2] Benjamin Chavis has said that in the 1980s, James Baldwin referred to Mitchell as "the Joan of Arc of Harlem" because "she dares to utter unspeakable truth to power.

Many who signed a letter urging reform were purged by Gus Hall from the CPUSA's national committee, including Mitchell, Angela Davis, Kendra Alexander and other African-American leaders.