[1] His father became a Union soldier, and after the Civil War, Baker's mother taught him to read, which was a crime during slavery.
After nine years of a "bookless life,"[2] he entered the Hampton Institute Normal School program, where he graduated as valedictorian.
[citation needed] To prepare for college, he enrolled at Mount Hermon Boys School in 1886, where he was one of only two black students.
He then studied at Yale Divinity School, where he earned a degree, and was ordained as a minister at a Congregational Church on Dixwell Avenue in New Haven.
The philosopher George Yancy has written numerous articles about Baker, explaining that he believed his work had been neglected.
[4] His wife Lizzie Baytop Baker, a leader among African American women in Western Massachusetts,[5] predeceased him.