- Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the main leaders of the American civil rights movement, a political activist, a Baptist minister, and is regarded as one of America's greatest orators. King's most influential and well-known public address is the "I Have A Dream" speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1963. In 1964, King became the youngest man to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (for his work as a peacemaker, … - Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. (born October 8, 1941) is a professional civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, and is a prominent leader of the American Christian left. He is the father of Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. - Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks ( February 4 1913 a October 24 2005 ) was an African American civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress later called "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement ". ... Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee , Alabama on February 4 , 1913 , to James McCauley and Leona Edwards , respectively a carpenter and a teacher, and was of African-American , Cherokee - Creek , [1] and Scots-Irish [2] ancestry. - Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King was the wife of the assassinated civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., and a noted community leader. Coretta King is a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal. - Bill Maher
William Maher, Jr., (pronounced:) (born January 20 1956) is an American comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He hosted the late-night television talk show "Politically Incorrect" on Comedy Central and ABC, and is currently the star of "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO. On June 1, 2006, he also began hosting an internet-exclusive talk show on Amazon.com entitled "Amazon Fishbowl". Maher is known for his political satire and sociopolitical commentary. - Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (born August 24, 1922) is an American historian, political scientist, social critic, activist and playwright, best known as author of the bestseller, "A People's History of the United States". Zinn's philosophy incorporates ideas from Marxism, anarchism, socialism, and social democracy. Since the 1960s, he has been active in the Civil Rights and anti-war movements in the United States. - Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11 1884 - November 7 1962) was an American political leader who used her influence as an active First Lady from 1933 to 1945 to promote the New Deal policies of her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as taking a prominent role as an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, she continued to be an internationally prominent author and speaker for the New Deal coalition. - Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American civil rights activist, former mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, and was the United States' first African-American ambassador to the United Nations. Young is the namesake of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. International Boulevard, near the Centennial Olympic Park, has been re-named Andrew Young International Boulevard, … - Tom Hayden
Thomas Emmett "Tom" Hayden (born December 11, 1939) is an American social and political activist and politician, most famous for his involvement in the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. He is the father of American actor Troy Garity. - Susan B. Anthony
Susan Brownell Anthony (February 15, 1820 - March 13, 1906) was a prominent, independent and well-educated American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to secure women's suffrage in the United States. She traveled thousands of miles throughout the United States and Europe, and gave 75 to 100 speeches per year on women's rights for some 45 years. Susan B. Anthony died in Rochester, New York, … - Paul Robeson
Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson (April 9, 1898 - January 23, 1976) was a multi-lingual American actor, athlete, bass-baritone concert singer, writer, civil rights activist, Communist sympathizer, Spingarn Medal winner, and Stalin Peace Prize laureate. - Earl Warren
Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 - July 9, 1974) was a California district attorney of Alameda County, the 20th Attorney General of California, the 30th Governor of California, and the 14th Chief Justice of the United States (from 1953 to 1969). As Chief Justice, his term of office was marked by numerous rulings affecting, among other things, the legal status of racial segregation, civil rights, separation of church and state, and police arrest procedure in the United States. - Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth was the self-given name, from 1843, of Isabella Baumfree, an American abolitionist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York. Her best-known speech, which became known as "Ain't I a Woman?", was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. Before she became a well known abolitionist she was a follower of "The Kingdom of Matthias," an evangelical cult of the Second Great Awakening of America. - Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin was an African-American civil rights activist, important largely behind the scenes in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and earlier and principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He counseled Martin Luther King, Jr. on the techniques of nonviolent resistance. Rustin was openly gay and advocated on behalf of gay and lesbian causes in the latter part of his career. - Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (born January 9, 1941) is an American folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style. She is a soprano with a three-octave vocal range and a distinctively rapid vibrato. Many of her songs are topical and deal with social issues. - Martin Luther King III
Martin Luther King, III (born October 23, 1957, Montgomery, Alabama) is the first son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. His siblings are Dexter Scott King, and Rev. Bernice Albertine King. He is also the brother of the late Yolanda Denise King. King attended Morehouse College, which was the same school his father attended. - Fannie Lou Hamer
Fannie Lou Hamer was an American voting rights activist and civil rights leader. She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi's "Freedom Summer" for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, attending the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in that capacity. - Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 - March 25, 1931), was an African American civil rights advocate and women's rights activist. A fearless anti-lynching advocate, Wells documented hundreds of lynchings. - Andrew Goodman
Andrew Goodman (November 23, 1943 - June 21, 1964) was an American civil rights activist who was murdered by gunshot in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Andrew Goodman was born and raised on the Upper West Side of New York City, the middle of three sons of Robert and Carolyn Goodman, in a family and community steeped in intellectual and socially-progressive activism. - Michael Schwerner
Michael Schwerner, called Mickey by friends and colleagues, was a CORE field worker killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the Ku Klux Klan in response to the civil-rights work he coordinated, which included promoting registration to vote among Mississippi African Americans. Born and raised in New York, he attended Michigan State University, originally intending to become a veterinarian. He transferred to Cornell University, however, and switched his major to sociology, … - James Chaney
James Earl Chaney was an American civil rights worker who was murdered (along with Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman) by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Chaney was born in the town of Meridian, Mississippi. He had joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1963, and was age 21 when he was killed. Chaney's murder occurred near the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi, where Chaney was undertaking field work for CORE. - James Meredith
James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights movement figure, although he vocally prefers "not" to be regarded as such. He was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi of Native American (Choctaw) and African American heritage. Meredith enlisted in the United States Air Force right out of high school and served from 1951 to 1960. He then attended Jackson State College for two years. He applied to the University of Mississippi, but was denied twice. - Roy Wilkins
Roy Wilkins (August 30, 1901 - September 8, 1981) was a prominent civil rights activist in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins was active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and between 1931 and 1934 was assistant NAACP secretary under Walter Francis White. When W. E. B. Du Bois left the organization in 1934, Wilkins replaced him as editor of "Crisis", the official magazine of the NAACP - Ralph Abernathy
Ralph David Abernathy was an American civil rights leader. Abernathy was born the son of a farmer in Linden, Alabama. After serving in the army during World War II, he enrolled at Alabama State University, in Montgomery, Alabama, graduating with a degree in mathematics in 1950. His involvement in political activism began in college while he was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, … - Edgar Ray Killen
Edgar Ray (Preacher) Killen (born 17 January 1925) is an American former Ku Klux Klan organizer who conspired to kill several civil rights activists in 1964. He was found guilty of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005, the forty-first anniversary of the crime. He appealed the verdict, but his punishment of 3 times 20 years in prison was upheld on the 12 January 2007 in a hearing by the Mississippi Supreme Court - Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Although she disliked being categorized, Simone is generally classified as a jazz musician. Her work covers an eclectic variety of musical styles, such as jazz, soul, folk, R&B, gospel, and even pop music. Her vocal style is characterized by passion, breathiness, and tremolo. Simone recorded over 40 live and studio albums, … - Joseph Lowery
Joseph Echols Lowery, (born October 6, 1921, in Huntsville, Alabama) is a minister and leader in the American civil rights movement. Lowery was pastor of the Warren Street United Methodist Church, in Mobile, Alabama from 1952 until 1961. After Rosa Parks' arrest in 1955, Lowery helped lead the Montgomery bus boycott. In 1957, with Martin Luther King, Jr. - W. E. B. du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (pronounced) (February 23, 1868 - August 27, 1963) was an American civil rights activist, leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar. He became a naturalized citizen of Ghana in 1963 at the age of 95. David Levering Lewis, a biographer, wrote, "In the course of his long, turbulent career, … - Lamar Smith
Lamar Smith was a U.S. civil rights figure. Lamar Smith, a 63-year-old black farmer, dog trainer, and World War II veteran and organizer of black voter registration. He was shot to death in broad daylight at close range on the lawn of the Lincoln County courthouse in Brookhaven, Mississippi. Some contemporary reports say there were many white witnesses including the local sheriff who saw a white man covered with blood leaving the scene. - Marian Wright Edelman
Marian Wright Edelman (born June 6, 1939, in Bennettsville, South Carolina) is an American activist for the rights of children. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund. Edelman's thinking was influenced by her father, Arthur Wright, a Baptist preacher who taught that Christianity required service in this world, and by civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph. A graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, … - Norman Siegel
Norman Siegel (born 1943) was the director of the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), New York's leading civil rights organization, under the umbrella of the nationwide American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Siegel served as director from 1985 until 2000. Siegel attended Brooklyn College and NYU Law School with Rudy Giuliani, who later became mayor of New York City, and NYCLU's frequent courtroom opponent. - Mary Frances Berry
Mary Frances Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and the former chairwoman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. She is also the former board chair of Pacifica Radio. She is a past president of the Organization of American Historians, the primary professional organization for historians of the United States. At Penn, Berry teaches American legal history. - Edmund Pettus
Edmund Winston Pettus (July 6 1821 - July 27 1907), for whom the civil rights landmark Edmund Pettus Bridge was named, was born in Limestone County, Alabama. He earned his fame as a Confederate Brigadier General. Pettus was a lawyer and judge and served throughout the western theater during the American Civil War. He resumed his law practice after the war and went on to serve in the U.S. Senate. He served in the Senate from March 4 1897 to his death on July 27 1907. - Nihad Awad
Nihad Awad is the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington D.C.-based American Muslim political and civil rights group. After studying civil engineering at the University of Minnesota in the 1990s, he worked at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. After the Gulf war, he was Public Relations Director for the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), described by U.S. government officials as a Hamas front organization. - Yolanda King
Yolanda Denise King was the first-born child and first daughter of Coretta Scott King and civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Her younger siblings are Martin Luther King, III, Dexter Scott King, and Rev. Bernice Albertine King. - Lani Guinier
Lani Guinier (born 1950) is arguably one of the foremost American civil rights scholars in the United States. The first black woman tenured professor at Harvard Law School, Guinier's work spans a range of topics, including professional responsibilities of public lawyers, the relationship between democracy and the law, the role of race and gender in the political process, equity in college admissions, and affirmative action. - Fred Shuttlesworth
Fred Shuttlesworth (b. March 18, 1922) is a civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama and continues to work against racism and for alleviation of the problems of the homeless in Cincinnati, where he took up a pastorate in 1961. - Bobby Seale
Bobby Seale (born October 22, 1936) is an American civil rights activist, who along with Dr. Huey P. Newton co-founded the Black Panther Party For Self Defense in 1966. Seale's membership as a college student in the African American Association is said to have been inspired him to start the Black Panthers, which at one point had over 5000 members. Seale went on to become the chairman of the party and underwent FBI surveillance as part of its COINTELPRO program. - James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson was a leading American author, critic, journalist, poet, anthropologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, early civil rights activist, and prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson is best remembered for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and collections of folklore. He was also one of the first African-American professors at New York University. Later in life he was a Professor of Creative Literature and Writing at Fisk University. - Eldridge Cleaver
Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 - May 1, 1998) was an author and a prominent American civil rights leader who began as a dominant member of the Black Panther Party. Born in Wabbaseka, Arkansas, Cleaver's family moved to Phoenix and then to Los Angeles. As a teenager he was involved in petty crime, and in 1957 was convicted of assault with intent to murder. While in prison, he wrote a book of essays, "Soul on Ice", …
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