Independent Historian

Daren Salter is a PhD candidate in American history at the University of Washington. He received a Master’s Degree in American History from San Francisco State University, where he was named the History Department’s Distinguished Graduate Student for 2004. A student of race, labor, and radicalism, Salter’s essay, “Legacy of Paradox:  The Communist Party, Civil Rights, and the Politics of Race in the Pacific Northwest, 1928-1945,” was awarded the History Department’s York-Mason Prize for outstanding graduate essay on African Americans in the West in 2006. He is a past Fellow at the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies and was a project coordinator and Associate Editor for the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project from 2005-2009. He currently teaches Humanities at the Northwest School in Seattle.

Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) (1941-1998)

A civil rights leader, antiwar activist, and Pan-African revolutionary, Stokely Carmichael is best known for popularizing the slogan “Black Power,” which in the mid-1960s galvanized a movement toward more militant and separatist assertions of black identity, nationalism, and empowerment and away from the liberal, interracial … Read MoreStokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) (1941-1998)

Hubert Brown (H. Rap) /Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (1943- )

H. Rap Brown succeeded Stokely Carmichael as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was a prominent figure in the Black Panther Party. A leading proponent of Black Power and a polarizing media icon, Brown symbolized both the power and the dangers—for white Americans and for radical activists themselves—of the civil rights movement’s new … Read MoreHubert Brown (H. Rap) /Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (1943- )

Robert F. Williams (1925-1996)

Robert Franklin Williams was a militant civil rights leader whose open advocacy of armed self-defense anticipated the movement for “black power” in the late 1960s and helped inspire groups like the Student National Coordinating Committee, the Revolutionary Action Movement, and the Black Panther Party. Williams … Read MoreRobert F. Williams (1925-1996)

African Blood Brotherhood (1919-1924)

The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption (ABB) was a militant black liberation group founded in 1919 by West Indian journalist Cyril Briggs. The ABB advocated armed defense against racist assaults and the creation of an independent black socialist commonwealth. It sought to … Read MoreAfrican Blood Brotherhood (1919-1924)

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (1925-1978)

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was a labor union organized by African American employees of the Pullman Company in August 1925 and led by A. Philip Randolph and Milton P. Webster. Over the next twelve years, the BSCP fought a three-front battle against … Read MoreBrotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (1925-1978)

Civil Rights Congress (1946-1956)

Founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1946, the Civil Rights Congress (CRC) arose out of the merger of three groups with ties to the Communist Party USA:  the International Labor Defense (ILD), the National Negro Congress, and the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties. Embodying the spirit … Read MoreCivil Rights Congress (1946-1956)