Edward T. “Ned” Coll is a civil rights activist and one time (1972) presidential candidate from Connecticut known for taking on the privatized and segregated beaches along the Connecticut coast in the 1970s. Born in 1940, he grew up in Hartford, Connecticut and was educated at the Jesuit Fairfield University, graduating in 1962. Ned Coll, who … Read MoreNed Coll (1940- )
Political activist Reverend Mineo Katagiri was born in Haleiwa, Hawaii on August 1, 1919. He graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1941 and then earned his theological degree from the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, New York in 1944. He was ordained in 1945 and was a minister … Read MoreRev. Mineo Katagiri (1919-2005)
Civic leader, civil rights advocate, and police commissioner John Wesley Mack was born on January 6, 1937 in Kingstree, South Carolina, to Abram Mack, a Methodist minister, and Ruth Wynita, a school teacher. Shortly after he was born, his family moved to Darlington, South Carolina. Mack attended North Carolina Agricultural and … Read MoreJohn Wesley Mack (1937-2018)
During the 1961 Major League Baseball spring training season, Ralph M. Wimbish, a St. Petersburg, Florida-based African American physician, forced city leaders, hotel owners, and team officials to integrate its player housing and allow the entire team to live under one roof. Born on July 24, 1922, in Cordele, Georgia, Ralph Melvin … Read MoreRalph Melvin Wimbish (1922-1967)
Due to his dedication to battling social injustices and racism throughout the United States, DeRay Mckesson has emerged as a key 21st century civil rights activist and educator. His documentation of the protests in Ferguson, Missouri following the unjust murder of Michael Brown in 2014 solidified his role as a leader in the national Black Lives … Read MoreDeRay Mckesson (1985- )
Drusilla Elizabeth (née Tandy) Nixon, civil rights activist, community advocate, and music educator, was born on July 15, 1899 in Toledo, Ohio, the daughter of Maud Grant Tandy and John Clifford Tandy. She attended Toledo’s Waite High where she was the only black student in her class. Drusilla wrote for the school magazine, … Read MoreDrusilla Elizabeth Tandy Nixon (1899-1990)
Born Dovey Mae Johnson on April 17, 1914, in Charlotte, North Carolina, Dovey Johnson Roundtree was an African American civil rights activist, attorney, and ordained minister who won the 1955 Interstate Commerce Commission case on segregated bus terminals. She was the second oldest of four children born to James Elliot Johnson, a printer … Read MoreDovey Johnson Roundtree (1914–2018)
Elbert Williams is the first known member of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to be murdered for his civil rights activities. Williams was born on October 15, 1908, in rural Haywood County, Tennessee, the son of farmer, Albert Williams, and … Read MoreElbert Williams (1908-1940)
Fannie Lou Hamer was a grass-roots civil rights activist whose life exemplified resistance in rural Mississippi to oppressive conditions. Born on October 6, 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi, to a family of sharecroppers, she was the youngest of Lou Ella and Jim Townsend’s twenty children. Her family moved to … Read MoreFannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977)
James B. McMillan was the first black dentist in Nevada. In the 1960s, he successfully fought against segregation in Las Vegas. McMillan was born on January 14, 1917, in Aberdeen, Mississippi, the son of James Milton McMillan and Rosalie Gay. McMillan’s father died when he was one year old, and he … Read MoreJames B. McMillan (1917-1999)
