Rev. Theodore Judson Jemison was a civil rights leader and president of the National Baptist Convention. He was responsible for leading the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott in Louisiana in 1953, the first large-scale bus boycott protesting racial segregation in the South and advised Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on leading the Montgomery (Alabama) bus boycott two years later. … Read MoreTheodore Judson Jemison (1918-2013)
John Preston Davis was a prominent African American author, journalist, lawyer, civil rights leader, and co-founder of the National Negro Congress (1935-1946), an organization that was dedicated to the advancement of African Americans all over the country during the Great Depression. Davis was born on January 19th, 1905, in Washington D.C. He graduated … Read MoreJohn Preston Davis (1905-1973)
Born on January 5th, 1926, in Attapulgus, Georgia, Hosea Williams became a prominent civil rights activist and war hero. Unfortunately, his mother died in childbirth, and his father was never in the picture, so Williams was raised by his grandfather, Turner Williams. Williams encountered racism early in his life. … Read MoreHosea Williams (1926-2000)
The 1963 Cambridge Riot was the result of racial tensions between African American and white residents in the town of Cambridge, Maryland. After a year of demonstrations led by Baltimore’s Civic Interest Group (CIG) to desegregate Maryland’s Eastern shore, many African Americans in Cambridge became discontented with relying … Read MoreCambridge, Maryland Riot (1963)
Lucy Craft Laney, educator, school founder, and civil rights activist, was born in Georgia on April 13, 1854, in Macon, Georgia to free parents Louisa and David Laney. David Laney, a Presbyterian minister and skilled carpenter, had purchased his freedom approximately twenty years before Lucy Laney’s birth. He purchased … Read MoreLucy Craft Laney (1854-1933)
Haben Girma, both blind and deaf, is a disability rights advocate and attorney who became the first deaf and blind graduate of Harvard Law School in Massachusetts when she graduated with a Juris Doctor degree (JD) in 2013. Girma was born on July 29, 1988, … Read MoreHaben Girma (1988- )
Lamar Smith, a voting rights activist and veteran, was a martyr in the fight for civil rights. Smith was born in March 1892 to Levi Smith and Harriet Humphrey in Lincoln County, Mississippi; however, there is little information concerning his early life. Smith served in … Read MoreLamar Smith (1892-1955)
Image Ownership: Avi Loud/DomeCare Solutions Jonathan Moore, teacher, musician, entrepreneur, activist, and youth advocate, was born to Gwendolyn Jones and Jonny Moore in Seattle, Washington, on April 21, 1969. As a student at Roosevelt High School in the 1980s, Moore rented rooms at the Seattle … Read MoreJonathan Moore (1969-2017)
Herb Cawthorne, teacher, community leader, and news reporter, was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Roosevelt and Edythe Odrene Cawthorne in June 1947. He is the youngest of four children, including John, Elsa, and Edythe. He attended North Des Moines High School in Omaha from 1962 … Read MoreHerb Cawthorne (1947- )
Ishmael Beah is a Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist who rose to fame with his personal history, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider. Beah was born on November 23, 1980, in Mattru Jong, Bonthe District, Sierra Leone, in West Africa. … Read MoreIshmael Beah (1980- )
