The “March Against Fear” began on June 5, 1966, and was initiated by civil rights activist James Meredith. Four years earlier he had become the first African American student to integrate the University of Mississippi by enrolling there in 1962. Meredith decided to protest the … Read MoreJames Meredith’s March Against Fear (1966)
Anne Moody was a writer and civil rights activist best known for her memoir, Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968). In the early 1960s, while a student at Tougaloo College, she worked with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Student … Read MoreAnne Moody (1940-2015)
Ples Sterling Stuckey, Jr. was a professor of history best known for his impact on shifting slavery studies from examinations ancillary to enslaved African American lives to the study of their history, culture, and sociopolitical expression as central to the understanding of African American and … Read MorePles Sterling Stuckey, Jr. (1932-2018)
Born Anna Marie Wooldridge in Chicago, Illinois on August 6, 1930, and raised on a farm in Calvin Center, Cass County, Michigan, Abbey Lincoln (stage name) was an African-American jazz singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. The tenth out of twelve children, she began her singing career at a young … Read MoreAbbey Lincoln (1930-2010)
Few people are aware of the race riot that occurred in Tucson, Arizona in 1967. The riot was caused by the arrest of an unidentified black 14-year-old a few days before. On July 23rd to 25th in the North side of the city within a four-mile area between 4th … Read MoreTucson Race Riot (1967)
Hartford, Connecticut in the late 1960’s was a city immersed in racial unrest, class disputes, and activism. The city was a dichotomy between the ghetto, predominantly black or Puerto Rican and impoverished, in the North End and the South End, white and middle or working class. The black population had … Read MoreHartford, Connecticut Riot (1969)
The 1964 Paterson, New Jersey uprising lasted from August 11 to 14. The uprising occurred simultaneously with a separate uprising in nearby Elizabeth, New Jersey and both, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), were the consequence of the larger uprisings in New York City (July 18-23), Rochester, New … Read MorePaterson, New Jersey Uprising (1964)
The Greensboro Sit-Ins were non-violent protests in Greensboro, North Carolina, which lasted from February 1, 1960 to July 25, 1960. The protests led to the Woolworth Department Store chain ending its policy of racial segregation in its stores in the southern United States. The Greensboro … Read MoreGreensboro Sit-Ins (1960)
Freedom Summer (June-August, 1964) was a nonviolent effort by civil rights activists to integrate Mississippi’s segregated political system. It began late in 1963 when the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) decided to recruit several hundred northern college students, … Read MoreFreedom Summer (1964)
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Civil rights activist and education reformer Marnesba Tillmon Tackett was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Ivory and Elizabeth Edwards Adkins on February 4, 1908. She grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. After graduating from Sumner High School in 1926, she … Read MoreMarnesba Tillmon Tackett (1908-2007)
