Josephine Ebaugh Jones was a community activist and may also have been the first black woman in management at a Fortune 500 company. Born July 30, 1920, in Cross Hill, South Carolina, to sharecroppers Anna Nance and Scott Ebaugh, Josephine arrived in New York City, New York in 1946 to cook … Read MoreJosephine Ebaugh Jones (1920-2017)
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- )
The Baton Rouge (Louisiana) Bus Boycott in 1953 was the first large-scale boycott of a southern segregated bus system. It inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott that took place two years later. The boycott, however, remains controversial because many supporters felt its leader, Rev. T.J. Jemison, … Read MoreBaton Rouge Bus Boycott (1953)
The 1896 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson made segregationist laws permissible anywhere in the United States as long as railroads, streetcars, and other public conveyances provided equal accommodations for blacks and whites. The decision, which served as the constitutional underpinning for the … Read MoreNashville Streetcar Boycott (1905-1907)
The Birmingham Campaign was a movement led in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) which sought to bring national attention of the efforts of local black leaders to desegregate public facilities in Birmingham, Alabama. The campaign was led by Dr. Martin Luther … Read MoreThe Birmingham Campaign (1963)
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)
The Albany Movement was a desegregation campaign formed on November 17, 1961, in Albany, Georgia. Local activists from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Ministerial Alliance, the Federation of Woman’s Clubs, and the Negro … Read MoreThe Albany Movement (1961–1962)
The Nashville Sit-Ins were among the earliest non-violent direct action campaigns that targeted Southern racial segregation in the 1960s. The sit-ins, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960, sought to desegregate downtown lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee. The protests were coordinated by the … Read MoreNashville Sit-Ins (1960)
Tommie Smith is best known as a world class sprinter and for protesting (along with John Carlos) U.S. racism and human oppression on the winner’s podium at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Smith was born in Clarksville, Texas, and raised in Lemoore, California. … Read MoreTommie Smith (1944- )
John Carlos is best known for his black-gloved fist salute on the winner’s podium (with Tommie Smith) at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Carlos was born and raised in Harlem, New York. He was a promising student-athlete in high school who, following graduation, … Read MoreJohn Carlos (1945- )
