Canadian entrepreneur Viola Desmond was arrested in 1946 for refusing to leave a segregated section of a Nova Scotia movie theatre. She was physically injured by police in the incident but was convicted and fined by local courts. She was posthumously pardoned in 2010. Born … Read MoreViola Davis Desmond (1914-1965)
Myles Anderson Paige, the first African American to be appointed a New York City Criminal Court Judge, was born on July 18, 1898 in Montgomery, Alabama. Paige was a star football player at Howard University, graduating from the Washington D.C. institution with a Bachelor of Arts … Read MoreMyles Anderson Paige (1898-1983)
Henry Lee Moon helped to define the civil rights agenda of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) during the post-World War II era. The son of Roddy Moon, a prominent NAACP branch president in Cleveland, and Leah Moon, Henry Lee Moon … Read MoreHenry Lee Moon (1901-1985)
A.T. Walden (left) Image Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Fair Use) Austin Thomas (A.T.) Walden, a noted attorney and civil rights leader, was one of few African American lawyers in Georgia during early 20th century. Walden was born in Fort Valley, Georgia on April 12, 1885 … Read MoreA.T. Walden (1885-1965)
Born on February 17, 1906 in Cordele, Georgia, Sidney Barthwell was the founder of Barthwell Drugs, once the largest chain of black-owned drug stores in the United States. As a young man, he attended Lucius H. Holsey Academy of Excellence in Fitzgerald. In 1922, he … Read MoreSidney Barthwell (1906-2005)
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF or, alternately, the ‘Inc. Fund’) provides legal services in the fight against racial discrimination. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) program for reform had long combined legal challenges to de jure segregation … Read MoreNAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (1940- )
The Martinsville Seven were a group of young black men executed in 1951 after being convicted of raping a white woman. Their trials and the electrocutions became a cause célèbre similar to the Scottsboro Case of the 1930s. On the evening of January 8, 1949, … Read MoreMartinsville Seven (1949-1951)
Civil rights activist George Long entered the University of New Mexico with the goal of becoming a teacher, but his involvement in the boycott of a local restaurant and nightclub led to a career in law. He became the first black graduate of the University … Read MoreGeorge Long (?-2010)
Edgar Daniel Nixon, an African American civil rights leader and union organizer, is remembered primarily for helping lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama from 1955 to 1956. E.D. Nixon was born to Wesley M. Nixon, a Baptist minister, and Sue Ann Chappell Nixon, a … Read MoreE.D. Nixon (1899-1987)
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, an award-winning journalist, author, and the first African American woman to integrate into the University of Georgia (UGA), was born in Due West, South Carolina, in 1942. Hunter was born to Charles, a chaplain in the United States Army, and Althea Hunter. She … Read MoreCharlayne Hunter-Gault (1942- )
