Marcus Garvey Marcus Garvey was founder of the Universal Negro
Improvement Association and African Communities
League. He inspired many people, including the
nation of Islam and the Rastafari movement, which
considers him to be a prophet. He believed that all
African Americans should return to Africa, a belief
known as the colonist movement Elijah Muhammad During the civil rights era, there arose a new religious movement,
anchored largely in northern urban areas. The Nation of Islam was founded
in the United States by Elijah Muhammad. Settling in Chicago, away from
hostile Muslim factions in Detroit, Muhammad built what quickly became
the most important center of the movement. Chicago soon featured not
only a Temple of Islam, but a newspaper called Muhammad Speaks, a
University of Islam and several movement-owned apartment houses,
grocery stores, and restaurants. Temples were opened in other cities, and
farms were purchased so that ritually pure food could be made available to
members. The movement was a sharply disciplined one. Members had
strict rules to follow regarding eating smoking and drinking dress and
appearance and all kinds of personal behavior. Muhammad also revised
the theology of the movement. Under his system, Fard was proclaimed the
earthly incarnation of Allah, the Muslim name for God; (Elijah)
Muhammad was his divinely-appointed prophet. Muhammad also taught
that blacks constituted the original human beings, but that a mad black
scientist named Yakub had created a white beast through genetic
manipulation and that whites had been given a temporary dispensation to
govern the world. That period, however, was due to end soon; now the
time was at hand for blacks to resume their former dominant role. It was
understood that violent war would be likely before the transition could be
completed. In the meantime, Muhammad advocated an independent nation
for African Americans.
Stokely Carmichael Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael (1941 – 1998), also known as Kwame Toure, was a black activist during the Civil Rights Movement. He rose to power as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the “Honorable Prime Minister” for the Black Panther Party. Carmichael was best known for promoting black self‐
reliance in his “Black Power” speeches. Unlike leaders such as MLK, Carmichael did not view nonviolence as a core principle, but rather as a strategy. Emmett Louis “Bobo” Till July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955 Emmett Till arrived in Mississippi in 1955 with family to work with sharecroppers. Till made a mistake by whistling at the white woman store owner while buying groceries. When the story spread to the husband of the woman (Roy Bryant) he decided that he and J.W. Milam would “teach the boy a lesson.” They brought his wife to Till’s Uncle’s house to get him. They took him from the house and took him to another house and beat him and shot him. They tied a cotton gin around his neck with barbed wire and dropped him in the Tallahatchie Lake. After his death they found his body in the lake and his body was shown at his funeral to expose the brutality of the murder. Earl Warren
WithinayearWarrenhadmanagedtobringadividedCourt
togetherinaunanimousdecision,Brownv.Boardof
Education(1954),overturningtheinfamous1896"separate
butequal"rulinginPlessyv.Fergusonwithregardstopublic
education.Thenewrulingbannedsegregatedschoolsand
gavebirthtothemoderncivilrightsmovement.Throughout
theSouth,billboardsproclaimed"ImpeachEarlWarren."
Tough‐minded,amiable,andpersuasive,Warrenledthe
Courttolandmarkdecisionsthroughoutthe1960sthat
extendedindividualrightsandtherightsoftheaccusedand
forcedthegovernmenttojustifyanyattemptstoinfringesuch
rights.TheCourtintroducedtheconceptof"oneman,one
vote,"limitedthescopeofpolicesearches,extendedtheright
ofaccusedfelonstohavecounseleveniftheywereunableto
pay,andrecognizedafundamentalrightofprivacy.
John F. Kennedy President John F. Kennedy helped change this unfairness by developing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. During Kennedy’s Presidential Inaugural address in 1961, he promised to end racial discrimination. During Kennedy’s time in office, he appointed black people to many federal positions. No other president had done that in the past. President Kennedy appointed about forty Blacks to administrative posts such as Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, Associate White House Press Secretary, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. He also selected five black federal judges, giving hope to Black Americans that more important jobs will go to Blacks. Ruby Bridges (Born on September 8, 1954 in Tylertown, Mississippi) At the age of four moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1960, as a 6 year old, her parents responded to a call from the NAACP and volunteered Ruby to participate in the integration of the New Orleans School system. Ruby was escorted to school by five federal marshals and her mother. "Now I want you to behave yourself today, Ruby, and don't be afraid” is what Ruby’s mom told her to make ruby feel better. Ruby and her mother went to the school where so many people were outside shouting and throwing things that the little girl thought it must be Mardi Gras. Her teacher at William Frantz Elementary School was Ms. Henry who was the only teacher willing to teach Ruby. The first year, all the parents of Frantz Elementary pulled their children out, and as a result, Ruby spent her first year at school alone with Ms. Henry. Ruby Bridges is known as the first African‐
American child to attend William Frantz Elementary School and the first African‐American child to attend an all‐white school in the South. James Meredith James H. Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights movement figure. He was the first African‐American student at the University of Mississippi, an event that was a flash point in the American civil rights movement. On October 1, 1962, he became the first black student at the University of Mississippi, after being barred from entering on September 20. His enrollment, virulently opposed by segregationist Governor Ross Barnett, sparked riots on the Oxford campus, which required federal troops and U.S. Marshals, who were sent by President John F. Kennedy. 28 U.S. Marshals were wounded by gunfire. Bob Dylan sang about the incident in his song Oxford Town. Meredith's actions are regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights in the United States. He graduated on August 18, 1963 with a degree in political science. Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther
King Junior was born on January 15,
1929. First, he was a Baptist minister then he became
part of the civil rights movement when he helped lead
the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Then, he started the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957
serving as its president. Then in 1963, Mr. King led the
march in Washington where he delivered his “I Have a
Dream” speech with exceptional oratory skills. He was
the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize to
end the separation of races. Mr. King accomplished this
task through civil disobedience. Mr. King received the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the
Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. Martin Luther King
Jr. Day was made a national holiday in 1986 but, Mr.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis,
Tennessee already.
Malcolm X Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska. By the time he was 13, his father had died and his mother had been committed to a mental hospital. After living in a series of foster homes, Malcolm X became involved in the criminal in Boston and New York, and was sentenced from eight to ten years in prison. While in prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam and served as an African American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. His detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence. Malcolm X has been described as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history. Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks, refused to obey bus driver James Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Parks was charged with a violation of Chapter 6, Section 11 segregation law of the Montgomery City code. A Supreme Court Decision struck down the Montgomery ordinance under which Mrs. Parks had been fined, and outlawed racial segregation on public transportation. Parks’ act of defiance became an important symbol of the modern Civil Rights Movement and Parks became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. President Clinton presented Rosa Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. She received a Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon B. Johnson was was the 36th president whose presidency ran from 11/22/1963 ‐ 1/20/1969. While he was in the White House, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and Medicare were signed into law. Years later it proved to be a vital source of legal authority against racial and sexual discrimination. Johnson worked behind the scenes to ensure that blacks would get equal treatment some day and believed this could be achieved by making small changes in his own town rather that passing legislation that no one was likely to abide . Johnson envisioned America as a "Great Society" with with "an end to poverty and racial injustice".He also nominated Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court and led an active role during the times of the Vietnam War
W.E.B Du Bois (1868‐1963) William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was most known as a cofounder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and served as the director of publicity and research from 1910 to 1934. Du Bois also founded the Niagara movement in 1905, serving as general secretary and editing the Moon and the Horizon. His editorial of the Crisis, the NAACP’s monthly magazine, spearheaded the protest to secure anti‐lynching legislation. After resigning from the NAACP, Du Bois actively pursued African American controlled institutions which opposed the NAACP’s policy for integration. Du Bois did later return to the NAACP as director of special research from 1944 to 1948. While serving as director of special research, Du Bois also played intermediate between African Americans and the United Nations. It was during this time period that Du Bois delivered his famous address, “An Appeal to the World”. Thurgood Marshall Before becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who was best remembered for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education. He managed to bring a divided Court together in a unanimous decision. He was nominated to the court by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967. He became the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States.