1898-1989  Sadie Mossell Alexander distinguished herself as a civil rights leader, accomplished lawyer, and political activist through academic excellence and personal endurance. She became the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in the United States, and helped create opportunities for underprivileged Blacks during the Civil Rights Movement. A Scholar and Lawyer Alexander was
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1926-1990  Ralph David Abernathy was an inspirational church pastor and an important activist in the struggle for civil rights. His leadership role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and his alliance with Martin Luther King, Jr., helped spur desegregation and create a more promising future for African Americans in the United States. An Ambitious Beginning Abernathy
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1893-1955  Walter Francis White spent most of his highly accomplished career in the service of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and led the organization during a crucial period in American racial history to a position of undeniable political power and broad interracial support. A New Middle Class White was born in
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1941 –  Ron Karenga’s early work as an activist and Black Nationalist leader grew into a career as an academic specializing in African American studies. His interest in promoting black culture and identity led to his creation of Kwanzaa, a weeklong celebration of African culture and heritage. Farm to City Karenga was born Ronald McKinley
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1909-1980  Ruby Hurley devoted more than four decades to the struggle for racial justice. She spent most of that time working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in important administrative positions, while also contributing as an investigator in racially motivated crimes, and was affiliated with many of the most salient events
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1858?-1964  Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was a pioneer black feminist and educator, whose achievements expressed her faith in the potential of African Americans and the special role of black women. A Gentlemen’s Course Cooper was probably born in 1858 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her mother, Hannah Stanley Haywood, was a slave whose master, George Washington
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1903-1986  Ella Josephine Baker worked with the leading civil rights activists of her time, and played a critical part in forming the organizational basis for the movement. Although her gender may have kept her from a more visible role, she remained a steadfast proponent of grass roots empowerment and social change. Granddaughter of a Slave
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1925-1963  Medgar Evers’ work as NAACP state field secretary for Mississippi led to his assassination by a white supremacist. After more than 30 years and three separate trials, his killer was finally brought to justice, in what has become a celebrated and inspirational story of victory and sacrifice for the Civil Rights Movement. Insurance to
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1914-1999  Daisy Gatson Bates was an activist and publisher. She is best known for her role as mentor and advisor to the group of nine students who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Bates dedicated her life to the struggle against injustice, and was among this country’s fiercest and most steadfast advocates for
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1902-1983  William Allison Davis devoted his life to uncovering and correcting unfair bias in the U.S. educational system, and ensuring equal opportunity for all. His landmark studies of caste and class in the south, and the effects of culturally biased tests on underprivileged children, led to dramatic improvements in the use of such tests and
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