1863-1954  Mary Eliza Church Terrell played a central role in the struggle for civil rights. A master at organizing, lecturing, and writing, she was present at the founding of the NAACP. Terrell began her career as an activist in an era when lynching was common in the United States, and lived to see the dawn
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1856-1915  Booker Taliaferro Washington was one of the leading African American figures of his era. Born a slave and initially denied an education, he was ultimately responsible for founding one of the preeminent black educational institutions in the U.S., and was known for his philosophy of hard work, vocational training, and self-reliance as the path
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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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1875 – 1950  Carter Godwin Woodson applied a ferocious intellect and a passion for truth to create the field of Black history, and endow it with academic rigor. His commitment to preserving and promulgating the social, cultural, and factual record of African American achievement was unswerving throughout a long and distinguished career, which was aptly
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