civil rights movement

James Weldon Johnson

1917

James Weldon Johnson was an American writer and civil rights activist. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Charles Hamilton Houston

1938

The first general counsel of the NAACP Charles Hamilton Houston exposed the hollowness of the "separate but equal" doctrine and paved the way for the Supreme Court ruling outlawing school segregation.

Harry T. Moore

1941

Harry was an African-American educator, a pioneer leader of the civil rights movement, founder of the first branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Brevard County, Florida, and president of the state chapter of the NAACP.

Rosa Park's

Jan 12, 1955

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".

Fredrick Douglass

Feb 20, 1962

Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He became the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century.

John Lewis

1963

American civil rights leader and politician best known for his chairmanship of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and for leading the march that was halted by police violence on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, a landmark event in the history of the civil rights movement that became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

Malcolm X's assassination

Feb 21, 1965

Malcolm X was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. Thomas Hagan shoots Malcolm X multiple times and he dies from his wounds in Manhattan, New York City.

Martin Luther king Jr Assassination

Apr 4, 1968

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Christian minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

Carter G. Woodson

1971

Carter Godwin Woodson was an American historian, author, journalist, and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He was a scholar whose dedication to celebrating the historic contributions of Black people led to the establishment of Black History Month, marked every February since 1976.

Julian Bond

1993

A prominent civil rights activist who became the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Horace Julian Bond served as chairman of NAACP from 1998 to 2010, bringing the institution into the 21st century.