30 Civil Rights Leaders of the Past and Present

As a dedicated journalist and feminist, Ida B. Wells used investigative reporting to shed light on the horrors of the lynching of Black Americans in the Jim Crow South. According to The Guardian, her work contradicted the common accepted belief that only rapists and other criminals were killed, rather than just victims of racism. Wells was also a cofounder of the NAACP and worked alongside Susan B. Anthony during the women's suffrage movement.

A graduate of Oberlin College, Mary Church Terrell used her status as a member of the upper-class Black community to promote the advancement of her people through activism and education. A former slave, Terrell's father was one of the South's first Black millionaires, according to the National Women's History Museum. Terrell cofounded the National Association of Colored Women and the NAACP.

W.E.B. Du Bois was a sociologist, historian, and editor who cofounded the NAACP in 1909. In addition to serving on the board of directors, and as a director of publicity and research, the Harvard graduate was also founder and editor of its magazine The Crisis. Through the publication, he influenced readers with ideals that were considered radical at the time. He advocated for protests and challenging of the societal norms that kept Black Americans segregated from their white counterparts. He encouraged integration and Black nationalism, values that were in direct opposition to the more conservative civil rights leader Booker T. Washington.

As a trade unionist and passionate civil rights advocate, A. Philip Randolph created the first successful Black trade union and led them to (reluctant) acceptance into the American Federation of Labor. For much of his career, Randolph fought for equal trade opportunities for Black people. In regards to the ability of African Americans to partake in federal government employment and contracts, he vowed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that he'd lead thousands in a protest in Washington, D.C., if they didn't receive equal treatment, resulting in the POTUS signing an executive order that banned discrimination in defense industries and at the federal level. Randolph also founded the League for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation, which inspired President Harry Truman to sign an executive order that forbade segregation in the military. He was also a director for 1963's March on Washington.

Ella Baker was a field secretary and branch director for the NAACP, and cofounded an organization that raised money to fight Jim Crow laws. She was also a key organizer for Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. But her passion was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which she founded to prioritize nonviolent protest. She also helped to organize the 1961 Freedom Rides, and aided in registering Black voters.

Pauli Murray was an author, lawyer, women's rights activist, the first Black person to earn a Doctor of the Science of Law degree from Yale, and the first Black woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest. Many of Murray's essays, poems, and books ("Negroes Are Fed Up," Dark Testament, States' Laws on Race and Color) were essential, foundational works of the civil rights movement. Murray cofounded the Congress of Racial Equality and the National Organization for Women in 1966 alongside many noted feminists of the time, and was appointed to President John F. Kennedy's Committee on Civil and Political Rights

*Based on her journey with gender identity, The Pauli Murray Center uses s/he and they/them pronouns when discussing Pauli's early life years and she/her/hers when speaking on Pauli's later life. Read more on this decision on their website.

Bayard Rustin's lifelong commitment to nonviolence was at the root of his leadership in activism, as he's credited with organizing many mass civil rights demonstrations, including 1957's Prayer Pilgrimage to Freedom and 1963's famous March on Washington. Rustin was openly gay, a taboo fact at the time that did not deter Martin Luther King, Jr., from valuing Rustin as an important adviser. He assisted King through the Montgomery bus boycotts and the creation of the Southern Leadership Conference, while also deepening King's knowledge of nonviolent tactics that would become a pillar of the renowned leader's legacy.

After becoming president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), Dorothy Height served in the position for 40 years, making her one of the most trusted and leading voices for Black women during the civil rights movement. It was during this time that she advocated for criminal justice reform and was vocal about the tragedies of lynching in the South. The Women's History Museum credits her exemplary organizing skills as a way that she earned the trust of the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. And as a leading organizer, Height was also welcomed on the speaker' s stage at the 1963 March on Washington, representing the only women's group involved in the demonstration. In 1994, she was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2004, she was given the Congressional Gold Medal.

Rosa Parks's name is synonymous with the peak of the American civil rights movement. It all stems from December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, when Parks refused to give up her seat at the front of the bus to a white passenger. Despite being arrested and jailed, her bravery sparked the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott, which led to the segregation of buses being deemed unconstitutional. But her activism did not begin with that fateful day. At the time, Park had a passion for social justice and was the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton in 1996 and was given the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Following her death in 2005, Parks became the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.

Beginning in 1961, the World War II veteran was the executive director of the National Urban League for 10 years, where he developed relationships with white politicians to influence public policy to benefit the Black poor and working class. He was a trusted adviser for presidents John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon B. Johnson. According to Clark Atlanta University, Young coauthored Johnson's "War on Poverty" legislation.

After he converted while in prison for robbery, Malcolm X's Islamic faith was the foundation of his social justice advocacy. As a prominent leader and voice in the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X preached ideals of Black nationalism and independence by tapping into the anger and frustration that resulted from years of racism and segregation. He was vocal about disagreeing with the nonviolent tactics of the mainstream civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr., insisting that white people were innately evil and Black people were superior. His words fueled the Black Power movement in the 1960s and 70s. However, two years before his death, he broke from the Nation of Islam, and, in 1964, converted to Sunni Islam. He softened his more extreme views and formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity in hopes of globalizing the Black American fight.

Morehouse graduate Julian Bond was a prominent and outspoken figure of the civil rights movement. While a student at the HBCU, he cofounded the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC) alongside John Lewis. The SNCC was opposed to the Vietnam War and repeatedly directed the national media's attention to the racist treatment of Black Americans in the South. Bond was a member of the Georgia General Assembly for 20 years and elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965. However, he was blocked from the seat by white members of the House who saw him as disloyal for opposing the war in Vietnam. A year later, the Supreme Court ordered him to be seated on the grounds of freedom of speech. He held the position for six terms. The statesman was also the cofounder of the Southern Poverty Law Center and chairman of the NAACP.

John Lewis—the man who coined the term "good trouble"—was a pillar for social justice and a staunch advocate for nonviolent civil rights demonstrations. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Lewis was arrested and multiple times in the Jim Crow South for organizing sit-ins at segregated lunch counters and participating in the 1961 Freedom Rides. Dubbed one of the "Big 6" of the civil rights movement (the others include Martin Luther King, Jr., A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, James Farmer, and Whitney Young), Lewis was the youngest speaker and organizer of the March on Washington. He also led the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and the crossing of Edmund Pettus Bridge, known as "Bloody Sunday," as state troopers brutally attacked marchers. Lewis suffered a fractured skull, and the events influenced the passing of the Voting Rights Act, which Lewis remained a staunch supporter of until his last days. In 1986, he was elected to the House of Representatives in Georgia's 5th district. It was a position he held until his death in 2020. The politician was also a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded to him by Barack Obama in 2011.

Marsha "Pay It No Mind" Johnson is known to many as the leader of the gay liberation movement. She led an uprising after members of the LGBTQ community were harassed at at the Stonewall Inn by members of the NYPD in 1969. Johnson was a successful drag queen and used her influence to lift up others, creating the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries in 1970, an organization that worked to find housing for homeless transgender youth.

After being diagnosed with HIV in 1987 and seeing his partner die of AIDS just two years later, Wilson made it his mission to spread awareness and education of the disease during a time where very little was known. He was the AIDS coordinator for the city of Los Angeles and the director of policy and planning for AIDS Project Los Angeles, and founded the Black AIDS Institute in 1999 to ensure education surrounding prevention and treatment would reach communities in need through policy. In 2010, Barack Obama appointed Wilson to his President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). Wilson retired from his post as president and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute in 2018.

As a community organizer and activist, Tarana Burke is known to many as the founder of the #MeToo movement, putting a hashtag behind the often untold stories of victims of sexual assault. Though Burke had developed #metoo years before through her nonprofit, JustBe, Inc., it became a cultural movement when thousands used it on social media during 2017's Harvey Weinstein sex abuse scandal. That same year she was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.