Great American Civil Rights Leaders
When referring to what has become known as the Civil Rights Movement in America, many people will speak of the African American rights movement, which began in the early 1950s.
Yet one great leader of people paved the way for equality for all well before that, and established himself as a defender of equal rights for all U.S. citizens.
Many who followed have continued their struggle to establish our country as a place where all people are treated equally – a country where segregation is a thing of the past, and where the American dream remains attainable by all who seek it.
Abraham Lincoln: 1809 – 1865
The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln identified his life’s work by age 17, when he decided he wanted to become a lawyer. As a young man, throughout the most menial and laborious work Lincoln did – be it a farm laborer, shop keeper or operating an Ohio River flat boat - he was known to be unfailingly fair, honest and forthright.
In 1836, he received his law degree. That same year he was elected to the Illinois Legislature, where he became known for his passionate and eloquent speeches and debates. He was inaugurated as President in 1861, just five weeks before the start of the Civil War. The battle between the North and the South was centered on slavery, and Lincoln was passionate in his beliefs that the freedom of slaves was paramount to keeping the nation from becoming divided.
In 1863, Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves in the southern United States, and ultimately slaves throughout the country. Lincoln’s views and beliefs on America being a truly free nation established the foundation for civil rights history in the United States.
John F. Kennedy: 1917 – 1963
In his Presidential inaugural address in 1961, Kennedy made a promise to end racial discrimination. In 1964, he proposed the Civil Rights Act, meant to end racial discrimination in education, housing access, the workplace, the voting booth, and throughout the entire U.S., and is thought to be among the most significant movements toward black and white Americans being treated as equals in all walks of life.
President Kennedy appointed about forty blacks to administrative posts in his administration, 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.
Kennedy’s legacy as an advocate for equality among all Americans remains one of the most compelling achievements in the movement of civil rights in American history.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: 1925 - 1964
Dr. King is probably the first name one thinks of when asked about prominent figures in the American civil rights movement. Dr. King’s mother was instrumental in teaching her young son about prejudice and slavery in America, and planted the seed that would propel him to become a tireless leader in the fight for equality among blacks and whites in this country.
Along with Dr. King’s work as a religious minister, he became involved with activist movement protests and marches which were destined to be key factors in reversing racial discrimination, including the infamous Montgomery Bus Boycott, initiated by Dr. King when a black woman named Rosa Parks refused to relinquish her seat in a “whites only” section of an Alabama bus.
Along with other prominent black leaders, Dr. King formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and was the catalyst for many famous civil rights protest marches, made impassioned speeches across the country and dedicated his life to reversing the discriminatory Jim Crow laws, which had been keeping the country segregated for decades.
Time Magazine's 1964 "Man of the Year", Dr, King’s tireless personal commitment to and strong leadership role in the black freedom struggle won him worldwide acclaim and the Nobel Peace Prize.
Harriet Tubman: 1810-1913
During the Civil War when the slave ownership was at its peak, Tubman took it upon herself to rescues slaves from their masters, and help them escape the oppressive southern states to freedom. Through her efforts with the Underground Railroad, Tubman helped thousands of slaves escape to Canada, and she personally made 19 trips to assist with those harrowing journeys.
Tubman was a slave herself, and when her slave master died in 1849, she saw it as her opportunity to escape to the north. Her mission was to teach people the horrors of slavery, and effect change through educating them about just how cruel living as a slave to a white master could be. Just prior to Tubman’s death, white slave masters were offering up to $70,000 for her capture, as her efforts were decimating the slave trade throughout the south.
Thurgood Marshall: 1908 - 1993
The grandson of a slave, Marshall rose though the ranks of prominent black civil rights advocates to become the first black to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet in 1930, he applied to the University of Maryland Law School, but was denied admission because he was black. This event that was to haunt him, and also direct his future professional life.
While serving as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, prior to his nomination to the United States Supreme Court in 1967, Thurgood Marshall won 14 of the 19 cases he argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of the government. In fact, Marshall represented and won more cases before the United States Supreme Court than any other American.
Justice Thurgood Marshall established a record for supporting the voiceless American, and developed a profound sensitivity to injustice by way of the crucible of racial discrimination in this country. Marshall leaves a legacy that expands his early sensitivity to include all of America's citizens, and create a judicial system in which we are all equal under the law.
Jesse Jackson: 1941 -
While an undergraduate at the Chicago Theological Seminary, Jackson became involved in the civil rights movement. In 1965 he went to Selma, Alabama, to march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and became a worker in King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
In 1971, Jackson founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), a Chicago-based organization that advocated black self-help. It was through PUSH that he discovered a broad audience for his views. In 1984, he established the National Rainbow Coalition, seeking equal rights for African Americans, women, and homosexuals. These two organizations merged in 1996 to form the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
Jackson began traveling the world in the late 1970s to mediate or spotlight international problems and disputes, and has won acclaim for negotiating the release of U.S. soldiers and civilians around the world, including in Syria (1984), Iraq (1990), and Yugoslavia (1999).
