Free
During the civil rights movement, both leaders and ordinary people exhibited great courage.
Some of them have been mentioned on previous pages, and here are just a few of the many, many more. Find out more about each of them in books or online.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
(1862–1931)
Born into slavery, she became a teacher, a writer, and a crusader against lynching. She also supported women’s right to vote.
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth
(1922–2011)
A co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), he went to jail for freedom more than 20 times.
Whitney Young
(1921–1971)
He was executive director of the National Urban League. He lobbied businesses and government for equal opportunities for African Americans in jobs, education, and health care.
Roy Wilkins
(1901–1981)
During the civil rights movement, he was executive director of the NAACP. He was a strong supporter of nonviolent protest and addressing wrongs through the legal system.
Emmett Till
(1941–1955)
While visiting relatives in Mississippi in 1955, this 14-year-old was murdered for speaking to a white woman in a manner that was considered not respectful enough. His accused killers were found not guilty at trial. But later, they admitted their guilt.
A. Philip Randolph
(1889–1979)
A labor leader, he was the guiding spirit behind the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth
(1922–2011)
A co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), he went to jail for freedom more than 20 times.
Ruby Bridges
(1954– )
At six years old, in 1960, she became one of the first black children to integrate a white elementary school in the Deep South. Escorted by federal marshals, she walked past screaming mobs.
Thurgood Marshall
(1908–1993)
He was one of the NAACP lawyers who argued the case of Brown v. the Board of Education before the Supreme Court in 1954. President Lyndon Johnson made him the first black justice of the Supreme Court in 1967.
Medgar Evers
(1925–1963)
The first full-time staff member of the Mississippi chapter of the NAACP, he was shot to death in 1963. His murderer was convicted in 1994.
Fannie Lou Hamer
(1917–1977)
In 1964, she went with the integrated Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to the Democratic National Convention. There, she made an emotional plea for the convention to seat her group’s delegation instead of the state’s official all-white delegation. The plea was refused. Hamer was fired from her job and evicted from her home for her activism.
Autherine Lucy
(1929– )
Attempting to attend the University of Alabama in February 1956, she was met by an armed white mob. She was expelled, with the excuse that it was for her own protection.
Stokely Carmichael
(1941–1998)
While chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he was arrested many times. He came to support “black power.” That was the belief that African Americans must organize their political, social, and economic power to achieve freedom.
John Lewis
(1940–2020)
A founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he took part in most of the major civil rights demonstrations. In 1986, he was elected to Congress as a representative from Georgia.
James Meredith
(1933– )
He was the first black student to enter the University of Mississippi, in 1962. His arrival led to riots that ended only when President Kennedy sent the Army to protect him.
Vernon Jordan
(1935– )
A lawyer, he sued the University of Georgia for failing to admit black students. He also accompanied one of the first black students, Charlayne Hunter, through mobs to class.
E. D. Nixon
(1899–1987)
Head of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, he came up with the idea of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955.
Ella Baker
(1930–1986)
An official with the NAACP and SCLC, she spoke up for grassroots organizing and inspired the students who founded SNCC.
Muhammad Ali
(1942–2016 )
He became heavyweight boxing champion of the world in 1964. For refusing to fight in the Vietnam War, he was stripped of his title. But the Supreme Court ruled in 1974 that the government had acted improperly, and Ali regained his title.
Viola Liuzzo
(1925–1965)
A white mother of five from Detroit, she went to Selma as a volunteer and drove black protesters back from Montgomery after the march there. Her car was followed, and she was killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
