109 articles
Akua Njeri
Akua Njeri, born Deborah Johnson, is an American activist and writer, a former Black Panther and the widow of Fred Hampton, killed in a 1969 police raid.
Al Sharpton
Al Sharpton is an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and MS NOW host who founded the National Action Network in 1991, led protests in cases such as Howard Beach, Diallo, Garner, and Floyd, and ran for president in 2004.
Alberta Williams King
Alberta Williams King (1903–1974), mother of Martin Luther King Jr., organist and choir founder at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta; shot dead there June 30, 1974 by Marcus Wayne Chenault while playing the organ.
Alexis McGill Johnson
Alexis McGill Johnson (born 1972) is an American organizer and president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its Action Fund since 2020, after interim leadership from 2019; previously co-founded the Perception Institute.
Alicia Garza
Alicia Garza (born 1981, Oakland) is an American civil rights organizer who co-founded Black Lives Matter after her July 2013 Facebook post following Zimmerman's acquittal; she later founded Black Futures Lab and co-founded Supermajority.
Amanda Nguyen
Amanda Nguyen (born 1991), Vietnamese-American activist and bioastronautics scientist, founded Rise, championed the 2016 Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act, and became the first Vietnamese woman in space on Blue Origin's NS-31 flight, April 14, 2025.
Amy Mek
Amy Mek is the online pseudonym of Amy Mekelburg, an American far-right commentator and anti-Islam activist from New York who founded RAIR Foundation USA and was identified by journalists in 2018.
Ann Atwater
Ann Atwater (1935–2016) was a Durham, North Carolina civil rights and housing activist who co-chaired the 1971 school desegregation charrette with Klansman C.P. Ellis, converting him into a lifelong friend and civil rights ally.
Anthony Shriver
Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver (born 1965), son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Sargent Shriver, American social entrepreneur who founded Best Buddies International in 1989; its founder, Chairman & CEO, living in Miami Beach.
Assata Shakur
Assata Shakur (JoAnne Chesimard), Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member, convicted 1977 of killing a NJ trooper, escaped prison 1979, lived in Cuban asylum from 1984, FBI first female Most Wanted Terrorist; died 2025 in Havana at 78.
Auma Obama
Auma Obama (born 1960), Kenyan sociologist and half-sister of Barack Obama, founder of the Sauti Kuu Foundation for disadvantaged youth in Kenya and author of the memoir And Then Life Happens.
Basava (ಬಸವ)
Basava (ಬಸವ, Basavanna), twelfth-century Kannada vachana poet and Kalachuri commander at Kalyana, central figure of the Lingayat/Virashaiva tradition; founder-versus-reformer debate and 2018 Karnataka minority-religion politics distinguish him.
Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin (1912–1987), American Quaker pacifist, socialist, and openly gay civil rights strategist; co-founder of CORE, advisor to Martin Luther King Jr., and chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
Bella Abzug
Bella Abzug (Bella Savitzky, 1920–1998), "Battling Bella," American labor and civil rights lawyer, antiwar activist, and three-term Democratic congresswoman from New York, 1971–1977; first federal gay rights bill, Child Development Act, NWPC cofounder, 1977 National Women's Conference presiding officer.
Bobby Seale
Bobby Seale (Robert George Seale, born October 22, 1936) co-founded the Black Panther Party with Huey P. Newton in Oakland in 1966, served as Chairman, faced the Chicago Eight and New Haven trials, ran for Oakland mayor in 1973, and wrote Seize the Time.
Bushra Shaikh
Bushra Shaikh, born 1982, is a British-Pakistani media commentator and former fashion entrepreneur who competed on The Apprentice in 2017 and founded the anti-racism organization Run Racism Out.
C. P. Ellis
C.P. Ellis (Claiborne Paul Ellis, 1927–2005), Durham KKK Exalted Grand Cyclops who co-chaired the 1971 school desegregation charrette with Ann Atwater, renounced the Klan, and became a civil rights activist and union organizer.
Carrie Best
Carrie Best (1903–2001) was a Black Canadian journalist and civil rights activist from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, who co-founded The Clarion and publicized Viola Desmond's 1946 case.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Charlayne Hunter-Gault (born 1942) is an American journalist who desegregated the University of Georgia with Hamilton Holmes in 1961, then worked at the New York Times, The New Yorker, PBS NewsHour, NPR, and CNN, winning two Emmys and two Peabody Awards.
Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King (1927-2006), American civil rights leader, author, and wife of Martin Luther King Jr.; founding president of the King Center, holiday campaign chair, and advocate for peace, women's rights, and anti-apartheid causes.
Craig Cobb
Craig Cobb (born 1951) is an American white supremacist and neo-Nazi activist known for his failed 2012-2013 attempt to take over Leith, North Dakota, his 2014 terrorizing plea, and a DNA test showing 14% sub-Saharan African ancestry.
Daisy Bates (activist)
Daisy Lee Gatson Bates (1914–1999), Arkansas civil rights leader, NAACP state president, and co-publisher of the Arkansas State Press, mentored the Little Rock Nine during the 1957 Central High desegregation crisis; honored with a Capitol statue and Daisy Gatson Bates Day.
Dan Savage
Dan Savage (born 1964, Chicago) is an American sex-advice columnist, author, and LGBT activist. He created "Savage Love" (The Stranger, 1991), the Savage Lovecast podcast, and co-founded the It Gets Better Project.
Denis Kearney
Denis Kearney (c. 1847-1907), Irish-born San Francisco agitator, founded the Workingmen's Party of California in 1877 and led anti-Chinese agitation with the slogan "The Chinese must go!"
Denmark Vesey
Denmark Vesey (c. 1767–1822), also known as Telemaque, was a free Black Charleston carpenter hanged in 1822 for allegedly plotting a large slave insurrection set for Bastille Day; 35 were executed, and historians still dispute whether the plot was real.
DeRay Mckesson
DeRay Mckesson (born 1985, Baltimore) is a civil rights activist, former school administrator, and co-founder of Campaign Zero who rose to prominence during the 2014 Ferguson protests, hosted Pod Save The People, and ran sixth in Baltimore's 2016 mayoral primary.
Dexter King
Dexter Scott King (1961-2024), younger son of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King; chaired the King Center, led the King estate's intellectual property, met James Earl Ray, and died of prostate cancer.
Diane Nash
Diane Judith Nash (born 1938, Chicago) is an American civil rights leader, SNCC co-founder, and Nashville sit-in chair who coordinated the 1961 Freedom Rides and co-planned the Selma voting-rights campaign; awarded the 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Elizabeth Eckford
Elizabeth Ann Eckford (born 1941), Little Rock Nine member who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957; her solo walk through a mob on September 4, 1957, photographed by Will Counts, became an iconic civil rights image.
Ella Baker
Ella Josephine Baker (1903–1986), American civil rights organizer; NAACP director of branches, SCLC executive secretary, and organizer of the April 1960 Shaw University conference that founded SNCC, advocating group-centered, grassroots leadership.