● John Hope Franklin:
John Hope Franklin was a historian born January 2, 1915 in Oklahoma. He attended Fisk University and then Harvard, earning a doctorate degree in 1955. Franklin taught at Howard University and was named the head of the history department at Brooklyn College. During his life, he held titles as former president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association. In 1955, he was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Franklin passed in 2009 on March 25, with many achievements and honors to his name and the list continued posthumously.
● Jackie Robinson: Jack Roosevelt Robinson, professionally known as Jackie Robinson was the first Black athlete to play Major League Baseball. Born January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. From a teenager to college, Robinson played several sports, being one of the first athletes at his alma mater of UCLA to win varsity letters in four sports. After being discharged from World War II, Robinson found his way back to sports. 1945, he joined the Negro League as pro baseball player for the Kansas City Monarchs. Two years later, he’d make history as he joined the MLB, batting for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Throughout his 10-year career he earned many awards and recognitions, including a World Series title in 1955. After his career, he received even more acknowledgement for his courage and pioneering. Robinson was able to build a beautiful family and legacy, before his death on October 24, 1972, he was 53 years old.
● Ella Josephine Baker:
Born December 13, 1903, Ella Josephine Baker was known as one of the most important leaders of the 20th century and of the civil rights movement. Best known for her criticism of racism in America’s society, Baker also spoke loudly about sexism within the Civil Rights Movement. A woman with a cause, Baker died on her birthday in 1986 after nearly five decades of dedication to Black people and human rights.
● Ralph Bunche:
Political scientist, academic, and diplomat Ralph Johnson Bunche was born August 7, 1904 in Detroit, Michigan. Bunche was then raised in Los Angeles where he also studied undergrad at UCLA, where years later the school named a hall after him and erected a monument to honor his legacy. For graduate school, he studied at both Harvard and Howard University where he earned degrees in political science. Bunche is known to be involved in the formation and administration of the United Nations, playing a key role in several peacekeeping operations. In 1950 he became the first Black person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in settling the Arab-Israeli conflict in Palestine. In 1963 President John F. Kennedy awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Bunche died December 9, 1971 due to complications with his health, leaving a rich legacy and family behind.
● Gwendolyn Brooks:
Pulitzer Prize winning poet and author Gwendolyn Brooks was born June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. During the Great Migration, her family moved to Chicago where Brooks learned to absorb her surroundings, turning her affinity of writing into a lifelong career. She is the first Black person to receive a Pulitzer Prize, hers being for poetry for Annie Allen, May 1, 1950. She’s also the first Black woman to be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1976. After crafting a beautiful legacy, Brooks passed away in her home in Chicago December 3, 2000 at 83 years old.
● Rita Dove: Award-winning poet and essayist Rita Dove in Akron, Ohio on August 28, 1952, has served as an educator and on several councils due to her work. She’s the youngest to hold the Poet Laureate position, and the second Black woman after Gwendolyn Brooks. Much like Brooks, she’s the second to receive a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry which she received in 1987. At 68 years old, Dove is continuously working and receiving gifts from her craft.
● Thurgood Marshall:
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, July 2, 1908, Thurgood Marshall has changed the trajectory of the Black community with years of devotion to our equality as a lawyer and civil rights activist. He graduated with a legal degree from Howard University, then built his own law firm. His case records include Brown v. Board of Education, and Shelley v. Kraemer. Marshall is also responsible for founding the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed him to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1967, in which he was the court’s first Black person to hold the position. Marshall retired before his death January 24, 1993.
● Daisy Bates:
Daisy Bates was a civil rights activist who played a major role in the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957. Born November 11, 1914, Bates was also known to be a lecturer, publisher and journalist. While living in Little Rock, she used her voice and pain to become a figure in the civil rights movement, leading the NAACP chapter. Bates also advised and guided nine students known as Little Rock Nine when they attempted to enroll at an all White school. She died in Little Rock, November 4, 1999 after years of work focused on ending hatred of Black people.
Ralph Ellison (file photo)
● Chuck Berry:
Charles Edward Anderson Berry, better known as Chuck Berry was a singer, songwriter and guitarist and one of the originators of rock and roll music. His style of music combined R&B with key elements of rock, creating new genres busting out hits like “Maybellene” and “Johnny B. Good”. Born October 18, 1926 in St. Louis where he was allowed to pursue his love for music since childhood. His characteristics as a performer brought forth guitar solos and showmanship that nearly all performers now display. Berry was an inspiration in the music industry until his death March 18, 2017.
● Roy Wilkins:
Roy Wilkins was a well known civil rights activist for nearly four decades. Wilkins was born August 30, 1901 and was most known for holding high leadership positions within the NAACP. His fight for equality was seen often as a front figure in marches and literary pieces throughout the struggle. Wilkins passed away days before his 80th birthday on September 8, 1981.
● Rosa Parks: Rosa Parks was born February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She’s most known for not giving up her seat on the bus for a White man, inciting the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. Shortly after, she moved to Detroit and found work as a secretary to John Conyers. After her retirement, she wrote an autobiography and received national recognition for her work. Parks passed October 24, 2005 with a legacy that is celebrated in several states publicly.
● Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the biggest names of the Civil Rights Movement. Born January 15, 1929, King was a preacher and activist that pushed nonviolence methodology against White violence and discrimination. King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and helped organize the March on Washington where the famous “I Have A Dream” speech was delivered in 1963. October 14, 1964, King won a Nobel Peace Prize for fighting racial equality through nonviolence. In 1965, he assisted in organizing Selma to Montgomery marches that were met with extreme violence. After years of working for civil rights, he began expanding his topics to poverty, war, and capitalism. King had been arrested during his protests several times, always returning to fight again. King found himself under heavy FBI surveillance and was assassinated April 4, 1968 at 39 years old in Memphis, Tennessee. His legacy lives on, January 15 was declared Martin Luther King Day as well as memorials in several cities across America.
● Coretta Scott King:
Born in Alabama April 27, 1927 Coretta Scott King was an author, civil rights activist, and wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King played a major role in the civil rights movement after the assassination of Dr. King, keeping his legacy alive and fighting for equal rights for Black Americans and joined the Women’s Movement, expanding her activism into LGBT, and apartheid conflicts. She founded the King Center and is responsible for making Martin Luther King Day a national holiday. King died January 30, 2006 due to health complications, she was the first Black person to lie in state at the Georgia State Capitol.
● Sammy Davis, Jr.: Born December 8, 1925, Sammy Davis, Jr. found as a young adult during World War II that his talent was a way to send a message and change the way a man thought. Known to be a successful singer, dancer, actor, vaudevillian, and comedian. Davis was nominated for several Grammy, Emmy, Tony, and NAACP awards winning a few. On May 16, 1990, Davis died due to throat cancer in Beverly Hills, California.
● James Brown:
James Brown is a musical icon born May 3, 1933 in Barnwell, South Carolina. Brown became the originator of funk music and was referred to as the “Godfather of Soul”. He was one of the first 10 artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during its inaugural dinner January 23, 1986. His career, having lasted nearly 50 years, was full of hit records like “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” and “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”. 17 of his singles reached the charts and he often created songs that resonated with the time such as “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud”. Brown died Christmas day in 2006 leaving a legacy of soulful and funky music, and dance moves that ignited a flame in the industry like no other.
● Althea Gibson:
Althea Gibson was a tennis player and professional golfer born August 25, 1927 in Clarendon County, South Carolina. During the Great Migration her family moved to Harlem, New York where Gibson then picked up her first tennis racket. Known as one of the first Black athletes to cross over internationally, Gibson was a talented and successful tennis player, being the first Black woman to win a Grand Slam Title in 1956. She was also the first woman to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Time. As far as golfing, she was the first Black woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour in 1964. Gibson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. She passed away September 28, 2003 at 76 years old.
● Elijah Muhammad:
Born October 7, 1897, Elijah Muhammad was the leader of the Nation of Islam for nearly four decades until his death. He’s responsible for turning the Nation into a small organization into an empire full of banks, schools, stores, restaurants, and newspapers across America. He was the mentor to Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, and more. He died February 25, 1985 in Chicago.
● Malcolm X:Malcom X was born Malcom Little May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. After much turmoil, his family moved to Milwaukee and then Michigan, until Malcolm moved to New York in 1943. While in prison for larceny, he joined the Nation of Islam, changing his name to Malcolm X. He became their public face, speaking of Black empowerment, while also sharing his indifference of the civil rights movement. During these years, X was under straight FBI surveillance, yet he never let up on his causes. In the 60s, he renounced the Nation after issues surfaced, all the while he was sent death threats. He was assassinated February 21, 1965 at age 39. The stories of his legacy live on in Black art, television, literature, and film.
● Betty Shabazz:
Betty Shabazz, also known as Betty X was born May 28, 1934 and raised in Detroit, Michigan. The wife of Malcom X, Shabazz met her husband after studying at Tuskegee University. She joined the Nation of Islam in 1958, then marrying X in 1958. After X’s assisination, Shabazz raised their family on her own, seeking to continue her education and became associate professor of health sciences with a focus on nursing at Medgar Evers College in New York. She died June 23, 1997 after suffering burns across 80 percent of her body to a fire.
● Lorraine Hansberry:
Born May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Lorraine Hansberry is a notable playwright and writer. Hansberry was the first Black woman to have a play she wrote performed on Broadway in 1957 for A Raisin in the Sun. At 29 years old, the play garnered nominations, making her the first Black dramatist to win the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. She continued to write about the Black experience, as well as homosexuality until her death at age 34 on January 12, 1965 to pancreatic cancer.
● Berry Gordy, Jr.:
Berry Gordy, Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan November 28, 1929. After years of working at the automotive plants, he adopted their methods and found Motown Records in 1960. As music executive, record producer, and songwriter, Gordy has been responsible for tons of music and artists throughout the years, including Jackie Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, The Jackson 5 and more. In 1988, Gordy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013. Gordy’s legacy lives on and he continues to be honored for his efforts to this day.
● Margaret Burroughs:
Margaret Taylor-Burroughs was a Black visual artist, writer, poet, and arts organizer. Born November 1, 1915, she helped establish several facilities to support Black artists of all ages. At 23 years old, she was appointed by then first lady Elenaor Roosevelt to the board of directors of Chicago’s South Side Community Art Center. Later, she co-founded the Dusable Museum of African American History in her hometown of Chicago. She died November 21, 2010 after being recognized for her work and legacy.
● Whitney M. Young Jr.:
Whitney Moore Young Jr. was born July 31, 1921 in Shelby County, Kentucky. From a young age he showed great promise in education. He went on to study at Kentucky State University, University of Minnesota for his masters, where he began volunteering for the National Urban League in 1947. In 1950, he became the youngest president of National Urban League’s Omaha, Nebraska chapter while teaching at the University of Nebraska. In 1961 he became the Executive Director of the National Urban League expanding and turning the organization into one that aggressively fought for equity regarding Black people. He held this position until his unfortunate death while travelling in Lagos, Nigeria March 11, 1971.
● Constance Baker Motley:
Born September 12, 1921, Constance Baker Motley was a key strategist for the civil rights movement, lawyer, senator, and judge. Motley worked with the NAACP for over 20 years, arguing 12 cases at the Supreme Court level where she would win nine. She even aided Thurgood Marshall in the Brown v. Board of Education case that ended segregation in schools. In 1964, she was elected to the New York State Senate and was the first Black woman to sit in the State Senate. Due to her work, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her to the federal judiciary and served as a United States District Judge in New York in 1966, she was the first Black woman to hold the position. Motley died September 28, 2005 at age 84 in New York City.
Medgar Evers:
Born July 2, 1925, Medgar Evers was known to be a civil rights activist and Mississippi’s state field secretary of the NAACP. Much of Evers work was to overturn segregation in the state in public places and at the state’s university. He also worked to get equal rights for Black citizens, including the right to vote. He became active in the 1950s and worked toward his causes until he was assassinated June 12, 1963. Upon his death, he was memorialized by numerous Black figures of prominence and his wife went on to continue the fight for the rights of Black Americans.
● James Baldwin: James Baldwin was born August 2, 1924 and became known as one of the great Black authors, poets, playwright, essayist, and activist. His stories often discuss the Black experience, sexuality, and class in Western society. Baldwin has an extensive list of work including, Notes of Native Son, If Beale Street Could Talk, and more. Before passing he also garnered several honors and awards. He died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France on December 1, 1987.
● Robert Moses: Robert Parris Moses was born January 31, 1935 in Harlem, New York. He grew to be a civil rights activist and leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee fighting for voter registration and education in Mississippi. Moses also created the Algebra Project in 1982 to help Black students succeed in math. To this day, he’s received numerous awards for his efforts and continues to teach math in Miami, Florida and Jackson, Mississippi.
● Sidney Poitier: Bahamian-American actor, film director, and ambassador Sidney Poitier was born February 20, 1927 in Miami unexpectedly, giving him American citizenship. Though he was raised in the Bahamas, he moved to New York as a teenager and eventually found his way to acting. He joined the North American Negro Theater at age 16, and dedicated himself to becoming a star. Poitier became the first Black actor to be nominated for an Academy Award, as well as being nominated and winning a BAFTA. He continued to break ground the rest of his career, in 2016 he was awarded an Academy Honorary Award for his accomplishments.
● Muhammad Ali:
Born January 17,1942, Cassius Clay Jr., also known as Muhammad Ali and nicknamed “The Greatest” was a boxer, activist, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. Ali is widely known as one of the most celebrated figures of the 20th century and greatest boxers of all time after winning 56 titles. During his younger years, Ali stood his ground, refusing to go to war inspiring Black Americans all over. Beyond his political stances, Ali was an example of determination, resilience and truth. He retired in 1981, three years later he made public that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. After boxing he became a big philanthropist and active public figure until his death June 3, 2016.
An ethical philosopher, author, holder of two PhDs, and professor and chair of the Department of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach, Maulana Karenga (File Photo)
● Bill Cosby: William Henry Cosby Jr., better known as Bill Cosby was born July 12, 1937 and became a prominent stand-up comedian and actor for years. He began his career in San Francisco doing stand up and later created his own sitcom The Bill Cosby Show in 1969, Fat Albert shortly followed in 1972. The Cosby Show aired 1984-1992 and was named the number one show in America for four years in a row. Cosby had several shows after that such as the coming of age story, A Different World and Cosby. In the mid 2010s, however, his career took a turn resulting in the end of his career as we all knew it to be, shattering his image. Though Cosby was celebrated and awarded, many of which were rescinded in 2018 following his legal trouble.
● Aretha Franklin: Born March 25, 1942 Aretha Franklin is the Queen of Soul. After her family relocated to Detroit, she began her career singing in her fathers church until she turned 18 and signed to Columbia Records. She’s best known for hits like “Respect”, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, and “Think”. During her lifetime, Franklin recorded 112 chart topping songs. In 1987, she became the first female performer to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Years later in 2012, she was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Franklin passed August 16, 2018 in Detroit. In 2020, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
