W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)

A prominent author, editor and educator, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois obtained a doctorate from Harvard in 1895. In the course of his long career -- as editor of the Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), sociology professor and lecturer -- Du Bois embraced such differing ideologies as equalitarian democracy, pan-Africanism, economic and cultural self-determinism, Marxism and socialism. Throughout his life, he remained a steadfast critic of a society which tolerated discrimination, and he advocated equal opportunity and education as the keys to black advancement. In 1961, at age 93, Du Bois moved to Ghana.

A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979)

Asa Philip Randolph was one of the most influential labor and civil rights leaders of the 20th century. In 1925, Randolph founded and was elected president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which fought a successful battle for recognition by the railroad companies.

In 1941, Randolph threatened President Franklin D. Roosevelt with a mass march on Washington to protest the exclusion of blacks from jobs in defense industries. This led to the establishment of the federal Fair Employment Practices Committee. Randolph also encouraged President Harry S Truman to desegregate the military in 1948.

As an elder statesman of the civil rights movement, he was a principal organizer of the March on Washington in 1963.

Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)

Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court justice, attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. Admitted to the bar in 1933, he worked with the Baltimore, Maryland, branch of the NAACP and later established its Legal Defense Fund.

As chief attorney for the NAACP, Marshall earned a reputation as an exceptional lawyer, winning 32 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Marshall's primary target was segregation in all its manifestations: interstate travel, housing laws, voting rights and education. The most celebrated of his victories, the landmark Brown v. the Topeka, Kansas Board of Education in 1954, ended legal segregation in public schools.

Marshall was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1962 by President Kennedy. He then became the first black to become solicitor general of the United States. In 1967, President Johnson named him the first black Supreme Court justice. He served until 1991, remaining an unceasing advocate for the equality of all Americans.

Malcolm X (1925-1965)

The life and philosophy of Malcolm X have profoundly influenced the thinking of black Americans. Born Malcolm Little, Malcolm X spent much of his childhood in foster homes and state institutions. Arrested at the age of 21, he was given a 10-year sentence. While in jail, he became interested in the Nation of Islam, the Black Muslim sect led by Elijah Muhammad, who advocated separation of the races. Paroled in 1952, he adopted the name Malcolm X, and became a leader of the Black Muslim movement.

His eloquence drew a strong following but his popularity and forceful personality led to disputes and ultimately his expulsion from the movement in 1963. He then founded his own organization.

Following a pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm modified his views and accepted the possibility of working with people of diverse ethnic backgrounds. He was assassinated in 1965 during a speech in New York City. Malcolm X's influence has grown since his death, largely through his autobiography and, most recently, a film.

Jesse Jackson (1941- )

Jesse Louis Jackson, the most prominent black leader in the United States today, was a college student when he became a field director for CORE. In 1966 Jackson was chosen by Martin Luther King Jr. to head the SCLC's Operation Breadbasket, which sought to create job opportunities for blacks in Chicago, Illinois.

Ordained a Baptist minister in 1968. Jackson left the SCLC in 1971 to found Operation PUSH People United to Save (later Serve) Humanity -- in Chicago. PUSH worked to open up job opportunities for blacks and encouraged black-owned business.

In 1983, Jackson launched a nationwide voter registration drive; a year later he declared his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. Jackson expanded his political following through a "Rainbow Coalition" of blacks, Hispanics and disadvantaged whites, and won even wider support for his presidential candidacy in 1988.

In recent years, Jackson has remained a highly visible and eloquent advocate for a wide range of civil rights and human rights issues

Angela Davis

Angela Davis, political philosopher and black power activist, has also promoted women's rights. Angela Davis has written on many topics racism, women, and the prison system

Angela Davis, radical black activist and philosopher, was arrested as a suspected conspirator in the abortive attempt to free George Jackson from a courtroom in Marin County, California, August 7, 1970. The guns used were registered in her name. Angela Davis was eventually acquitted of all charges, but was briefly on the FBI's most-wanted list as she fled from arrest.
Angela Davis is often associated with the Black Panthers and with the black power politics of the late 1960s and early 1970s. She joined the Communist Party when Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. She was active with SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) before the Black Panthers. Angela Davis ran for U.S. Vice President on the Communist Party ticket in 1980.

Angela Davis has been an activist and writer promoting women's rights and racial justice while pursuing her career as a philosopher and teacher at the University of Santa Cruz and San Francisco University -- she achieved tenure at the University of California at Santa Cruz though former governer Ronald Reagan swore she would never teach again in the University of California system. She studied with political philosopher Herbert Marcuse.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks, who worked as a field hand, took care of her younger brother, and cleaned classrooms for tuition in her childhood, worked as a seamstress, office clerk, and domestic as an adult. Rosa Parks became involved in civil rights activity as well, serving as secretary of the Montgomery, Alabama, NAACP chapter.
On December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks was riding a bus home from her job, the bus filled up, and she was expected to relinquish her seat for a white man. She refused, was arrested for violating Alabama's segregation laws. The black community mobilized a boycott of the bus system which lasted for 381 days and resulted in the ending of segregation on Montgomery's buses.

The boycott also brought national attention to the civil rights cause and to a young minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King, jr.
Rosa Parks continued her commitment to civil rights until her death, willingly serving as a symbol of the civil rights struggle.

Pearl Bailey (March 29, 1918-August 7, 1990)

Occupation: singer, performer, stage, film, special ambassador.

Never formally trained in music, Pearl Bailey credited her love of music to growing up in a "Holy Roller" evangelical church where her father was the minister. In her early career in amateur shows and nightclubs she developed her throaty style, embellished with asides and ad libs.
Pearl Bailey sang with bands, later on stage and in films. The all-black version of Hello, Dolly! is one of her best-known roles; she played that role from 1967 to 1969 and in a later revival. Pearl Bailey was a frequent guest on television variety shows and had her own show on ABC in 1970-71.

At age 67, Pearl Bailey graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor's degree in theology. In 1968, 1971, 1973 and 1989 she published books on her life, cooking, and educational experiences. In 1975 Pearl Bailey served as a special ambassador to the United Nations and in 1988 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Pearl Bailey was married three times. The last marriage, to drummer Louis Bellson, lasted 40 years. Together they adopted a daughter and a son.

Lena Horne (June 30, 1917 - )

Occupation: singer, actress

From Brooklyn, New York, Lena Horne was raised by her mother, an actress. Her grandmother was an activist who took Lena to the NAACP, the Urban League and the Ethical Culture Society.

At age 16 Lena began working at Harlem's Cotton Club, first as a dancer, then in the chorus and later as a solo singer. She began singing with orchestras, and, while singing with Charlie Barnet's (white) orchestra, she was discovered. From there she began playing clubs in Greenwich Village and then performed at Carnegie Hall.
Beginning in 1942 Lena Horne appeared in films, broadening her career to include movies, Broadway and recordings. She has been honored with many awards for her lifetime of success.

Lena Horne was married to Louis J. Jones from 1937 to 1944; they had two children. Later she married Lennie Hayton, from 1947 to his death in 1971.
Lena Horne's signature song, from a 1943 film of the same name, is "Stormy Weather."

Lena Horne published her memoirs in 1950 as In Person and in 1965 as Lena

Toni Morrison (February 18, 1931 - )

(born Chloe Anthony Wofford)
Winner, Nobel Prize for Literature, 1993
With a B.A. from Howard University and an M.A. from Cornell University, Morrison taught at Texas Southern University, Howard University, State University of New York at Albany and at Princeton.

Her first novel was published in 1970, The Bluest Eye. She followed with Sula in 1973, Song of Solomon in 1977, Tar Baby in 1981, Beloved in 1987, Jazz in 1992 and Paradise in 1998. Beloved won a Pulitzer Prize; Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.

In her novels, she focuses on the experience of black Americans, particularly emphasizing black women's experience in an unjust society and the search for cultural identity. She uses fantasy and mythic elements along with realistic depiction of racial, gender and class conflict.

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Last updated: Monday, February 4, 2008