List of Civil Rights Leaders

Below is a list of some (chiefly American) civil rights leaders:

  • Abernathy, Ralph (1926–1990) clergyman, activist, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) official
  • Anthony, Susan B. (1820–1906) women's suffrage/voting rights leader
  • Baker, Ella (1903–1986) Member of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
  • Bates, Daisy (1914–1999)
  • Bevel, James (1936–2008) SCLC's main strategist, organizer, and Direct Action leader
  • Black,Claude (1916–2009)
  • Bond, Julian (1940–) activist, politician, scholar, lawyer, NAACP chairman
  • Burns, Lucy (1879–1966) women's suffrage/voting rights leader
  • Carmichael, Stokely (1941–1998)
  • Chavez, Cesar (1927–1993) Chicano activist, organizer, trade unionist
  • Colvin, Claudette (1939–) pioneer student and independent activist
  • Cooke, Marvel (1903–2000), journalist, writer, trade unionist, civil rights activist
  • Corona, Humberto Noe "Bert" (1918–2001) labor and civil rights leader
  • Cotton, Dorothy (1930–) SCLC activist and leader
  • Cuney, Norris Wright (1846–1898), Texas politician and leader of the Texas Republican Party
  • Debs, Eugene (1855–1926), American Labor Union organizer and Socialist, campaigned for the rights of the poor, women, dissenters, and prisoners
  • Du Bois, W. E. B. (1868–1963), writer, scholar, founder of NAACP
  • Evers, Charles (1922–)
  • Evers, Medgar (1925–1963) NAACP official
  • Farmer, James (1920–1999) CORE leader and activist
  • Farrakhan, Louis (1933–) National Representative of the Nation of Islam
  • Forman, James (1928–2005) SNCC official and activist
  • Foster, Marie (1917–2003) activist, local leader in Selma Movement
  • Friedan, Betty (1921–2006) writer, activist, feminist
  • Hall, Prathia (1940–2002) SNCC activist, civil rights movement speaker
  • Hamer, Fannie Lou (1917–1977) activist in Mississippi movements
  • Hendricks, Lola (1932–) activist, local leader in Birmingham Campaign
  • Herer, Jack (1939–) pro-hemp activist, organizer, author
  • Hill, Robert (1892–?)
  • Hobson, Julius Wilson (1919–1977) organizer, agitator, researcher, plaintiff
  • Horton, Myles (1905–1990) teacher of nonviolence, pioneer activist
  • Howard, T.R.M. (1908–1976) founder of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership in Mississippi.
  • Huerta, Dolores (1930– ) labor and civil rights activist
  • Hurley, Ruby (1909–1980) NAACP administrator, Director of NAACP Youth Council 1943–1952, activist
  • Jackson, Jesse (1941–) clergyman, activist, politician
  • Johnson, Nellie Stone (1905–2002), labor and civil rights activist, counselor to Hubert Humphrey
  • Jordan, June (1936–2002), writer, poet, civil rights activist, feminist
  • King, Coretta Scott (1927–2006)
  • King Jr., Martin Luther (1929–1968) clergyman, SCLC co-founder and president, activist
  • Lawson, James (1928–) teacher of nonviolence, activist
  • Lafayette, Bernard (1940–) SCLC and SNCC activist and organizer
  • Lewis, John (1940–)
  • Lincoln, Abraham (1809–1865), 16th President of the United States, promulgated Emancipation Proclamation
  • Lowery, Joseph (1921–) SCLC leader, activist
  • Luper, Clara (1923–2011) Sit-in movement leader, activist
  • McIntosh, William S. (1921–1974) Dayton, Ohio leader, activist, and organizer
  • Meredith, James (1933–) independent student leader and self–starting activist
  • Mobley, Mamie Till Bradley held open casket funeral for son, Emmett Till, 50,000 people came; speaker, activist
  • Morgan, Charles Jr. (1930–2009) Alabama civil rights attorney, established principle of "one man, one vote"
  • Milk, Harvey (1930–1978) politician, gay rights activist
  • Moses, Robert "Bob" (1935–) leader, activist, and organizer
  • Nash, Diane (1938–) SNCC and SCLC activist and organizer
  • Nixon, Edgar (1899–1987)
  • Orange, James (1942–2008) SCLC activist and organizer, trade unionist
  • Parks, Rosa (1913–2005) NAACP official, activist
  • Paul, Alice (1885–1977) women's suffrage/voting rights leader
  • Peratrovich, Eizabeth (1911–1958) Alaska civil rights activist, working on behalf of equality for Alaska Native peoples.
  • Randolph, A. Philip (1889–1979) socialist, labor leader
  • Robinson, Amelia Boynton (1911–) voting rights activist
  • Robinson, Jo Ann (1912–1992) Founder of Montgomery Al. Bus Boycott, Pres. of Women's Political Council, Exec. board of Montgomery Improvement Association.
  • Rustin, Bayard (1912–1987), civil rights activist
  • Sharpton, Al (1954–) clergyman, activist
  • Sherrod, Charles civil rights activist, SNCC leader
  • Shepard, Judy (1952–) gay rights activists, public speaker
  • Shuttlesworth, Fred (1922–2011) clergyman, activist
  • Stanton, Elizabeth Cady (1815–1902) women's suffrage/voting rights leader
  • Steinem, Gloria (1934–) writer, activist, feminist
  • Stone, Lucy (1818–1893) women's suffrage/voting rights leader
  • Vivian, C.T. (1924–) student leader, SNCC activist
  • Williams, Hosea (1926–2000) civil rights activist, chief field organizer for SCLC, led Selma to Montgomery campaign
  • Walker, Wyatt Tee, clergyman, activist: NAACP and CORE in Virginia, Executive Dictator, SCLC (1960–1964)
  • Wells, Ida B. (1862–1931) journalist, women's suffrage/voting rights activist
  • White, Walter Francis (1895–1955) NAACP executive secretary
  • Wilkins, Roy (1901–1981), NAACP executive secretary/executive director
  • Willard, Frances 1839–1898) women's rights, suffrage/voting rights leader
  • Williams, Robert F.(1925–1996), organizer
  • X, Malcolm (1925–1965), author, activist
  • Young, Andrew (Andy) Jr. (1932–) clergyman, SCLC activist and executive director.
  • Young, Whitney M., Jr. (1921–1971), Executive Director of National Urban League; advisor to Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon
  • Gordon Hirabayashi Japanese-American civil rights hero


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