Obviously everyone knows who Martin Luther King Jr. is and it’s great that you’re all informed on his career. However, there are many civil rights leaders you might be less familiar with. I know that there’s black history month to celebrate all of them, but I feel they should each have their own day as well:
Fannie Lou Hamer was an activist in Mississipi. She had many death threats during her life. And at one point she was beaten and raped while in jail. She was part of the Mississipi Freedom Democratic Party, who challenged the segregated democratic party during the 1964 election. At the 1964 Democratic Convention in Atlantic City they challenged the party for their seats,”We didn’t come all this way for no two seats, ‘cause all of us is tired.” Hamer speech at the Democratic Convention was aired on live tv, but was cut off by President Johnson because it was an election year and he wanted to take attention off the controversial topic of civil rights. Hamer spent her life impoverished for the cause of civil rights. Here’s a poor quality video of her testimony: http://youtu.be/OC3pQfLOlkQ
Carter G. Woodson was an African American Historian. He went to Harvard for his PhD in 1912 and was the second African American in history to receive a doctorate. He taught at Howard University and started the Negro Journal of History. Woodson managed to keep the journal afloat even during the Great Depression. He also started Negro History week, which later became Black History Month. He pushed to help African American gain attention for their achievements.
Charles Hamilton Houston was a lawyer who pushed for Civil Rights reform. Houston went to Amherst College, and was only of the only black students. After he enlisted in World War I as an officer. Houston was appalled by how he and other African American officers were treated during the war. After the war the he was accepted to Harvard Law School. Houston was notable for many important Civil Rights decisions including all of the legwork for Brown v. Board. Sadly he died before Brown v. Board but, his contemporary, and student, Thurgood Marshall was well known for his role in the case.
Ida B. Wells was an African American journalist who put the spotlight on the problem of lynching in America. Wells pulled a “Rosa Parks” before Rosa Parks when she refused to give her seat up on a railroad car. She won her case by hiring a white lawyer. She was a teacher and wrote for the local newspaper in her spare time. When lynchings increased in her hometown she looked into what the charges were against those lynched, and published a booklet. She also worked with Fredrick Douglas and other African Americans to question why African Americans didn’t have more involvement in the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
And that’s the end of my history nerd rant.
