Civil Rights

Dr. Hall (1940-2003) was a pastor, educator, dynamic speaker and a powerful figure in the Civil Rights Movement. She challenged misogyny in the movement and was one of the first women field leaders in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). While working with SNCC, she was shot at and jailed multiple times. On September 9, 1962, Hall led a prayer at Mt. Olive Baptist Church in 'Terrible Terrell' County, Georgia, where Martin Luther King Jr. was present. Her rhythmic repetition of 'I Have a Dream' during this prayer influenced King's famous 'I Have a Dream' speech at the March on Washington. After witnessing the traumatizing aftermath of Bloody Sunday she left SNCC in 1966. She eventually earned her Master of Divinity, Master of Theology, and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary, becoming a prominent womanist theologian who advocated for the intersection of race, gender, and faith in religious practice.

Dr. Mossell (1898-1989), hailing from the distinguished Mossell and Tanner family lines, was an attorney, civic servant, and humanitarian. She was the first black woman to graduate from University of Penn Law School and the first black woman admitted to the Pennsylvania bar (1927). She was also the first Black woman to receive a Ph.D. in Economics in the United States (University of Pennsylvania, 1921), and the first National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Huggins (1948) is an educator, writer, human rights and community activist, and former Black Panther Party leader who helped establish innovative community education models in Oakland, California. While attending Lincoln University she met John Huggins. It was there that they were both deeply moved by a Ramparts magazine photo of a wounded Huey Newton shackled to his hospital bed and they decided to drive from the East Coast to Los Angeles to attend a Free Huey rally. A month later, in November 1967, they joined the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party.

Community Service program run by the black panther party.

Dr. Jessye (1895-1992) was a preeminent Conductor, Choral Director, founder of the Eva Jessye Choir, and the first Black woman to earn international distinction as a director of a professional choral group. She was the first musical director for the original production of Porgy and Bess and, devoted to Civil Rights, Jessye and the Eva Jessye Choir were appointed by Dr. Martin Luther King the official choir of the 1963 March on Washington.

Brown was the first black woman to hold both a private (1937) and commercial (1939) pilot’s license in the United States and one of the first woman to hold a commercial pilot's license and a master aviation mechanic's certificate (1935). She co-founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics where she trained thousands of pilots, nearly 200 of which became Tuskegee airmen. She was also the first black woman to run for Congress.

Civil Rights

Gilmore (1920-1990) was a midwife, cook, founder of The Club from Nowhere, and an unsung heroine of the Civil Rights Movement.

Fisher (1924-1995) challenged the legal basis of segregated classes at the graduate level in the United States in Sipuel v Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma (1948).

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was established in 1909 and is one of America's oldest civil rights organizations. While founded by a multi-ethnic group of activists, it focused on combating discrimination and violence against Black Americans. Mary White Ovington, a founding member, documented the organization's inception in her article "How the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Began". Published in The Crisis, her firsthand account is considered one of the most important primary sources about the NAACP's founding. In it, she describes the events that led to "The Call."

Bass (1874-1969), is known as the first African American woman to own and operate a newspaper (The California Eagle) in the United States.

Lowery (1925-2013) was a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Jordan (1936-1996) was a lawyer, State Senator, Congresswoman, enthralling orator, educator, and civil rights leader. During President Nixon's televised impeachment hearing, Jordan delivered a powerful 15-minute opening statement to the House Judiciary Committee. Her speech has been hailed as one of the most influential in 20th-century American history, playing a "decisive" role in "swaying public opinion in favor of impeachment".

Brown (1943) is a prison and civil rights activist and was the first woman to lead the Black Panther Party as chairwoman (1974-1977).

Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born near Johannesburg, South Africa on March 4, 1932. She was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, vocal apartheid opponent, civil rights activist, and UN Goodwill Ambassador. She was also known as the Empress of African Song. She became the first African artist to globally popularize African music.

When state trooper James Fowler shot and killed deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson during a peaceful protest in Marion, Alabama, Civil Rights leaders responded by organizing the Selma to Montgomery march for Sunday, March 7, 1965. Key organizers included Amelia Boynton Robinson, Marie Foster, Annie Lee Cooper, SNCC leaders Diane Nash and John Lewis, and SCLC's Hosea Williams. The March 7th protest aimed to challenge voter suppression tactics including literacy tests, poll taxes, police brutality, and other systematic barriers preventing Black citizens from registering to vote and voting.

Wyatt (1924-2012) was the first Black woman to hold an executive position in a labor union.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928. She and her older brother, Bailey Jr, who nicknamed her Maya, were born to Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a nurse and card dealer. She was a poet, author, civil rights activist, and director.

Bolin (1908-2007) was an attorney and judge. She was the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School. In 1939, when she was appointed to serve as a judge on the New York City Domestic Relations Court (later renamed Family Court), she became the first Black woman judge in the United States.

Johnson (1914-2018), performed instrumental work as an attorney in repudiating the "separate but equal" doctrine in the landmark case Sarah Keys v Carolina Coach Company (1955).

Clark (1917-1983) is well known for her groundbreaking "Doll Tests," conducted as part of her master's thesis at Howard University. Using black and white dolls, she asked children a series of questions to study the psychological effects of segregation on African American children.

Alice Allison Dunnigan was the first Black woman to receive White House press credentials, serving as Washington bureau chief for the Associated Negro Press from 1947 to 1961.

Burroughs (1879-1961) was one of the most influential women of the early 20th century. She was a businesswoman, unbowed social and political activist, and a key figure in the women’s suffrage movement.

Mary was the first licensed African American nurse in the United States and first African American graduate of an American nursing school. She was born in the spring of 1845 in Dorchester, Massachusetts to freed, formerly enslaved people who relocated from North Carolina for a chance at better civil and economic opportunities for their family.