This is a list of African-American activists [ 1] covering various areas of activism, but primarily focus on those African Americans who historically and currently have been fighting racism and racial injustice against African Americans. The United States of America has a long history of racism against its Black citizens .[ 2] The names detailed below contains only notable African Americans who are known to be activist (sorted by surname).
Martin Luther King
Ralph Abernathy
Maya Angelou
James Baldwin
Marion Barry
James Bevel
Ralph Bunche
Shirley Chisholm
Fannie Lou Hamer
Jesse Jackson
Martin Luther King Jr.
John Lewis
Thurgood Marshall
James Meredith
Rosa Parks
Bayard Rustin
Malcolm X
Andrew Young
Ella Baker , civil rights activist
James Baldwin , civil rights activist, novelist, playwright[ 5]
Marion Barry , civil rights activist, politician
Daisy Bates , civil rights activist, publisher, journalist, lecturer
Carl Bean , AIDS/HIV and LGBT activist and minister
Arekia Bennett , voting rights activist
Mary McLeod Bethune , civil rights activist, educator
James Bevel , minister, leader of the civil rights movement
Sojourner Truth , civil rights activist
Gloria Blackwell , civil rights activist, educator
Unita Blackwell , civil rights activist
W. E. B. Du Bois , civil rights activist
Julian Bond , civil rights activist, professor and writer
Lillie Mae Bradford , civil rights activist
Ruby Bridges , civil rights activist
Aurelia Browder , civil rights activist[ 6]
Ralph Bunche , civil rights activist, scientist, academic, diplomat
Nannie Helen Burroughs , civil and women's rights activist, educator, religious leader and businesswoman[ 7]
Melanie L. Campbell , voting rights activist
Beatrice Morrow Cannady , civil rights activist, publisher
Archibald Carey Jr. , civil rights activist, lawyer, judge, politician, diplomat and clergyman[ 8]
Bunchy Carter , civil rights activist
Christine Michel Carter , advocate for caregivers, specifically working mothers [ 9]
Jeannette Carter (1886–1964), lawyer, labor organizer, and suffragist
Julius L. Chambers , civil rights activist
Fannie Lee Chaney , civil rights activist
James Chaney , civil rights activist
Shirley Chisholm , civil rights activist, educator
Xernona Clayton , civil rights activist
Septima Poinsette Clark , civil rights activist, educator
Eldridge Cleaver , civil rights activist
Kathleen Cleaver , civil rights activist
Charles E. Cobb Jr. , civil rights activist, journalist, professor
John Conyers , civil rights activist
Vivian E. J. Cook , educator and activist
Marvel Cooke , civil rights activist
Annie Lee Cooper , civil rights activist
Dorothy Cotton , civil rights activist
Claudette Colvin , civil rights activist, nurse[ 10]
Anna J. Cooper , civil and women's rights activist, author, educator, sociologist, scholar[ 11]
John Anthony Copeland Jr. , abolitionist
Patrisse Cullors , civil rights activist, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement[ 12] [ 13] [ 14]
Elijah Cummings , civil rights advocate
Angela Davis , civil rights activist, academic, and author[ 15]
Ossie Davis , civil rights activist
William L. Dawson , civil rights activist, politician
Ruby Dee , civil rights activist
Doris Derby , civil rights activist, photographer
Charles Diggs , civil rights activist[ 16]
Frederick Douglass , abolitionist, black rights activist, women's rights activist, organizer[ 17] – February 20, 1895[ 18]
W. E. B. Du Bois , activist, writer, founder of NAACP
David Fagen , civil rights and labor activist[ 20]
James L. Farmer Jr. , civil rights activist
Walter E. Fauntroy , civil rights activist
Sarah Mae Flemming , civil rights activist
James Forman , civil rights activist
Aretha Franklin , civil rights activist
C. L. Franklin , civil rights activist, minister
Elizabeth Freeman , first former slave to win a freedom suit in Massachusetts
Frankie Muse Freeman , civil rights activist, attorney
Vincent Harding , civil rights activist, historian
Craig G. Harris , HIV/AIDS and LGBT activist, writer, poet
Curtis W. Harris , civil rights activist, minister, politician
Fannie Lou Hamer , civil rights activist
Fred Hampton , civil rights activist
Lorraine Hansberry , civil rights activist, playwright, author
Frances Harper , abolitionist and women's rights activist
Robert Hayling , civil rights activist, dentist
Lola Hendricks , civil rights activist, secretary
Aaron Henry , civil rights activist, politician
Dorothy Height , educator and civil rights activist
Benjamin Hooks , civil rights activist, minister, attorney
Lena Horne , civil rights activist
Elbert Howard , civil rights activist
T. R. M. Howard , civil rights leader, entrepreneur, surgeon
Langston Hughes , civil rights activist, poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist
Bobby Hutton , civil rights activist
Nipsey Hussle , community activist
George Jackson , civil rights activist, author
Jesse Jackson , civil rights activist
Jimmie Lee Jackson , civil rights activist
Mahalia Jackson , civil rights activist
Marsha P. Johnson , civil rights activist
Richie Jean Jackson , civil rights activist, author, teacher
T. J. Jemison , civil rights activist, minister
James Weldon Johnson , writer of Black National Anthem
Alberta Odell Jones , civil rights lawyer
Clarence B. Jones , civil rights activist
Quincy Jones , civil rights activist
Barbara Jordan , civil rights activist
Vernon Jordan , civil rights activist
Colin Kaepernick , BLM activist, former football player
Sarah Louise Keys , civil rights activist
Nupol Kiazolu , civil rights and homelessness activist
A. D. King , civil rights activist
Alveda King , civil rights activist, author, politician
Bernice King , civil rights activist, minister
Coretta Scott King , civil rights activist
Dexter King , civil rights activist
Martin Luther King III , civil rights activist
Martin Luther King Jr. , civil rights leader and pastor
Martin Luther King Sr. , civil rights leader, pastor and missionary
Alberta Williams King , civil rights activist
Yolanda King , civil rights activist
Eartha Kitt , civil rights activist
Bernard Lafayette , civil rights activist, organizer
Sarah Willie Layton , suffragist, civil rights activist
James Lawson , civil rights activist, professor
John Lewis , congressman, Nashville Student Movement, organizer
Audre Lorde , civil rights activist, feminist, poet, author
Joseph Lowery , civil rights activist and minister
Julius Lester , civil rights activist, author, professor
Conrad Lynn , civil rights activist, lawyer
Thurgood Marshall , civil rights activist, lawyer, judge
Benjamin Mays , civil rights activist, minister
Franklin McCain , civil rights activist
DeRay Mckesson , civil rights activist, podcaster
Floyd McKissick , civil rights activist, lawyer
John Berry Meachum , civil rights activist, educatior, religious leader, involved in the Underground Railroad [ 22]
James Meredith , civil rights figure, writer, political adviser
Anne Moody , civil rights activist, author
Harry T. Moore , civil rights activist, educator
Harriette Moore , civil rights worker, educator
Amzie Moore , civil rights leader, entrepreneur
Irene Morgan , anti-segregation activist
Bob Moses , civil rights activist, educator
Elijah Muhammad , civil rights leader
Khalid Abdul Muhammad , black nationalist leader, minister
Pauli Murray , civil rights activist, lawyer, author, priest
Rosa Parks , activist, NCAAP official, Montgomery Bus Boycott inspiration[ 23]
Lucy Parsons , activist, labor organizer
James Peck , civil rights activist
William Pleasant, Jr. , civil rights activist
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. , civil rights activist, pastor
Gloria Johnson-Powell , civil rights activist
Elizabeth Piper Ensley , educator and suffragist
Jewel Prestage , activist, political scientist
Lincoln Ragsdale , civil rights activist, aviator
A. Philip Randolph , civil rights activist
Emma J. Ray , civil rights and social activist, suffragist
George Raymond , civil rights activist
George Raymond Jr. , civil rights activist
Frederick D. Reese , civil rights activist, educator, minister
Gloria Richardson , civil rights activist
David Richmond , civil rights activist
Paul Robeson , civil rights activist
Amelia Boynton Robinson , civil rights activist
Jackie Robinson , civil rights activist
Jo Ann Robinson , civil rights activist
Bayard Rustin , civil rights activist
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin , civil rights activist
Bobby Seale , political activist and author
Cleveland Sellers , civil rights activist, educator
Betty Shabazz , civil rights activist
Al Sharpton , civil rights activist, minister
Mary Ann Shadd , anti-slavery activist, journalist, lawyer
Al Sharpton , civil rights and social justice activist
Charles Sherrod , civil rights activist, minister
Fred Shuttlesworth , civil rights activist
Mary Louise Smith , civil rights activist
Nina Simone , civil rights activist
Mavis Staples , civil rights activist
Marion Stamps , civil rights and housing rights activist
Charles Kenzie Steele , civil rights activist
Charles Steele Jr. , civil rights activist, politician
Bryan Stevenson , criminal justice reform activist
Tupac Amaru Shakur , black America activist, iniquity
Madam C. J. Walker , political and social activist, entrepreneur, philanthropist
Wyatt Tee Walker , pastor, civil rights leader
Booker T. Washington , educator, founder of Tuskegee University [ 24]
Ida B. Wells , civil rights activist, co-founder of the NAACP
Cornel West , civil rights activist, philosopher, author, minister
Roy Wilkins , civil rights activist
Hosea Williams , civil rights activist, minister, businessman, philanthropist, scientist, politician
Robert F. Williams , civil rights leader, author
Bobby E. Wright , political activist, psychologist, scholar
^ Evan F. Moore "In honor of Black History Month, here's a list of Chicagoans you should know" , Chicago Sun-Times , February 1, 2019. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
^ Kleinig, John, Handled with Discretion: Ethical Issues in Police Decision Making , Rowman & Littlefield (1996), p. 157, ISBN 9780847681778 . Retrieved 7 March 2019.
^ Bio of "Ralph David Abernathy", Frye Gaillard, University of South Alabama, March 14, 2007 , (archive)
^ Smith, Jessie Carney; Phelps, Shirelle, Notable Black American Women, Book 2 , VNR AG (1996), p. 11, ISBN 9780810391772 .
^ Henneberg, Susan. James Baldwin: Groundbreaking Author and Civil Rights Activist , The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc (2014), pp. 6–8, 66, ISBN 9781477778975 .
^ Schwartz, Barry (June 2009). "Collective Forgetting and the Symbolic Power of Oneness: The Strange Apotheosis of Rosa Parks". Social Psychology Quarterly . 72 (2): 123–142. doi :10.1177/019027250907200204 . JSTOR 25593914 . S2CID 3450932 .
^ "Nannie Helen Burroughs papers, 1900–1963 (Library of Congress), Biographical Note (Woman's Auxiliary of the National Baptist Convention of the United States of America)" . Hdl.loc.gov . 2001. Retrieved 6 March 2019 .
^ Dickerson, Dennis C., "The Wesleyan Witness in the US Civil Rights Movement: The Allen Legacy against 20th Century American Apartheid" , 2007. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
^ Carter, Christine Michel (2019-04-19). "How I Got My Employer to Acknowledge My Nursing Issue" . Entrepreneur . Retrieved 2023-06-22 .
^ "Claudette Colvin Biography,
Activist, Civil Rights Activist, Medical Professional (1939–)", Biography.com, A&E Television Networks, April 1, 2014.
^ Foundations of African-American Sociology Archived 2017-03-06 at the Wayback Machine . Hampton University Department of Sociology. Hampton University. Retrieved 7 March 2017. From Melvin Barber; Leslie Innis; Emmit Hunt, African American Contributions to Sociology.
^ Goldhill, Olivia (November 15, 2016). "'We can feel sad, hurt, demoralized. But we can't give up': A Black Lives Matter founder on Trump's presidency" . Quartz.
^ Garza, Alicia, "Herstory" . Black Lives Matter. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
^ Queerness on the front lines of #BlackLivesMatter . MSNBC. February 19, 2015 (video).
^ "Angela Davis" . CCCB . Retrieved March 9, 2019 .
^ Haskins, James, Distinguished African American Political and Governmental Leaders . Oryx Press (1999), p. 67. ISBN 9781573561266 ,
^ "Frederick Douglass Biography : Journalist, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Government Official (c. 1818–1895)" . Biography.com.
^ "Later Years and Death" , Frederick Douglass Heritage. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
^ "SNCC passes the torch | The CLog" . Creative Loafing Charlotte . February 29, 2008. Retrieved March 5, 2019 .
^ Rafael, Vicente (11 February 2007). "David Fagen (1875–?)" . Black Past .
^ Wang, Vivian (December 30, 2017), "Erica Garner, Activist and Daughter of Eric Garner, Dies at 27" , The New York Times
^ Shipley, Alberta D.; Shipley, David O. (1976). The History of Black Baptists in Missouri . Missionary Baptist State Convention of Missouri. pp. 24–25, 227.
^ "Rosa Parks" . www.history.com . Retrieved January 4, 2019 .
^ "Booker T. Washington" . www.history.com . Retrieved January 4, 2019 .
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