People, Locations, Episodes

Amelia Boynton, Activist born

*Amelia Platts Boynton Robinson was born on this date in 1911. She was an African American activist in the 20th century American Civil Rights Movement and a key figure in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march.

Amzie Moore, Activist born

*Amzie Moore was born on this date in 1911. He was a Black activist, leader, and entrepreneur in the Mississippi Delta.   Moore was born on the Wilkin Mississippi plantation near the Grenada and Carroll county lines. After his mother died in 1925, he was left on his own at fourteen. Moore completed high school but could not realize his dream of a college […]

Lilian Ngoyi, South African Nurse and Activist born

*Lilian Ngoyi was born on this date in 1911. She was a Black machinist, nurse, and South African activist. Lilian Masediba Matabane was born in Pretoria, South Africa. She was the only daughter of Annie and Isaac Matabane and a sister to three brothers, Lawrence, George, and Percy. Her grandfather, on her mother’s side, was a […]

Melvin Alston, Educator, and Activist born

*Melvin Alston was born on this date in 1911. He was a Black educator and activist. From Norfolk, Virginia, Melvin Ovenus Alston’s father was Sonny Alston, and his mother was Elizabeth Smith, who was born in Long Island, New York. Alston had many brothers and sisters, and the family attended First Calvary or First Baptist […]

Lewis Hayden born

*Lewis Hayden was born on this date in 1811.  He was a Black politician and abolitionist.  From Lexington, KY. He was one of 25 children.  His mother was of mixed race, African, European and Native American.  Hayden was first owned by a Presbyterian minister, Rev. Adam Rankin who sold off his brothers and sisters in […]

Carlos Marighella, Writer, and Activist born

*Carlos Marighella was born on this date in 1911. He was an Afro Brazilian politician and writer. Marighella was born in Salvador, Bahia, to Italian immigrant Augusto Marighella and Afro Brazilian Maria Rita do Nascimento. His father was a blue-collar worker originally from Emilia, while his mother was a descendant of African slaves from Sudan (Hausa Blacks). He spent […]

Lloyd Gaines, Law Student born.

*The birth of Lloyd Gaines is celebrated on this date in 1911. He was a Black law student and racial segregation plaintiff. Born in Water Valley, Mississippi, Lloyd Lionel Gaines moved with his mother and siblings to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1926 after the death of their father. Part of the Great Migration from rural communities in […]

The African National Congress (ANC) is Founded

On this date in 1912, The African National Congress was founded in South Africa with the aid of W.E.B.DuBois.

William Pearly Oliver, Minister, and Activist born

*William Pearly Oliver was born on this date in 1912. He was a Black minister, administrator, and activist. Born in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, his great-great-grandfather was a Black Loyalist who came to Nova Scotia after the War of 1812. From 1880 to 1934, his grandfather, William Oliver, was “caretaker of the Ladies Seminary and later College Hall […]

Dorothy Height, Social, and Administrative Activist born

*On this date in 1912 Dorothy Height was born. She was an African American administrator, teacher, and social activist.

Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, Activist born

Jo Ann Gibson Robinson was born on this date in 1912. She was an African American civil rights activist and educator.

Stanley Levison, Lawyer born

*Stanley David Levison, a white Jewish-American businessman, lawyer, and lifelong activist for progressive causes, was born on this date in 1912 in New York City. He attended the University of Michigan, Columbia University, and the New School for Social Research. He received two law degrees from St. John’s University. While serving as treasurer of the American Jewish Congress in Manhattan, he […]

Josie Woods, Choreographer born

*Josie Woods was born on this date in 1912. She was a Black British dancer, choreographer, and activist. Woods was born Josephine Lucy Wood in Canning Town, London, in 1912. Her father, Charles Wood, was from Dominica, and her mother, Emily, had Gypsy ancestry. As a teenager, Woods worked as a seamstress before entering vaudeville. […]

Walter Sisulu, Politician, and Activist born

*Walter Sisulu was born on this date in 1912. He was an African politician and activist.

Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu was from the village of Qutubeni in the Engcobo district of Transkei, South Africa. His mother was a Black domestic worker and his father a White public servant. Never formally recognized by his father, Sisulu AKA Xhamela (his tribal name) was raised in the tribal tradition by his mother’s family and experienced Xhosa initiation rites. He got his primary education at the village school and at a nearby Anglican mission.

Daisy Bates, Administrative Activist born

*On this date we remember the birth of Daisy Bates. She was an African American civil rights activist who coordinated the integration of Little Rock, Arkansas’s Central High School.