People, Locations, Episodes

Diane Nash, Activist born

*Diane Nash was born on this date in 1938. She is an African American activist, lecturer and businesswoman.

Charles McDew, Activist and Educator born

*Charles McDew was born on this date in1938. He is an African American educator and activist.

From Massillion, Ohio, he led his first demonstration in the eighth grade, to protest violations of the religious freedom of Amish students in his hometown. As a student at South Carolina State College he became involved in the civil rights movement. This included a campaign against segregated lunch counters in Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1960.

David Sibeko, Activist born

*David Sibeko was born on this date in 1938. He was a Black South African writer and activist. David Bambatha Maphgumzana Sibeko was from Johannesburg, South Africa, and began his political career as a journalist for the black South African Magazine Drum. During his tenure with that magazine, he became a leading figure within the […]

Dorothy Pittman Hughes, Women’s and Family Activist born

*Dorothy Pitman Hughes on this date in 1938. she was a Black feminist, child welfare advocate, activist, public speaker, author, and small business owner. Dorothy Jean Ridley was born in Lumpkin, Georgia. When she was ten years old, her father was beaten and left for dead on the family’s doorstep by the Ku Klux Klan […]

Herchelle Challenor, Foreign Policy Activist born

*Herchelle Challenor was born on this date in 1938.  She is a Black foreign policy expert, international civil servant, and university administrator.  Herchelle Sullivan Challenor is the second child of Atlanta natives. Her mother and aunts graduated from Spelman College, and her father graduated from Morehouse College.  While Challenor was born in Atlanta, the Sullivan family moved to Pittsburgh when her father enrolled in […]

Fela Kuti, Musician and Nigerian Activist born

*Fela Kuti was born on this date in 1938. He was a Black multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, political activist, and Pan-Africanist. Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti was born into the Ransome-Kuti family, an upper-middle-class family in Abeokuta, Nigeria. His mother, Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was a Nigerian women’s rights activist.  His father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, was an Anglican […]

Richard Aoki, Activist born

*Richard Aoki was born on this date in 1938. He was an Asian American civil rights activist.

Richard Masato Aoki was born in San Leandro, California to Japanese American parents. One of two sons, his father was from Oakland and his mother was from Berkley, CA. During World War II, He and his family were interned at the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah from 1942 to 1945. They moved back to Oakland, California after World War II ended. Aoki spent eight years serving in the United States Army, first as a medic and later in the infantry and as a weapons expert.

Al Sampson, Minister born

Albert “Al” Sampson was born on this date in 1938. He is an African American activist and minister.

Jimmie Lee Jackson, Activist, and Minister born

*On this date in1938, Jimmie Lee Jackson was born. He was an African American minister and civil right activist.

Jonathan Daniels, Seminarian, and Activist born

*Jonathan Daniels was born on this date in1939. He was a white Episcopal seminarian and civil rights activist.

Marian Wright Edelman, Children’s Advocate born

Marian Wright Edelman was born on this date in 1939. She is an African American children’s rights advocate.

Mildred Loving, Marriage Advocate born

*Mildred Loving was born on this date in 1939. She was an African and Native American activist.

Born Mildred Delores Jeter, she was African American and Rappahannock Native American descent. She met Richard Loving a white man when she was 11 and he was 17. He was a family friend and years later they began dating. They lived in the Commonwealth of Virginia, where interracial marriage was banned by a 1924 statute. When she was 18 she became pregnant, and the couple decided to marry, traveling out of Virginia to do so.

Lawrence Guyot, Civil Rights Lawyer born

*Lawrence Guyot was born on this date in 1939. He was an African American, lawyer and Civil Rights activist. From Pass Christian, Mississippi after high school Guyot (pronounced GHEE-ott) enrolled at Tougaloo College where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry in 1963. It was during his undergrad college years that he became active in civil rights.

Claudette Colvin, Activist born

*Claudette Colvin was born on this date in 1939.  She is a retired African American nurse aide and activist who pioneered the 1950s American civil rights movement.   The daughter of Mary Jane Gadson and C. P. Austin, she was born Claudette Austin. Her parents could not financially support her, so Mary Anne and Q.P. Colvin, great aunt and […]

Michael Schwerner, Activist born

*Michael Schwerner was born on this date in1939.  He was a Jewish American civil rights activist.