*Doris Derby was born on this date in 1939. She was a Black activist, documentary photographer, director, and adjunct associate professor. Doris Adelaide Derby’s parents met in New York and married in the mid-1930s. She was raised in Williamsbridge, the outskirts of the Bronx. While in a predominantly white elementary school, she noticed a lack […]
learn more*James Zwerg was born on this date in 1939. He is a white-American retired minister and activist. James Zwerg was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, with his parents and older brother, Charles. His father was a dentist who provided free dental care to the poor one day per month. He was involved in school and participated […]
learn more*Tom Hayden was born on this date in 1939. He was a white-American social and political activist, author, and politician. Thomas Emmet Hayden was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, to parents of Irish ancestry, Genevieve Isabelle (née Garity) and John Francis Hayden. His father was a former Marine who worked for Chrysler as an accountant […]
learn moreJulian Bond, an African American Civil rights activist and politician, was born on this date in 1940, in Nashville, TN.
learn more*On this date in 1940, we celebrate the founding of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF). They are a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City. Created by Charles Hamilton Houston in the 1930s, the organization stems from the legal department of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1940, Thurgood Marshall established LDF […]
learn more*Bernard Lafayette was born on this date in 1940. He is a Black activist and organizer. Bernard Lafayette Jr. was born and raised in Tampa, Florida. His parents were Bernard Lafayette, Sr., and Verdell Lafayette. He was the eldest of eight children of a poor family, so Bernard started working odd jobs to gain […]
learn more*Dave Dennis was born on this date in 1940. He is a Black civil rights activist, author, and educator. David J. Dennis was born on a plantation of sharecroppers in Omega, Louisiana, into a life of Jim Crow segregation. He is the son of Thomas Dennis and Tizzie Perry Dennis Shepperd. His family grew up in the Shreveport […]
learn more*Thelma Mothershed was born on this date in 1940. She is an African American educator and community activist.
learn more*Raymond Hewitt was born on January 1, 1941. He was a teacher and Black Panther activist. Raymond “Masai” Hewitt worked as a schoolteacher and was a Marxist activist, working with the United Front, a socialist organization. He joined the Black Panther Party in 1967 and was its Minister of Education. The Panthers considered Hewitt a […]
learn more*Franklin McCain was born on this date in 1941. He was an African American Chemical Administrator, Civil Rights leader and one of the Greensboro Four.
learn more*On this date in 1941, we celebrate the publication of the Arkansas State Press newspaper. Founded by Lucious and Daisy Bates, they used their savings to purchase the Black-operated Twin City Press, later renamed Arkansas State Press. The newspaper, modeled on African American newspapers from the north, helped to promote civil rights activism throughout the […]
learn more*David Richmond was born on this date in 1941. He was a Black counselor and activist. David Leinail Richmond was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, graduating from James B. Dudley High School in 1959. At DHS, Richmond was a popular student, participating in many sports and clubs; he even set the state record for the […]
learn more*Sue Sojourner was born on this date in 1941. She was a white Jewish-American author, activist, and historian. Susan Hasalo was born in Chicago, Ill. Her mother, Bess, Father, Bernard, sister Muriel, and brother Bud moved around, but Sue always looked back fondly on her high school days in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Class of 1960. Sojourner’s […]
learn moreStokely Carmichael, also known as Kwame Ture, one of the most effective and best-known activists in the 20th century Civil Rights movement, was born on this date in 1941.
learn more*Randall Robinson was born in Richmond, Virginia, on this date in 1941. He is an African American activist, nationalist, and administrator.
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