People, Locations, Episodes

Andrew Goodman, Activist born

Andrew Goodman was born on this date 1943. He was a Jewish American civil rights activist.

Angela Davis, Activist, and Scholar born

*On this date in 1944, Angela Davis was born. She is an African American educator and political activist.

From Birmingham, Ala., Angel Yvonne Davis lived in a section of town called “Dynamite Hill,” because of the violence used by white on Black to maintain residential segregation. Both of her parents were educators, working with the local NAACP, and instilling in their children not to accept the social oppression that American society gave black people.

Sylvia Drew Ivie, Public Health Advocate born

*Sylvia Drew Ivie was born on this date in 1944. She is a Black Mental Health Advocate, Lawyer, and activist.  She is from Washington, DC, and is the youngest daughter of Dr. Charles Richard Drew and Minnie Lenora Robbins Drew. She has two sisters and a younger brother. She graduated from Oakwood School in Poughkeepsie, […]

Judy Richardson, Media Producer, and Activist born

*Judy Richardson was born on this date in 1944. She is a Black Film producer, author, educator, and activist.   Born in Tarrytown, New York, her father was autoworker William King Richardson, and her mother was office worker Mae Louise Tucker Richardson. Richardson grew up in the “under the hill” section of Tarrytown. The town was […]

Cleveland Sellers, Activist, and Educator born

*Cleveland Sellers was born on this date in 1944. He is a Black educator, administrator, and activist. Cleveland “Cleve” Sellers Jr. was born to Cleveland Sellers (Sr.) and Pauline Sellers in Denmark, South Carolina. Denmark was a town of mostly black residents, so much so that, as a child, Sellers was often blind to the […]

Mickey Leland, Politician born

“Mickey” Leland was born this date in 1944. He was an African American politician and activist.

Born in Lubbock, Texas, George Thomas “Mickey” Leland grew up in Houston. In 1970, he received a B.S. in pharmacy from Texas Southern University and was an instructor of clinical pharmacy at the same school. He also was involved in the civil rights movement while he was a student.

The Nova Scotia Association For The Advancement of Colored People is Formed

*On this date in 1945, the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NSAACP) was formed. Led by minister William Pearly Oliver, the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People worked from the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church. The organization, formerly the Colored Educational Centre, intended to improve the standard of living […]

Kathleen Cleaver, Black Panther Activist and Educator born

Kathleen Cleaver was born on this date in 1945. She is an African American educator, lawyer, writer, and activist.

Born in Dallas Texas, Kathleen Neal Cleaver’s father was a sociology professor at Wiley College and her mother held a degree in Mathematics. With her father’s work, the family spent many of her early years abroad in Liberia, the Philippines, and Sierra Leone. Cleaver completed high school at the Georgia School in Philadelphia in 1963.

Richard Lapchick, Educator, and Activist born

*Richard Lapchick was born on this date in 1945. He is a white-American educator, human rights activist, sportswriter, and author.   Richard E. Lapchick is from Yonkers, New York, and he is the son of Joe Lapchick, a college and professional basketball coach who helped integrate the NBA when he signed Nat Clifton in 1950. […]

Barney Pityana, African Policy Advocate born

*Barney Pityana was born on this date in 1945. He is a Black South African human rights lawyer, activist, and theologian. Nyameko Barney Pityana was born in Uitenhage and attended the University of Fort Hare. He was one of the founding members of the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO) of the Black Consciousness Movement with Steve Biko […]

Marsha P. Johnson, LGBT Pioneer born

*Marsha P. Johnson was born on this date in 1945.  She was a Black LGBT liberation activist, entertainer, and self-identified drag queen.  Johnson was born Malcolm Michaels Jr. in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She had six siblings, and her father, Malcolm Michaels Sr., was an assembly line worker at General Motors, while her mother, Alberta Claiborne, was a housekeeper. Johnson attended an African Methodist Episcopal Church as […]

Bruce Gordon, Business Executive born

*Bruce Gordon was born on this date in 1946. He is a Black business executive and civil rights administrator. Born in Camden, New Jersey, Bruce Scott Gordon’s parents were active in the civil rights movement. He graduated from Gettysburg College in 1968, was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, and graduated from the Sloan […]

The Women’s Political Council is Formed

*The Woman’s Political Council (WPC) was organized on this date in 1946. Founded in Montgomery, Alabama, it was an early force active in the 20th-century American Civil Rights movement, formed to address the racial issues in the city. WPC’s founding members included Mary Fair Burks, Jo Ann Robinson, Irene West, Thelma Glass, and Euretta Adair. The […]

Bettie Mae Fikes, Singer and Activist born

*Bettie Mae Fikes was born on this date in 1946. She is a Black gospel singer and activist. She was born in Selma, Alabama, and began singing gospel alongside her mother at age 4. Bettie Mae Fikes is a descendant of many country gospel singers and preachers. At 16, she became a student leader for […]

The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) is formed.

*The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was formed on this date in 1946. They were an American civil rights organization. The CRC began at a conference in Detroit with about 10,000 members at its peak. Around 1948, the CRC became involved in representing blacks sentenced to death and other highly prominent cases to highlight racial injustice […]