People, Locations, Episodes

Afeni Shakur, Activist, and Author born

*Afeni Shakur was born on this date in 1947. She was a Black political activist, author, and journalist.   Alice Faye Williams was born in Lumberton, North Carolina, the daughter of Rosa Belle, a homemaker, and Walter Williams Jr., a trucker. She had a sister, Gloria Jean. She had a troubled beginning and grew up […]

Bernard Powell, Activist born

*Bernard Powell was born on this date in 1947. He was an African American Civil Rights Activist, from Kansas City.

Powell was born five minutes ahead of his twin brother, Burnele. He graduated from Central High School in 1965 and formed the school’s alumni association. He became interested in civil rights work at a young age joining the NAACP at age 13 and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the March to Selma, Alabama. In the mid-1960s, he became regional director of the Congress of Racial Equality.

The First Freedom Ride Takes Place

On this date in 1947, The Journey of Reconciliation is celebrated. This was the first civil rights freedom ride through the American South.

George Houser and Bayard Rustin were its primary organizers. It was sponsored by CORE and the Fellowship For Reconciliation. Black and white members ventured on a “Journey of Reconciliation,” trying to force the federal government to uphold the 1946 Supreme Court ruling that segregated seating of interstate passengers was unconstitutional.

The original riders were arrested in North Carolina and forced to serve on a chain gang for six months.

LeRoy Gardner Jr., Community Activist born

*LeRoy Gardner Jr. was born on May 11, 1947. He was an African American educator, counselor and activist.

He was one of three children of Reverend LeRoy Gardner Sr. and Katherine Gardner, he had a sister, Sharon; a brother, Gordon. As young man, Gardner Jr. was a playground basketball legend. As the community lore goes that as a 14 year old, he Ralph Mitchell (19) and Tommy Miller (19) beat (then) University of Minnesota basketball players Lou Hudson, Don Yates and Archie Clark in a pickup game at St. Paul’s Oxford Park.

Margaret Sloan-Hunter, Feminist, and Publisher born

Margaret Sloan-Hunter was born on this date in 1947. She was an African American writer, publisher, feminist, and civil rights activist.

She was born in Chattanooga, TN., and grew up in Chicago. She was just 14 years old when she joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a group that worked on poverty and urban issues on behalf of the African American community in Chicago. She organized tenants’ unions, rent strikes, and campaigned against the lead poisoning plaguing housing on the West Side, all before she was even old enough to vote.

Mala Sen, Activist born

*Mala Sen was born on this date in 1947.  She was a Bengali Indian-British writer and human rights activist.   Born in Mussoorie in Uttarakhand, Mala Sen was the daughter of Lt-Gen Lionel Proteep Sen and Kalyani Gupta. Following her parents’ divorce in 1953, her father brought her up.  Sen was of Bengali heritage.  After […]

Mark Clark, Black Panther Activist born

*Mark Clark was born on this date in 1947. He was a Black activist and member of the Black Panther Party. Mark Clark was born in Peoria, Illinois, to Elder William Clark and Fannie Bradley Clark. Family members said Clark enjoyed reading and art and drew portraits well. He attended Manual High School and Illinois […]

Assata Shakur, Writer born

Assata Olugbala Shakur was born on this date in 1947. She is an African American writer exiled from America.

E. ‘Geronimo’ Pratt, Activist born

*Geronimo Pratt was born on this date in 1947. He was an African American activist and was a high-ranking member of the Black Panther Party.

Michael Lomax, Administrative (Education) Activist born.

*Michael Lomax was born on this date in 1947.  He is a Black educator, college professor, administrator, and activist.  Born in Los Angeles, California, Michael Lucius Lomax is the son of Lucius W. Lomax, Jr., a Los Angeles attorney, and Hallie Almena Davis Lomax, a journalist.  Lomax was the brother of Los Angeles civil rights […]

Mamphela Ramphele, Academic, and Activist born

*Mamphela Ramphele was born on this date in 1947. She is a Black South African activist, doctor, academic, and businesswoman. Mamphela Aletta Ramphele was born in the Bochum District in Northern Transvaal (now Limpopo, South Africa. Her mother, Rangoato Rahab, and her father, Pitsi Eliphaz Ramphele, were primary school teachers. In 1955, Ramphele witnessed a conflict […]

Ben Chavis, Minister, and Activist born

*Ben Chavis was born on this date in 1948. He is a Black minister and civil rights activist.   Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. was born and raised in Oxford, North Carolina. In 1960, at the age of twelve, Chavis became the first Black to be issued a library card at the public library. He graduated […]

Frank Wills, Security Guard born

*Frank Wills was born on this date in 1948. He was an African American Security guard at the Watergate office complex in Washington D. C.

Ruby Sales, Activist and Theologan born

*Ruby Sales was born on this date in 1948. She is a Black social justice activist, scholar, and public theologian. Born Ruby Nell in Jemison, Alabama, she attended locally segregated Carver High School and was educated in the community during the American Civil Rights Movement. After graduating high school, Sales attended Tuskegee Institute, where she […]

Fred Hampton, Black Panther Activist born

*Fred Hampton was born on this date in 1948. He was a Black activist, Marxist-Leninist, and revolutionary socialist. Fredrick Allen Hampton was born in present-day Summit Argo, Illinois, and moved with his parents to Maywood, Illinois, ten years later, where he grew up. Both are suburbs of Chicago. His parents had moved north from Louisiana […]