Martin Luther King Jr. – “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase”. Born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929 Martin Luther King Jr was not only the leader but was also the most visible spokesperson from 1954 until his assassination in 1968 for the Civil Rights Movement. King helped bring recognition towards the advancement of civil rights through the his nonviolence activism. In 1957 became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) where he helped organize protests and marches in Birmingham, Alabama and Washington where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Through the struggles of leading the Civil Rights Movement, King has accomplished the racial inequality throughout the United States and because of his nonviolent resistance he has won the Nobel Peace Prize (1964), awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, A Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C. and was established as a holiday in multiple states since 1971. Martin Luther King has inspired us all to lead those and fight for what we believe in rather that be the inequality of a single person from the color of their skin to the sexuality of a person.

Rosa Parks – “…The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” Rather you call her “the first lady of civil rights” or “the mother of the freedom movement”, Rosa Parks did not only play a big part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott but was had a lead role in the Civil Right Movement as a whole. In early December in Alabama, parks rejected the order from bus driver James F. Blake to move into the “colored section” for a white passenger. Rosa Parks was not the only one to resist the request of bus segregation however the National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) believed that she was the best person to take this to court after the arrest of this her courage and bravery.  In 2005 at the age of 92, Rosa Park passed away but her legacy continues for generations to be inspired.

Ruby Bridges – It’s a lot to ask a child to eat their vegetables but for a child to attend a segregated school in 1960 while being yelled at as she entered can be a lot. However, Ruby Bridges helped change schools forever. Ruby, at the age of six years old, was the first African-American child to desegregate an all-white school in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis in 1960. Today, Bridges is the chair of the Ruby Bridges Foundation to hep promote the values of respect, tolerance of all difference, which she formed in 1999.

Thurgood Marshall – Graduating from the Howard University School of Law in 1933, Thurgood Marshall was not only the Court’s 96th justice but was also its first African-American justice. Marshall served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1967 until 1991 while helping with cases such as ‘Smith v. Allwright’, ‘Shelley v. Kraemer’ and ‘Brown v. Board of Education’ which held a violation of the Equal Protection Clause. Thurgood was appointed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit then four years later President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Marshall as United States Solicitor General.

Harriet Tubman – Born in Maryland in 1913, Harriet Tubman helped rescue approximately seventy enslaved people including friends and family using a network of antislavery activists and safe houses that were known as the Underground Railroad. Tubman was an American abolitionist and activist born into slavery that was beaten by her masters as a child. In 1849, she escaped returning to Maryland to rescue her family. When the Civil War began, Harriet worked for the Union Army first as a cool and nurse soon becoming an armed scout and spy. Tubman also the first woman to lead an armed expedition into war where she guided the raid of Combahee Ferry which liberated more than 700 slaves.

Maya Angelou – Born on April 4, 1928 Maya was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” (1993) at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.  Her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide.