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African American Heritage

1868-1963W. E. B. DuBois

W.E.B. DuBois was born in 1868 in Great Barrington, MA and was a historian, sociolo- gist, and black protest leader. He was one of the most influential black leaders of the 20th century and he was among the civil rights pio- neers who used their scholarly skills to advance the cause of black Americans. He was also one of the founders of the NAACP.

DuBois advocated leadership and advance- ment of the masses through an educated black elite, which he defined as the “talented tenth.” He received a B.A. degree from Fisk University in 1888, and a second B.A. degree in 1890 from Harvard University. He went on to earn M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. 1929-1968Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Alabama, the son of a minister. Through his own subsequent career in the ministry, King became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. King wrote and spoke publicly against racial inequality and knowingly disobeyed laws which he believed to be unjust. As a leader in the Civil Rights Movement his oratory was convincing and inspiring to many, and he led the famous March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a direct result of his advocation of nonviolence as a strategy for opposition. 1908Thurgood - 1993 Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was born in 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1930 Marshall graduated from Lincoln University. Upon graduation Marshall had hopes to attend the University Of Maryland School Of Law, but could not because of the university’s strict admissions policy which at the time barred the admis- sion of African-Americans; a policy that Marshall would dismantle later in his legal career. Ultimately, Marshall decided to attend Howard University School Of Law and upon graduation, he began a private prac- tice in Baltimore.

During Marshall’s distinguished 23-year career, he served as the NAACP’s chief counsel and director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He present the legal argument in the historic case Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which ruled that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. He later became the first African-American to serve on the United States Supreme Court. 1913-2005Rosa Parks

Rosa Park’s place in history lies in a single courageous action, her refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus on December 1, 1955. Her subsequent arrest resulted in a mass boycott of city buses and brought the civil rights move- ment and Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence. Yet, the popular view of Park’s catalystic action as that of a simple, tired seamstress is not altogether accurate. Though indeed a woman of quiet dignity, Parks was also a longtime mover in the Montgomery NAACP and a well-trained, disciplined activist, attended in every respect to what she was setting in motion. 1820-1913Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman was the best-known “con- ductor” on the Underground Railroad, a network of abolitionists who spirited blacks to freedom. A fugitive slave herself, Tubman made some nineteen return trips to rescue as many as three hundred slaves from bondage.

During the Civil War she served as a nurse, spy, and scout for groups of raiders penetrat- ing Confederate lines. In her later years Tubman worked for black education and social betterment, woman suffrage, and other causes.