America’s 36th President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, was born on August 27, 1908, in Stonewall, Texas. President Johnson promoted a “Great Society” and signed many initiatives into law aimed at civil rights, public broadcasting, health, education, the arts, and public services.
Poet and writer Dorothy Parker (born Dorothy Rothschild) was born on August 22, 1893, in Long Branch, New Jersey. A founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, she was known for her sharp wit.
Civil rights leader Whitney Moore Young, Jr., was born on July 31, 1921, in Shelby County, Kentucky. He served as Executive Director of the National Urban League, helped organize the March on Washington, and advised several presidents.
On July 19, 1848, the Women’s Rights Convention, also known as the Seneca Falls Convention, opened in New York. The convention’s attendants issued a declaration calling for equal rights, including the right to vote.
James Weldon Johnson was born on June 17, 1871, in Jacksonville, Florida. A poet, songwriter, diplomat, and activist, he was the first African American executive secretary of the NAACP.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. was born on May 27, 1911, in Wallace, South Dakota. He was a leading political figure in the mid-1900s, promoting the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and more.
Asa Philip Randolph was born on April 15, 1889, in Crescent City, Florida. Randolph was a respected and outspoken proponent of the rights of minority labor. He was greatly feared by his opponents, not because of his temperament, but because of his power to create change.
Harlem Renaissance novelist Nellallitea “Nella” Walker Larsen was born on April 13, 1891, in Chicago, Illinois. Though her writing career was brief, Larsen produced some of the first groundbreaking works to focus on mixed race identity and the feeling of not belonging.
On March 21, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. led the third (and finally successful) march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to protest for voting rights.