Birth of Anna Julia Cooper
Author and activist Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was born on August 10, 1858, in Raleigh, North Carolina. She fought for education for women and African Americans and is often called the “Mother of Black Feminism.”
Civil Rights
Birth of Ida B. Wells
Ida Bell Wells was born July 16, 1862, in Holly Springs, Mississippi, just before President Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. Wells was an early leader in the Civil Rights and Women’s Suffrage movements, as well as a founder of the NAACP.
Birth of Mary McLeod Bethune
Educator and activist Mary Jane McLeod Bethune was born on July 10, 1875, in Mayesville, South Carolina. She founded a private school for African Americans and was a member of several African American women’s organizations, sometimes called the “Female Booker T. Washington.”
Birth of Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was born on July 2, 1908, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the first African American Supreme Court Justice and served 24 years on the bench.
Birth of Patricia Roberts Harris
Patricia Roberts Harris was born on May 31, 1924, in Mattoon, Illinois. Harris achieved several firsts in her life. She was the first black woman to serve as an American ambassador, serve in the US Cabinet, be dean of a law school, and sit on the board of directors of a Fortune 500 company.
Birth of Earl Warren
US Chief Justice Earl Warren was born on March 19, 1891, in Los Angeles, California. He’s considered one of the nation’s most influential Supreme Court justices, with his time on the court referred to as a “Constitutional Revolution.”
Birth of Oswald Garrison Villard
Journalist and civil rights activist Oswald Garrison Villard was born on March 13, 1872, in Wiesbaden, Germany. He was an editor of the New York Evening Post and a founding member of the NAACP.
Founding of the NAACP
On February 12, 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in New York City. It’s America’s oldest and largest civil rights group.
First Observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day
On January 20, 1986, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first observed as a federal holiday after a decades-long battle.