Wikipedia list article
This is a list of African-American activists covering various areas of activism, but primarily focus on those African Americans who historically and currently have been fighting racism and racial injustice against African Americans. The United States of America has a long history of racism against its Black citizens. The names detailed below contains only notable African Americans who are known to be activist (sorted by surname).
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by
adding missing items with reliable sources.
A
B
Name |
Area of activism |
Notes and references
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James Baldwin |
Race and LGBT equality. |
Born James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987). Also novelist and playwright. Baldwin was an inclusionist, not a separatist during the Civil Rights Movement.
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James Bevel |
Civil rights movement |
Strategist for SNCC and SCLC, initiated and directed the Birmingham Children's Crusade, Selma to Montgomery marches, Chicago Open Housing Movement, and other events.
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Lillie Mae Bradford |
Civil rights |
Four years prior to Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her seat to a white man, Bradford (October 1, 1928 – March 14, 2017) was charged the wrong bus fare and racially insulted by a bus driver in Montgomery, Alabama to which she protested by sitting at the front of the bus reserved only for white people in accordance with racist American laws against its Black citizens. She was arrested and charged for disorderly conduct.
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Aurelia Browder |
Civil rights |
Also known as Aurelia Shines Browder Coleman (January 29, 1919 – February 4, 1971). Almost eight months prior to the Rosa Parks incident, Browder was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person.
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Nannie Helen Burroughs |
Civil rights and feminist |
Burroughs (May 2, 1879 – May 20, 1961) was also an educator, orator, religious leader and businesswoman.
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C
Name |
Area of activism |
Notes and references
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Archibald J. Carey, Jr |
Civil Rights Movement |
Archibald James Carey Jr. (February 29, 1908 – April 20, 1981) was a lawyer, judge, politician, diplomat and clergyman. Confidante of Martin Luther King Jr., Carey was also active in the national Civil Rights Movement and worked to end employment discrimination in the U.S. government against Black Americans.
|
Eldridge Cleaver |
Civil Rights Movement |
Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) was a leader of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s.
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Claudette Colvin |
Civil Rights Movement |
Claudette Colvin (September 5, 1939) is an American nurse and one of the pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement. Colvin was arrested on March 2, 1955, at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded racially segregated bus. Colvin was also an NAACP Youth Council member in her student days.
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Anna Julia Cooper |
Black feminist and civil rights |
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (August 10, 1858 – February 27, 1964) was an author, educator, sociologist, prominent African-American scholar, and "sometimes called the mother of Black Feminism."
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John Anthony Copeland Jr. |
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry |
Executed by hanging in Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia), December 16, 1859.
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Patrisse Cullors |
Black Lives Matter and LGBT |
Born in 1984, Cullors is an artist and activist, and an advocate for prison abolition in Los Angeles. She is a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement.
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D
Name |
Area of activism |
Notes and references
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Angela Davis |
Communism and feminism |
Briefly involved in the Black Panther Party during the Civil Rights Movement.
|
William L. Dawson |
Civil Rights Movement |
William Levi Dawson (April 26, 1886 – November 9, 1970) was a politician; an active participant during the civil rights movement; and a sponsor of registration drives.
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Charles Diggs |
Civil Rights Movement |
Charles Coles Diggs Jr. (December 2, 1922 – August 24, 1998) was an early member of the civil rights movement.
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Frederick Douglass |
Abolitionist |
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey; c. February 1818 – February 20, 1895 was a social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman.
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W. E. B. Du Bois |
Writer on African-American topics, a founder of NAACP |
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963).
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E
F
Name |
Area of activism |
Notes and references
|
David Fagen
|
Anti-imperialism |
David Fagen was the son of former slaves, born in 1878 in Tampa. As a teenager, Fagen became involved in labour strikes but joined the army in 1898. After combat in Cuba, he was deployed to Manila to fight in the Philippine-American War (1899-1902). No longer able to conduct himself as an instrument of white racism or American imperialism he joined the Philippine Liberation Army where he was promoted to captain and given his own command. Fagen achieved legendary status as a fighter and became a hero not just to the Philippines but to all those who oppose American imperialism and racism.
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