Civil Rights Unsung Heroes

The impact of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement has been due not only to the talent, leadership and commitment of leaders whose names became household words around world but because people engaged in courageous, transforming acts in the towns and cities where they lived. They sometimes were not widely recognized, but their efforts were like streams that fed a river. We asked Marne Campbell, professor and chair of the African American Studies Department in the LMU Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, to write about some of the more unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement. Campbell’s expertise is in the middle 19th and 20th century urban United States. She is the author of “Making Black Los Angeles: Class, Gender, and Community, 1850–1917.” —The Editor

Lillie M. Carroll Jackson (1889–1975) led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Baltimore from 1935–70. Under her leadership, the chapter became the largest in the country with more than 17,000 members. She organized several boycotts to end segregation in movie theaters. Jackson also helped prepare black people to pass exams for civil service jobs. She also helped to raise funds for legal challenges to discriminatory policies. Her activism led to Baltimore passing fair employment and public accommodations laws.

Florynce Kennedy (1916–2000) was an activist and lawyer best known for her flamboyant attitude and aesthetic. As a lawyer, she represented significant African Americans such as H. Rap Brown, Angela Davis, Assata Shakur and Billie Holiday. Additionally, she organized protests against racial, gender and homophobia discrimination, including the 1968 Miss America protest in Atlanta City, New Jersey, and the 1973 Harvard University Pee-in for more women’s restrooms. She fought against anti-abortion laws in New York and championed for sex workers. She was one of the founding members in 1966 of NOW (National Organization for Women) and in 1973 of the National Black Feminist Organization. In 1976, Kennedy said, “My main message is that we have a pathologically, institutionally racist, sexist, classist society. And that niggerizing techniques that are used don’t only damage black people, but they also damage women, gay people, ex-prison inmates, prostitutes, children, old people, handicapped people, Native Americans. And that if we can begin to analyze the pathology of oppression … we would learn a lot about how to deal with it.”

Barbara Johns (1935-91), of Prince Edwards County, Virginia, attended racially segregated Robert Russa Moton High School. In 1951, Johns led a student strike, demanding equal facilities or desegregation. NAACP figures like Spotswood Robinson and Thurgood Marshall took notice. The NAACP sued the district, joining the groundbreaking court case Brown v. Board of Education. For safety, Johns moved to Montgomery, Alabama, to live with her uncle, Vernon Johns, who pastored Dexter Avenue Baptist Church prior to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Audley “Queen Mother” Moore (1898–1997) was a civil rights leader in Harlem, New York. After migrating from New Iberia, Louisiana, Queen Mother Moore worked with Marcus Garvey, the leader of the United Negro Improvement Association, a Black nationalist organization that inspired several civil rights activists. According to her obituary in the New York Times, “She was also an advocate of reparations for slavery, tenants’ rights and education for the poor.” Her fight to challenge the government and secure reparations for African Americans began in the 1960s. She also fought for better education for black students in Harlem —a struggle that continued until she died.  

Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray (1910–1985), who was born in Baltimore, was a lawyer, writer, the first African American woman Episcopal priest and civil rights activist. In 1940, decades before the civil rights movement gained momentum, Murray and a friend were arrested in Virginia for sitting in the white-only section of a bus. This event inspired Murray to pursue law school at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and later the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on civil rights. While a student, she composed a paper challenging Plessy v. Ferguson’s “separate but equal” determination, which ultimately was referenced by the legal team that argued Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court.Jo Ann Robinson (1912–1992) helped organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was the first major organized protest of the civil rights movement, in 1955. Robinson created and distributed flyers for the effort that reached more than 50,000 people. Prior to this, Robinson taught in the Department of English at Alabama State College in Montgomery, Alabama, and was a member of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where she was a member of the Women’s Political Council. She became president of the group in 1950, a role that would lead her to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott lasted a year, and the black community successfully desegregated the public transportation system in Montgomery, sparking similar desegregation movements across the south.

Jo Ann Robinson (1912–1992) helped organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was the first major organized protest of the civil rights movement, in 1955. Robinson created and distributed flyers for the effort that reached more than 50,000 people. Prior to this, Robinson taught in the Department of English at Alabama State College in Montgomery, Alabama, and was a member of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where she was a member of the Women’s Political Council. She became president of the group in 1950, a role that would lead her to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott lasted a year, and the black community successfully desegregated the public transportation system in Montgomery, sparking similar desegregation movements across the south.