Civil rights leaders are influential figures in the promotion and implementation of political freedom and the expansion of personal civil liberties and rights. They work to protect individuals and groups from political repression and discrimination by governments and private organizations, and seek to ensure the ability of all members of society to participate in the civil and political life of the state.
Civil rights include individual rights to equal protection and service, privacy, freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to travel, freedom of worship, protection of civil liberties, the right to vote, and the right to freely share ideas and opinions through all forms of communication and media. People who motivated themselves and then led others to gain and protect these rights and liberties include:
- George Mason (1725â"1792) â" American who wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights and influenced U.S. Bill of Rights
- Thomas Paine (1737â"1809) â" English-American activist, author, theorist, wrote Rights of Man
- Elizabeth Freeman (1744â"1829) also known as Mum Bett - first former slave to win a freedom suit in Massachusetts
- Olympe de Gouges (1748â"1793) â" French women's rights pioneer, writer, beheaded during French Revolution
- Jeremy Bentham (1748â"1832) â" British philosopher, writer, and teacher on civil rights, inspiration
- James Madison (1751â"1836) â" American founding father, introduced and lobbied for the U.S. Bill of Rights
- William Wilberforce (1759â"1833) â" leader of the British abolition movement
- Mary Wollstonecraft (1759â"1797) â" British author, early advocate for women's rights
- Thaddeus Stevens (1792â"1868) American senator from Pennsylvania, anti-slavery leader, originator of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution
- Lucretia Mott (1793â"1880) â" American women's rights activist, abolitionist
- William Lloyd Garrison (1805â"1879) â" American abolitionist, writer, organizer, feminist, initiator
- Lysander Spooner (1808â"1887) â" American abolitionist, writer, anarchist, proponent of Jury nullification
- Charles Sumner (1811â"1874) â" American Senator from Massachusetts, Anti-slavery leader
- Abby Kelley (1811â"1887) â" American abolitionist and suffragette
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815â"1902) â" American women's suffrage/women's rights leader
- Lucy Stone (1818â"1893) â" American women's suffrage/voting rights leader
- Frederick Douglass (1818â"1895) â" American abolitionist, women's rights and suffrage advocate, writer, organizer, black rights activist, inspiration
- Julia Ward Howe (1818â"1910) â" American writer, organizer, suffragette
- Susan B. Anthony (1820â"1906) â" American Women's suffrage leader, speaker, inspiration
- Harriet Tubman (1822â"1913) â" African American abolitionist and humanitarian
- Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825â"1895) â" German writer, organizer, and the pioneer of the modern LGBT rights movement
- Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825â"1921) â" founded American Woman Suffrage Association with Lucy Stone in 1869
- Victoria Woodhull (1838â"1927) â" American suffragette organizer, women's rights leader
- Frances Willard (1839â"1898) â" American women's rights activist, woman suffrage leader
- Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (1842-1924) â" suffragist, editor, co-founder of the first chapter of the NAACP
- Kate Sheppard (1847â"1934) â" New Zealand suffragist in first country to have universal suffrage
- Eugene Debs (1855â"1926) â" American organizer, campaigner for the poor, women, dissenters, prisoners
- Booker T. Washington (1856â"1915) â" American educator, founder of Tuskegee University, and advisor to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft
- Thomas Clarke (11 March 1858 â" 3 May 1916) â" Signatory of the Irish Proclamation. Advocate for equality and freedom for Irish men and women
- Emmeline Pankhurst (1858â"1928) â" founder and leader of the British Suffragette Movement
- Carrie Chapman Catt (1859â"1947) â" suffrage leader, president National American Woman Suffrage Association, founder League of Women Voters and International Alliance of Women
- Jane Addams (1860â"1935) â" American reformer, co-founder of the Hull House and American Civil Liberties Union, Nobel Peace Prize winner
- Ida B. Wells (1862â"1931) â" American journalist, early activist in 20th Century Civil Rights Movement, women's suffrage/voting rights activist
- James Connolly (5 June 1868 â" 12 May 1916) â" Signatory of the Irish Proclamation. Advocate for equal rights for Irish men and women.
- W.E.B. Du Bois (1868â"1963) â" American writer, scholar, founder of NAACP
- Kasturba Gandhi (1869â"1944) â" wife of Mohandas Gandhi, activist in South Africa and India, often led her husband's movements in India when he was imprisoned
- Mohandas Gandhi (1869â"1948) â" Indian activist, movement leader, writer, philosopher, and teacher
- Vallabhbhai Patel (1875â"1950) Indian activist, movement leader
- Muhammad Ali Jinnah (25 December 1876 â" 11 September 1948) â" lawyer, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah lead Pakistan Movement for the rights of Muslims in the subcontinent
- Thomas MacDonagh (1 February 1878 â" 3 May 1916) â" Signatory of the Irish Proclamation, advocate for equal rights for Irish men and women
- Pádraig Pearse (10 November 1879 â" 3 May 1916)) â" Signatory of the Irish Proclamation, advocate for equal rights for Irish men and women
- Lucy Burns (1879â"1966) â" American women's suffrage/voting rights leader
- Ãamonn Ceannt (21 September 1881 â" 8 May 1916) â" Signatory of the Irish Proclamation, advocate for equal rights for Irish men and women
- Getúlio Vargas (1882â"1954) â" Brazilian civil leader, President of Brazil, first as dictator, from 1930 to 1945
- Seán Mac Diarmada (27 January 1883 â" 12 May 1916) â" Signatory of the Irish Proclamation, advocate for equal rights for Irish men and women
- Eleanor Roosevelt (1884â"1962) â" women's rights and human rights activist both in the United States and in the United Nations
- Alice Paul (1885â"1977) â" American 1910s Women's Voting Rights Movement leader, strategist, and organizer
- Joseph Mary Plunkett (21 November 1887 â" 4 May 1916) â" Signatory of the Irish Proclamation, advocate for equal rights for Irish men and women.
- Sonia Schlesin (1888â"1956) â" worked with Mohandas Gandhi in South Africa and led his movements there when he was absent
- Toyohiko Kagawa (1888â"1960) â" Japanese labour activist, Christian reformer, author
- Jawaharlal Nehru (1889â"1964) â" first Prime Minister of India, central figure in Indian politics before and after independence, advocate for freedom of the press
- A. Philip Randolph (1889â"1979) â" American labor and civil rights movement leader
- B. R. Ambedkar (1891â"1956) â" reformer who drafted Constitution of India, campaigned for Indian independence, Fought for the womens rights (Hindu Code Bill), fought discrimination and inequality among the people
- Walter Francis White (1895â"1955) â" American NAACP executive secretary
- Thich Quang Duc (1897â"1963) â" Vietnamese monk, freedom of religion self-martyr
- Edgar Nixon (1899â"1987) â" Montgomery Bus Boycott organizer, civil rights activist
- Roy Wilkins (1901â"1981) â" American NAACP executive secretary/executive director
- Ella Baker (1903â"1986) â" American SCLC activist, initiated the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
- Marvel Cooke (1903â"2000) â" American civil rights leader
- Myles Horton (1905â"1990) â" American teacher of nonviolence, pioneer activist, founded and led the Highlander Folk School
- John Peters Humphrey (1905â"1995) â" author of Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Nellie Stone Johnson (1905â"2002) â" labor and civil rights activist
- Willa Brown (1906â"1992) â" American civil rights activist, first African American lieutenant in the US Civil Air Patrol, first African American woman to run for Congress
- T.R.M. Howard (1908â"1976) â" founder of Mississippi's Regional Council of Negro Leadership
- Winifred C. Stanley (1909â"1996) â" First member of Congress to introduce legislation prohibiting discrimination in pay on the basis of sex
- Elizabeth Peratrovich (1911â"1958) â" Alaska activist for native people
- Amelia Boynton Robinson (1911â"2015) â" Selma Voting Rights Movement activist and early leader
- Dorothy Height (1912â"2010) â" American activist and advocate for African-American women
- Bayard Rustin (1912â"1987) â" American civil rights activist
- Jo Ann Robinson (1912â"1992) â" Montgomery Bus Boycott activist
- Harry Hay (1912â"2002) â" early leader in American LGBT rights movement, founder Mattachine Society
- Rosa Parks (1913â"2005) â" American NAACP official, activist, Montgomery Bus Boycott inspiration
- Daisy Bates (1914â"1999) â" American organizer of the Little Rock Nine school desegregation events
- Claude Black (1916â"2009) â" American civil rights activist
- Fannie Lou Hamer (1917â"1977) â" activist in Mississippi movements
- Marie Foster (1917â"2003) â" American voting rights activist, a local leader in the Selma Voting Rights Movement
- Gordon Hirabayashi (1918â"2012) â" Japanese-American civil rights hero
- Humberto "Bert" Corona (1918â"2001) â" labor and civil rights leader
- Nelson Mandela (1918â"2013) â" South African statesman, leading figure in anti-apartheid movement
- Fred Korematsu (1919â"2005) â" American, Japanese internment resister during WWII
- James Farmer (1920â"1999) â" Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) leader and activist.
- Golden Frinks (1920â"2004) â" American civil rights organizer in North Carolina, field secretary of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
- Whitney M. Young, Jr. (1921â"1971) â" Executive director of National Urban League, advisor to US presidents
- Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley (1921â"2003) â" American who held an open casket funeral for her son, Emmett Till; speaker, activist
- Betty Friedan (1921â"2006) â" American writer, women's rights activist, feminist
- Del Martin (1921â"2008) â" American co-founder of Daughters of Bilitis, the first social and political organization for lesbians in the US
- Fred Shuttlesworth (1922â"2011) â" American clergyman, activist, SCLC co-founder, initiated the Birmingham Movement
- Clara Luper (1923â"2011) â" American sit-in movement leader in Oklahoma, activist
- James Baldwin (1924â"1987) â" American essayist, novelist, public speaker, SNCC activist
- Medgar Evers (1925â"1963) â" American, NAACP official in the Mississippi Movement
- Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga (born 1925) â" American activist in Japanese-American redress movement
- Malcolm X (1925â"1965) â" American author, speaker, activist, inspiration
- Lenny Bruce (1925â"1966) â" American free speech advocate, comedian, political satirist
- Frank Kameny (1925â"2011) â" American gay rights activist
- Ralph Abernathy (1926â"1990) â" American activist, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) official
- Jackie Forster (1926â"1998) â" English lesbian rights activist
- Hosea Williams (1926â"2000) â" American civil rights activist, SCLC organizer and strategist
- Cesar Chavez (1927â"1993) â" Chicano activist, organizer, trade unionist
- Coretta Scott King (1927â"2006) â" American SCLC leader, activist
- Elie Wiesel (1928â"2016) â" American, writer, Holocaust survivor, Jewish rights leader
- James Forman (1928â"2005) â" American SNCC official and civil rights activist
- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929â"1968) â" SCLC co-founder/president/chairman, activist, author, speaker
- Edison Uno (1929â"1976) â" American, leader for Japanese-American civil rights and redress after World War II
- Harvey Milk (1930â"1978) â" American politician, gay rights activist and leader
- Charles Morgan, Jr. (1930â"2009) â" American attorney, established principle of "one man, one vote"
- Barbara Gittings (1932â"2007) â" American lesbian rights activist
- Miriam Makeba (1932â"2008) â" South African singer, anti-apartheid activist
- Roy Innis (1934â"2017) - American activist, longtime leader of CORE
- Barbara Jordan (1936â"1996) â" American legislator, educator, civil rights advocate
- James Bevel (1936â"2008) â" American organizer and Direct Action leader, SCLC's main strategist, movement initiator, and movement director
- Jack Herer (1939â"2010) â" American pro-hemp activist, speaker, organizer, author
- Julian Bond (1940â"2015) â" American activist, politician, scholar, NAACP chairman
- Prathia Hall (1940â"2002) â" American SNCC activist, a leading speaker in the civil rights movement
- Stokely Carmichael (1941â"1998) â" American SNCC and Black Panther activist, organizer, speaker
- James Orange (1942â"2008) â" American SCLC activist and organizer, a voting rights movement leader, trade unionist
- Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992) - Gay liberation activist, STAR co-founder, AIDS activist with ACT UP
- Fred Hampton (1948â"1969) â" American NAACP youth leader and Black Panther activist, organizer, speaker
- Frankie Muse Freeman (born 1916) â" American civil rights attorney, first woman appointee to United States Commission on Civil Rights
- Joseph Lowery (born 1921) â" American SCLC leader and co-founder, activist
- Charles Evers (born 1922) â" American civil rights activist
- Phyllis Lyon (born 1924) â" American co-founder of Daughters of Bilitis, first social and political organization for lesbians in the US
- C.T. Vivian (born 1924) â" American student civil rights leader, SNCC and SCLC activist
- James Lawson (born 1928) â" American minister and activist, SCLC's teacher of nonviolence in civil rights movement
- Wyatt Tee Walker (born 1929) â" American activist and organizer with NAACP, CORE, and SCLC
- Dorothy Cotton (born 1930) â" American SCLC official, activist, organizer, and leader
- Dolores Huerta (born 1930) â" American labor and civil rights activist, initiator, organizer
- Desmond Tutu (born 1931) â" South African anti-apartheid organizer, advocate, first black archbishop of Cape Town
- Lola Hendricks (born 1932) â" activist, local leader in Birmingham Movement
- Andrew Young (born 1932) â" American civil rights activist, SCLC executive director
- Dick Gregory (1932â"2017) â" American free speech advocate, civil rights activist, comedian
- Meir Kahane (born 1932) - Controversial Jewish rights activist, Founder of the Jewish Defense League
- James Meredith (born 1933) â" American independent student leader and selfâ"starting Mississippi activist
- Louis Farrakhan (born 1933) â" American, controversial minister and National Representative of the Nation of Islam
- Gloria Steinem (born 1934) â" American writer, activist, feminist
- Bob Moses (born 1935) â" leader, activist, and organizer in '60s Mississippi Movement
- Tenzin Gyatso (born 1935) â" Tibetan, 14th Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, advocate for nonviolence, compassion, and Tibetan autonomy
- Charles Sherrod (born 1937) â" American civil rights activist, SNCC leader
- Diane Nash (born 1938) â" American SNCC and SCLC activist and official, strategist, organizer
- Claudette Colvin (born 1939) â" American Montgomery Bus Boycott pioneer, independent activist
- Bernard Lafayette (born 1940) â" American SCLC and SNCC activist, organizer, and leader
- John Lewis (born 1940) â" American Nashville Student Movement and SNCC activist, organizer, speaker, congressman
- Jesse Jackson (born 1941) â" American civil rights activist, politician
- Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945) â" Burmese Politician, former political prisoner, democracy and human rights activist
- Rebiya Kadeer (born 1946) â" ethnic Uyghur civil right activist, independence right activist, businesswoman
- Dana Beal (born 1947) â" American pro-hemp activist, organizer, speaker, initiator
- Ashok Row Kavi (born 1947) â" Indian LGBT rights activist, gay rights pioneer, founder of Humsafar Trust
- Benjamin Chavis (born 1948) â" American activist, chemist, minister, author, leader of Wilmington Ten, led Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ, campaigner against Environmental Racism, executive director of NAACP, national director of Million Man March
- Andre DiMino (born 1950) â" Italian-American civil rights activist
- Judy Shepard (born 1952) â" gay rights activist, public speaker
- Barbara May Cameron (1954â"2002) â" American advocate for the rights of Native Americans, lesbians, and women
- Al Sharpton (born 1954) â" American clergyman, activist, media
- Will Roscoe (born 1955) â" American gay rights activist
- Rigoberta Menchú (born 1959) â" Guatemalan indigenous rights leader, co-founder Nobel Women's Initiative
- Steven Goldstein (born 1962) â" American gay rights advocate, political activist
- Chee Soon Juan (born 1962) â" Singaporean politician, former political prisoner, democracy and human rights activist
- Kayode Ajulo (born 1974) â" Nigerian lawyer, civil rights activist, founded Egalitarian Mission, Africa to promote equity, equality and rule of law in class-conscious African societies
- Harish Iyer (born 1979) â" Indian gender and sexuality rights activist, campaigner against child sexual abuse and for animal rights
- Jignesh Mevani (born 1982) â" Indian Dalit activist, led a campaign by Dalit people
- Edvin Kanka ÄudiÄ (born 1988) â" Human rights activist, founder and coordinator of Association for Social Research and Communications in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Malala Yousafzai (born 1997) â" Pakistani advocate for education for girls, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
See also
- Abolition of slavery timeline
- African-American Civil Rights Movement (1896â"1954)
- Civil Rights Movement
- Chicano Movement
- Civil and political rights
- Civil liberties in the United Kingdom
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
- Convention on the Political Rights of Women
- Counterculture of the 1960s
- Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
- Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen
- Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
- English Bill of Rights
- Equality before the law
- European Convention on Human Rights
- Founding Fathers of the United States
- Free Speech fight
- Free Speech Movement
- History of human rights
- Human rights
- Human rights awards
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- LGBT rights by country
- LGBT social movements
- List of human rights organizations
- List of indigenous rights organizations
- List of LGBT rights activists
- List of LGBT rights organizations
- List of peace activists
- List of suffragists and suffragettes
- List of women's rights activists
- Magna Carta
- National human rights institutions
- Seneca Falls Convention
- Status of same-sex marriage
- Suffrage
- Timeline of the African-American Civil Rights Movement
- Timeline of first women's suffrage in majority-Muslim countries
- Timeline of women's rights (other than voting)
- Timeline of women's suffrage
- United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
- United Nations Human Rights Committee
- United Nations Human Rights Council
- United States Bill of Rights
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Universal suffrage
- Virginia Declaration of Rights
- Women's rights
- Women's Suffrage
External links
- BlackHistoryDaily.com â" Activists