1. Fanny Wright (1795)

Civil Rights Leader

19th century Women's Liberation activist and abolitionist who founded the Nashoba Commune in Tennessee, a utopian community to prepare slaves for emancipation.

2. Nat Turner (1800)

Civil Rights Leader

Slave whose courageous act of leading a slave rebellion in Virginia on August 21, 1831 unfortunately resulted in the adoption of new laws limiting the freedom of slaves. The rebelling...

3. Harriet Tubman (1820)

Civil Rights Leader

Escaped slave who became an abolitionist and Union spy during the Civil War and rescued over 300 slaves using the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses...

4. Maggie L. Walker (1864)

Civil Rights Leader

African-American businesswoman who became the first female bank president in the history of the United States in 1902.

5. Emily Helen Butterfield (1884)

Civil Rights Leader

Leader of the Michigan's women's movement who took up the cause of empowering women in her home state.

6. William L. Patterson (1891)

Civil Rights Leader

African American civil rights activist who offered legal representation to communists, trade unionists, and African-Americans.

7. Laxman Nayak (1899)

Civil Rights Leader

Civil rights activist of South Orissa in eastern India who was a cult-figure and a member of the National Congress.

8. Ramadevi Choudhury (1970)

Civil Rights Leader

Women's freedom fighter and social reformer who was also called Ma Rama Devi for her leadership during the freedom movement in India.

9. Clara Muhammad (1899)

Civil Rights Leader

'First Lady of the Nation Islam' who led the march for equality for blacks alongside her husband.

10. Ernesto Galarza (1905)

Civil Rights Leader

Key historical figure for immigrant farm worker organization in California.

11. John James Herrera (1910)

Civil Rights Leader

Attorney, Mexican-American civil rights leader, and activist. He was a member of the legal team that worked on the famous Minerva Delgado Texas school discrimination case.

12. Annie Lee Cooper (1910)

Civil Rights Leader

Remembered for her role in the Selma Voting Rights Movement of 1965, this Alabama-born activist hit Sheriff Jim Clark after he used a law enforcement club to try to force...

13. Margaret Ekpo (1914)

Civil Rights Leader

Women's rights activist in Nigeria who helped women insert themselves into the First Republic during the 1960's.

14. Claude Black (1916)

Civil Rights Leader

Influential civil rights activist who served four terms on the San Antonio City Council 1973 to 1978 and became the city's first black Mayor Pro Tem.

15. Igal Roodenko (1917)

Civil Rights Leader

Prominent Jewish civil-rights activist and anti-war protestor who got himself arrested countless times for objecting to the US involvement in the second World War.

16. Carlos Cristian Cadena (1917)

Civil Rights Leader

Mexican American civil rights activist, judge, and lawyer who notably worked on the landmark case Hernandez v. Texas, where he argued against the exclusion of Hispanics from jury duty in...

17. James L Farmer Jr. (1920)

Civil Rights Leader

American civil rights activist who led the Freedom Riders. He also helped establish the Congress of Racial Equality.

18. Joseph Echols Lowery (1921)

Civil Rights Leader

Minister in the United Methodist Church and leader in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's who was the third president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

19. Clara Luper (1923)

Civil Rights Leader

Civil rights leader during the Civil Rights Movement who directly influenced and participated in the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-in. She helped desegregate hundreds of establishments in Oklahoma during the late...

20. William Sloane Coffin (1924)

Civil Rights Leader

Christian clergyman and peace activist who was the President of SANE/Freeze (now Peace Action), the nation's largest peace and justice group.

21. Curtis W. Harris (1924)

Civil Rights Leader

Minister, civil rights activist, and former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Virginia chapter.

22. Jacqueline Ceballos (1970)

Civil Rights Leader

Notable for her feminist activism, Ceballos headed the National Organization for Women's New York office and founded a group known as Veteran Feminists of America.

23. James Reeb (1927)

Civil Rights Leader

Civil rights activist in Washington D.C. who participated in and died during the anti-segregation march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.

24. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929)

Civil Rights Leader

African-American Civil Rights Movement leader and clergyman who used civil disobedience to combat institutionalized racism. He is remembered best for his iconic "I Have A Dream Speech," which he gave...

25. Oscar Zeta Acosta (1935)

Civil Rights Leader

American attorney, politician, novelist and Chicano Movement activist who is the inspiration for Dr. Gonzo, in the acclaimed novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.

26. Michael Henry Schwerner (1939)

Civil Rights Leader

Civil rights activist who was killed in Mississippi by the Klu Klux Klan while working as a field worker for the Congress of Racial Equality. The investigation into his death...

27. James Orange (1942)

Civil Rights Leader

Martin Luther King Jr.'s adviser who was arrested in Alabama in 1965, fomenting the historic Selma-Montgomery March and the Civil Rights Movement.

28. Abdul Sattar Edhi (1928)

Civil Rights Leader

Humanitarian and philanthropist known as one of Pakistan's most respected figures. He founded the Edhi Foundation, which runs the world's largest volunteer ambulance network. It also runs homeless shelters, animal...

29. Janet Murguia (1960)

Civil Rights Leader

Political activist for Hispanic civil rights and member of the Clinton administration. She became President of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest Hispanic civil rights organization in...

30. Tomo Kriznar (1970)

Civil Rights Leader

Peace activist who delivered cameras to the Nuba civilians in North Sudan in order to collect proof of the military's crimes against them. He is also an author who has...

31. Lucille Bridges (1934)

Civil Rights Leader

Civil rights icon who pushed for her daughter Ruby Bridges to integrate the previously all-White William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1960. In 2020 she was called one of the...

32. Hemant Goswami (1971)

Civil Rights Leader

Social activist who has been an advocate for public health and civil rights and against tobacco in his native India.