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Robert Moses
1960s civil rights activist with SNCC and main organizer of COFO’s Freedom Summer project. In 1982, Moses created the Algebra Project to support mathematical literacy for disadvantaged students.
Robert [Bob] Parris Moses was born in 1935 in Harlem, New York. He graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy from Hamilton College in 1956 and received an M.A. from Harvard University in 1957. From 1958-1961, he taught at the prestigious Horace Mann High School in New York. He was Mississippi field secretary for SNCC between 1961 and 1964 and organized Freedom Summer. He went to Canada in 1966 and then to Tanzania from 1969-1975, where he taught mathematics. When he returned to the U.S. in 1976, he became a high school mathematics teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he was doing graduate work at Harvard University in the philosophy of mathematics. Bob Moses founded the Algebra Project in 1982 under the auspices of a MacArthur Fellowship. He has dedicated his time to expanding this project nationally in order to reform education for students from historically underserved communities. He is a powerful advocate for the poor and has played a significant role in educational reform to provide true equal opportunity. In addition to a MacArthur Fellowship, he has received the Heinz Award for the Human Condition in 2000, the James Bryant Conant Award in 2002, the Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellowship in 2005. He has received honorary degrees from Swathmore College and Harvard University and has taught at Cornell and Princeton.
Bob Moses is a scion of the civil rights movement, known for his integrity, deep courage, and tenacity. He was responsible for shifting attention from sit-ins to voter registration drives. In 1960, at the age of 25, he went to Atlanta, Georgia to work with SCLC [Southern Christian Leadership Conference] and Dr. Martin Luther King. But he quickly transferred his allegiance to SNCC, and began to work in Mississippi as a field secretary. From 1961, he directed the voter registration drives of SNCC’s Mississippi Project and by 1964, he became the main organizer of COFO’s [Council of Federated Organization] Freedom Summer project. Freedom Summer brought well over 1,000 out-of-state volunteers to the South to participate in voter registration activities. He was a major organizer of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, challenging the all-white delegation to the 1964 Democratic National Convention. His passionate vision is to facilitate grass-roots and community-based leadership.
Armstrong R. Williams
Journalist, businessman, talk show host, and author representing Conservative values
A strong voice for Christian and conservative values, Armstrong Williams was named one of the most recognized conservative voices in America by the Washington Post. Williams has spoken out strongly on such issues as abortion, affirmative action, and welfare, endorsing merit as the only legitimate basis for advancement. He is a businessman, journalist, and public commentator.
In 1980, Williams served as a legislative aide to Strom Thurmond, whom he views as a primary mentor. After working as a legislative assistant in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Williams served as an assistant to Clarence Thomas from 1983 to 1986 while Thomas served as Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Coalition (EEOC).
In 1986, Williams entered the field of public relations as a vice president with B&C Associates, and in 1990, he collaborated with Stedman Graham to create the Graham Williams Group, an international public relations firm. Today, Williams sits on boards for organizations including The Carson Scholars Foundation, Inc., The Youth Leadership Foundation, and The Independence Federal Bank Board of Directors. In 2004, Williams appointed to the President\'s Commission on White House Fellows, joining individuals including Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and Elaine Chao.
Williams attracted the nation\'s attention in 1991 when he testified during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court. He published numerous articles in defense of Thomas against the claims of Anita Hill.
By 1991, he launched his first radio show, The Right Side with Armstrong Williams. In 2002, he established Right Side Productions, and from 2002 through 2005, he hosted On Point, a monthly primetime television show. Williams\' radio show is broadcast daily on Sirius XM radio.
Bill T. Jones
Artist, choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer – Executive Artistic Director of New York Live Arts
Bill T. Jones is a choreographer, dancer, director, writer and founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He was born in 1952 to migrant farmworkers in rural Florida, and is one of twelve children. Raised in upstate New York, Jones attended the State University of New York at Binghamton where he studied classical ballet and modern dance. After living in Amsterdam for a brief period, he returned to SUNY and became the co-founder of the American Dance Asylum. In 1971, Jones met his long-time partner Arnie Zane. Together they created new and innovative choreography, some of which featured openly gay material. In 1982 the pair founded the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane and Company. Jones created over 140 works for this company alone.
Jones has collaborated with distinguished artists such as writer Toni Morrison, percussionist and composer Max Roach, and dramatic soprano Jessye Norman. Companies that have commissioned his work include the Houston Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and Boston Ballet. In 1994, he was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. In 2009, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and received Kennedy Center Honors in 2010.
Recognitions include numerous prestigious dance awards and seven honorary doctorates at some of the most distinguished universities in the country, including Yale University and the Juilliard School. The work Jones has done on Broadway has brought him two Tony Awards for Best Choreography.
In 2011, Bill T. Jones became Executive Artistic Director of New York Live Arts.
Katori Hall
A new powerful voice in the theatre, exploring race, gender, and the human condition
KATORI HALL is a young playwright from Memphis, Tennessee, whose work has won great acclaim. She is a graduate of Columbia University, the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard University, and the Juilliard School. As a high-school graduate, she was one of twenty students nationally to win the prestigious Ron Brown Scholarship. She also is a member of the Coca-Cola Scholar Program, the Dramatists Guild, and the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
Hall’s plays include: The Mountaintop (2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play, 2012 Lilly Award), Hurt Village (2011 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Signature Theatre), Children of Killers (National Theatre, UK and Castillo Theatre, NYC), Hoodoo Love (Cherry Lane Theatre), Remembrance (Women’s Project), Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, WHADDABLOODCLOT!!! (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Our Lady of Kibeho and Pussy Valley.
Hall has won numerous awards and fellowships, including the Lark Play Development Center Playwrights of New York (PONY) Fellowship, the ARENA Stage American Voices New Play Residency, the Kate Neal Kinley Fellowship, two Lecomte du Nouy Prizes from Lincoln Center, the Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, a NYFA Fellowship, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Playwriting Award.
Rita Dove
Poet Laureate, Pulitzer prize winner, recipient of National Medal of Arts, National Humanities Medal, and professor of English at The University of Virginia.
Poet Laureate of the United States from 1993-1995 and Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2004-2006, Rita Dove is a poet, essayist, novelist, playwright, and musician. She was appointed a "special consultant in poetry" for the Library of Congress' bicentennial year from 1999-2000. She is the only American poet to win both the National Humanities Medal (1996) and the National Medal of Arts (2011). Dove is the second African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1987 for her poetry collection Thomas and Beulah. Dove's first poetry collection, The Yellow House on the Corner, was published in 1980. Some of her more notable works include Lady Freedom Among Us (1994), Fifth Sunday (1985), and The Darker Face of the Earth (1996), On the Bus with Rosa Parks (1999), and most recently Sonata Mulattica (2009). In 2011, she published the Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry.
Born in Akron, Ohio in 1952, Ms. Dove was named a presidential scholar in 1970 as one of the top 100 high school graduates. She received her B.A. from Miami University of Ohio, and her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Tubingen, Germany in 1974-1975.
Ms. Dove has been a guest of the White House to read works of poetry on numerous occasions. She has written texts for major symphonic and other musical works. Some of her poetry has been commissioned for national occasions. In addition, she has served in leadership positions in numerous professional associations and has won awards and fellowships too numerous to name.
Rita Dove taught creative writing at Arizona State University from 1981 to 1989 before joining the faculty of the University of Virginia. Since 1993, she has held the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English.
Aaron S. Williams
Former Director of United States Peace Corps, 2009-2012
Aaron Williams grew up in south side Chicago to a family of modest means. After graduation from Chicago Teachers College (now Chicago State University), he entered the Peace Corps in 1967 as a volunteer and served for three years in the Dominican Republic. Upon his return, he became a Peace Corps minority recruiter in Chicago. Subsequently, he earned an MBA from University of Wisconsin.
Over the past decades, he has served as Senior Official at the U.S. agency for International Development (US AID) achieving the rank of career minster in the Senior Foreign Service. His work with the Peace Crops primarily centered in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated him to be the Director of the Peace Corps – a position he held from 2009 to 2012. Prior to his work with the Peace Crops, Williams worked with the Research Triangle Institute International from 2003 to 2009, where he was vice president of international development. In 2012, he returned to RTI International in the capacity of executive vice president of the International Development Group.
Williams generously volunteers his time to non-profit organizations, and has been involved with The Council on Foreign Relations, the Ron Brown Scholar Program, CARE, and the Institute for Sustainable Communities.
Anthony Williams
As chief financial officer and mayor of Washington D.C., Anthony A. "Tony" Williams earned his reputation as a savvy money manager, leading a financial recovery effort for the capital city and increasing economic opportunities and affordable housing.
Los Angeles native Anthony A. "Tony" Williams is credited with increasing economic stability and balancing budgets in the nation's capital even before he was elected as the fourth Mayor of the District of Columbia in 1998.
Appointed the Chief Financial Officer there in the mid-1990s, Williams' leadership produced a budget surplus in 1997 and a strong base of supporters for the mayoral election. Town hall meetings and citizen summits have helped him pursue his goals of improving education and public safety while broadly increasing opportunities for D.C. citizens.
Williams' political career began while he was still was a political science undergraduate at Yale University. After finishing his undergraduate work and serving on the New Haven Board of Aldermen, Williams went on to earn a law degree and a master's in public policy at Harvard University.
Williams' career in public service has taken him through a variety of sectors. Williams served with the 354th tactical fighter wing in the U.S. Air Force as well as in executive financial positions in St. Louis, Boston, Connecticut, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Additionally, Williams has been elected to leadership positions in the National League of Cities and Council of Governments.
Williams lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and daughter. He is a member of St. Augustine Catholic Church and is involved in multiple social service organizations, including 100 Black Men, Leadership Washington, and the Washington Urban League.
Williams served as mayor of Washington, D.C. from 1999-2007. After his second term ended, Williams decided not to seek reelection as mayor of Washington, D.C. Since then, Williams has been selected as the William H. Bloomberg Lecturer in Public Management at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In 2009, Williams joined the law firm Arent Fox LLP, and since 2010 he has been Executive Director of the Government Practice at the Corporate Executive Board Company. Williams is also a Senior Strategic Advisor and Independent Consultant at McKenna, Long and Aldridge LLP. He was named CEO and Executive Director of the Federal City Council in 2012.
Roger Wilkins
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, former Assistant Attorney General, and professor of history and American culture at George Mason University
Roger Wilkins was a civil rights leader who made significant contributions to academia, journalism, and public affairs.
After receiving his law degree from the University of Michigan, Wilkins went on to a career in public affairs, serving as Assistant Attorney General during the Johnson administration. Additionally, Wilkins served as chair of the Board of Trustees of the Africa America Institute and as a member of the Board of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He was the publisher of NAACP's journal, Crisis, and previously served as chairman of the Pulitzer Prize Board. Wilkins was also an appointed member of the District of Columbia Board of Education.
A distinguished journalist, Wilkins wrote for both The New York Times and the Washington Post. While on the editorial staff of the Washington Post, he shared the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Watergate coverage with Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, and Herbert Lawrence Block. His highly acclaimed autobiography, A Man's Life (1982), was reprinted in 1991. Wilkins also worked with Fred Harris to co-edit Quiet Riots in 1988. His book Jefferson's Pillow (2001) examines the ideals of the founding fathers who declared "men were created equal" while still owning slaves and won a NAIBA book award in 2002.
Wilkins was the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History and American Culture at George Mason University in Washington, D.C., until his retirement in 2007.
Roger Wilkins died on March 26, 2017.
L. Douglas Wilder
Mayor, state senator, and the first African American governor of any state in the U.S.
L. Douglas Wilder was the first African American elected governor in the U.S. From 1990 to 1994, he lead the Commonwealth of Virginia, a position he held from 1990 to 1994. Wilder's long commitment to political leadership in Virginia has broken numerous racial barriers.
Wilder had previously served as a state senator, representing Richmond from 1969 to 1985 as the first African American state senator in Virginia since Reconstruction. As a state senator, he was able to sponsor Virginia’s first drug paraphernalia law and compulsory school attendance law. Wilder spent eight years working to establish a state holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Beginning in 2005, Wilder led Richmond as an elected mayor.
In addition to his political career, Wilder is also a leading criminal trial attorney. He earned his law degree at Howard University Law School. After his graduation from Howard, Wilder established one of the few minority-owned legal firms in Virginia during the 1960s.
Today, Wilder is a Distinguished Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, and a driving force behind the establishment of a national Slavery Museum in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Diane Watson
Educator, political leader, and ardent advocate for health care, welfare reform, and children's and women's issues
Teacher, psychologist, State senator, ambassador, and a member of the U.S. Congress from 2003-2011 representing the 33rd District of California, Diane E. Watson has been a tireless advocate for social improvement.
Watson's lifelong commitment to education stems from her work as an elementary school teacher, school psychologist, and the first African American woman to serve on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. While in the California State Senate, Watson also committed herself to issues of health care, consumer protection, welfare reform, and women's and children's issues.
In 1998, Watson was appointed Ambassador to Micronesia by President Clinton, and in 2003, became a member of the 108th U.S. Congress. Watson was reelected to Congress four times before retiring in 2011. She continues to be a community activist through teaching, mentoring, and leadership.
Clarence Thomas
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the U.S.
Born in 1948, Clarence Thomas was raised in a single parent home in the rural community of Pinpoint, Georgia, where he experienced both segregation and poverty. Thomas credits the influence of his grandfather's strong work ethic and entrepreneurial attitude for many of his values, including his self-help philosophy.
Thomas was educated at Holy Cross College, and earned a J.D. from Yale University in 1974. Throughout these formative years, Thomas encountered mentors including Strom Thurmond and John Danforth.
During the Reagan administration, Thomas headed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a commission formed to enforce civil rights laws. In 1990, he was appointed a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals, and in 1991, he was named Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, a distinguished position that he continues to hold today. Thomas is a strong conservative voice on the Supreme Court, opposing Roe v. Wade and pro-affirmative action decisions. In 2007, he released a memoir entitled My Grandfather’s Son.
Lucius Theus
First African American support officer and third appointed general in the U.S. Air Force
Retired Major General Lucius Theus' thirty-six-year career in the U.S. Air Force was dedicated to upgrading military administrative operations, improving race relations and personnel relations in the Armed Forces, and encouraging young people to pursue careers in aviation.
After receiving his ROTC commission at Howard University, Theus' tour of duty plunged him into World War II as a private in the Army Air Corps. The tour of duty included stops in Tuskegee, Germany, France, Greece, and Vietnam and led Theus to command of the Air Force Accounting and Finance Center. Additionally, Theus earned an Assistant Directorship of the Defense Security Assistance Agency.
Theus spent much of his military career developing and implementing administrative systems to improve the life of the average airman and soldier. Programs such as direct deposit for military payrolls and better human relations are prime examples. While assigned to the Pentagon, he chaired the inter-service task force, whose recommendations led to a Department of Defense-wide race relations education and policy. Additionally, Theus worked to establish the forerunner to the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute.
Theus was the first African American support officer and the third African American to be appointed general in the U.S. Air Force. A native of Tennessee, Theus holds degrees from the University of Maryland and George Washington University. He was also the first African American to attend the Harvard Business Schools Advanced Management Program. Theus has been named to both the Enlisted Men's Hall of Fame and the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame. Additionally, he served as president of U.S. Associates and director of WGI Consulting and Training. Theus passed away in 2007.
Bakari T. Sellers
The son of civil rights activist Cleveland Sellers, Bakari Sellers is an attorney and was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives at the age of twenty-two.
The son of civil rights activist Cleveland Sellers, Bakari Sellers is an attorney and was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives at the age of 22.
A native of Denmark, South Carolina, Sellers graduated from Morehouse College in 2005. At Morehouse, he was a member of the Board of Trustees and the President of the Student Government Association. He also interned with Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina and Mayor Shirley Franklin of Atlanta, Georgia. After graduating from Morehouse College, Bakari attended the University Of South Carolina School Of Law, from which he graduated in 2008.
In 2006, Sellers was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives, where he represents the 90th District and serves on the Judiciary Committee. He was a member of the South Carolina Steering Committee for Obama for America from 2007 to 2008. Additionally, Sellers has worked with the Strom Law Firm, LLC since 2007.
Bobby Lee Rush
Georgia native Bobby L. Rush found his voice for civil rights in Chicago through the Illinois Black Panthers Party, Chicago City Council and, since 1992, as the Congressional Representative for the state's 1st District
As a civil rights activist, member of the U.S. Congress since 1992, and ordained Baptist minister, Bobby Lee Rush has demonstrated leadership in many ways. During the 1960s, Rush was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and a co-founded the Illinois Black Panther Party. While a Black Panther, Rush created a free breakfast program and coordinated a free medical center that brought the nation's attention to the impact of sickle cell anemia on the black community.
Rush began his political career as an alderman in the Chicago City Council, where he focused on environmental issues, gun control, and neighborhood development. In 1992, he was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he has been part of the Democratic whip organization. He is particularly committed to health issues and maintains a strong interest seeking justice for human rights violations. He serves on the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce and co-chairs the Congressional Biotech Caucus.
Rush is an honorably discharged Army veteran and an ordained minister with a Master’s Degree in Theology. In addition to serving the first district of Illinois in the House of Representatives, Rush is the pastor of the Beloved Community Christian Church of Chicago. He currently chairs the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection.
William Raspberry
Journalist and syndicated columnist for the Washington Post with a strong reputation for independent thinking on national and international issues
As a columnist for the Washington Post for close to four decades, William Raspberry’s columns have been highly valued for his insights on public policy concerns related to education, crime, justice, drug abuse, and housing. He earned the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary in 1994. In 2004, he received the National Press Club’s highest honor, the Fourth Estate Award. He retired from the newspaper in 2005. Previously, Raspberry held the position of Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy Studies at Duke University. He also devotes considerable time to his pilot program, Baby Steps, a parent training and empowerment program in his hometown of Okolona, Mississippi. In 1991, he published Looking Backward at Us, a collection of his some of his favorite columns.
Raspberry retired from both his position at Duke University and writing his Washington Post column in 2008. He passed away in July of 2012 at the age of 76.
Charles Rangel
Member of the US Congress from 1971 to 2017 and a powerful advocate for the disadvantaged
Charles Rangel served continuously as a United States congressman from New York, representing East and Central Harlem, the Upper West Side, and Washington Heights/Inwood from 1971 to 2017. In 2007, he was named Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, one of the most powerful committees in the U.S. Congress and served as chair until March of 2010.
As a member of the House Judiciary Committee in 1973, Rangel voted to impeach Richard Nixon. In 1974, he became Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and became the first black member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Prior to Rangel's election to Congress, he served in the Army during the Korean War. Upon returning from war, Rangel completed his high school degree before going on to receive a BS from New York University and a JD from St. John’s University.
Throughout his life, Rangel has been a powerful leader of the nation’s fight against drug abuse and drug trafficking. He also has strongly supported efforts to revitalize urban neighborhoods and to support underprivileged youth, veterans, and ex-offenders.
Rangel became a key contributor to President Obama’s health care reform law. Additionally, the State Department's Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program has blossomed in recent years; as of 2011, one hundred and eighteen former Rangel Fellows had gone on to become US State Department Foreign Service Officers.
Vivian Pinn
Raised in segregated Lynchburg, Virginia, Vivian Pinn is the first full-time director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health, where she advocates on behalf of women and women’s health issues.
In 1991, Dr. Vivian Pinn was named the first full-time director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). A graduate of Wellesley College in 1963 and University of Virginia Medical School in 1967, Pinn joined the Tufts University School of Medicine in 1970. In 1982, she was named professor and chair of the department of pathology at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C.
Pinn grew up in modest circumstances in Lynchburg, Virginia, during the Jim Crow era. She attended segregated primary and secondary schools. When Pinn was nineteen years old, she lost her mother to bone cancer, an experience that sparked her determination to make a difference in women's health issues. In her current role, she helps to ensure that women’s health issues are a significant focus of NIH research efforts.
Pinn was the only African American and only woman in her class at University of Virginia’s School of Medicine in 1970. She was the first African American woman to chair an academic department of pathology, holding that position at Howard University’s College of Medicine. She is the first full time director of the ORWH at NIH. Pinn is a past president of the National Medical Association and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Pinn received the Dean’s Medal of Honor from Tufts University, their highest honor, for her service to the university and the medical community at large during her twelve-year tenure there.
Charles Ogletree
Educated at Stanford and Harvard universities, law professor and author Charles Ogletree draws on his academic career to educate others about civil rights and the U.S. justice system through his writings and commentary in national media.
Charles Ogletree is as likely to show up on Larry King Live, The Today Show, or the pages of Savoy Magazine (which identified him as one of the 100 Most Influential Blacks in America in 2003) as he is in the contributors' column of professional law journals and law reviews. A professor at Harvard Law School, Ogletree also serves as founding director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice and as a legal theorist with an international reputation for his legal studies of Constitutional rights.
Ogletree is known for his determination to see that Constitutional rights are applied to everyone equally. His abilities as an educator follow him out of the classroom and law journals and into courtrooms and living rooms via public television forums such as State of the Black Union, Ethics in America, The McNeil-Lehrer News Hour, Meet the Press, and more. He is also an author of multiple books, including Brown at 50: The Unfinished Legacy and Beyond the Rodney King Story. In 2004, his book All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education was released. Additionally, Ogletree has collaborated on several books regarding African American legal issues. He also frequently contributes to the Harvard Law Review.
Born in 1952 in Merced, California, Ogletree graduated with distinction from Stanford University, earning his B.A. and M.A. in political science. Ogletree's civil activism began at Stanford and followed him across the country to Harvard Law School, where in addition to earning his J.D. in 1978, he served on the board of the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Program and became the national chairperson of the Black American Law Students Association. Ogletree remains passionate about higher education and public schools and currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of the District of Columbia. Ogletree also currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the Building Education Leaders for Life (BELL) Foundation, which provides children in underprivileged areas with resources to grow and achieve.
Before returning to teach at his alma mater in 1987, Ogletree worked for the Washington D.C. Public Defender's Office, taught law at Antioch Law School and American University, and became a partner with the firm Jessamy, Fort & Ogletree. He has served on the team that represented Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation proceedings, is active in pursuing reparations to the descendants of slaves, and has received numerous awards, including the NAACP's Universal Humanitarian Award.
Eleanor Holmes Norton
An activist for civil rights causes, Eleanor Holmes Norton has served in the U.S. House of Representatives for the District of Columbia since 1990 and is an advocate for statehood, gender equality, human rights, and justice.
Born in Washington, D.C., Eleanor Holmes Norton now serves the District of Columbia as a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives, a position she has held since 1990. She is an indefatigable fighter for civil rights, universal human rights, and constitutional principles.
Educated at Antioch College in Ohio and at Yale University, Norton holds advanced degrees in both American Studies and law. Since then, Norton has received more than fifty honorary degrees. She has co-authored a legal textbook on sex discrimination and the law as well as an autobiography, Fire in my Soul: Eleanor Holmes Norton, which was released in 2004.
In addition to her authorship and her work on Capitol Hill, Norton continues to hold a tenured professorship of law at Georgetown University. During the 1960s, Norton served as the assistant legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), as executive assistant to Mayor Lindsay in New York, and, under President Jimmy Carter, as the first woman to chair the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She continues to be an advocate for statehood for the District of Columbia and for full voting rights for DC residents. Norton is devoted to civil rights causes and to equality for all Americans.
In her position as Congresswoman for the District of Columbia, Norton has played a significant role in the development of the US Department of Homeland Security Headquarters.
Gwen Moore
First African American and second woman to represent Wisconsin in the U.S. Congress
Gwen Moore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving Wisconsin’s 4th Congressional District, in 2004. She is the first African American and second woman to represent Wisconsin in Congress. Prior to her election to Congress, she worked as a city development specialist and as an organizer with Volunteers in Service to America. In 1989, she was elected to the Wisconsin Assembly, where she served two terms. Additionally, Moore served in the Wisconsin State Senate from 1993 through 2004. Moore is passionate about job creation, community development, expanded Medicaid funding, gender equity, and the removal of troops from Iraq. In recent years, Moore has held numerous committee assignments. Currently, she is serving as the Democratic Co-Chair of the Congressional Women’s Caucus.
Henry Marsh
U.S. Senator and the first African American mayor of Richmond, Virginia
As a child in Virginia, Henry Marsh walked five miles each way to a one-room school for black children, where a single teacher instructed seventy students. Meanwhile, whites traveled by bus to a large, modern school. This experience, in addition to inspiration from his heroes -- Oliver Hill, Thurgood Marshall, and his father -- contributed to Marsh's dedication to the struggle for racial justice.
Marsh attended Virginia Union University and received a law degree from Howard University. In later years, Marsh received honorary degrees from his alma mater, Virginia Union University, and from St. Paul’s College.
After serving in the United States Army, Marsh began a legal career in 1961, joining a Richmond law firm, now Hill, Tucker & Marsh. Serving as counsel for the NAACP, he fought Richmond's segregationist school policies.
In 1966, Marsh successfully ran for a position on the Richmond City Council, and in 1977, he was elected the first African-American mayor of Richmond. As mayor, he led a coalition of black council members who made historical changes in the city, including the adoption of a human rights ordinance, the appointment of many African Americans to boards and commissions, and the revitalization of downtown Richmond. In 1991, he was elected to the Senate of Virginia for the 16th District and is currently serving his third term.
John Lewis
John Lewis has represented the 5th District of Georgia, including Atlanta, in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1986. Additionally, he was a founding member of SNCC, organizer of the historic March on Washington, and Freedom Rider.
Born to Alabama sharecroppers in 1940, U.S. Congressman John Lewis is now in his eighth term representing the 5th District of Georgia.
Lewis came of age during the civil rights movement; he met Martin Luther King, Jr. at age eighteen, and as a student in Tennessee, organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters.
During his undergraduate years at Fisk University, Lewis studied religion and philosophy. He also graduated from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville.
By 1961, the youthful leader joined the Freedom Riders in protesting segregation on interstate busses and despite physical attacks and repeated arrests, remained deeply committed to the cause of peaceful protest. Lewis helped to found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and in turn served as its chairman in the mid-1960s. At twenty-three, he helped organize the historic March on Washington, and the following year he helped lead activists across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, again suffering serious injuries during the "Bloody Sunday" attacks there by Alabama state troopers.
Lewis earned an elected seat on the Atlanta City Council in 1981 by holding leadership positions in voter registration efforts and in the ACTION program. Lewis' seat on the council paved the way for his role in national politics, where he has been praised as "a rising star." For many years, he has been on the powerful House Means and Ways Committee, and as a Democrat is the ranking minority leader of the Congressional Subcommittee on Oversight.
In addition to his work in civil rights activism and government, Lewis has also authored two books. The first, Walking with the Wind, was published in 1999. In 2012, he published Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change.
Barbara Lee
Political leader in the U.S.Congress, active in the fight against global HIV/AIDS, and a strong opponent of the War in Iraq
Barbara Lee has been an elected representative since 1990, serving in the California State Assembly, the California State Senate, and, currently, the U.S. Congress. She is the most senior Democratic woman on the House International Relations Committee and also serves on the House Financial Services Committee.
Additionally, Lee has been the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Whip for the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and a Senior Democratic Whip. She has won international recognition in her leadership in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. Lee is one of the strongest voices in Congress in opposition to the War in Iraq and has been a leader in promoting policies that foster international peace, security, and human rights.
In 2013, Lee was made chair of the Whip Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity. Lee has worked to promote awareness of HIV/AIDS, and her legislation helped create the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief, and the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS. In recent years, Lee has also engaged in efforts to create bipartisan support for efforts to aid Darfur as genocide-stricken Sudan heals.
Vernon Jordan
Past president of the National Urban League and civil rights lawyer
Vernon Jordan is a civil rights activist, attorney, and political insider. Jordan rose to visibility as an influential leader in the civil rights movement during the 1960s. In addition to his long career as a Washington power broker, Jordan has formerly served as president of the National Urban League and executive director of the United Negro College Fund. Additionally, Jordan served on President William J. Clinton's transition team and as a trusted adviser.
Jordan earned a BA from DePauw University and a JD from Howard University. He is a partner in the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld and a Senior Managing Director of Lazard, Freres & Co. Jordan has also served on the boards of major corporations including America Online, Sara Lee, Xerox, and J.C. Penney and as co-chair of the Ad Council's Advisory Committee on Public Affairs. He has authored weekly newspaper columns. Books published include Vernon Can Read! A Memoir (with Annette Gordon-Reed) and Make It Plain: Standing Up and Speaking Out (with Lee Daniels). Jordan received the NAACP's Spingarn award in 2001. In June 2004, he played a prominent role in Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign as a debate negotiator.
Currently, Jordan is Senior Counsel at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. He practices general, corporate, legislative, and international law.
Gwen L. Ifill
Moderator and managing editor of Washington Week, senior correspondent for The PBS NewsHour, and moderated the 2004 and 2008 Vice Presidential debates
A groundbreaking journalist, Gwen L. Ifill is a native of New York City and a graduate of Simmons College in Boston. She served as a reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun and the Boston Herald American, later becoming chief congressional and political correspondent for NBC News, White House correspondent for The New York Times, and a local and national political reporter for the Washington Post. At the time of the interview, she was moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and senior correspondent for The PBS NewsHour.
In addition to her contributions in print and televised news, Ifill moderated the 2004 and 2008 Vice Presidential debates. In 2009, she published The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. Ifill has received the George Foster Peabody Award and more than a dozen honorary doctorates. She has also been honored for her work by the Radio and Television News Directors Association, Harvard\'s Joan Shorenstein Center, The National Association of Black Journalists, Boston's Ford Hall Forum, and was included in Ebony Magazine's list of 150 Most Influential African Americans.
Ifill served on the boards of the Harvard University Institute of Politics and the Committee to Protect Journalists and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ifill reported on immigration reform, trends in entertainment, economic stability in the U.S., and more. In 2016, along with Judy Woodruff, she moderated the Democratic presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, becoming the first team of women to moderate a presidential debate.
Gwen Ifill died on November 14, 2016.
Freeman A. Hrabowski
President of University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a fierce advocate for science and math education for minority students
Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski has been president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) since 1992. Hrabowski holds an undergraduate degree from Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in mathematics, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research and publications place special emphasis on minority participation and performance in science and math education. He has built his career in academia, holding positions at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Alabama A&M University, Coppin State College, and UMBC.
At UMBC, Hrabowski co-founded the highly successful Meyerhoff Scholarship program, whose goal is to increase the number of African Americans earning doctorates and to bolster the number of African American college faculty members in mathematics and the sciences. Under his leadership, UMBC has become one of the nation’s leading sources of African-American Ph.D.s in science and engineering. In 2009 and 2010, US News & World Report ranked UMBC number one as the “up and coming” university in the nation for its commitment to undergraduate teaching.
Born in 1952 in Birmingham, Alabama, Hrabowski became involved in a civil rights demonstration led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at age twelve. Alongside King and other demonstrators, he spent a week in jail.
Hrabowski has co-authored Beating the Odds and Overcoming the Odds, publications focusing on effective ways to encourage high achievement in African Americans in science.
In 2008, Hrabowski was named one of America’s Best Leaders by US News & World Report. Time Magazine named him one of the top ten college presidents. He was the only African American in the group.
In 2011, Hrabowski was honored with the TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence as well as the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Academic Leadership Award. That same year, he was also recognized by both the Washington Post and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. Today, Hrabowski continues his deep involvement in promoting the sciences as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, and others.
Benjamin Hooks
Civil rights activist, pastor, and lawyer
Spanning three-quarters of a century, Benjamin Hooks not only witnessed change but was instrumental to it. Through his work as an ordained minister and practicing attorney, Hooks' lifelong commitment to equality helped improve the lives African Americans and American society in general.
Hooks was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1925. After military service in World War II, he received a law degree from DePaul University. He worked as a lawyer in Memphis before being ordained as a Baptist minister.
Hooks became active in the civil rights movement and participated in the campaign against Jim Crow laws, including sit-in protests against segregated lunch counters. In 1965, Governor Frank Clement appointed Hooks to the Shelby County criminal court; he became the first African American criminal court judge in Tennessee. Hooks' involvement in the government continued when President Richard Nixon appointed him to the Federal Communications Commission in 1972. He was the first African-American to hold that position. Five years later, Hooks became executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), a post he held until 1992. Additionally, Hooks served as an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis. Today, the University of Memphis is home to the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change, a non-profit public policy research center.
Hooks' work has been recognized through awards including the NAACP Spingarn Medal, which he received in 1986. He took a strong stance on AIDS prevention and promoted the NAACP’s role in education and prevention. As a testament to his contributions to American culture and race relations, President George W. Bush awarded Hooks the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007.
Benjamin Hooks passed away in 2010 at the age of 85.
Oliver Hill
Attorney and civil rights activist -- one of the leading lawyers in Brown v Board of Education representing Prince Edward County; indefatigable challenger to segregation and discrimination laws
Oliver White Hill was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1907. Hill was completing his undergraduate studies at Howard University when his uncle, a lawyer, died. Hill's aunt gave him her husband's law books. "I was a happy-go-lucky sophomore," Hill said. "Then I read the Constitution and the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments and realized that Congress had given us rights which the Supreme Court had taken away from us. I knew right then that I wanted to become a lawyer and end legalized segregation."
Under the tutelage of Charles Hamilton Houston, Dean of Howard Law School, Hill graduated in 1933, second only to his friend and classmate, Thurgood Marshall. Hill contributed to many landmark cases involving desegregation on buses and trains; free bus transportation for black public school children; the right of black citizens to serve on juries and participate in primary elections; and the desegregation of public assembly and of recreational facilities, among others.
Hill served as director of the Virginia chapter of the NAACP for twenty years. During this time, he and a team of thirteen other lawyers filed more civil rights cases in Virginia than were filed in any other Southern state. His most famous case, Davis v. Prince Edward County Schools, became part of Brown v. Board of Education.
In 1942 Hill founded the Old Dominion Bar Association. He became the first African American elected to Richmond City Council since the Reconstruction era in 1948. In 1952, President Truman appointed him to the Committee on Government Contract Compliance, an organization which monitored compliance with antidiscrimination clauses in federal government contracts. In 1961, Hill served President Kennedy in the Federal Housing administration promoting fair housing practices. He returned to private practice in 1966, and at age 91, Hill retired from his Richmond law firm, Hill, Tucker and Marsh, after practicing law for nearly sixty years. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his civil rights advocacy and his work as a lawyer, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999. and the NAACP Spingarn Medal in 2005.
Oliver Hil, Sr. l passed away in 2007 at the age of 100.
Dorothy Height
A leader in the YWCA and the National Council of Negro Women, civil rights activist Dorothy Height has fostered humanitarian causes and social action issues to promote inter-race and inter-class communications around the world for more than seven decades.
Born in Richmond, Virginia in 1912, but educated in a small town just outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Dorothy Height was a dedicated student who won a $1,000 national Elks scholarship in high school for her oratorical skills. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees from New York University in just four years before going on to attend Columbia and the New York School of Social Work for further graduate studies.
Height became a young leader in the National Youth Movement of the New Deal era and a YWCA caseworker in Harlem. In 1937, she caught the attention of Mary McLeod Bethune, who encouraged her to join the National Council of Negro Women's effort to seek equal rights, pay, and education for women. Height joined the national staff of the YWCA in 1944 and remained active there until 1977. In 1957, she was elected President of NCNW and served int hat capacity until 1998, when she became Chair and President Emerita.
Height's early leadership experiences evolved into work in the civil rights movement. She began a series of meetings with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1930s; encouraged President Eisenhower to desegregate schools in the 1950s; and worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. In the 1960s, Height organized integrated partnerships for women with a public presence in the schools, known as 'Wednesdays in Mississippi.' Her humanitarian work continued in later decades at the international level as well; she advised and traveled with programs sponsored by the Council to the White House Conference, UNESCO, the Institute on Human Relations of the American Jewish Committee, USAID, and the United States Information Agency, among others.
Height's distinguished service and contributions to the advance of women's rights, civil rights, and human rights have earned her many awards and honors, including the 1993 NAACP Springarn Medal, a Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, presented by Bill Clinton in 1994, and a Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush in 2004.
At President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009, Height was awarded a place of honor on the dais for her nearly forty years of leadership in the National Council of Negro Women. She passed away in 2010 at the age of 98.
Dick Gregory
Both a prominent comedian and civil rights activist, Dick Gregory has combined those talents to draw attention to social injustices and, more recently, to advocate for alternative medicine and nutrition.
Dick Gregory's career spanned more than half a century. He began performing comedy while in the U.S. Army in the mid 1950s. Through the use of irony and satire, he held up a lens to American society and its racial stereotypes, using comedy and social action to address injustice and discrimination in American society. A performance in 1961 at the Chicago Playboy Club launched his national reputation; within a year, he played to sold-out audiences in nightclubs and became a popular television comedian. He broke barriers for black entertainers in America.
Throughout the 1960s, he drew attention to issues of poverty and racial segregation throughout the South, often using his personal resources to do so. He was inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and by SNCC activists and he participated in SNCC voter registration drives. He spoke out strongly against the war in Vietnam, fasting over sixty times to draw attention to international abuses there are elsewhere throughout the world. Gregory ran for political offices in the late 1960s, including that of the presidency as a write-in candidate. His activism continues and is focused on issues of conspiracy, nutrition, and medical practices.
Gregory is the author of Nigger, published in 1963 as his first autobiography. The book was a best seller and has since sold more than seven million copies. He published a second autobiography, Callus on My Soul, in 1998. In addition, Gregory authored several other books that focus on political conspiracy.
He released a ”State of the Union Address” on the Internet in April of 2013.
Dick Gregory died on August 19, 2017.
William H. Gray III
Former member of U.S. Congress from Philadelphia; past president of the United Negro College Fund; and Baptist minister
Among the nation's most respected and influential leaders, the Honorable William H. Gray retired in 2004 after serving for thirteen years as president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), the nation's oldest and most successful higher education assistance organization for African Americans. During Gray's tenure, the UNCF raised more than $1.5 billion and significantly increased the number of scholarship programs sponsored by the consortium of thirty-nine private, accredited, historically black colleges and universities.
Gray was elected to the Congress in 1978 and served twelve years in office, during which he was the first African American to chair the House Budget Committee. As chairman of the Democratic Caucus and later as the first African American Majority Whip, Gray held the number three position in the House leadership. Gray also served under Clinton as the Special Advisor to the President and to the Secretary of State on Haiti. His political engagement has also included involvement with the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care and the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
Gray served as a trustee to University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration as well as the Chairman Emeritus of Gray Global Advisors. Gray's career also included leadership positions in Dell, Inc., JPMorgan Chase, and Pfizer.
The son of clergymen, Gray was also Senior Minister of Bright Hope Baptist Church in Philadelphia for over three decades.
William H. Gray III died on July 1, 2013.
Earl Graves
Entrepreneur, publisher, businessman, and philanthropist; founder of Black Enterprise magazine; inducted into U.S. Business Hall of Fame.
Highly respected and nationally known as an authority on black business development and entrepreneurship, Earl G. Graves has risen to prominence in the business world.
As president and CEO of Earl G. Graves Ltd., Graves operates a related Web site, stages events, and produces radio reports. Additionally, Graves is the founder and publisher of the nationally distributed magazine Black Enterprise, which focuses on issues and news relating to black-owned businesses in the United States.
A key communicator and spokesman, Graves was once described by Rev. Jesse Jackson in the Washington Post as the "primary educator in the country on black business -- on trends and opportunities." In 2004, Fortune magazine listed Graves among their Top 25 Most Powerful Black Executives, citing Graves' time on the boards of directors of major corporations including the Chrysler Corporation, the Boy Scouts of America, Howard University, and AMR, the parent company of American Airlines.
Graves chairs the Black Business Council and has always been vocal on the subject of racial discrimination in business. He earned his B.A. in economics from Morgan State College and served in the United States Army from 1958 to 1960. Graves is the author of How to Succeed in Business Without Being White.
In recent years, the school of business and management at Morgan State University has been named for Graves as a tribute to his support of education and equal opportunity. In 2007, Graves was inducted into the US Business Hall of Fame to honor his success. Currently, he serves as a director of Aetna, Inc.
Nikki Giovanni
Poet, author, and professor Nikki Giovanni remains committed to the fight for civil rights and equality. Author of more than two dozen books of poetry and essays.
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, raised in Ohio, Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr., uses her outspoken voice and bold language both in print and in person. Through poetry, books, and commentary, Giovanni continues to demonstrate her determination and commitment to the fight for civil rights and equality.
An activist and educator, Giovanni found her start during her own undergraduate years at Fisk University, where she worked with the school's Writer's Workshop and edited the literary magazine. After receiving her bachelor's degree in history, Giovanni returned to Ohio, where she organized a Black Arts Festival in Cincinnati before beginning graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Work. Later, Giovanni went on to earn a master's in fine arts program at Columbia University. By the time Giovanni graduated from Columbia, her first two privately published books of poetry had begun to attract the attention of critics. As a distinguished woman in academia, Giovanni has since received approximately twenty-five honorary degrees.
Today, Giovanni is the author of more than two dozen books, including volumes of poetry, illustrated children's books, and three collections of essays. Her first two collections of poetry, Black Feeling Black Talk and Black Judgement, as well as a book entitled Racism 101, reflect on African American identities and make bold statements about issues of race. Her three most recent volumes of poetry, Love Poems, Blues For All the Changes and Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, were winners of the NAACP Image Award in 1998, 2000, and 2003.
Since 1987, Giovanni has taught writing, literature and black studies at Virginia Tech. Her writing and poetry have reached broad audiences, and many of her works have appeared on the best-seller lists for the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, and recordings of her poetry made her one of five finalists for a Grammy nomination.
Mary Futrell
First African-American woman president of the NEA, former Dean of The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development, and active leader of international educational associations
An internationally known educator and former president of the National Education Association (NEA), Mary Hatwood Futrell, Ed.D., has dedicated her career to education and education policy.
Futrell is a professor whose scholarship focuses on education policy and administration.. She has served as Dean of The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GW/GSEHD) in Washington, D.C., as well as the director of the Institute for Curriculum, Standards, and Technology. Through the institute, GW/GSEHD has taken a leadership role in supporting teachers participating in the National Board for Professional Standards voluntary certification process.
Futrell was the first African-American woman elected to head the NEA, after serving as head of the VEA. In addition to her unprecedented six-year term leading the NEA, Futrell founded Education International, which represents 23,000,000 million educators worldwide. She is a former president of the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession and was a senior consultant for Quality Education for Minorities Network. Futrell has served on the boards of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Kettering Foundation, and the Institute for Educational Leadership. In 2004, she joined the Board of Advisors of Teachers Support Network. (TSN).
Futrell was named President of Americans for UNESCO in 2010. She was also awarded the John Hope Franklin Award in 2013 from Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.
Robert Franklin
Professor of social ethics, past president of the Interdenominational Theological Center, president of Morehouse College, and Director of Religion at Chatauqua Institution
A scholar, author, and teacher, Robert Franklin urges church communities to help solve America's social problems.
Franklin’s own education took him around the United States and the globe. He graduated from Morehouse College with degrees in political science and religion. Additionally, Franklin studied internationally at the University of Durham in England, subsequently traveling to North Africa and the Soviet Union. He received a master's degree from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where he studied social ethics, psychology, and African-American religion.
Franklin has previously served as president of the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC), the nation’s largest African American consortium of graduate theological education, in Atlanta, Georgia. Franklin has also served on the faculties of his alma maters, the University of Chicago and Harvard Divinity School, as well as at Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, Candler School of Theology, and as a professor of social ethics at Emory University. He was a program officer at the Ford Foundation's Rights and Social Justice Program.
Franklin has authored several books, including Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities, Another Day's Journey: Black Churches Confronting the American Crisis and Liberating Visions: Human Fulfillment and Social Justice in African-American Thought, in which he examines the ethical work of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Franklin stepped down from his position at Morehouse College in June of 2012 following a five-year term as President. Upon his decision to step down, the College Board of Trustees named Franklin President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor in honor of his time and service to the college. Franklin went on to become scholar-in-residence at Stanford University and, more recently, religion director at Chatauqua Institution, where his scholarship focuses on Abrahamic faith traditions and public religion.
Floyd Flake
Educator, clergyman, and elected official -- served in U.S.House of Representatives, was president of Wilberforce University, and serves as Senior Pastor of AME Church in Queens, NY.
Rev. Dr. Floyd Flake distinguished himself as a leading proponent of the policies that make local community and economic development more achievable.
A Congressman and a pastor, Flake represented his New York district as a Democrat in the U.S. Congress from 1987 to 1997. Today, Flake is Senior Pastor of the Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church in Queens, New York, where he has served since 1976. Under Flake's leadership, the church has become a model for faith-based development across the country.
In 2003, Flake was inaugurated as the eighteenth president of Wilberforce University in Ohio, where he himself graduated in 1968. Previously, Flake had served as dean of students at Lincoln University and university chaplain at Boston University as well as Director of the Martin Luther King Jr., Afro-American Center at Boston University from 1973 to 1976. He has served on numerous boards and committees including The Princeton Review, the NYC 2012 Olympic Committee, and The New York City Investment Fund Civic Capital Corporation.
Flake's educational background includes a Doctorate of Ministry from the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, as well as honorary degrees from such institutions as Boston University, Fisk University, Lincoln University, and Cheney State. Flake has also authored a a column for the New York Post and a best-selling book, The Way of the Bootstrapper: Nine Action Steps for Achieving Your Dreams.
Angela Davis
Feminist, activist, author, and scholar, as well as a major figure in the Civil Rights movement with an international following
Radical feminist, activist, author, and scholar, Angela Davis first became known nationally and internationally as a fugitive after being charged as a conspirator in the failed attempt to free George Jackson, who was one of the Soledad Brothers, from prison in 1970. She was imprisoned for sixteen months.
Although Davis was later fully acquitted, she was the third woman to appear on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Davis became a symbol of racial injustice for the Black Power and Black Panther movement. After her arrest and imprisonment in 1970, her case became an international cause, inspiring the “Free Angela” movement. Following her release from prison, Davis moved to Cuba in support of fellow radicals. Davis has run for U.S. Vice President on the Communist Party ticket twice.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Davis spent her earliest years of education in segregated schools. Davis also had the opportunity to attend high school in New York City, where she was exposed to Communist youth movements. Davis joined the Communist Party in 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King.
Davis sought higher education at Brandeis University, where Herbert Marcuse became her mentor; the Sorbonne in Paris; the University of Frankfurt, and UCLA, where she became an assistant professor of philosophy in 1969. At the urging of then-governor Ronald Reagan, the Board of Regents of the University of California fired her for her Communist affiliation. In spite of this opposition, Davis has spent the majority of her academic career as a professor, teaching at the Claremont Black Studies Center, San Francisco State University, and at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Since her retirement, Davis has held the position of Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies Departments at the University of California Santa Cruz.
Now in retirement, Davis remains active as a public intellectual. She has lectured all over the world and has been widely published in journals and anthologies. Additionally, Davis has authored six books and countless essays.
John Conyers Jr.
A champion of civil liberties, Congressman John Conyers is a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from the Fourteenth Congressional District, Michigan from 1965 to 2017
John Conyers served in the United States House of Representatives since 1965, making him the longest-serving African American in the history of that body at the time of his resignation. Conyers was the first African American elected to serve as Democratic Leader of the House Committee on the Judiciary for the 104th Congress and was the ranking member of that pivotal committee. Prior to his election to Congress, he served in the Korean War, was active in the civil rights movement, and became a senior partner in the law form of Conyers, Bell, Carl Edward, and Townsend.
Conyers has also served on Judiciary Committee, where he worked to introduce and endorse legislation advancing civil liberties, ensuring equal protection and access to the voting booth, and combating violence against women. He was the leading sponsor of the Violence Against Women Act and the original sponsor of the National Voter Registration Act. Additionally, Conyers is one of thirteen founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Conyers fought for transparency in federal government practices by introducing a bill to create a truth commission panel to investigate the Bush administration. Conyers also advocated for the full reading of bills before voting as a further effort to increase transparency. Conyers served as the US Representative for Michigan’s 13th district from 1965-2017. He resigned his seat on December 5, 2017 after 53 years in Congress at age 88.
Johnnetta B. Cole
Anthropologist, educator, and museum director - First African-American President of Spelman College; President of Bennett College; Director of Smithsonian's Museum of African Art.
Johnnetta B. Cole currently serves as the fourteenth president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her career in academia began during her own education at Oberlin College and Northwestern University. Additionally, Cole holds honorary degrees from over fifty colleges and universities. Cole made history when she was named the first African American woman president of Spelman College in 1987, a position she held for ten years.
Cole's teaching and research focuses on the areas of cultural anthropology, African American studies, and women's studies. Her scholarship contributes to her advocacy for people of color and women throughout the world. Textbooks edited by Cole are used in classrooms throughout America's colleges and universities.
Cole is engaged in numerous community organizations as well as civic and corporate boards. Cole served as the Chair of the Board of United Way America from 2004 to 2006 and was the first African American to hold the position. She has been awarded many honors, including ones from the Carter Center, Merck & Co. and the Atlanta Falcons, for her outstanding service and educational accomplishments.
In 1998, Cole was appointed by President Clinton to an eleven-member commission on The Celebration of Women in American History. In 1999, Georgia Governor Roy Barnes appointed her to serve as a member of the Education Reform Study Commission.
Cole was named the Presidential Distinguished Professor Emerita at Emory University and continues to teach there as time permits. In addition to teaching, Cole chairs the Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity and Inclusion Institute at Bennett College for Women. Additionally, Cole currently serves as the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC.
James E. Clyburn
Since 1993, Congressman James Clyburn has served in the U.S. House of Representatives from the Sixth Congressional District, South Carolina, as a leader for environmental justice and civil rights.
James E. Clyburn has been a member of the U.S. Congress since 1993. In 1998, he was elected chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus in a rare unanimous vote.
Clyburn has been an ardent supporter of environmental justice issues and civil rights. He is widely recognized as a conciliator, and his leadership style is measured, reflective, and managerial.
Prior to his election to Congress, Clyburn worked as a high school history teacher. He also worked on Great Society programs. After attending University of South Carolina Law School, he served as South Carolina Human Affairs Commissioner.
In recent years, Clyburn has risen to prominence in the U.S. Congress. In 2005, he served in the House Democratic Caucus leadership as Vice Chair, and was the fourth-ranking Democratic representative for the 109th Congress. Additionally, Clyburn served as the House majority whip from 2007 to 2011. He has also been the Assistant Democratic Leader since 2011, making him the third most influential Democrat in the House.
Julius Chambers
Civil rights activist and lawyer, Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Chancellor of North Carolina Central University.
Though his unflappability is legendary, civil rights activist Julius LeVonne Chambers led a very passionate crusade for American equality throughout the past four decades. Born in Mount Gilead, North Carolina, in 1936, Chambers grew up amid the racism of the Jim Crow South. At the age of twelve, he determined that he would pursue a career that would help end the inequalities of segregation and discrimination.
Fifteen years later, after graduating first in his law class at the University of North Carolina and receiving a master's of law degree from Columbia University, Chambers was selected by Thurgood Marshall to be an intern with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). With the LDF's support, he established the first integrated law firm in Charlotte, North Carolina, and furthered the work of dismantling segregation.
He argued the landmark Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education case before the Supreme Court, winning a favorable ruling for federally mandated busing to desegregate public schools. During this time, Chambers and his firm also filed numerous employment discrimination cases leading to key Supreme Court decisions in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971) and Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody (1975). He endured the firebombing of his offices, his car, and two bomb explosions in his home. He refused to be intimidated.
In 1984, Chambers was nationally recognized for his civil rights leadership and appointed director-counsel of the LDF. For eight years, Chambers guided the LDF through a conservative backlash against affirmative action and civil rights legislation, while initiating educational programs to support both minorities and the economic underclass.
Education continued to be the central focus of Chambers' advocacy. In 1992, Chambers became chancellor of his undergraduate alma mater, North Carolina Central University, a position he held until his retirement in 2001. He continued to practice law with the firm Ferguson, Chambers and Sumter, PA handling business matters, employment discrimination, and various civil rights cases. He maintained close ties to UNCC's School of Law and served as director of the Center for Civil Rights.
Julius Chambers died on August 2, 2013.
Carol Moseley Braun
Chicago native, principled stateswoman and practicing attorney, Carol Moseley Braun made history in 1992 after being elected the first African-American woman U.S. Senator, representing Illinois.
In 1992, the so-called "Year of the Woman", Carol Moseley Braun was elected to the U.S. Senate. She became the country's first African American female Senator, serving the people of Illinois with a commitment to social justice and fiscal prudence until 1999.
The daughter of a police officer and a medical technician, Braun minded her parents' values for education and hard work, graduating from Chicago public schools to the University of Illinois and finally the University of Chicago School of Law. A Chicago native, Braun first held elected positions in Illinois' Cook County and the state legislature. Later, Braun served as a prosecutor in the U.S. District Attorney's office before winning her Senate seat. By challenging a Democratic incumbent, Braun earned a spot as the first female permanent member of the Senate Finance Committee, where she advocated for retirement security, education reform, and health care support.
Braun was appointed ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa by President Bill Clinton in 1999. She sought the Democratic nomination for U.S. President in 2004.
Following her time as Ambassador to New Zealand, Braun unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Chicago. Since her entrance into the private sector, she has been working as a business consultant and launched an organic fair-trade foods company called Ambassador Organics.
Julian Bond
A founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and professor of history and civil rights at the American University and the University of Virginia. For 12 years, national Chair of the NAACP.
From his student days at Morehouse College to his current chairmanship of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Julian Bond has been an active participant in the movements for civil rights and economic justice. In 1960, while a student at Morehouse, Bond became a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
In 1965, Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives but was prevented from taking his seat by members who objected to his opposition to the Vietnam War. He was re-elected to his own vacant seat and un-seated again. He was seated only after a third election and a unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court.
Bond served as co-chair of a challenge delegation from Georgia to the 1968 Democratic Convention. The challengers were successful in unseating Georgia's regular Democrats, and Bond was nominated for vice-president, but had to decline because he was too young to qualify. Additionally, Bond served as the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Bond was a commentator on America's Black Forum, the oldest black-owned show in television syndication. Additionally, he has narrated many documentaries including the PBS series Eyes on the Prize. Bond's written works have been published in the New York Times and Viewpoint, a nationally syndicated newspaper column. Bond also published a collection of essays titled A Time to Speak, A Time to Act.
Between 1998 and 2010, Bond served as chairman of the board of the NAACP, the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States. The holder of numerous honorary degrees, he has been a professor at The University of Virginia and part-time faculty atAmerican University in Washington, D.C. In 2012, he retired from the University of Virginia as a Professor Emeritus.
Julian Bond died on August 15, 2015.
Sanford D. Bishop, Jr.
With strong ties to both southern Alabama and Georgia, U.S. Congressman Sanford Bishop, Jr., has served his Georgia constituents as a political leader at the state and federal level since 1977.
For twenty-eight years, Sanford D. Bishop, Jr., has served the people of Georgia as an elected official: in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1977 to 1990; in the Georgia Senate from 1991-1992 and in the U.S. House of Representatives since his election in 1992. Since 2003, Congressman Bishop has served on the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, emerging as a leader among fiscally moderate-to-conservative Democrats in Congress.
A graduate of Morehouse College and Emory Law School, Bishop is an Eagle Scout, a 33rd Degree Mason, and a Shriner.
In recent years, Bishop has received many prestigious awards including the Spirit of Enterprise Award (U.S. Chamber of Commerce), CLEO Legacy Diversity Award, Congressional Partnership Award from the National Association of Development Organizations, and the NAM Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence in 112th Congress from the National Association of Manufacturers. Bishop has been awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr., Unity Award multiple times and was appropriately named a Dedicated Public Servant.
Mary Frances Berry
An outspoken advocate for social justice and civil rights, Mary Frances Berry is a distinguished professor at the University of Pennsylvania and renowned author.
Mary Frances Berry is an internationally known historian, lawyer, and civil and human rights activist. Since 1987, she has been the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought as well as a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania.
Berry overcame the ravages of poverty in her childhood in Nashville, Tennessee, before attending Fisk University and later Howard University. She earned her J.D. degree from the University of Michigan. Since then, Berry has also received thirty-five honorary doctorate degrees and numerous awards including the Roy Wilkins Award, Rosa Parks Award of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Ebony Magazine Achievement Award.
Berry has held administrative positions in higher education as Provost of the University of Maryland and Chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder. She served as President of the Organization of American Historians, and has been a Fellow of the Society of American Historians and of the National Academy of Public Administration.
Berry has authored seven books and has also had a distinguished career in public service. Appointed by President Carter, she was a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1980-2004, serving as chair from 1993-2004. Berry successfully challenged Ronald Reagan's attempt to remove her from the commission before the 1984 election in federal court. She was the first black woman to hold the position of Assistant Secretary for Education in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, serving between 1977 and 1980.
Berry continues to be an outspoken and uncompromising advocate for social justice.
Calvin Butts III
Pastor of the renowned Abysinnian Baptist Church in New York City and President of SUNY College at Old Westbury
Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III is pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York and President of SUNY College at Old Westbury. Dr. Butts earned a BA in Philosophy from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He also holds a Master of Divinity Degree in Church History from Union Theological Seminary and a Doctorate of Ministry Degree in Church and Public Policy from Drew University.
Rev. Butts’s church leadership began in 1987, following upon the leadership of powerful pastors Samuel Proctor and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Committed to a progressive and social activist agenda, the church becomes a base for community transformation. Butts has placed particular focus on homelessness, community health, voting rights, self-empowerment, and youth culture. Additionally, Butts has brought attention to negative advertising that debases women and has been critical of rap music.
In 1989, Rev. Butts formed the non-profit Abyssianian Development Corporation (ADC), which has grown in assets from $50,000 to over $300 million. The ADC has built housing in Harlem, developed a supermarket, started a middle and high school, participated in a health expo to bring attention to chronic disease, and supported community hospitals.
As president of SUNY College at Old Westbuy since 1999, Butts is committed to creating a diverse public college that prepares students for leadership in a global marketplace. Founded in 1965, the college has over 3,300 students from the US and twenty foreign countries. Butts has also instructed courses at City College, New York, and Fordham University. He is a sought-after speaker who has given lectures at many academic institutions and organizations.
Butts' board affiliations include the Council of Churches of the City of New York (President), North General Hospital (Chairman of the Board), United Way of NYC (Vice-Chair of Board), National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (Chairman of the Board), and many others. He has served as President of Africare NYC. Additionally, Butts furthered his community outreach by assisting in the establishment of the Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change as well as the Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School, which opened in 2005.
Benjamin Jealous
A former Rhodes Scholar, Benjamin T. Jealous is the youngest President and Chief Executive Officer in the history of the NAACP.
A native of California, Benjamin T. Jealous attended Columbia University, where he worked in Harlem as a community organizer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Jealous was an active leader in school-wide movements including advocating for the rights of the homeless, protecting full-need financial aid and need-blind admissions, and fighting for environmental justice.
While suspended from the University for participating in a protest, Jealous became a field organizer in Mississippi, where he led a campaign that prevented the State of Mississippi from closing two of its three public historically black universities. He then became an investigative reporter for the African American newspaper, The Jackson Advocate, and rose to the position of Managing Editor.
Jealous returned to Columbia University in 1997 and completed his degree in political science before going on to earn a master's degree in comparative social research at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Jealous served as Executive Director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a federation of more than two hundred black community newspapers. From 2002 to 2005, he was director of the U.S. Human Rights Program at Amnesty International, after which he served for three years as president of the Rosenberg Foundation, a private organization that funds civil and human rights advocacy to benefit California's working families. He was the seventeenth President and Chief Executive Officer of the NAACP -- the youngest person to hold the position in the organization's nearly 100-year history. In 2014, he became a venture partner with Kapor Capital and the Kapor Center for Social Impact in order to bridge the gap from poor communities of color to the tech world.
Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich
Executive director of the Black Leadership Forum and modern civil rights leader
Dr. Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich is an author, public scholar, policy analyst, community activist, and spokesperson on behalf of creative black leadership and urban politics. She is currently a professor at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Since 1996, Scruggs-Leftwich has served as executive director and chief operating officer of the nonprofit Black Leadership Forum, Inc., a confederation of the top national civil rights and service organizations. As COO, she facilitates dialogue among black leaders and designs opportunities for collaboration across racial lines.
Scruggs-Leftwich received a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, a master's degree from the Hubert H. Humphrey School of the University of Minnesota, and a bachelor's degree from North Carolina Central University. She also was a Fulbright Fellow to Germany.
Previously, Scruggs-Leftwich was deputy Mayor of Philadelphia; New York State's Housing Commissioner; HUD's Deputy Assistant Secretary; Executive Director of President Carter's Urban and Regional Policy Group, which issued the first formal National Urban Policy over two decades ago; and director of the Urban and National Policy Institutes for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington. Her areas of expertise include urban policy, public administration and governmental behavior, black women as activists and change agents, city and regional planning, developing neighborhoods and small communities, strategic planning, and leadership development.
In recent years, Scruggs-Leftwich has received recognition and continued her career as a writer. In 2007, she received the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild’s Front Page Award, the Bernie Harrison Memorial Award for Commentary. In 2008, Scruggs-Leftwich released a new book, Sound Bites of Protest, in 2008. Also in 2008, Scruggs-Leftwich stepped down as COO of the Black Leadership Forum after ten years of service in that position.
Elaine Jones
Past president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Elaine Jones is one of America's foremost civil rights lawyers, and well-known as a fearless crusader in numerous social justice causes. Born and raised in the Jim Crow South of Norfolk, Virginia, Jones grew up conscious of "the realities of racism and the importance of idealism."
As a graduate of Howard University and a veteran of the Peace Corps, Jones continued to meet challenges head on, becoming the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Virginia School of Law, the first African American elected to the American Bar Association's Board of Governors, and the first woman to head NAACP Legal Defense Fund, on which she served first as Director-Council and later as president from 1993 to 2004. She helped litigate the case Furman v. Georgia before the Supreme Court, which struck down the death penalty in thirty-seven states.
Additionally, Jones has lent her enormous energy and talents to issues ranging from education to employment discrimination, health care to environmental justice. She was honored by President Clinton with the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award. Jones also received the Trailblazer Award from Just the Beginning Foundation. She has received many other prestigious awards including the American Lawyer Lifetime Achievement Award and the Wells-Barnett Justice Award of the Metropolitan Bar Association.
Geoffrey Canada
A visionary educational leader who has created a powerful safety net for the children and families of Harlem through the Harlem Children’s Zone.
Born in New York City in 1952, Geoffrey Canada has dedicated his professional life to helping children secure educational and economic opportunities.
Since 1983, Canada has been involved with the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), rising to the position of President and CEO in 1990. Called “one of the most ambitious social-service experiments of our time” by The New York Times, HCZ creates a community safety net for children through a holistic approach. By combining educational, social and medical services, HCZ’s goal is to create a neighborhood “tipping point” that allows children to succeed. The zone covers 100 blocks and serves over 10,000 children and 7,400 adults. He stepped down as CEO in 2014.
HCZ has been hailed as a national model for community empowerment and has been featured on 60 Minutes, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Night Line, and many more. Canada was also interviewed about the project in the critically acclaimed documentary Waiting for Superman.
The HCZ project includes a Baby College for parents of children ages 0-3; a best-practices classroom programs for every age through college; in-school, after-school, social-service, health and community-building programs. The goal of HCZ is to rehabilitate the social fabric of Harlem after decades of crime, drugs, and poverty. The budget of HCZ is over $48 million a year.
Canada is the author of Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America and Reaching Up For Manhood: Transforming the Lives of Boys in America. He holds a BA in psychology and sociology from Bowdoin College and a M.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
In 2005, Canada was named one of “America’s Best Leaders” by US News and World Report. Canada was appointed to co-chair the Commission on Economic Opportunity in New York City and was also appointed to the New York State Governor’s Children’s Cabinet Advisory Board. President Barack Obama has stated his goal of replicating the HCZ model in twenty other American cities.
Amiri Baraka
A prominent activist during the 1960s, as well as a successful playwright. Founder of the Black Arts movement.
Through his fiction, essays, poems, and plays, Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy/LeRoi Jones) has produced works condemning racial injustice and the oppression of African Americans in the United States.
Baraka earned his BA from Howard University in 1954, garnering notoriety in 1964 when four of his plays were produced off Broadway in New York City. Dutchman won the Village Voice OBIE Award for Best American Off-Broadway Play that year.
As the acknowledged leader of the Black Arts and Black Theatre movements of the 1960s, Baraka founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre and School in Harlem in 1965. In addition to becoming professor emeritus at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Baraka has taught at Yale, Columbia and at SUNY-Stony Brook.
Through his work and words, Baraka has promoted drama by African American playwrights, about African American issues, and performed for African American audiences. He received the James Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts as well as the American Academy of Arts and Letters award. In 2002, New Jersey named Baraka, their native son, Poet Laureate.
Amiri Baraka died on January 9, 2014.