BEHIND THE MOVEMENT
The people who helped shape the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s
MARCUS GARVEY 17 AUG 1887 – 10 JUNE 1940
An early proponent of Black Nationalism, Marcus Garvey believed in a pan-african movement that involved global mobilisation of black people against oppression.
He founded the
Universal Negro
Improvement
Association and even launched the Black Star
Line to build trade links between Africa and America.
ELIJAH MUHAMMAD 7 OCT 1897 – 25 FEB 1975
The man who would become the head of the Nation of Islam was born to former-slave sharecroppers in Georgia. He took over the NOI from its founder Wallace D Fard after he mysteriously disappeared. He was a strong advocate for black separatism and helped develop
Malcolm X and his own successor, Louis
Farrakhan.
ELLA BAKER 13 DEC 1903 – 13 DEC 1986
While Baker worked with Martin Luther King as director of the SCLC, her commitment to mobilising black youth in America saw her split from King in 1960 to form the independent
Student Nonviolent
Coordinating
Committee, focused on grassroots organising over the top-down leadership she saw elsewhere.
BAYARD RUSTIN 17 MARCH 1912 – 24 AUG 1987
One of Martin Luther King Jr’s closest advisors and one of the organisers of the March on Washington in 1963, Rustin grew up in a Quaker family who were heavily involved in the NAACP. As well as fighting for
Civil Rights,
Rustin was also openly gay and faced further discrimination both within and outside the movement.
FANNIE LOU HAMER 6 OCT 1917 – 14 MARCH 1977
Joining the movement in 1962 to fight for voting rights, Hamer was fired from her job because of her activism. In 1964 she co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which challenged for speaking time at the Democratic
Convention.
Her testimony before the DNC credentials committee garnered national attention.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL 29 JUNE 1941 – 15 NOV 1998
The originator of the rallying cry of ‘Black Power’, Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame
Ture) originally joined the SNCC (and became its chairman) before seeking a more militant path closer to that of
Malcolm X. He ultimately aligned more with the newly formed Black
Panther Party and moved to Guinea.