Civil rights leaders are influential figures in the promotion and implementation of political freedom and the expansion of personal civil liberties and rights . They work to protect individuals and groups from political repression and discrimination by governments and private organizations, and seek to ensure the ability of all members of society to participate in the civil and political life of the state .
Civil rights include individual rights to equal protection and service, privacy , freedom of thought , freedom of expression , freedom of speech , freedom of assembly , freedom to travel , freedom of worship , protection of civil liberties , the right to vote , and the right to freely share ideas and opinions through all forms of communication and media . People who motivated themselves and then led others to gain and protect these rights and liberties include:
Ralph Abernathy (1926–1990) - American activist, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) official
B.R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) - Indian activist for caste abolition, writer, philosopher, economist, co-wrote and influenced Indian constitution which focused on social rights.
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) - American Women's suffrage leader, speaker, inspiration
Ella Baker (1903–1986) - American SCLC activist, initiated the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
James Baldwin (1924–1987) - American essayist, novelist, public speaker, SNCC activist
Daisy Bates (1914–1999) - American organizer of the Little Rock Nine school desegregation events.
Dana Beal (1947– ) - American pro-hemp activist, organizer, speaker, initiator
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) - British philosopher, writer, and teacher on civil rights, inspiration
James Bevel (1936–2008) - American organizer and Direct Action leader, SCLC's main strategist, movement initiator, and movement director.
Claude Black (1916–2009) - American civil rights movement activist
Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921) - founded American Woman Suffrage Association with Lucy Stone in 1869
Julian Bond (1940–2015) - American activist, politician, scholar, NAACP chairman
Lenny Bruce (1925–1966) - American free speech advocate, comedian, political satirist
Lucy Burns (1879–1966) - American women's suffrage/voting rights leader
Stokely Carmichael (1941–1998) - American SNCC and Black Panther activist, organizer, speaker
Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947) - suffrage leader, president National American Woman Suffrage Association , founder League of Women Voters and International Alliance of Women
Cesar Chavez (1927–1993) - Chicano activist, organizer, trade unionist,inspiration
Benjamin Chavis - (1948-) American activist, chemist, minister, author, leader of Wilmington 10, Director Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ , campaigner against Environmental Racism , Executive Director of NAACP, National Director of the Million Man March
Claudette Colvin (1939–) - American Montgomery Bus Boycott pioneer, independent activist
Marvel Cooke (1903–2000) - American journalist, writer, trade unionist
Humberto "Bert" Corona (1918–2001) - labor and civil rights leader
Dorothy Cotton (1930–) - American SCLC official, activist, organizer, and leader
Eugene Debs (1855–1926) - American organizer, campaigner for the poor, women, dissenters, prisoners
Andre DiMino (1950–) - Italian-American civil rights activist
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) - American abolitionist , women's rights and suffrage advocate, writer, organizer, black rights activist, inspiration
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) - American writer, scholar, founder of NAACP
Charles Evers (1922–) - American civil rights movement activist
Medgar Evers (1925–1963) - American, NAACP official in the Mississippi Movement
James Farmer (1920–1999) - Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) leader and activist
Louis Farrakhan (1933–) - American, Controversial Minister and National Representative of the Nation of Islam
James Forman (1928–2005) - American SNCC official and civil rights movement activist
Marie Foster (1917–2003) - American voting rights activist, a local leader in the Selma Voting Rights Movement
Frankie Muse Freeman (1916-) American civil rights attorney, and the first woman to be appointed to the United States Commission on Civil Rights
Golden Frinks (1920–2004) American civil rights organizer in North Carolina and field secretary of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference .
Betty Friedan (1921–2006) - American writer, women's rights activist, feminist
Kasturba Gandhi (1869–1944) wife of Mohandas Gandhi , activist in South Africa and India, often led her husband's movements in India when he was imprisoned.
Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948) - Indian activist, movement leader, writer, philosopher, and teacher.
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) - writer, organizer, feminist, initiator
Olympe de Gouges (1748–1793) - French women's rights pioneer, writer, beheaded during French Revolution
Dick Gregory (1932- ) - American free speech advocate and activist in the civil rights movement, comedian
Tenzin Gyatso (1935- ) - Tibetan, 14th Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, advocate for nonviolence, compassion, and Tibetan autonomy
Prathia Hall (1940–2002) - American SNCC activist, a leading speaker in the civil rights movement
Fred Hampton (1948–1969) - American NAACP youth leader and Black Panther activist, organizer, speaker
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977) - activist in Mississippi movements
Harry Hay (1912–2002) - early leader in American LGBT rights movement, founder Mattachine Society
Lola Hendricks (1932–) - activist, local leader in Birmingham Movement
Jack Herer (1939–2010) - American pro-hemp activist, speaker, organizer, author
Gordon Hirabayashi (1918–2012) - Japanese-American civil rights hero
Myles Horton (1905–1990) - American teacher of nonviolence, pioneer activist, founded and led the Highlander Folk School
T.R.M. Howard (1908–1976) - founder of Mississippi's Regional Council of Negro Leadership
Julia Ward Howe (1818–1910) - American writer, organizer, suffragette
Dolores Huerta (1930– ) - American labor and civil rights activist, initiator, organizer
John Peters Humphrey (1905–1995) - author of Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Harish Iyer (1979–) - Indian gender and sexuality rights activist, campaigns against child sexual abuse and for animal rights, inspiration.
Jesse Jackson (1941–) - American civil rights activist, politician
Nellie Stone Johnson (1905–2002) - labor and civil rights activist
Rebiya Kadeer (1946-) - Ethnic Uyghur civil right activist, independence right activist, bussinesswoman
Toyohiko Kagawa (1888–1960) - Japanese labour activist, Christian reformer, author
Meir Kahane (1932-1990) - controversial Jewish rights leader, founder of the Jewish Defense League
Ashok Row Kavi (1947–) - Indian LGBT rights activist, pioneer Indian gay rights movement, founder of Humsafar Trust
Abby Kelley (1811–1887) - American abolitionist and suffragette
Coretta Scott King (1927–2006) - American SCLC leader, activist, inspiration
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) - SCLC co-founder/president/chairman, activist, author, speaker, inspiration
Fred Korematsu (1919–2005) - American, Japanese internment resister during WWII
James Lawson (1928–) - American minister and activist, SCLC's teacher of nonviolence in late 1950s and early 1960s civil rights movement
Bernard Lafayette (1940–) - American SCLC and SNCC activist, organizer, and leader
John Lewis (1940–) - American Nashville Student Movement and SNCC activist, organizer, speaker, congressman, inspiration
Sigmund Livingston (1872–1946) - Jewish rights activist, founder of the Anti-Defamation League
Joseph Lowery (1921–) - American SCLC leader and co-founder, activist
Clara Luper (1923–2011) - American sit-in movement leader in Oklahoma, activist
Phyllis Lyon (1924-) - American co-founder of first social and political organization for lesbians in the US
James Madison (1751–1836) - American founding father, introduced and lobbied for the U.S. Bill of Rights
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) - South African statesman, leading figure in anti-apartheid movement, inspiration
Del Martin (1921–2008) - American co-founder of first social and political organization for lesbians in the US
George Mason (1725–1792) - American who wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights and influenced U.S. Bill of Rights
Rigoberta Menchú (1959) - Guatemalan indigenous rights leader, co-founder Nobel Women's Initiative
James Meredith (1933–) - American independent student leader and self–starting Mississippi activist
Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley (1921-2003) - American who held an open casket funeral for her son, Emmett Till ; speaker, activist
Charles Morgan, Jr. (1930–2009) - American attorney, established principle of "one man, one vote"
Harvey Milk (1930–1978) - American politician, gay rights activist and leader, inspiration
Bob Moses (1935–) - leader, activist, and organizer in '60s Mississippi Movement
Diane Nash (1938–) - American SNCC and SCLC activist and official, strategist, organizer
Edgar Nixon (1899–1987) - Montgomery Bus Boycott organizer, civil rights activist
James Orange (1942–2008) - American SCLC activist and organizer, a voting rights movement leader, trade unionist
Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) - founder and leader of the British Suffragette Movement
Rosa Parks (1913–2005) - American NAACP official, activist, Montgomery Bus Boycott inspiration
Vallabhbhai Patel (1875–1950) Indian activist, movement leader
Alice Paul (1885–1977) - American 1910s Women's Voting Rights Movement leader, strategist, and organizer
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) - English-American activist, author, theorist, wrote Rights of Man
Elizabeth Peratrovich (1911–1958) - Alaska activist for native people
A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979) - American labor and civil rights movement leader
Amelia Boynton Robinson (1911–) - Selma Voting Rights Movement activist and early leader
Jo Ann Robinson (1912–1992) - Montgomery Bus Boycott activist.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) - women's rights and human rights activist both in the United States and in the United Nations
Bayard Rustin (1912–1987) - American civil rights activist
Aung San Suu Kyi (1945-) - Burmese Politician, former political prisoner, democracy and human rights activist
Sonia Schlesin (1888–1956) - worked with Mohandas Gandhi in South Africa and led his movements there when he was absent.
Al Sharpton (1954–) - American clergyman, activist, media
Charles Sherrod (1937-)- American civil rights activist, SNCC leader
Judy Shepard (1952–) - gay rights activist, public speaker
Kate Sheppard (1847–1934) - New Zealand suffragist in first country to have universal suffrage
Fred Shuttlesworth (1922–2011) - American clergyman, activist, SCLC co-founder, initiated the Birmingham Movement
Lysander Spooner (1808–1887) - American abolitionist, writer, anarchist, proponent of Jury nullification
Winifred C. Stanley (1909-1996) - First member of Congress to introduce legislation prohibiting discrimination in pay on the basis of sex
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) - American women's suffrage/women's rights leader
Gloria Steinem (1934–) - American writer, activist, feminist
Lucy Stone (1818–1893) - American women's suffrage/voting rights leader
Thich Quang Duc (1897–1963) - Vietnamese monk, freedom of religion self-martyr
Desmond Tutu (1931–) - South African anti-apartheid organizer, advocate, inspiration
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825–1895) - German writer, organizer, and the pioneer of the modern LGBT rights movement
Edison Uno (1929–1976) - American, leader for Japanese-American civil rights and redress after WW II
C.T. Vivian (1924–) - American student civil rights leader, SNCC and SCLC activist
Wyatt Tee Walker (1929-) - American activist and organizer with NAACP, CORE, and SCLC
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) - American educator, founder of Tuskegee University , and advisor to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft .
Ida B. Wells (1862–1931) - American journalist, early activist in 20th Century Civil Rights Movement, women's suffrage/voting rights activist
Walter Francis White (1895–1955) - American NAACP executive secretary
Elie Wiesel - (1928–) - American, writer, Holocaust survivor, Jewish rights leader
William Wilberforce (1759–1833) - leader of the British abolition movement
Roy Wilkins - (1901–1981) American NAACP executive secretary/executive director
Frances Willard (1839–1898) - American women's rights activist, woman suffrage leader
Hosea Williams (1926–2000) - American civil rights activist, an SCLC organizer and strategist
Victoria Woodhull (1838–1927) - American suffragette organizer, women's rights leader
Malcolm X (1925–1965) - American author, speaker, activist, inspiration
Andrew Young (1932–) - American SCLC activist and executive director
Whitney M. Young, Jr. (1921–1971) - Exec. Director National Urban League , advisor to U.S. Presidents
Malala Yousafzai (1997- ) - Pakistani, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, advocate for education for girls
See also
External links
Basic topics
By country
Events
Related
Fundamental concepts
and philosophies
Organizations
By continent
Note: What is considered a human right is controversial and not all the topics listed are universally accepted as human rights.
Civil and political
Sexual and reproductive
Violations
War and conflict
Events
(timeline )
Related
Activist
groups
Activists
Influences
Noted
historians
Context, limitations and duties
Article 30:
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
Types
International institutions
Regional bodies
Multi-lateral bodies
Major NGOs