Civil rights icons

A quick word of advice straight from the Black broadcast maven herself, Mrs. Xernona Clayton — take note!

  \JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The first time John Lewis traveled to Mississippi in 1961, he was arrested and jailed with other Freedom Riders, black and white, who challenged segregation in a bus station. Lewis, who is African-American, remembers going into a restroom labeled for white men only. A Jackson police officer told him and […]

Bryon De La Beckwith evaded justice after the cowardly killing of Mississippi civil rights activist Medgar Evers in June 1963. It would be nearly 31 years later before the family received justice, and on this day in 1994, Beckwith was sentenced to life in prison. Medgar Evers was a member of the NAACP and the […]

The famous photo of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in an Alabama jail cell was made possible by his chief strategist and SCLC Executive Director, the Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker. Rev. Walker passed this Tuesday, leaving behind a long career of civil rights organizing and activism from the streets to the pulpit. […]

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights icon, said Thursday that he will not attend the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum this weekend because Donald Trump has also RSVP’d, and his “attendance and hurtful policies are an insult to the people portrayed” in the museum. “After careful consideration and conversations with church leaders, elected officials, […]

Nelson Mandela achieved an amazing feat by becoming the first Black president of his beloved South Africa. On this day in 1994, the late President Mandela assumed the mantle of leadership in front of an adoring throng of South Africans, world leaders and dignitaries from around the globe. By the time, the man lovingly called […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Two of John Lewis’ books have sold out on Amazon after the Democratic congressman claimed the top spots on the retailer’s best-seller list. Sales of the civil rights leader’s graphic novel “March” and his 2015 memoir “Walking With the Wind” skyrocketed following his feud with President-elect Donald Trump over the Martin […]

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is considered a civil rights icon now. He has a monument in Washington, D.C., a federal holiday that we celebrate this week and is revered as a man who sought to bring a divided nation together. He is oft-quoted as the antithesis of the Black Lives Matter movement which […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Friends and family of Julian Bond remembered the deceased civil rights leader as a man who left a lasting “invaluable imprint” on not only the civil rights movement but on people around the United States and the globe. Bond’s admirers gathered at the Lincoln Theater in Washington on Tuesday to remember Bond, […]

Amelia Boynton Robinson passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 104, and the nation is mourning one of the most storied individuals from the Civil Rights Movement. Boynton Robinson’s dedication to the voting rights and equality for southern Blacks and all African-Americans has been well-documented, and her iconic image from the “Bloody Sunday” event […]

  It’s the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and sadly, it’s no time to celebrate. Ambassador Andrew Young says that vote suppression remains a problem despite the historic legislation to prevent it. “It is under fire. It’s more than the Voting Rights Act. Now I think it’s bad if not worse in Ohio, New Jersey, […]

  Betty Shabazz, the widow of el-Hajj Mailk el-Shabazz, better known as slain civil rights leader Malcolm X, would have been 81 today. Despite losing her husband in such a violent way and facing raising six daughters alone, Shabazz found the will to achieve. Born Betty Dean Sanders in 1934, Shabazz married Malcolm during his […]