Carter G. Woodson

Carter Godwin Woodson was born on December 19, 1875, in New Canton, Virginia. The fourth of seven children, young Woodson worked as a sharecropper and a miner to help his family. He began high school in his late teens and was an excellent student. He completed the four-year course of study in less than two years.

After attending Berea College in Kentucky, Woodson worked for the United States government as an education superintendent in the Philippines. Upon his return to the US, Woodson earned his bachelor’s and master’s from the University of Chicago and went on to receive a doctorate from Harvard University in 1912, becoming the second African American to earn a Ph.D. Harvard, after W.E.B. Du Bois. After finishing his education, Woodson dedicated himself to the field of African American history, working to make sure that the subject was taught in schools and studied by scholars.

In 1915, Carter G. Woodson helped found the “Association for the Study of Negro Life and History” (ASNLH), which had the goal of placing African American historical contributions front and center. The next year he established the “Journal of Negro History”, a scholarly publication.

Woodson also formed the African American-owned Associated Publishers Press in 1921 and would go on to write more than a dozen books over the years, including “Mis-Education of the Negro” in 1933. “Mis-Education of the Negro”, with its focus on Western brainwashing and African American self-empowerment, is one of his most noted works and has become regularly adopted by colleges.

In addition to his writing, Woodson also worked in a number of educational positions, serving as a principal for Washington, D.C.'s Armstrong Manual Training School before working as a college dean at Howard University and the West Virginia Collegiate Institute (West Virginia State University).

With the assistance of ASNLH, Woodson lobbied schools and organizations to participate in a special program to encourage the study of African American history, which began in February 1926 with “Negro History Week”. Woodson had chosen February for the weeklong celebration to honor the birth months of Frederick Douglass (February 14) and President Abraham Lincoln (February 12), both of which Black communities had celebrated together since the late 19th century.

From the event's initial phase, the primary emphasis was placed on encouraging the coordinated teaching of the history of African Americans in public schools. The first Negro History Week was met with a lukewarm response, gaining the cooperation of the Departments of Education of the states of North Carolina, Delaware, and West Virginia as well as the city school administrations of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Woodson regarded this as "one of the most fortunate steps ever taken by the Association," and planed for a repeat of the event on an annual basis.

At the time of Negro History Week's launch, Woodson argued that the teaching of black history was essential to ensure the physical and intellectual survival of the race:

"If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated. The American Indian left no continuous record. He did not appreciate the value of tradition; and where is he today? The Hebrew keenly appreciated the value of tradition, as is attested by the Bible itself. In spite of worldwide persecution, therefore, he is a great factor in our civilization."

In 1929, “The Journal of Negro History" noted that, with only two exceptions, officials with the State Departments of Educations of "every state with considerable Negro population had made the event known to that state's teachers and distributed official literature associated with the event.” Churches also played a significant role in the distribution of literature in association with Negro History Week, aiding in publicity.

Negro History Week was met with enthusiastic response; it prompted the creation of black history clubs, an increase in interest among teachers, and interest from progressive whites. Negro History Week grew in popularity throughout the following decades, with mayors across the United States endorsing it as a holiday.

Carter G. Woodson died on April 3, 1950, a respected and honored figure who received praise for his vision. His legacy continues on, with Black History Month being a national cultural force recognized by a variety of media formats, organizations, and educational institutions.

The expansion of Negro History Week to Black History Month was first proposed by the leaders of the “Black United Students” at Kent State University in February 1969. The first celebration of the Black History Month took place at Kent State one year later, in February 1970.

In 1976 as part of the United States Bicentennial, the informal expansion of Negro History Week to Black History Month was officially recognized by the US government. In regards to this being officially recognized by the government, President Gerald Ford urged Americans to "seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history."

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi to an unmarried teenage mother, Vernita Lee. Her conception was due to a single sexual encounter and the couple broke up not long after. Lee was a housemaid and Oprah’s biological father, Vernon Winfrey, was a coal miner turned barber turned city councilman who was in the military when she was born. She was named "Orpah" after the biblical figure in the Book of Ruth, but people mispronounced it regularly and "Oprah" stuck. A genetic test in 2006 determined that her matrilineal line originated among the Kpelle ethnic group, in the area that today is Liberia. Her genetic makeup was determined to be 89% Sub-Saharan African, 8% Native American, and 3% East Asian.

After Oprah’s birth, Lee moved north and Winfrey spent her first six years living in rural poverty with her maternal grandmother. They were so poor that Oprah often wore dresses made of potato sacks, for which the local children often made fun of her. Her grandmother taught her to read before the age of three and took her to the local church, where she was nicknamed "The Preacher" for her ability to recite Bible verses.

At age six, Oprah moved to an inner-city neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her mother, who was less supportive and encouraging than her grandmother had been. Around this time, Lee had given birth to another daughter, Patricia. By 1962, she was having difficulty raising both daughters so Oprah was temporarily sent to live with her father, Vernon, in Nashville, Tennessee. While she was in Nashville, Lee gave birth to a third daughter, who was put up for adoption in the hope of easing the financial straits that had led to Lee's being on welfare. (Oprah did not learn she had a second half-sister until 2010.) By the time Oprah moved back in with her mother, Lee had also given birth to a boy named Jeffrey.

At 13, after suffering years of sexual abuse by a number of male relatives and friends of her mother, Oprah ran away from home. When she was 14, she became pregnant but her son was born prematurely and he died shortly after birth. Oprah began going to Lincoln High School; but after early success in the Upward Bound program, was transferred to the wealthy suburban Nicolet High School, where she says her poverty was constantly rubbed in her face as she rode the bus to school with fellow African Americans, some of whom were servants of her classmates' families. She began to steal money from her mother in an effort to keep up with her free-spending peers, lie to and argue with her mother, and go out with older boys.

Frustrated, Lee once again sent her to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee, though this time she did not take her back. Vernon was strict, but encouraging, and made her education a priority. Oprah became an honors student, was voted Most Popular Girl, and joined her high school speech team at East Nashville High School, placing second in the nation in dramatic interpretation. At the age of 17, Oprah won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant. She also attracted the attention of the local black radio station, WVOL, which hired her to do the news part-time. Oprah won a debate contest, which secured her a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, where she studied communication. She worked at WVOL during her senior year of high school and while in her first two years of college.

Oprah’s career choice in media would not have surprised her grandmother, who once said that ever since she could talk, she was on stage. As a child, she played games interviewing her corncob doll and the crows on the fence of her family's property. Oprah later acknowledged her grandmother's influence, saying it was she who had encouraged her to speak in public and "gave me a positive sense of myself". Working in local media, she was both the youngest news anchor and the first black female news anchor at Nashville's WLAC-TV. She moved to Baltimore's WJZ-TV in 1976 to co-anchor the six o'clock news.

While in Baltimore, Oprah was recruited to join Richard Sher as co-host of WJZ's local talk show “People Are Talking”, which premiered on August 14, 1978. The show became a hit and Oprah stayed with it for eight years, after which she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show, “A.M. Chicago”. Her major competitor in the time slot was Phil Donahue. Within several months, Oprah's open, warm-hearted personal style had won her 100,000 more viewers than Donahue and had taken her show from last place to first in the ratings. Her success led to nationwide fame and a role in Steven Spielberg's 1985 film “The Color Purple”, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Oprah launched the “Oprah Winfrey Show” in 1986 as a nationally syndicated program. With its placement on 120 channels and an audience of 10 million people, the show grossed $125 million by the end of its first year, of which Oprah received $30 million. She soon gained ownership of the program from ABC, drawing it under the control of her new production company, Harpo Productions. At the age of 41, Oprah had a net worth of $340 million and replaced Bill Cosby as the only African American on the Forbes 400.

Oprah bought her mother a new house in Milwaukee and insisted that she retire from her job as a hospital dietician, offering to double her salary for life. Not soon after, her longtime assistant, Billy, died of AIDS in 1988. Her brother Jeffrey died from AIDS in the following year. Oprah had provided Jeffrey with some financial assistance before his was diagnosed with AIDS, but the two had a falling out over his unwillingness to keep a job. Jeffrey gave a scathing interview saying Oprah was unsympathetic to his troubles and refused to help him. Although Oprah would not help her brother directly, she did increase the money she gave her mother so she could support him. Oprah also supplied money to help raise her sister’s two daughters. Her sister would die in 2003 due to causes related to her cocaine addiction.

In 1994, with talk shows becoming increasingly trashy and exploitative, Oprah pledged to keep her show free of tabloid topics. Although ratings initially fell, she earned the respect of her viewers and was soon rewarded with an upsurge in popularity. Oprah, who became well-known for her weight loss efforts, lost an estimated 90 pounds, dropping to her ideal weight of around 150 pounds, and competed in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., in 1995. In the wake of her highly publicized success, Oprah's personal chef, Rosie Daley, and trainer, Bob Greene, both published best-selling books. Oprah contributed immensely to the publishing world by launching her "Oprah's Book Club," as part of her talk show. The program propelled many unknown authors to the top of the bestseller lists and gave pleasure reading a new kind of popular prominence.

With the debut in 1999 of Oxygen Media, a company she co-founded that is dedicated to producing cable and internet programming for women, Oprah ensured her place in the forefront of the media industry and as one of the most powerful and wealthy people in show business. In 2002, she concluded a deal with the network to air a prime-time complement to her syndicated talk show. Her highly successful monthly, “O: The Oprah Magazine” debuted in 2000, and in 2004, she signed a new contract to continue “The Oprah Winfrey Show” through the 2010-11 season. In 2002, “Fortune” called the magazine the most successful start-up ever in the industry. Her show was seen on nearly 212 US stations and in more than 100 countries worldwide.

In 2009, Oprah announced that she would be ending her program when her contract with ABC ended, in 2011. In her final season of her talk show, Oprah made ratings soar when she revealed a family secret: she has another sister named Patricia. This was the baby her mother put up for adoption while Oprah was living with her father. Patricia lived in a series of foster homes until she was 7 years old. She tried to connect with her birth mother through her adoption agency after she became an adult, but Lee did not want to meet her. After doing some research, she approached a niece of Oprah’s, and the two had DNA tests done, which proved they were related. Oprah only learned of her sister's existence a few months before she made the decision to publicize the knowledge. "It was one of the greatest surprises of my life."

Soon after, she moved to her own network, the “Oprah Winfrey Network” (OWN), a joint venture with Discovery Communications. Despite a financially rocky start, the network made headlines in January 2013, when it aired an interview between Oprah and Lance Armstong, the American cyclist and seven-time “Tour de France” winner who was stripped of his seven Tour titles in 2012 due to drug charges. During the interview, Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing substances throughout his cycling career. "He did not come clean in the manner I expected. It was surprising to me. I would say that, for myself, my team, all of us in the room, we were mesmerized by some of his answers. I felt he was thorough. He was serious. He certainly prepared himself for this moment. I would say he met the moment. At the end of it, we both were pretty exhausted." The interview reportedly brought in millions of dollars in revenue for OWN.

In March 2015, Oprah announced that her Chicago-based Harpo Studios would close at the end of the year to consolidate the company’s production operations to the Los Angeles-based OWN headquarters. Her television empire was launched at the studio and it had been home to her daily syndicated talk show through its finale in 2011. "The time had come to downsize this part of the business and to move forward. It will be sad to say goodbye but I look ahead with such a knowing that what the future holds is even more than I can see."

Oprah's Angel Network has raised more than $51,000,000 for charitable programs, including girls' education in South Africa and relief to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Oprah is a dedicated activist for children's rights. In 1994, President Clinton signed a bill into law that Oprah had proposed to Congress, creating a nationwide database of convicted child abusers. She founded the “Family for Better Lives” foundation and also contributes to her alma mater, Tennessee State University. In September 2002, Oprah was named the first recipient of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. In November 2013, Oprah received the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Barack Obama gave her this award for her contributions to her country.

According to “Forbes” magazine, Oprah was the richest African American of the 20th century. “Life” magazine called her the most influential woman of her generation. In 2005, “Business Week” named her the greatest Black philanthropist in American history. Forbes' international rich list has listed Oprah as the world's only black billionaire from 2004 to 2006 and as the first black woman billionaire in world history. As of 2014, Oprah Winfrey has a net worth in excess of 2.9 billion dollars and has overtaken former eBay CEO Meg Whitman as the richest self-made woman in America.

Bill Cosby

William Henry Cosby Jr. was born on July 12, 1937, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is the oldest of four boys. His family were able to get by financially, but the family's money began to slip when his father began drinking heavily. His father eventually enlisted in the Navy and Cosby became like a parent to his brothers. His mother worked cleaning houses. He and his family ended up living in a low-income housing project in his neighborhood. At the age of 8, his brother James, the second oldest of the boys, died.

With money very tight for his family, Cosby started shining shoes to help out when he was 9 years old. Despite their financial hardships, his mother stressed the value of education and learning and often read to her sons. Cosby learned early on that humor could be a way to make friends and to get what he wanted. He excelled at making things up. As one of his teachers once noted, "William should become either a lawyer or an actor because he lies so well.''

In school, Cosby was bright but unmotivated. He liked to tell stories and jokes to his classmates more than he liked to do his schoolwork. One of his teachers encouraged him to put his performing talents to use in school plays. At home, Cosby listened to a variety of radio programs and started imitating comedians, such as Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar, and Jack Benny.

While he was more interested in sports than academics, he was very active on his school's track and football teams, Cosby was placed in a high school for gifted students after scoring high on an IQ test. But he failed to apply himself, and ended up falling behind in his classes. He switched to Germantown High School, and even there he learned that he would have to repeat a grade. In frustration, Cosby dropped out of high school. He worked several odd jobs before joining the Navy in 1956.

During his military service, Cosby worked as a medical aide on ships in several hospitals and at other facilities. He also joined the Navy's track team where he excelled, especially in the high jump event. Cosby regretted dropping out of high school eventually earned his high school equivalency diploma while in the Navy. After leaving the Navy, he went to Temple University on a track scholarship.

While at Temple, Cosby worked as a bartender at a coffee house. He told jokes there, and eventually started filling in for the house comedian from time to time at a nearby club. He also performed as a warm-up act for his cousin's radio show and started performing at a place in New York City. Cosby found inspiration in the work comedian Dick Gregory, who often talked about racial issues in his routines. Early in his career, he also discussed race in his act, but he eventually dropped it from his performances choosing to focus on telling stories about more general and universal themes.

Cosby decided to drop out of college to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. In 1963, he made an appearance on “The Tonight Show”, which helped introduce him to a national audience. This led to a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records, who, in 1964, released his first comedy album, “Bill Cosby Is a Very Funny Fellow ... Right!” In 1965, he won a Grammy for best comedy performance. For the remainder of the 1960s, Cosby continued to release hit albums, winning another five Grammys.

In 1965, Cosby also helped show that an African American could play a leading role in a TV series. He starred with Robert Culp in the series “I Spy”. The two spies pretended to be a professional tennis player (Culp) traveling with his coach (Cosby). The show ran for three years, and Cosby received three Emmy Awards for his work. He became the first black actor to star in a dramatic role on network television. Not long after “I Spy” ended, Cosby starred in his own sitcom. “The Bill Cosby Show” ran for two seasons, from 1969 to 1971, and featured him as a gym teacher at a Los Angeles high school. After “The Bill Cosby Show” left the air, Cosby returned to his education. He began graduate work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Cosby appeared on the educational children's series “The Electric Company”, recording several segments teaching reading skills to young children. He also developed the animated series “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids”, which he based on many of his childhood experiences. The series ran from 1972 to 1979. In 1977, Cosby received a doctorate in urban education from the university, having written his dissertation on “Fat Albert”, it was titled "An Integration of the Visual Media Via 'Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids' Into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning".

Turning to his life for inspiration, Cosby began working on a new television series. The sitcom focused on an upper-middle class African American couple with five children. Each of the children's characters shared some traits of their real-life counterparts. Married since 1964, Cosby and his real-life wife, Camille, had four daughters and one son. It took some time to find a TV network willing to air the series about an African American doctor, his lawyer wife, and their five children. In 1984, “The Cosby Show” debuted to favorable reviews and strong ratings.

“The Cosby Show” drew audiences with its warm humor and believable situations. Cosby's character, Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, became one of the most popular dads in television history. He also served as a parental figure to his young co-stars on set. Phylicia Rashad co-starred with Cosby as his wife, Clair. After being the highest-rated sitcom on TV for five consecutive years, the show finally ended its run in 1992.

Over the show's eight-year run, Cosby found time for other projects: He appeared in several films, including “Leonard Part 6” (1987) and “Ghost Dad” (1990). In 1986, Cosby achieved another career milestone, becoming a bestselling author for the book “Fatherhood”, which sold more than 2.6 million copies. In addition, he enjoyed great popularity as a pitchman, appearing in commercials for such products as JELL-O.

Bill Cosby produced the “Cosby Show” spin-off sitcom “A Different World”, which aired from 1987 to 1993. The series originally centered on Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional historically black college in the state of Virginia. After the first season, it came to Cosby's and the producers' attention that the series was not accurately portraying a historically black college and life on campus, so Debbie Allen, an alumna of Howard University and sister of Phylicia Rashad, was hired as the chief creative force to revamp the show. During the summer of 1988, Lisa Bonet announced that she was having a baby. Allen was in favor of having a young pregnant student in the show, but Cosby said that Lisa Bonet may be pregnant but not Denise Huxtable. He felt that viewers would not accept Denise as an unwed mother, having grown to know her as a "good girl" after four seasons of “The Cosby Show”. Thus it was decided that Denise would drop out of Hillman, return home to her family, and eventually travel to Africa throughout the fifth season of “The Cosby Show”, ensuring that viewers would not see a pregnant Denise.

While it was a spin-off from “The Cosby Show”, “A Different World” typically addressed issues that were avoided by “The Cosby Show”, such as race and class relations, or the Equal Rights Amendment. One episode that aired in 1990 was one of the first American network television episodes to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. A good example of the show’s attempt to address black issues is the “Mammy Dearest” episode. In an attempt to celebrate black history, Whitley throws an event centered on reclaiming images of the black woman. However, she learns that her family actually owned slaves. Whitley tries to detach herself from the celebration, not feeling “sista” enough. The students put on a performance to show unity and power in reclaiming images of black women. Kim was asked to perform as Aunt Jemima but she struggled with the mammy image because of insults hurled towards her as a child. Kim performs in the show at the end of the episode. "A Different World" is the single most important cultural achievement for historically black colleges and universities in American history, and one of the top five pop cultural achievements for African Americans. It exposed the value and social construct of the HBCU and, more importantly, showed personable young African Americans from diverse backgrounds as intelligent, humorous, and introspective in their educational pursuits.

After the death of his son, Cosby started a series of children's picture books featuring a character named "Little Bill" in 1997, which also became a children's TV program. A frequent speaker at commencement ceremonies, Cosby shared his advice in 1999's “Congratulations! Now What?: A Book for Graduates.” He has received numerous awards for his work and social contributions, including the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award in 2003 and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2009.

In May 2004, after receiving an award at the celebration of the 50th anniversary commemoration of the “Brown v. Board of Education” ruling, Cosby made public remarks critical of African Americans who put higher priorities on sports, fashion, and "acting hard" than on education, self-respect, and self-improvement, pleading for African American families to educate their children on the many different aspects of American culture. Cosby asked that African American parents teach their children better morals at a younger age. "Parenting needs to come to the forefront. If you need help and you don't know how to parent, we want to be able to reach out and touch you."

Cosby again came under criticism and was again unapologetic for his stance when he made similar remarks during a speech in July 1, 2004. During that speech, he scolded apathetic blacks for not assisting or concerning themselves with the individuals who are involved with crime or have counter-productive aspirations. He further described those who needed attention as blacks who "had forgotten the sacrifices of those in the Civil Rights Movement."

Cornel West, a philosopher and activist, defended Cosby and his remarks, saying, "he's speaking out of great compassion and trying to get folk to get on the right track, 'cause we've got some brothers and sisters who are not doing the right things, just like in times in our own lives, we don't do the right thing... He is trying to speak honestly and freely and lovingly, and I think that's a very positive thing."

In a 2008 interview, Cosby stood his ground against criticism and affirmed that African American parents were continuing to fail to teach proper standards of moral behavior. Cosby lectured black communities, usually at churches, about his frustrations with certain problems prevalent in underprivileged urban communities, such as “illegal drugs; teenage pregnancy; Black Entertainment Television; high-school dropouts; anti-intellectualism; gangsta rap; vulgarity; thievery; offensive clothing; vanity; parental alienation; single-parenting; and failing to live up to the ideals of Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., and African Americans who preceded Generation X.”

Bill Cosby has also been openly critical of politicians in regards to their views on socioeconomic and racial issues. In a 2013 CNN interview regarding voting rights, Cosby stated "this Republican Party is not the Republican Party of 1863, of Abraham Lincoln, abolitionists and slavery, is not good. I think it's important for us to look at the underlying part of it. What is the value of it? Is it that some people are angry because my people no longer want to work for free?"

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Born as Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929, King was the middle child of Michael King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. The King and Williams families’ roots were in rural Georgia. Alberta’s father was a rural minister for years and then moved to Atlanta in 1893. He took over the small, struggling Ebenezer Baptist church with around 13 members and made it into a forceful congregation. Michael Sr. came from a sharecropper family in a poor farming community. He married Alberta in 1926 after eight years of dating.

Michael King Sr. stepped in as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church upon the death of his father-in-law in 1931. He too became a successful minister. Following a 1934 trip to Germany to attend the Fifth Baptist World Alliance Congress in Berlin, Michael Sr. adopted the name Martin Luther King Sr. in honor of the German Protestant religious leader Martin Luther. Michael Jr. followed his father's lead and adopt the name himself.

Martin Sr. was more the disciplinarian, while his wife's gentleness easily balanced out the father's more strict hand. Though they tried, Martin Jr.’s parents couldn’t shield him completely from racism. Martin Luther King Sr. fought against racial prejudice, not just because his race suffered, but because he considered racism and segregation to be an affront to God's will. He strongly discouraged any sense of class superiority in his children.

Martin Jr. attended Booker T. Washington High School, where he was said to be an advanced student. He skipped both the ninth and eleventh grades, and entered Morehouse College in Atlanta at age 15, in 1944. Martin was a popular student, especially with his female classmates, but an unmotivated student who floated though his first two years. Although his family was deeply involved in the church and worship, young Martin questioned religion in general and felt uncomfortable with overly emotional displays of religious worship. This discomfort continued through much of his adolescence, initially leading him to decide against entering the ministry, disappointing his father. But in his junior year, Martin took a Bible class, renewed his faith and began to envision a career in the ministry. In the fall of his senior year, he told his father of his decision.

In 1948, Martin Luther King, Jr. earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He was elected student body president and valedictorian of his class in 1951. King also earned a fellowship for graduate study. But he also rebelled against his father’s more conservative influence by drinking beer and playing pool while at college. He became involved with a white woman and went through a difficult time before he could break it off.

During his last year in seminary, Martin Luther King Jr. came under the guidance of Morehouse College President Benjamin E. Mays who influenced King’s spiritual development. Mays was an outspoken advocate for racial equality and encouraged King to view Christianity as a potential force for social change. After being accepted at several colleges for his doctoral study, including Yale and Edinburgh in Scotland, King enrolled in Boston University.

During the work on this doctorate, Martin Luther King Jr. met Coretta Scott, an aspiring singer and musician, at the New England Conservatory School in Boston. They were married in June 1953 and had four children, Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott and Bernice. In 1954, while still working on his dissertation, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. He completed his Ph.D. and was award his degree in 1955.

On March 2, 1955, a 15-year-old girl refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery city bus in violation of local law. Claudette Colvin was arrested and taken to jail. At first, the local chapter of the NAACP felt they had an excellent test case to challenge Montgomery's segregated bus policy. But then it was revealed that she was pregnant and civil rights leaders feared this would scandalize the deeply religious black community and make Colvin (and, thus the group's efforts) less credible in the eyes of sympathetic whites.

On December 1, 1955, they got another chance to make their case. That evening, 42-year-old Rosa Parks was arrested and booked for violating the Montgomery City bus code. On the night that Rosa Parks was arrested, E.D. Nixon, head of the local NAACP chapter met with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other local civil rights leaders to plan a citywide bus boycott. Dr. King was elected to lead the boycott because he was young, well-trained with solid family connections and had professional standing. But he was also new to the community and had few enemies, so it was felt he would have strong credibility with the black community.

In his first speech as the group's president, Dr. King stated, "We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice."

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. put a new energy into the civil rights struggle in Alabama. The bus boycott would be 382 days of walking to work, harassment, violence and intimidation for the Montgomery's African-American community. Both Dr. King's and E.D. Nixon's homes were attacked. But the African American community also took legal action against the city ordinance arguing that it was unconstitutional based on the Supreme Court's "separate is never equal" decision in “Brown v. Board of Education”. After being defeated in several lower court rulings and suffering large financial losses, the city of Montgomery lifted the law mandating segregated

African American civil rights leaders recognized the need for a national organization to help coordinate their efforts. In January 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and 60 ministers and civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to harness the moral authority and organize power of black churches. They would help conduct non-violent protests to promote civil rights reform. Dr. King's participation in the organization gave him a base of operation throughout the South, as well as a national platform. The organization felt the best place to start to give African Americans a voice was to enfranchise them in the voting process. In February 1958, the SCLC sponsored more than 20 mass meetings in key southern cities to register black voters in the South. Dr. King met with religious and civil rights leaders and lectured all over the country on race-related issues.

In 1959, inspired by Gandhi's success with non-violent activism, Dr. Martin Luther King visited Gandhi's birthplace in India. The trip affected him in a deeply profound way, increasing his commitment to America's civil rights struggle. Bayard Rustin, who had studied Gandhi's teachings, became one of Dr. King's associates and counseled him to dedicate himself to the principles of non-violence. Rustin served as Dr. King's mentor and advisor throughout his early activism and was the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. But Rustin was also a controversial figure at the time, being a homosexual. Though his counsel was invaluable to Dr. King, many of his other supporters urged him to distance himself from Rustin.

In February 1960, a group of African American students began what became known as the "sit-in" movement in Greensboro, North Carolina. The students would sit at racially segregated lunch counters in the city's stores. When asked to leave or sit in the colored section, they just remained seated, subjecting themselves to verbal and sometimes physical abuse. The movement quickly gained traction in several other cities. In April 1960, the SCLC held a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina with local sit-in leaders. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged students to continue to use nonviolent methods during their protests. Out of this meeting, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee formed and for a time, worked closely with the SCLC. By August of 1960, the sit-ins had been successful in ending segregation at lunch counters in 27 southern cities.

By 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was gaining national notoriety. He returned to Atlanta to become co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church, but also continued his civil rights efforts. On October 19, 1960, Dr. King and 75 students entered a local department store and requested lunch-counter service but were denied. When they refused to leave the counter area, Dr. King and 36 others were arrested. Realizing the incident would hurt the city's reputation, Atlanta's mayor negotiated a truce and charges were eventually dropped. But soon after, Dr. King was imprisoned for violating his probation on a traffic conviction. The news of his imprisonment entered the 1960 presidential campaign, when candidate John F. Kennedy made a phone call to Coretta Scott King. Kennedy expressed his concern for Dr. King's harsh treatment for the traffic ticket and political pressure was quickly set in motion. Dr. King was soon released.

In the spring of 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. organized a demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. Entire families attended. City police turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators. Dr. King was jailed along with large numbers of his supporters, but the event drew nationwide attention. However, he was criticized by black and white clergy alike for taking risks and endangering the children who attended the demonstration. From the jail in Birmingham, Dr. King spelled out his theory of non-violence: "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue."

By the end of the Birmingham campaign, Dr. King and his supporters were making plans for a massive demonstration on the nation's capital composed of multiple organizations, all asking for peaceful change. On August 28, 1963, the March on Washington drew more than 200,000 people in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. It was here that Dr. King made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, emphasizing his belief that someday all men could be brothers.

The rising tide of civil rights agitation produced a strong effect on public opinion. Many people in cities not experiencing racial tension began to question the nation's Jim Crow laws and the near the second class treatment of African American citizens. This resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 authorizing the federal government to enforce desegregation of public accommodations and outlawing discrimination in publicly owned facilities. This also led to Dr. King receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for 1964.

Dr. King's struggle continued throughout the 1960s. On March 7, 1965, a civil rights march, planned from Selma to Alabama's capital in Montgomery, turned violent as police with nightsticks and tear gas met the demonstrators as they tried to cross the Edmond Pettus Bridge. Dr. King was not in the march, however the attack was televised showing horrifying images of marchers being bloodied and severely injured. Seventeen demonstrators were hospitalized leading to the naming the event "Bloody Sunday." A second march was cancelled due to a restraining order to prevent the march from taking place. A third march was planned and this time Dr. King made sure he was on it. Not wanting to alienate southern judges by violating the restraining order, a different tact was taken. On March 9, 1965, a procession of 2,500 marchers, both black and white, set out once again to cross the Pettus Bridge and confronted barricades and state troopers. Instead of forcing a confrontation, Dr. King led his followers to kneel in prayer and they then turned back. The event caused him the loss of support among some younger African American leaders, but it nonetheless aroused support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

From late 1965 through 1967, Dr. King expanded his Civil Rights Movement into other larger American cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. But he was met with increasing criticism and public challenges from young black-power leaders. Dr. King's patient, non-violent approach and appeal to white middle-class citizens alienated many black militants who considered his methods too weak and too late. In their eyes, Dr. King's manner was foolishly passive and ineffective. To address this criticism, Dr. King began making a link between discrimination and poverty. He expanded his civil rights efforts to the Vietnam War. He felt that America's involvement in Vietnam was politically untenable and the government's conduct of the war discriminatory to the poor. He sought to broaden his base by forming a multi-race coalition to address economic and unemployment problems of all disadvantaged people.

By 1968, the years of demonstrations and confrontations were beginning to wear on Dr. King. He had grown tired of marches, going to jail, and living under the constant threat of death. Plans were in the works for another march on Washington to revive his movement and bring attention to a widening range of issues. In the spring of 1968, a labor strike by Memphis sanitation workers drew Dr. King to one last crusade. On April 3, he told supporters, "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land." The next day, while standing on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was struck by a sniper's bullet. The shooter, a drifter and former convict named James Earl Ray, was eventually apprehended after a two-month, international manhunt. The killing sparked riots and demonstrations in more than 100 cities across the country. In 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating Dr. King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in prison on April 23, 1998.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life had a huge impact on race relations in the United States. Years after his death, he is the most widely known African American leader of his era. His life and work have been honored with a national holiday, schools and public buildings named after him, and a memorial on Independence Mall in Washington, D.C. Dr. King was a visionary leader who was deeply committed to achieving social justice through nonviolent means.

“When we allow freedom to ring-when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, Free at last, Great God a-mighty, We are free at last.’”

Mary McLeod Bethune

Born Mary Jane McLeod on July 10, 1875, in Mayesville, South Carolina, Mary was a leading educator and civil rights activist. She grew up in poverty, as one of 17 children born to former slaves. Everyone in the family worked, and many worked in the fields picking cotton. Mary became the only child in her family to go to school when a missionary opened a school nearby for African American children. Traveling miles each way, she walked to school each day and did her best to share what she learned with her family.

Mary received a scholarship to the Scotia Seminary (now Barber-Scotia College), a school for girls in Concord, North Carolina. After graduating in 1893, she went to the Dwight Moody's Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago. Mary returned to the South after she completed her degree, two years later, to begin her career as a teacher.

Mary married fellow teacher Albertus Bethune in 1898. The couple had one son together before their divorce in 1907. She believed that education provided the key to racial advancement. Bethune founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls in Daytona, Florida, in 1904. Starting out with only five students, she helped grow the school to more 250 students over the next few years.

Bethune served as the school's president, and she remained its leader even after it was combined with the Cookman Institute for Men in 1923. The merged institution became known as the Bethune-Cookman College. The college was one of the few places that African American students could pursue a college degree. Bethune stayed with the college until 1942.

In addition to her work at the school, Bethune did much to contribute to American society at large. She served as the president of the Florida chapter of the National Association of Colored Women for many years. Bethune worked to register black voters, which was resisted by white society and had been made almost impossible by a variety of obstacles in Florida law and practices controlled by white administrators. She was threatened by the Ku Klux Klan in those years. Bethune also served as the president of the Southeastern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs from 1920 to 1925, which worked to improve opportunities for black women.

Bethune was elected as national president of the NACW in 1924. While the organization struggled to raise funds for regular operations, Bethune envisioned its acquiring a headquarters and hiring a professional executive secretary; she implemented this when NACW bought a property in Washington, DC. She led it to be the first black-controlled organization with headquarters in the capital.

Gaining a national reputation, Bethune began lending her expertise to several presidents. In 1928 Bethune was invited to attend the Child Welfare Conference called by Republican President Calvin Coolidge. In 1930 President Herbert Hoover appointed her to the White House Committee on Child Health and the Commission on Home Building and Home Ownership. But her most significant roles in public service came from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1935, Bethune became a special advisor to President Roosevelt on minority affairs. In addition to her official role in the Roosevelt administration, Bethune became a trusted friend and adviser to both the president and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt. That same year, she also started up her own civil rights organization, the National Council of Negro Women. Bethune created this organization to represent numerous groups working on critical issues for African American women. She received another appointment from President Roosevelt the following year. In 1936, she became the director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. The NYA focused on unemployed citizens aged sixteen to twenty-five years who were not in school. Bethune lobbied the organization aggressively and effectively for minority involvement. As Director of the Division of Negro Affairs, she was the first African American female division head. She managed NYA funds to help black students through school-based programs. She was the only black agent of the NYA who was a financial manager. She ensured black colleges participation in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, which graduated some of the first black pilots.

Bethune’s determination helped national officials recognize the need to improve employment for black youth. The NYA’s report issued in 1943 stated "more than 300,000 black young men and women were given employment and work training on NYA projects. These projects opened to these youth, training opportunities and enabled the majority of them to qualify for jobs heretofore closed to them." Within the administration, Bethune advocated for the appointment of black NYA officials to positions of political power. Her administrative assistants served as liaisons between the National Division of Negro Affairs and the NYA agencies on the state and local levels. They helped gain better job and salary opportunities for African Americans across the country. During her tenure, Bethune also pushed federal officials to approve a program of consumer education for African Americans, and a foundation for black crippled children.

In 1943, Mary Mcleod Bethune moved to the new National Council of Negro Women headquarters in Washington, D.C. She represented the NAACP at the 1945 conference on the founding of the United Nations along with W.E.B. DuBois. In the early 1950s, President Harry Truman appointed her to a committee on national defense and appointed her to serve as an official delegate to a presidential inauguration in Liberia.

Eventually returning to Florida in her retirement, Bethune died on May 18, 1955, in Daytona, Florida. She is remembered for her work to advance the rights of both African Americans and women. Before her death, Bethune wrote "My Last Will and Testament," which served as a reflection on her own life and legacy in addition to addressing a few estate matters. Among her list of spiritual gifts, she wrote "I leave you a thirst for education. Knowledge is the prime need of the hour…If I have a legacy to leave my people, it is my philosophy of living and serving."

Booker T Washington

Booker Taliaferro was born to a slave on April 5, 1856 in Franklin County, Virginia. Booker's mother, Jane, worked as a cook for plantation owner James Burroughs. His father was an unknown white man, most likely from a nearby plantation. Booker and his mother lived in a one-room log cabin with a large fireplace, which also served as the plantation’s kitchen.

At an early age, Booker went to work carrying sacks of grain to the plantation’s mill. Toting 100-pound sacks was hard work for a small boy, and he was often beaten for not performing his duties satisfactorily. Booker's first exposure to education was from the outside of school house near the plantation. Looking inside, he saw children his age sitting at desks and reading books. He wanted to do what those children were doing, but he was a slave, and it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write.

After the Civil War, Booker and his mother moved to Malden, West Virginia, where she married freedman Washington Ferguson. The family was very poor, and 9-year-old Booker went to work in the nearby salt furnaces with his stepfather instead of going to school. Booker's mother noticed his interest in learning and got him a book from which he learned the alphabet and how to read and write basic words. Because he was still working, he got up nearly every morning at 4 AM to practice and study. At about this time, Booker took the first name of his stepfather as his last name, Washington.

In 1866, Booker T. Washington got a job as a houseboy for Viola Ruffner, the wife of coal mine owner Lewis Ruffner. Mrs. Ruffner was known for being very strict with her servants, especially boys. But she saw something in Washington; his maturity, intelligence, and integrity; and soon warmed up to him. Over the two years he worked for her, she understood his desire for an education and allowed him to go to school for an hour a day during the winter months.

In 1872, Washington left home and walked 500 miles to Hampton Normal Agricultural Institute in Virginia. Along the way he took odd jobs to support himself. He convinced administrators to let him attend the school and took a job as a janitor to help pay his tuition. The school's founder and headmaster, General Samuel C. Armstrong, soon discovered the hardworking boy and offered him a scholarship, sponsored by a white man. Armstrong had been a commander of a Union African American regiment during the Civil War and was a strong supporter of providing newly freed slaves with a practical education. Armstrong became Washington's mentor.

Washington graduated from Hampton in 1875 with high marks. For a time, he taught at his old grade school in Malden, Virginia, and attended Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C. In 1879, he was chosen to speak at Hampton's graduation ceremonies, afterward General Armstrong offered Washington a job teaching at Hampton. In 1881, the Alabama legislature approved $2,000 for a “colored” school, the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now known as Tuskegee University). General Armstrong was asked to recommend a white man to run the school, but instead recommended Booker T. Washington. Classes were first held in an old church, while Washington traveled all over the countryside promoting the school and raising money. He reassured whites that nothing in the Tuskegee program would threaten white supremacy or pose any economic competition to whites.

Under Booker T. Washington's leadership, Tuskegee became a leading school in the country. At his death, it had more than 100 well-equipped buildings, 1,500 students, a 200 member faculty teaching 38 trades and professions, and a $2 million endowment. Washington put much of himself into the school's curriculum, stressing the virtues of patience, enterprise, and thrift. He taught that economic success for African Americans would take time, and that subordination to whites was a necessary evil until African Americans could prove they were worthy of full economic and political rights. He believed that if African Americans worked hard and obtained financial independence and cultural advancement, they would eventually win acceptance and respect from the white community.

In 1895, Booker T. Washington publicly put forth his philosophy on race relations in a speech at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, known as the "Atlanta Compromise." In his speech, Washington stated that African Americans should accept disenfranchisement and social segregation as long as whites allow them economic progress, educational opportunity and justice in the courts. This started a firestorm in parts of the African American community, especially in the North. Activists like W.E.B. Du Bois disapproved of Washington's pacifying philosophy and his belief that African Americans were only suited to vocational training. Du Bois criticized Washington for not demanding equality for African Americans, as granted by the 14th Amendment, and subsequently became an advocate for full and equal rights in every realm of a person's life.

Booker T. Washington became the national spokesperson for African Americans. In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Washington to the White House, making him the first African American to be invited to the White House. Both President Roosevelt and his successor, President William Howard Taft, used Washington as an adviser on racial matters, partly because he accepted racial subservience. While some African Americans looked upon Washington as a hero, others saw him as a traitor. Many Southern whites, including some prominent members of Congress, saw Washington's success as an insult and called for action to put African Americans "in their place."

Booker T. Washington was a complex individual. It wasn’t that he believed in racial subservience, he just wanted to appear that way. Washington advocated a "go slow" approach to avoid a harsh white backlash. Many youths in the South had to accept sacrifices of potential political power, civil rights, and higher education. His belief was that African Americans should "concentrate all their energies on industrial education, and accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South." Washington valued the "industrial" education, as it provided critical skills for the jobs then available to the majority of African Americans at the time, as most lived in the South, which was overwhelmingly rural and agricultural. He thought these skills would lay the foundation for the stability that the African American community required in order to move forward. He believed that in the long term, "blacks would eventually gain full participation in society by showing themselves to be responsible, reliable American citizens." His approach advocated for an initial step toward equal rights and gaining economic power to back up black demands for political equality in the future. He believed that such achievements would prove to the “deeply-prejudiced white America” that African Americans were not "'naturally stupid and incompetent."

Washington worked and socialized with many national white politicians and industry leaders. While he was openly supportive of African Americans taking a "back seat" to whites, he persuaded wealthy whites, many of them self-made men, to donate money to black causes by appealing to values they had exercised in their rise to power. Washington also secretly contributed substantial funds for several court cases challenging segregation and disfranchisement. By 1913, the newly inaugurated Wilson administration was cool to the idea of racial integration and African American equality. Washington slowing faded out of politics.

Booker T. Washington remained the head of Tuskegee Institute until his death on November 14, 1915 of congestive heart failure. He was buried on the campus of Tuskegee University near the University Chapel.

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland, around 1818. The exact year and date of his birth are unknown, though later in life he chose to celebrate it on February 14. Frederick initially lived with his maternal grandmother, Betty Bailey. At a young age, he was selected to live in the home of the plantation owners, one of whom may have been his father. His mother died when he was around 10.

Frederick was eventually sent to the Baltimore home of Hugh Auld. Defying a ban on teaching slaves to read and write, Auld’s wife Sophia taught him the alphabet when he was around 12. When Auld forbade his wife’s lessons, Frederick continued to learn from white children and others in the neighborhood.

It was through reading that Frederick’s opposition to slavery began to take shape. He read newspapers avidly and sought out political writing and literature as much as possible. Frederick shared his newfound knowledge with other enslaved people. He also taught other slaves on the plantation to read the New Testament at a weekly church service. Interest was so great that more than 40 slaves would attend lessons every week. The local slave owners did not approve. Armed with clubs and stones, they dispersed the congregation permanently.

Frederick was later made to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a “slave-breaker.” Covey’s constant abuse did nearly break the 16-year-old psychologically. One day, after numerous vicious beatings at Covey's hands, Frederick fought back. He fought off Covey's cousin and his fight with Covey himself, which lasted nearly two hours long, ended with Frederick’s victory. Covey never beat him again.

Frederick tried to escape from slavery twice before he succeeded. He was assisted in his final attempt by Anna Murray, a free black woman in Baltimore with whom he had fallen in love. On September 3, 1838, Frederick boarded a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Anna had provided him with some of her savings and a sailor's uniform. He carried identification papers obtained from a free black seaman. Frederick made his way to the safe house of abolitionist David Ruggles in New York in less than 24 hours.

Once he had arrived, Frederick sent for Anna to meet him in New York. They married on September 15, 1838, adopting the married name of Johnson to disguise his identity. Anna and Frederick settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which had a thriving free black community. There they adopted Douglass as their married name. Frederick Douglass joined a black church and regularly attended abolitionist meetings.

Eventually Douglass was asked to tell his story at abolitionist meetings, after which he became a regular anti-slavery lecturer. William Lloyd Garrison, writer of the abolitionist paper “The Liberator”, was impressed with Douglass’s strength and rhetorical skill, and wrote of him the paper. Several days after the story ran, Douglass delivered his first speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society's annual convention in Nantucket. But the crowds were not always hospitable to Douglass. While participating in an 1843 lecture tour through the Midwest, Douglass was chased and beaten by an angry mob before being rescued by a local Quaker family.

At the urging of Garrison, Douglass wrote and published his first autobiography, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”, in 1845. The book was a best seller in the United States and was translated into several European languages. Although the work garnered Douglass many fans, some critics expressed doubt that a former slave with no formal education could have produced something so sophisticated. Douglass published three versions of his autobiography during his lifetime, revising and expanding on his work each time.

Following the publication of his autobiography, Douglass' friends and mentors feared that the publicity would draw the attention of his ex-owner, Hugh Auld, who might try to get his “property” back. They encouraged Douglass to tour Ireland, as many former slaves had done. He set sail for Liverpool on August 16, 1845, and eventually arrived in Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine was beginning. The Great Famine was a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. During the famine, approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%.

The feeling of freedom from American racial discrimination amazed Douglass: “Eleven days and a half gone and I have crossed three thousand miles of the perilous deep. Instead of a democratic government, I am under a monarchical government. Instead of the bright, blue sky of America, I am covered with the soft, grey fog of the Emerald Isle (Ireland). I breathe, and lo! The chattel (slave) becomes a man. I gaze around in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or offer me an insult. I employ a cab, I am seated beside white people; I reach the hotel, I enter the same door; I am shown into the same parlour, I dine at the same table and no one is offended...I find myself regarded and treated at every turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people. When I go to church, I am met by no upturned nose and scornful lip to tell me, ‘We don't allow niggers in here!’”

Douglass remained in Ireland and Britain for two years, speaking to large crowds on the evils of slavery. During this time, his British supporters gathered funds to purchase his legal freedom. Many supporters tried to encourage Douglass to remain in England but, with his wife still in Massachusetts and three million of his black brethren in bondage in the United States, he returned to the US in spring of 1847. Upon his return, Douglass produced his first abolitionist newspaper, “The North Star”. The motto of “The North Star” was “Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color – God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren.”

Frederick Douglass also became an outspoken supporter of women’s rights. In 1848, he was the only African American to attend the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton asked the assembly to pass a resolution stating the goal of women's suffrage. Many attendees opposed the idea. Douglass stood and spoke powerfully in favor, arguing that he could not accept the right to vote as a black man if women could not also claim that right. He suggested that the world would be a better place if women were involved in the political sphere. After Douglass' powerful words, the attendees passed the resolution.

Douglass would later come into conflict with women’s rights activists. After the Civil War, the 15th Amendment giving freedmen and free blacks the right to vote was being debated. Douglass split with the Stanton-led group of the women's rights movement. Douglass supported the amendment, which would grant suffrage to black men. Stanton opposed the 15th Amendment because it limited expansion of suffrage to black men. She predicted its passage would delay for decades the cause for women's right to vote. Stanton argued that American women and black men should band together to fight for universal suffrage, and opposed any bill which split the issues. Douglass and Stanton both knew that there was not yet enough male support for women's right to vote, but that an amendment giving black men the vote could pass in the late 1860s. Stanton wanted to attach women's suffrage to that of black men so that her cause would be carried to success.

Douglass thought such a strategy was too risky, that there was barely enough support for black men's suffrage. He feared that linking the cause of women's suffrage to that of black men would result in failure for both. Douglass argued that white women, already empowered by their social connections to fathers, husbands, and brothers, at least vicariously had the vote. Black women, he believed, would have the same degree of empowerment as white women once black men had the vote. Douglass assured the American women that at no time had he ever argued against women's right to vote.

By the time of the Civil War, Douglass was one of the most famous black men in the country. He used his status to influence the role of African Americans in the war and their status in the country. In 1863, Douglass deliberated with President Abraham Lincoln regarding the treatment of black soldiers, and later with President Andrew Johnson on the subject of black suffrage.

President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, declared the freedom of all slaves in Confederate territory. Slavery everywhere in the United States was subsequently outlawed by the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Douglass was appointed to several political positions following the war. He served as president of the Freedman's Savings Bank and as chargé d'affaires for the Dominican Republic. After two years, he resigned from his ambassadorship over objections to the particulars of US government policy. He was later appointed minister-resident and consul-general to the Republic of Haiti, a post he held between 1889 and 1891.

On April 14, 1876, Douglass delivered the keynote speech at the unveiling of the Emancipation Memorial in Washington’s Lincoln Park. In that speech, Douglass spoke frankly about Lincoln, noting what he perceived as both positive and negative attributes of the late President. Calling Lincoln “the white man's president”, Douglass criticized Lincoln's tardiness in joining the cause of emancipation, noting that Lincoln initially opposed the expansion of slavery but did not support its elimination. But Douglass also asked, “Can any colored man, or any white man friendly to the freedom of all men, ever forget the night which followed the first day of January 1863, when the world was to see if Abraham Lincoln would prove to be as good as his word? Though Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white fellow-countrymen against the Negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery...." The crowd gave Douglass a standing ovation. Lincoln's widow, Mary, gave Lincoln's favorite walking-stick to Douglass in appreciation. That walking-stick still rests in Douglass's final residence, “Cedar Hill”, now preserved as the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

Douglass became the first African American nominated for vice president of the United States as Victoria Woodhull's, the first woman to run for president, running mate on the Equal Rights Party ticket in 1872. Nominated without his knowledge or consent, Douglass never campaigned. Nonetheless, his nomination marked the first time that an African American appeared on a presidential ballot.

After Anna’s death, Douglass married Helen Pitts, a white feminist from Honeoye, New York. Helen was the daughter of Gideon Pitts Jr., an abolitionist colleague and friend of Douglass. A graduate of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, Helen worked on a radical feminist publication and shared many of Douglass’s moral principles. Their marriage caused considerable controversy, since Helen was white and nearly 20 years younger than Douglass. Her family stopped speaking to her and his children considered the marriage a rejection of their mother. Douglass responded to the criticisms by saying that his first marriage had been to someone the color of his mother and his second to someone the color of his father.

On February 20, 1895, Douglass attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. During that meeting, he was brought to the platform and received a standing ovation. Shortly after he returned home, Frederick Douglass died of a massive heart attack or stroke. His funeral was held at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church; thousands passed by his coffin to show their respect. Douglass’ coffin was transported back to Rochester, New York and he was buried next to Anna in the Douglass family plot of Mount Hope Cemetery, and Helen joined them in 1903.

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad. It was “underground” because its activities had to be carried out in secret, using darkness or disguises. It was known as a “railroad” because railway terms were used by those involved with system. Various routes were “lines”, stopping places were called “stations” and where held by “station masters”, “stockholders” gave money or supplies for assistance, those who aided along the way were “conductors”, and the slaves were known as “packages” or “cargo”. The network of routes extended through 14 Northern states and “the promised land” of Canada, beyond the reach of slave hunters. The Ohio River, called the “River Jordan”, marked the boundary between slave states and free states.

The practice involved more spontaneity than the railroad analogy suggests. By the time escapees reached areas where sympathetic persons might assist them, they had already completed the most difficult part of their journey. A successful escape was usually less the product of assistance and more a matter of resourcefulness and a great deal of luck.

The most active of the Railroad workers were northern free blacks, who had little or no support from white abolitionists. The most famous conductor, an escaped slave named Harriet Tubman, made multiple return trips to the South. She helped hundreds of slaves escape. A number of individual white abolitionists, philanthropists, and church leaders aided runaways, as did “vigilance committees,” often biracial.

To reduce the risk of infiltration, many people associated with the Underground Railroad knew only their part of the operation and not of the whole scheme and information about routes and safe havens was passed along by word of mouth. Conductors led or transported the cargo from station to station. A conductor sometimes pretended to be a slave in order to enter a plantation. Once a part of a plantation, the conductor would direct the runaways to the North. Slaves traveled at night to each station. The stations were often located in barns, under church floors, or in hiding places in caves and hollowed-out riverbanks. While the cargo rested at one station, a message was sent to the next station to let the station master know the cargo was on the way.

The routes were often purposely indirect to confuse slave catchers. The journey was considered particularly difficult and dangerous for women or children. Children were sometimes hard to keep quiet or were unable to keep up with a group. Female slaves were rarely allowed to leave the plantation, making it harder for them to escape in the same ways that men could. Although the slaves sometimes traveled on boat or train, they usually traveled on foot or by wagon in groups of 1–3 slaves. Some groups were considerably larger. Abolitionist Charles Turner Torrey and his colleagues rented horses and wagons and often transported as many as 15 or 20 slaves at a time.

At its peak, nearly 1,000 slaves per year escaped from slave holding states using the Underground Railroad, but this was a small fraction of the number of slaves. The resulting economic impact was minuscule, but the psychological influence on slaveholders was massive. The idea of outsiders undermining the institution of slavery angered white southerners, leading to their demands that the Fugitive Slave Laws be strengthened. Under the original Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, officials from slave-holding states were responsible for the recovery of runaway slaves, but citizens and governments of many free states ignored the law.

With heavy lobbying by Southern politicians, the Compromise of 1850 was passed by Congress after the Mexican–American War. It stipulated a more stringent Fugitive Slave Law by convincing officials of free states to assist slave catchers and granting them immunity to operate in free states. Because the law didn’t require much documentation to claim a person was a fugitive, slave catchers also kidnapped free blacks, especially children, and sold them into slavery. “Certificates of freedom," signed, notarized statements attesting to the free status of individual blacks also known as free papers, could easily be destroyed or stolen. Southern politicians often exaggerated the number of escaped slaves and often blamed these escapes on Northerners interfering with Southern property rights. Under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, when suspected fugitives were seized and brought to a special magistrate known as a commissioner, they had no right to a jury trial and could not testify in their own behalf. Technically, they were guilty of no crime. Since the law deprived suspected slaves of the right to defend themselves in court, it made difficult to prove free status. To influence judges, they were paid a higher fee ($10) for a decision that confirmed a suspect as a slave than for one ruling that the suspect was free ($5).

In response to this Act, the Underground Railroad moved it focus to the promised land. The railroad delivered over 100,000 slaves to the promised land. Fort Malden in Amherstburg, Ontario was deemed the “chief place of entry” for slaves seeking to enter Canada. After 1850, approximately thirty fugitive slaves a day were crossing over to Fort Malden by steamboat. The largest group settled in Upper Canada (Ontario). Numerous Black Canadian communities developed in Southern Ontario. These were generally in the triangular region bounded by Toronto, Niagara Falls, and Windsor. Important black settlements also developed in Lower Canada (Quebec) and Vancouver Island, where Governor James Douglas encouraged black immigration because of his opposition to slavery. He also hoped a significant black community would form a barricade against those who wished to unite the island with the United States.

Upon arriving at their destinations, many of the ex-slaves were disappointed as life in Canada was difficult. While the British colonies had no slavery after 1834, discrimination was still common. Many of the new arrivals had to compete with mass European immigration for jobs, and explicit racism was common. For example, in reaction to Black Loyalists settling in the city, Saint John, New Brunswick amended its charter in 1785 specifically to exclude blacks from practicing a trade, selling goods, fishing in the harbor, or becoming freemen.

Back in the United States, Many Northerners who might have ignored slave issues in the South were confronted by local challenges that bound them to support slavery, this was a primary grievance cited by the Union. And the perception that Northern States ignored the fugitive slave law was a major justification for the South’s secession.

With the outbreak of the Civil War in the U.S., many black refugees left Canada to enlist in the Union Army. While some later returned to Canada, many remained in the United States. Thousands of others returned to the American South after the war ended. The desire to reconnect with friends and family was strong, and most were hopeful about the changes emancipation and Reconstruction would bring.

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman, born Araminta Harriet Ross, was born a slave in Dorchester County, Maryland. The year of her birth is unknown but it is believed to have occurred between 1820 and 1825. Araminta was one of nine children. Three of her sisters were sold to distant plantations, severing the family. When a trader from Georgia inquired about buying her youngest brother, her mother successfully resisted the further fracturing of her family, setting a powerful example for her.

Physical violence was a part of daily life for Araminta and her family. The violence she suffered early in life caused permanent physical injuries. She later recounted a particular day when she was lashed five times before breakfast. Araminta carried the scars for the rest of her life. The most severe injury occurred when she was an adolescent. Sent to a dry-goods store for supplies, Araminta encountered a slave who had left the fields without permission. The man’s overseer demanded that she help restrain the runaway. When Araminta refused, he threw a two pound weight that struck her in the head. She endured seizures, severe headaches, and narcoleptic episodes for the rest of her life.

The line between freedom and slavery was hazy for Araminta and her family. Her father, Ben, was freed from slavery at the age of 45, as stipulated in the will of a previous owner. Nonetheless, Ben had few options but to continue working as a timber estimator and foreman for his former owners. Although similar stipulations applied to her mother and siblings, the individuals who owned the family chose not to free them. Despite his free status, Ben had no power to challenge their decision.

By the time Araminta reached adulthood, around half of the African American people on the eastern shore of Maryland were free. It was not unusual for a family to include both free and enslaved people, as did her immediate family. In 1844, Araminta married a free black man named John Tubman. Little is known about John Tubman or his marriage to Araminta. Any children they might have had would have been considered enslaved, since the mother’s status dictated that of any offspring. Araminta changed her name to Harriet around the time of her marriage, possibly to honor her mother.

In 1849, Harriet Tubman became ill and her value as a slave was diminished as a result. Her owner tried to sell her, but could not find a buyer. Angry at his action and the unjust hold he kept on her relatives, Tubman began to pray for her owner, asking God to make him change his ways. “I prayed all night long for my master, till the first of March; and all the time he was bringing people to look at me, and trying to sell me.” When it appeared as though a sale was being settled, she changed her prayer. “I changed my prayer. First of March I began to pray, 'Oh Lord, if you ain't never going to change that man's heart, kill him, Lord, and take him out of the way.” A week later, he died, and Tubman expressed regret.

As in many estate settlements, her owner’s death increased the likelihood of Tubman being sold and her family being broken apart. His widow began working to sell the family's slaves. Tubman refused to wait for the family to decide her fate, despite her husband's efforts to discourage her. “There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other.”

Harriet Tubman initially left Maryland with two of her brothers, Ben and Henry, on September 17, 1849. Two weeks later, a notice published in the Cambridge Democrat offered a $300 reward for the return of Araminta, Harry, and Ben. Once they had left, Tubman’s brothers had second thoughts and returned to the plantation. Harriet had no plans to remain in bondage. Seeing her brothers safely home, she soon set off alone for Pennsylvania. Before she left, she tried to send word to her mother of her plans. She sang a coded song to a trusted fellow slave that was a farewell for her mother. “I'll meet you in the morning, I'm bound for the promised land.”

Tubman made use of the network known as the Underground Railroad to Philadelphia. This informal, but well-organized, system was composed of free and enslaved blacks, white abolitionists, and other activists. Most prominent among the latter in Maryland at the time were members of the Religious Society of Friends, often called Quakers.

Though her exact route is unknown, the Preston area near Poplar Neck in Caroline County contained a substantial Quaker community, and was probably an important first stop during Tubman's escape. From there, she probably took a common route for fleeing slaves, northeast along the Choptank River, through Delaware, and then north into Pennsylvania. A journey of nearly 90 miles, her traveling by foot would have taken between five days and three weeks.

Tubman had to travel by night, guided by the North Star, and trying to avoid slave catchers, eager to collect rewards for fugitive slaves. The “conductors” in the Underground Railroad used deceptions for protection. For example, at an early stop, the lady of the house ordered Tubman to so sweep the yard as to seem to be working for the family. When night fell, the family hid her in a cart and took her to the next friendly house. Once she crossed into the free state of Pennsylvania, she finally felt relief. “When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.”

Rather than remaining in the safety of the North, Tubman made it her mission to rescue her family and others living in slavery. In December 1850, Tubman received a warning that her niece Kessiah was going to be sold, along with her two young children. Kessiah’s husband, a free black man named John Bowley, made the winning bid for his wife at an auction in Baltimore. Harriet then helped the entire family make the journey to Philadelphia. This was the first of many trips by Tubman. Over time, she was able to guide her parents, several siblings, and about 60 others to freedom. One family member who declined to make the journey was Harriet’s husband, John, who preferred to stay in Maryland with his new wife.

The dynamics of escaping slavery changed in 1850, with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. This law stated that escaped slaves could be captured in the North and returned to slavery, leading to the abduction of former slaves and free blacks living in Free States. Law enforcement officials in the North were compelled to aid in the capture of slaves, regardless of their personal principles. In response to the law, Tubman re-routed the Underground Railroad to Canada, which prohibited slavery downright.

In April 1858, Tubman was introduced to the abolitionist John Brown, who advocated the use of violence to disrupt and destroy the institution of slavery. She shared Brown’s goals and at least tolerated his methods. When Brown began recruiting supporters for an attack on slaveholders at Harper’s Ferry, he turned to “General Tubman” for help. After Brown’s execution, Tubman praised him as a martyr.

Harriet Tubman remained active during the Civil War. Working for the Union Army as a cook and nurse, she quickly became an armed scout and spy for the union. The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, she guided the Combahee River Raid, which liberated more than 750 slaves in South Carolina. Tubman guided three steamboats around Confederate mines in the waters leading to the shore. Once ashore, the Union troops set fire to the plantations, destroying infrastructure and seizing thousands of dollars’ worth of food and supplies. When the steamboats sounded their whistles, slaves throughout the area understood that they were being liberated. Tubman watched as slaves stampeded toward the boats. Although their owners, armed with handguns and whips, tried to stop the mass escape, their efforts were useless in the commotion. As Confederate troops raced to the scene, steamboats packed full of slaves took off.

For two more years, Tubman worked for the Union forces, tending to newly liberated slaves, scouting into Confederate territory, and nursing wounded soldiers. She also made periodic trips back to Auburn, New York to visit her family and care for her parents. The Confederacy surrendered in April 1865; after donating several more months of service, Tubman headed home to Auburn. During a train ride to New York, the conductor told her to move into the smoking car. She refused, explaining her government service. He cursed at her and grabbed her, but she resisted and he summoned two other passengers for help. While she clutched at the railing, they muscled her away, breaking her arm in the process. They threw her into the smoking car, causing more injuries. As these events transpired, other white passengers cursed Tubman and shouted for the conductor to kick her off the train.

Despite her years of service, she had never received a regular salary and was denied compensation for years. Her unofficial status and the unequal payments offered to black soldiers caused great difficulty in documenting her service. Tubman did not receive a pension for her service in the Civil War until 1899. Her constant humanitarian work for her family and former slaves, meanwhile, kept her in a state of constant poverty.

In early 1859, Senator William H. Seward sold Tubman a small piece of land on the outskirts of Auburn, New York. The land in Auburn became a haven for Tubman’s family and friends. She spent the years following the war on this property, tending to her family and others who had taken up residence there. In 1869, she married a Civil War veteran named Nelson Davis. In 1874, Harriet and Nelson adopted a baby girl named Gertie.

Despite her fame and reputation, Harriet Tubman was never financially secure. Her friends and supporters were able to raise some funds to support her. Harriet continued to give freely in spite of her economic woes. In 1903, she donated a parcel of her land to the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Auburn. The Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged opened on this site in 1908.

As Tubman aged, the head injuries sustained early in her life became more painful and disruptive. She underwent brain surgery at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital to alleviate the pains and “buzzing” she experienced regularly. Tubman was eventually admitted into the rest home named in her honor. Surrounded by friends and family members, Harriet Tubman died of pneumonia in 1913.

Harriet Tubman was buried with military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn. The city commemorated her life with a plaque on the courthouse. Dozens of schools were named in her honor, and both the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn and the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cambridge serve as monuments to her life.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her childhood brought her early experiences with racial discrimination and activism for racial equality. After her parents separated, Rosa's mother moved the family to Pine Level, Alabama to live with her parents, both former slaves and strong advocates for racial equality. The family lived on a farm, where Rosa would spend her youth.

Taught to read by her mother at a young age, Rosa went on to attend a segregated, one-room school in Pine Level, Alabama, which often lacked adequate school supplies such as desks. African American students were forced to walk to the 1st through 6th grade schoolhouse while the city of Pine Level provided bus transportation as well as a new school building for white students.

In 1929, while in the 11th grade and attending a laboratory school for secondary education led by the Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes, Rosa left school to tend to both her sick grandmother and mother back in Pine Level. She never returned to her studies; instead, she got a job at a shirt factory in Montgomery.

In 1932, at age 19, Rosa met and married Raymond Parks, a barber and an active member of the NAACP. With Raymond's support, Rosa earned her high school degree in 1933. She soon became actively involved in civil rights issues by joining the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943, serving as the chapter's youth leader as well as secretary to NAACP President E.D. Nixon.

The Montgomery City Code required that all public transportation be segregated and that bus drivers had the “powers of a police officer of the city while in actual charge of any bus for the purposes of carrying out the provisions of the code.” While operating a bus, drivers were required to provide separate but equal accommodations for white and black passengers by assigning seats. This was accomplished with a line roughly in the middle of the bus separating white passengers in the front of the bus and black passengers in the back. When a black passenger boarded the bus, they had to get on at the front to pay their fare and then get off and re-board the bus at the back door. When the seats in the front of the bus filled up and more white passengers got on, the bus driver would move back the sign separating black and white passengers and, if necessary, ask black passengers give up their seat.

For years, the black community had complained that the situation was unfair. Rose Parks once stated, “My resisting being mistreated on the bus did not begin with that particular arrest. I did a lot of walking in Montgomery.” One day in 1943, Rosa boarded the bus and paid the fare. She then moved to her seat but driver James Blake told her to follow city rules and enter the bus again from the back door. Rosa exited the vehicle and he drove off leaving her in the rain. Rosa waited for the next bus, determined never to ride with Blake again.

On December 1, 1955, after a long day's work at a Montgomery department store, where she worked as a seamstress, Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus for home. She took a seat in the first row designated for “colored” passengers. Initially, she did not notice that the bus driver was the same man, James Blake, who had left her in the rain in 1943. Though the city's bus ordinance did give drivers the authority to assign seats, it didn't specifically give them the authority to demand a passenger to give up a seat to anyone, regardless of race. However, Montgomery bus drivers had adopted the custom of requiring black passengers to give up their seats to white passengers, when no other seats were available. If the black passenger protested, the bus driver would refuse service and could call the police to have them removed.

As the bus Rosa was riding continued on its route, it began to fill with white passengers. Eventually, the bus was full and Blake noticed that 2 or 3 white passengers were standing in the aisle. He stopped the bus and moved the sign separating the two sections back one row, waved his hand, and ordered the four black passengers to give up their seats. “I felt a determination to cover my body like a quilt on a winter night”, Rosa recalled. Blake then said, “Y'all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats.” They didn't move at the beginning, but he then said, “Let me have these seats.” The other three people moved, including the black man sitting next to her. Rosa moved, but toward the window seat. She did not get up to move to the re-designated “colored” section. Blake then said, “Why don't you stand up?” to which Rosa replied, “I don't think I should have to stand up.” And he said, “Well, if you don't stand up, I'm going to have to call the police and have you arrested.” She replied, “You may do that.” Black called the police and had her arrested. Later, Rosa recalled that her refusal wasn't because she was physically tired. “People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in…I thought of Emmett Till and I just couldn't go back.”

The police arrested Rosa at the scene. As the officer took her away, she asked, “Why do you push us around?” He replied, “I don't know, but the law's the law, and you're under arrest” She later said, “I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind” Rosa was charge with violation of Chapter 6, Section 11, of the Montgomery City Code, although technically she had not taken a white-only seat; she had been in a colored section and wasn’t allowed to be forced out of her seat. Edgar Nixon, president of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and her friend Clifford Durr bailed her out of jail the next evening.

On the evening that Rosa Parks was arrested, Nixon began forming plans to organize a boycott of Montgomery's city buses. Ads were placed in local papers, and handbills were printed and distributed in black neighborhoods. Members of the African American community were asked to stay off city buses on Monday, December 5, 1955, the day of Rosa's trial, in protest of her arrest. People were encouraged to stay home from work or school or take a cab or walk to work. With most of the African American community not riding the bus, organizers believed a longer boycott might be successful.

On the morning of December 5, a group of leaders from the African American community gathered at the Mt. Zion Church in Montgomery to discuss strategies, and determined that their boycott effort required a new organization and strong leadership. They formed the Montgomery Improvement Association, electing Montgomery newcomer Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. The organization believed that Rosa Parks' case provided an excellent opportunity to take further action to create real change.

When Rosa arrived at the courthouse for trial that morning with her attorney, Fred Gray, she was greeted by a bustling crowd of around 500 local supporters, who rooted her on. Following a 30 minute hearing, Rosa was found guilty of violating a local ordinance and was fined $10, as well as a $4 court fee. This triggered the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The city's buses were, by and large, empty. Some people carpooled and others rode in African American-operated cabs, but most of the estimated 40,000 African American commuters living in the city had opted to walk to work that day, regardless of the distance.

Due to the size and scope of, and loyalty to, boycott participation, the effort continued for several months. Dozens of public buses sat idle, ultimately severely crippling finances for its transit company. With the boycott's progress, however, came strong resistance. Some segregationists retaliated with violence. Black churches were burned, and both Dr. King’s and Edgar Nixon's homes were destroyed by bombings. The city made multiple attempts to end the boycott. The insurance was canceled for the city taxi system that was used by African Americans. Black citizens were arrested for violating an obsolete law prohibiting boycotts.

In response to the ensuing events, members of the African American community took legal action. Using the “Brown v. Board of Education” decision, which stated that separate but equal policies had no place in public education, a black legal team, led by Rosa’s attorney, took the issue of segregation on public transit systems to the U.S. District Court. In June 1956, the district court declared racial segregation laws (also known as “Jim Crow laws”) unconstitutional. The city of Montgomery appealed the court's decision shortly, but on November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling.

With the transit authority and downtown businesses suffering financial loss and the legal system ruling against them, the city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift its enforcement of segregation on public buses, and the boycott officially ended on December 20, 1956. The combination of legal action, backed by the unrelenting determination of the African American community, made the 381 day Montgomery Bus Boycott one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history.

Although she had become a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks suffered hardship in the months following her arrest in Montgomery and the boycott. She lost her department store job and her husband was fired after his boss forbade him to talk about his wife or their legal case. Unable to find work, they eventually left Montgomery; the couple, along with Rosa's mother, moved to Detroit, Michigan. There, Rosa made a new life for herself, working as a secretary and receptionist in U.S. Representative John Conyer's congressional office. She also served on the board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

In 1987, Rosa founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. The organization runs “Pathways to Freedom” bus tours, introducing young people to important civil rights and Underground Railroad sites throughout the country.

Rosa Parks received many honors during her lifetime, including the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest award, and the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Award. On September 9, 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Rosa the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the United States' executive branch. The following year, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given by the U.S. legislative branch.

On October 24, 2005, Rosa Parks died in her apartment in Detroit, Michigan. She had been diagnosed the previous year with progressive dementia. Her death was marked by several memorial services, an estimated 50,000 people attended the ceremony at Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. Rosa was laid to rest between her husband and mother at Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery, in the chapel's mausoleum. Shortly after her death, the chapel was renamed the Rosa L. Parks Freedom Chapel.

February 4, 2013 marks what would have been Rosa Parks' 100th birthday. In celebration of her centennial, memorial ceremonies and other events honoring her was planned nationwide. Among these honors, a commemorative U.S. Postal Service stamp, called the Rosa Parks Forever stamp debuted on her 100th birthday. Later that month, President Barack Obama unveiled a statue honoring Rosa in the United States Capitol building. He remembered her by saying “In a single moment, with the simplest of gestures, she helped change America and change the world… today, she takes her rightful place among those who shaped this nation’s course.”