They Defied Them

Jo Ann Robinson: A Heroine of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Jo Anne Robinson complained again and again to the white leaders of Montgomery, Alabama city about the unfair bus seating laws and abusive/racist drivers' conduct. Because she was ignored, Robinson began making plans for a bus boycott by the city's African American community. When Rosa Park was arrested in December 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person, Robinson and a few associates copied tens of thousands of leaflets calling for a one-day boycott.

The one day boycott was so successful, Montgomery's African-Americans decided to continue, with Robinson and her organization, the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), to organize it. Robinson introduced the world to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. making sure he became the MIA's president.

Phillis Wheatley: the First African American to Publish a Book of Poetry

Born a slave, she learned how to read and write on her without help from anyone.

Harriet Tubman: America's greatest spy

Known for her work freeing slaves from the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman was the first African-American to lead United State's forces into battle. Not only did she win, but as a spy, she helped the Union defeat the Confederacy in the War Between the States and because of her skills as a spy, slavery came to an end.

Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer: She Fought for the Right to Vote

After Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer became a SNCC organizer, she led seventeen volunters to register to vote on August 31, 1962 at the Indianola, Mississippi Courthouse. Because of an unfair literacy test, the group was not allowed to register, were harassed on their way home, and the police stopped their school bus fining them $100 because the bus was too yellow. That night, her boss fired Hamer for her attempt to vote and made her husband stay on their farm until the harvest. Her boss then confiscated most of their property. She kept trying and she finally got to vote.

Marian Wright Edelman: Advocate for the Underdog

Marian Wright Edelman founded the Children's Defense Fund in 1973. She advocated for poor children, children of color, and children with disabilities. It helped with the passage of laws that promised equal educational opportunities for all children. Mrs. Edelman persuaded Congress to change the laws on foster care, support adoption, improve child care and protect children who are disabled, homeless, abused or neglected.

Gloria Richardson: The Woman Created the Proactive Civil Rights Movement

After World War ll, Gloria Richardson applied to be a social worker, but the Maryland Department of Social Services would not hire her because she was African-American.or any other African American. She helped create the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee in 1962 to fight against segregation in public institutions. The group refused to commit to non-violence. One of the protests she began ended up with Maryland's Governor J. Millard Tawes bringing in the state's National Guard. Richardson influenced a rising generation of Black power leaders: H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, and Cleveland Sellers. She was on the program as a speaker at the March on Washington, but only said hello before the microphone was taken away.