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Malcolm X (Al Hajj Malik El Shabazz) May 19, 1925 - February 21, 1965 Born in Omaha Nebraska on May 19, 1925, Malcolm Little was raised by members of Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). When Malcolm was only six years old, his father was killed by Ku Klux Klan members in Lansing, Michigan. Shortly thereafter Malcolm’s mother suffered a mental breakdown and Malcolm relocated to Boston where he hustled on the streets of Roxbury. While in prison for a burglary charge, Malcolm joined the Nation of Islam. After his release Malcolm changed his last name to X and took on prominent leadership roles in the N.O.I. recruiting many and breathing new life into the organization. His work with the N.O.I. ceased as Malcolm became aware of corruption within the N.O.I. After his split, Malcolm made his pilgrimage to Mecca and came back to form the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). He changed his name to Al Hajj Malik El Shabazz. As he built his organization up, Malcolm came under increased surveillance by the F.B.I. and C.I.A. It became increasingly apparent Malcolm’s life was in danger. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm was assassinated in front of his family while delivering a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. For more information check out: |
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Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey August 17, 1887 - June 10, 1940 Marcus Garvey was born on August 17, 1887 in St. Ann’s, Jamaica. When he was fourteen years old, he left school to work as a printer’s apprentice. As he grew older, Garvey began to participate in numerous Black Nationalist organizations. He traveled throughout Central America and Europe teaching African unity, self reliance, and economic independence. In 1916, Garvey was invited by Booker T. Washington to come to the United States and begin an industrial training school. When he got here, however, Washington was no longer alive. Despite this setback, Garvey remained in the United States to begin a chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. Marcus Garvey is most noted for creating the international shipping company, the Black Star Line in 1919, and creating the Pan-African Liberation Flag, which bore the colors red black and green, symbolizing the blood African’s have shed, our noble and distinguished race, and Africa’s lush vegetation. Marcus Garvey was a strong proponent of Blacks in America going back to Africa. |
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Harriet Tubman 1820-1913 Harriet Tubman was born a slave with the name Araminta Ross in Maryland around 1820. When she was six years old, she began working as a house servant. When she was 13, she was forced to work in the fields, where she suffered a devastating injury when an overseer threw a two-pound weight in her direction striking her in the head. As a result she suffered uncontrollable sleeping spells. In 1844, she married a free black man named, John Tubman. In 1849 Harriet Tubman left the plantation and later came back for her sister and her sister’s children. Then, she came back for her brother and two other men. Later she returned to free her husband only to find he had taken another wife. She went on to free over 300 slaves over a ten-year period on 19 trips. Tubman carried a gun to keep scared slaves in check. “You’ll be free or die,” she would tell them. |
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Sojourner Truth c. 1797– - November 26, 1883 The self-given name, from 1843, of Isabella Baumfree, an American abolitionist. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York. Her most famous speech, which became known as Ain't I a Woman?, was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. |
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Huey Newton February 17, 1942 - August 22, 1989 Co-founder and inspirational leader of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, a black nationalist/racial equality organization that began in October 1966. |
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Elijah Muhammad c. October 7, 1897 - February 25, 1975 Leader/Founder of the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death. |
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Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael) June 29, 1941 - November 15, 1998 A Trinidadian-American Black activist, leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and later prime minister of the Black Panther Party. Initially an integrationist, he later became a black separatist and a Pan-Africanist. |
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Khallid Abdul Muhammad January 12, 1948 - February 17, 2001 Born Harold Moore, Jr. became an extremely controversial spokesperson and Supreme Captain for the Nation of Islam (NOI) until 1993 and later became National Chairman of the New Black Panther Party from the late 1990s until his death. |
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Jomo Kenyatta October 20, 1893 - August 22, 1978 Kenyan politician, the first Prime Minister (1963-–1964) and President (1964–-1978) of an independent Kenya. He is considered the founding father of the Kenyan Nation. Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is named after him. |
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Ida B. Wells July 16, 1862 - March 25, 1931 Later known as Ida Wells-Barnett, was an African American civil rights advocate, and led a strong cause against lynching. She was a fearless anti-lynching crusader, suffragist, women's rights advocate, journalist and speaker. |
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Nat Turner October 2, 1800 - November 11, 1831 An American slave whose slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, was the most remarkable instance of black resistance to enslavement in the antebellum southern United States. His methodical slaughter of white civilians during the uprising made him a controversial figure, but he is still considered by many to be a heroic figure of black resistance to oppression. Nat started with a few trusted fellow slaves. The rebels traveled from house to house, freeing slaves and killing all the white people they found. The insurgency ultimately numbered more than 50 slaves and free blacks.Because the slaves did not want to alert anyone to their presence as they carried out their attacks, they initially used knives, hatchets, axes, and blunt instruments instead of firearms. Nat called on his group to "kill all whites." The rebellion did not discriminate by age or sex, although Nat later indicated that he intended to spare women, children, and men who surrendered as it went on. Before Nat and his brigade of slaves met resistance at the hands of a white militia, 55 white men, women and children had been killed. |
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Kwame Nkrumah September 21, 1909 - April 27, 1972 An anti-colonial, anti-neo-colonial, and anti-imperialist African leader from Ghana. Nkrumah was the founder and first president of the modern Ghanaian state and emerged as one of the most influential Pan-Africanists of the 20th century. |
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Nanny of the Maroons (also known as Grandy Nanny, Queen Nanny and Granny Nanny) A National Hero of Jamaica, was a well-known leader of the Maroons of Jamaica. As a revolt leader, she aided in the defeat of the British army in several battles. Grandy Nanny was originally born in Ghana, West Africa as a member of the Ashanti Empire and was then taken to Jamaica supposedly as a slave, but there are also reports that she was deliberately sent by her people to aid slave rebels. Upon her arrival, Jamaica was already in the midst of slave rebellions. The largest, most organized rebellion groups were those of Maroons which were also very well defended due to their organization. Contrary to popular belief, the Maroons were originally free Africans who were not sold into slavery, but came over to the America's without charge. However, under British rule, many slaves were able to escape and join the Maroons because of their highly organized nature. Eventually, the newly run away slaves were also known as Maroons. |
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Nefertiti Nefertiti (the beauty that has come) was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (later Akhenaten), and mother-in-law of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun. She may have also ruled in her own right under the name Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti (meaning, the Aten is radiant of radiance because the Beautiful has arrived) briefly after her husband's death and before the accession of Tutankhamun. Her name roughly translates to "the beautiful (or perfect) woman has come". She also shares her name with a type of elongated gold bead, called nefer, that she was often portrayed as wearing. Her bust is one of the most famous works of ancient Egypt. It was attributed to the sculptor Thutmose, and was found in his workshop. She had many titles, at Karnak there are inscriptions that read Heiress, Great of Favour, Possessed of Charm, Exuding Happiness, Mistress of Sweetness, beloved one, soothing the king's heart in his house, soft-spoken in all, Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt, Great King's Wife, whom he loves, Lady of the Two Lands, Nefertiti. |
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Queen Makeda The Queen of Sheba, (Nigist Saba; Amharic), referred to in the Bible books of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, the New Testament, the Qur'an, and Ethiopian history, was the ruler of Sheba, an ancient kingdom which was located in present-day Eritrea, Ethiopia and Yemen. Unnamed in the biblical text, she is called Makeda (possibly meaning "not this way/not thus") in the Ethiopian tradition, and in Islamic tradition her name is Bilqis. Alternative names given for her have been Nikaule or Nicaula. |
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Pam Africa November 1946 - present MOVE member and Director of International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Revolutionary sister/warrior Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Revolutionary sister/warrior |
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Rosa Louise McCauley Parks February 4, 1913 - October 24, 2005 An African American seamstress and civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress dubbed the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement". Parks is famous for her refusal on December 1, 1955 to obey a bus driver's demand that she relinquish her seat to a white passenger. Her subsequent arrest and trial for this act of civil disobedience triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and launched Martin Luther King, Jr., to the forefront of the civil rights movement. Her role in American history earned her an iconic status in American culture, and her actions have left an enduring legacy for civil rights movements around the world. |