Martin Luther King Jr.
Mahatma Gandhi
Olympe de Gouges
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
Victoria Woodhull
W.E.B. Du Bois
Alice Paul
B. R. Ambedkar
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Walter P. Reuther
Dorothy Height
Nelson Mandela
Betty Friedan
Frank Kameny
Elie Wiesel
Desmond Tutu
James Bevel
George Mason

Civil rights leaders are influential figures in the promotion and implementation of political freedom and the expansion of personal civil liberties and rights. They work to protect individuals and groups from political repression and discrimination by governments and private organizations, and seek to ensure the ability of all members of society to participate in the civil and political life of the state.[citation needed]

List

People who motivated themselves and then led others to gain and protect these rights and liberties include:

NameBornDiedCountryNotes
George Mason17251792United Stateswrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights and influenced the United States Bill of Rights
Thomas Paine17371809United StatesEnglish-American activist, author, theorist, wrote Rights of Man
Elizabeth Freeman17441829United Statesalso known as Mum Bett – first former slave to win a freedom suit in Massachusetts
Olaudah Equiano17451797United Kingdom Nigeriapurchased his freedom, helped found the Sons of Africa, and wrote the influential The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano depicting the horrors of the slave trade
Jeremy Bentham17481832United KingdomBritish philosopher, writer, and teacher on civil rights, inspiration
Olympe de Gouges17481793Francewomen's rights pioneer, writer, beheaded during French Revolution
Ottobah Cugoano17571791United Kingdom Ghanacaptured from West Africa, he became a member of the Sons of Africa and argued against slavery on Christian and philosophical grounds
William Wilberforce17591833United Kingdomleader of the British abolition movement
Mary Wollstonecraft17591797United KingdomBritish author of A Vindication of the Rights of Men and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Thaddeus Stevens17921868United Statesrepresentative from Pennsylvania, anti-slavery leader, originator of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Lucretia Mott17931880United Stateswomen's rights activist, abolitionist
John Neal17931876United Statesfeminist essayist and lecturer active 1823–1876; first American women's rights lecturer
John Brown18001859United Statesabolitionist, orator, martyr
Angelina Grimké18051879United Statesadvocate for abolition, woman's rights
William Lloyd Garrison18051879United Statesabolitionist, writer, organizer, feminist, initiator
Lysander Spooner18081887United Statesabolitionist, writer, anarchist, proponent of Jury nullification
Charles Sumner18111874United StatesSenator from Massachusetts, anti-slavery leader
Abby Kelley18111887United Statesabolitionist and suffragette
Wendell Phillips18111884United Statesabolitionist, labor reformer, temperance activist, advocate for Native Americans
Harriet Jacobs1813 or 18151897United Statesher autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, considered an "American classic." Founded schools for fugitive and free slaves.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton18151902United Stateswomen's suffrage/women's rights leader
Lucy Stone18181893United Stateswomen's suffrage/voting rights leader
Frederick Douglass18181895United Statesabolitionist, women's rights and suffrage advocate, writer, organizer, black rights activist, inspiration
Julia Ward Howe18181910United Stateswriter, organizer, suffragette
Susan B. Anthony18201906United Stateswomen's suffrage leader, speaker, inspiration
Harriet Tubman18221913United StatesAfrican-American abolitionist and humanitarian
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs18251895Germanywriter, organizer, and the pioneer of the modern LGBT rights movement
Antoinette Brown Blackwell18251921United Statesfounded American Woman Suffrage Association with Lucy Stone in 1869
Luís Gama18301882Brazilformer slave, a journalist, poet and an autodidact lawyer who defended enslaved people and was among the earlier proponents of the abolitionist and republican movements in 19th-century Brazil.
Victoria Woodhull18381927United Statessuffragette organizer, women's rights leader
Frances Willard18391898United Stateswomen's rights activist, woman suffrage leader
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin18421924United Statessuffragist, editor, co-founder of the first chapter of the NAACP
Kate Sheppard18481934New Zealandsuffragist in first country to have universal suffrage
Eugene Debs18551926United Statesorganizer, campaigner for the poor, women, dissenters, prisoners
Booker T. Washington18561915United Stateseducator, founder of Tuskegee University, and adviser to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft
Emmeline Pankhurst18581928United Kingdomfounder and leader of the British Suffragette Movement
Charles Grafton18691948United StatesReverend Charles Grafton Archdioceses of Wisconsin Fond Du Lac. Responsible for Rescue helping the Slaves. Under Ground Railroad Initiator Wisconsin Boston, New York, and the Southern States civil rights, known abolitionist. Brought the Convent of the Holy Nativity Nuns to Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin activist, movement leader, writer, philosopher, and teacher Responsible for helping to establish townships all over Wisconsin, and other parts of the United States
Carrie Chapman Catt18591947United Statessuffrage leader, president National American Woman Suffrage Association, founder League of Women Voters and International Alliance of Women
Jane Addams18601935United Statesreformer, co-founder of the Hull House and American Civil Liberties Union, 1931 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Ida B. Wells18621931United Statesjournalist, early activist in 20th-century civil rights movement, women's suffrage/voting rights activist
W.E.B. Du Bois18681963United Stateswriter, scholar, founder of NAACP
Magnus Hirschfeld18681935Germanyphysician, sexologist and early advocate of homosexual and transgender rights
Kasturba Gandhi18691944Indiawife of Mohandas Gandhi, activist in South Africa and India, often led her husband's movements in India when he was imprisoned
Mahatma Gandhi18691948Indiathe Father of India, greatest unifier of Indians pre-Independence and peaceful activist, Pan-Indian Freedom movement Leader, writer, philosopher, social awakening reg Dalits and teacher/inspiration to many like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel18751950Indiaactivist, movement leader, followed and trusted Mahatma Gandhi's Ideology and peaceful movement.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah18761948Pakistanlawyer, politician, and the founder of Pakistan; lead Pakistan Movement for the rights of Muslims in the subcontinent
Lucy Burns18791966United Stateswomen's suffrage/voting rights leader
Homer G. Phillips18801931United StatesRepublican political figure, and a prominent advocate for civil rights.
José do Patrocínio18541905Braziljournalist, one of the main leaders of the abolitionist movement in Brazil.
Eleanor Roosevelt18841962United Stateswomen's rights and human rights activist both in the United States and in the United Nations
Alice Paul18851977United StatesWomen's Voting Rights Movement leader, strategist, and organizer
Marcus Garvey18871940Jamaicapolitical activist, publisher, journalist
Sonia Schlesin18881956Russiaworked with Mohandas Gandhi in South Africa and led his movements there when he was absent
Toyohiko Kagawa18881960Japanlabor activist, Christian reformer, author
Bernard J. Quinn18881940United StatesRoman Catholic priest
Jawaharlal Nehru18891964Indiafirst Prime Minister of India, central figure in Indian politics before and after independence, advocate for freedom of the press
A. Philip Randolph18891979United Stateslabor and civil rights movement leader
Abdul Ghaffar Khan18901988PakistanPashtun independence activist and strong advocate for non-violence. Founder of the Khudai Khidmatgar resistance movement against British colonial rule in India.
B. R. Ambedkar18911956Indiasocial reformer, civil rights activist, and scholar and who drafted Constitution of India, campaigned for Indian independence, fought for the women's rights, fought discrimination and inequality among the people.
Walter Francis White18951955United StatesNAACP executive secretary
Maria L. de Hernández18961986United StatesMexican-American rights activist
Thích Quảng Đức18971963South Vietnammonk, freedom of religion self-martyr
Albert Lutuli18981967South AfricaPresident of the African National Congress, against apartheid in South Africa, 1960 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Edgar Nixon18991987United StatesMontgomery bus boycott organizer, civil rights activist
Roy Wilkins19011981United StatesNAACP executive secretary/executive director
Harriette Moore19021951United Statescivil rights activist, and part of the only married couple to be assassinated during the Civil Rights Movement
Ella Baker19031986United StatesSCLC activist, initiated the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Kiowa Costonie19031971United Statesactivist against racial inequality. Known for the "Buy where you can work" campaign
Marvel Cooke19032000United Statescivil rights leader
Myles Horton19051990United Statesteacher of nonviolence, pioneer activist, founded and led the Highlander Folk School
John Peters Humphrey19051995Canadaauthor of Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Jack Patten19051957AustraliaAboriginal Australian civil rights activist, journalist, founder of first Aboriginal newspaper, led the Cummeragunja Walk-Off in 1939, protested the persecution of Jewish people, president and co-founder of Aborigines Progressive Association, led the first Aboriginal delegation to meet with a sitting prime minister.
Nellie Stone Johnson19052002United Stateslabor and civil rights activist
Harry T. Moore19051951United Statescivil rights activist, leader, and the first martyr of the Civil Rights Movement
Willa Brown19061992United Statescivil rights activist, first African-American lieutenant in the US Civil Air Patrol, first African-American woman to run for Congress
Walter P. Reuther19071970United Stateslabor leader and civil rights activist
T.R.M. Howard19081976United Statesfounder of Mississippi's Regional Council of Negro Leadership
Winifred C. Stanley19091996United Statesfirst member of Congress to introduce legislation prohibiting discrimination in pay on the basis of sex
Pauli Murray19101985United StatesAmerican civil rights activist who became a lawyer, gender equality advocate, Episcopal priest, and author
Elizabeth Peratrovich19111958United StatesAlaskan activist for native people
Amelia Boynton Robinson19112015United StatesSelma Voting Rights Movement activist and early leader
Dorothy Height19122010United Statesactivist and advocate for African-American women
Bayard Rustin19121987United Statescivil rights activist
Jo Ann Robinson19121992United StatesMontgomery bus boycott activist
Harry Hay19122002United Statesearly leader in American LGBT rights movement, founder Mattachine Society
Rosa Parks19132005United StatesNAACP official, activist, Montgomery bus boycott inspiration
Daisy Bates19141999United Statesorganizer of the Little Rock Nine school desegregation events
Viola Desmond19141965CanadaBlack Canadian civil rights activist and businesswoman
George Raymond19141999United Statescivil rights activist, head of the Chester, Pennsylvania branch of the NAACP
Claude Black19162009United Statescivil rights activist
Frankie Muse Freeman19162018United Statescivil rights attorney, first woman appointee to United States Commission on Civil Rights
Fannie Lou Hamer19171977United Statesleader in the American Civil Rights Movement; co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus and Freedom Democratic Party
Marie Foster19172003United Statesvoting rights activist, a local leader in the Selma Voting Rights Movement
Humberto "Bert" Corona19182001United Stateslabor and civil rights leader
Gordon Hirabayashi19182012United StatesJapanese-American civil rights hero
Nelson Mandela19182013South Africastatesman, leading figure in Anti-Apartheid Movement
Jackie Robinson19191972United StatesBroke Major League Baseball's color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947
Fred Korematsu19192005United StatesJapanese internment resister during World War II
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman19201975BangladeshFather of the nation of Bangladesh.
James Farmer19201999United StatesCongress of Racial Equality (CORE) leader and activist
Golden Frinks19202004United Statescivil rights organizer in North Carolina, field secretary of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
Betty Friedan19212006United Stateswriter, women's rights activist, feminist
Joseph Lowery19212020United StatesSCLC leader and co-founder, activist
Del Martin19212008United Statesco-founder of Daughters of Bilitis, first social and political organization for lesbians in the US
Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley19212003United Statesheld an open casket funeral for her son, Emmett Till; speaker, activist
Whitney M. Young, Jr.19211971United StatesExecutive director of National Urban League, adviser to U.S. presidents
Charles Evers19222020United Statescivil rights activist
Fred Shuttlesworth19222011United Statesclergyman, activist, SCLC co-founder, initiated the Birmingham Movement
Clara Luper19232011United Statessit-in movement leader in Oklahoma, activist
William Ryan (psychologist)19232002United StatesCivil rights activist
James Baldwin19241987United Statesessayist, novelist, public speaker, SNCC activist
Phyllis Lyon19242020United Statesco-founder of Daughters of Bilitis, first social and political organization for lesbians in the U.S.
C.T. Vivian19242020United Statesstudent civil rights leader, SNCC and SCLC activist
Lenny Bruce19251966United Statesfree speech advocate, comedian, political satirist
Medgar Evers19251963United StatesNAACP official in the Mississippi Movement
Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga19242018United Statesactivist in Japanese-American redress movement
Frank Kameny19252011United Statesgay rights activist
Malcolm X19251965United Statesauthor, speaker, activist, inspiration
Ralph Abernathy19261990United Statesactivist, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) official
Reies Tijerina19262015United StatesHispano activist
Jackie Forster19261998United KingdomEnglish lesbian rights activist
Hosea Williams19262000United Statescivil rights activist, SCLC organizer and strategist
Cesar Chavez19271993United StatesChicano activist, organizer, trade unionist
Coretta Scott King19272006United StatesSCLC leader, activist
Phyllis M. Ryan19271998United StatesCivil rights activist
James Forman19282005United StatesSNCC official and civil rights activist
James Lawson19282024United StatesAmerican minister and activist, SCLC's teacher of nonviolence in civil rights movement
Elie Wiesel19282016United Stateswriter, Holocaust survivor, Jewish rights leader
Martin Luther King Jr.19291968United StatesSCLC co-founder/president/chairman, activist, author, speaker
Edison Uno19291976United Statesleader for Japanese-American civil rights and redress after World War II
Wyatt Tee Walker19282018United Statesactivist and organizer with NAACP, CORE, and SCLC
Dorothy Cotton19302018United StatesSCLC official, activist, organizer, and leader
Dolores Huerta1930United Stateslabor and civil rights activist, initiator, organizer
Harvey Milk19301978United Statespolitician, gay rights activist, and leader for the LGBT community
Rupert Richardson19302008United Statescivil rights activist and civil rights leader who served as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1992 to 1995
Charles Morgan, Jr.19302009United Statesattorney, established principle of "one man, one vote"
Desmond Tutu19312021South Africaanti-apartheid organizer, advocate, first black archbishop of Cape Town
Barbara Gittings19322007United Stateslesbian rights activist
Dick Gregory19322017United Statesfree speech advocate, civil rights activist, comedian
Lola Hendricks19322013United Statesactivist, local leader in Birmingham Movement
Miriam Makeba19322008South Africasinger, anti-apartheid activist
Víctor Jara19321973Chileteacher, theater director, poet, singer-songwriter and Communist[2] political activist
Andrew Young1932United Statescivil rights activist, SCLC executive director
Stanley Branche19331992United Statescivil rights activitst, founder of the Committee For Freedom Now
James Meredith1933United Statesindependent student leader and self–starting Mississippi activist
Violeta Zúñiga19332019Chilehuman rights activist
Roy Innis19342017United Statesactivist, longtime leader of CORE
Jane Goodall19342025United Kingdomscientist, activist, ecologist
Gloria Steinem1934United Stateswriter, activist, feminist
Bob Moses19352021United Statesleader, activist, and organizer in '60s Mississippi Movement
James Bevel19362008United Statesorganizer and Direct Action leader, SCLC's main strategist, movement initiator, and movement director
Barbara Jordan19361996United Stateslegislator, educator, civil rights advocate
Richard C. Boone19372013United Statescivil Rights activist SCLC, Chaplain, Major US Army
Charles Sherrod19372022United Statescivil rights activist, SNCC leader
Fela Kuti19381997Nigeriamulti-instrumentalist, musician, composer, pioneer of the Afrobeat music genre, human rights activist, and political maverick
Diane Nash1938United StatesSNCC and SCLC activist and official, strategist, organizer
Claudette Colvin19392026United StatesMontgomery bus boycott pioneer, independent activist
Jack Herer19392010United Statespro-hemp activist, speaker, organizer, author
Julian Bond19402015United Statesactivist, politician, scholar, NAACP chairman
Prathia Hall19402002United StatesSNCC activist, a leading speaker in the civil rights movement
Bernard Lafayette19402026United StatesSCLC and SNCC activist, organizer, and leader
Muhammad Yunus1940BangladeshBangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance.}
John Lewis19402020United StatesNashville Student Movement and SNCC activist, organizer, speaker, congressman
Stokely Carmichael19411998United StatesSNCC and Black Panther activist, organizer, speaker
Jesse Jackson19412026United Statescivil rights activist, politician
James Orange19422008United StatesSCLC activist and organizer, a voting rights movement leader, trade unionist
Gerd Fleischer1942Norwayhuman rights activist
Herman Baca1943United StatesChicano activist in California and member of Committee on Chicano Rights
Peter Tosh19441987JamaicaMarijuana legalization activist, promoter of the rights of Africans within Africa as well as Black people across the diaspora, reggae musician.
Marsha P. Johnson19451992United StatesGay liberation activist, STAR co-founder, AIDS activist with ACT UP
Heather Booth1945United StatesSNCC activist, men’s movement organizer, and founder of the Midwest Academy
Angelina Atyam1946Ugandahuman rights activist for the Aboke abductions
Dick Oosting1946Netherlandshuman rights lawyer and activist
Dana Beal1947United Statespro-hemp activist, organizer, speaker, initiator
Saïd Bouziri19472009FranceTunisian human rights and immigrant rights activist; co- founder of several human rights groups
Ashok Row Kavi1947IndiaLGBT rights activist, gay rights pioneer, founder of Humsafar Trust
Benjamin Chavis1948United Statesactivist, chemist, minister, author, leader of Wilmington Ten, led Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ, campaigned against environmental racism, executive director of NAACP, national director of Million Man March
Fred Hampton19481969United StatesNAACP youth leader and Black Panther activist, organizer, speaker
Sylvia Rivera19512002United StatesGay liberation and transgender rights activist, STAR house co-founder
Cedric Prakash1951IndiaJesuit Priest, Human Rights Activist, Organizer, Journalist, and Speaker
Judy Shepard1952United Statesgay rights activist, public speaker
Barbara May Cameron19542002United Statesadvocate for the rights of Native Americans, lesbians, and women
Bobby Sands19541981IrelandHunger striker for better conditions for Irish prisoners in British prisons
Al Sharpton1954United Statesclergyman, activist, media
Will Roscoe1955United Statesgay rights activist
Rigoberta Menchú1959Guatemalaindigenous rights leader, co-founder of Nobel Women's Initiative
Eulalie Nibizi1960Burundihuman rights activist, trade unionist
Steven Goldstein1962United Statesgay rights advocate, political activist
Chee Soon Juan1962Singaporepolitician, former political prisoner, democracy and human rights activist
Manasi Pradhan1962Indiawomen's rights activist, founder of Honour for Women National Campaign
Céline Narmadji1964Chadhuman and women's rights activist, active in improving conditions for the local population
Deborah Parker1970United StatesIndigenous rights and women's rights activist who was critical in ensuring the passage of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013
Mariela Belski1971ArgentinaExecutive Director, Amnesty International Argentina
Gloria Casarez19712014United StatesLatina lesbian civil rights leader and LGBT activist in Philadelphia
Harish Iyer1979Indiagender and sexuality rights activist, campaigner against child sexual abuse and for animal rights
Kate Lynn Blatt1981United Statestransgender rights activist, Transgender pioneer and civil rights activist Kate Lynn Blatt won a landmark lawsuit against Cabela’s retail Inc. expandng protections for transgender people under the ADA, and became the first trans woman to sue under the Americans with disabilities act
Edvin Kanka Ćudić1988Bosnia and Herzegovinahuman rights activist, founder and coordinator of UDIK in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Malala Yousafzai1997Pakistanadvocate for education for girls, 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate

See also

See each individual for their references.

External links