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.
Civil rights include individual rights to equal protection and service, privacy, freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to travel, freedom of worship, protection of civil liberties, the right to vote, and the right to freely share ideas and opinions through all forms of communication and media. People who motivated themselves and then led others to gain and protect these rights and liberties include:
George Mason (1725–1792) – American who wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights and influenced U.S. Bill of Rights
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) – English-American activist, author, theorist, wrote Rights of Man
Elizabeth Freeman (1744–1829) also known as Mum Bett - first former slave to win a freedom suit in Massachusetts
Olympe de Gouges (1748–1793) – French women's rights pioneer, writer, beheaded during French Revolution
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) – British philosopher, writer, and teacher on civil rights, inspiration
James Madison (1751–1836) – American founding father, introduced and lobbied for the U.S. Bill of Rights
William Wilberforce (1759–1833) – leader of the British abolition movement
Thaddeus Stevens (1792–1868) American Senator from Pennsylvania, Anti-slavery leader, originator of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) – American abolitionist, writer, organizer, feminist, initiator
Lysander Spooner (1808–1887) – American abolitionist, writer, anarchist, proponent of Jury nullification
Charles Sumner (1811–1874) – American Senator from Massachusetts, Anti-slavery leader
Abby Kelley (1811–1887) – American abolitionist and suffragette
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) – American women's suffrage/women's rights leader
Lucy Stone (1818–1893) – American women's suffrage/voting rights leader
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) – American abolitionist, women's rights and suffrage advocate, writer, organizer, black rights activist, inspiration
Julia Ward Howe (1818–1910) – American writer, organizer, suffragette
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) – American Women's suffrage leader, speaker, inspiration
Harriet Tubman (1822–1913) – African American abolitionist and humanitarian
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825–1895) – German writer, organizer, and the pioneer of the modern LGBT rights movement
Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921) – founded American Woman Suffrage Association with Lucy Stone in 1869
Victoria Woodhull (1838–1927) – American suffragette organizer, women's rights leader
Frances Willard (1839–1898) – American women's rights activist, woman suffrage leader
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (1842-1924) – suffragist, editor, co-founder of the first chapter of the NAACP
Kate Sheppard (1847–1934) – New Zealand suffragist in first country to have universal suffrage
Eugene Debs (1855–1926) – American organizer, campaigner for the poor, women, dissenters, prisoners
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) – American educator, founder of Tuskegee University, and advisor to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft
Thomas Clarke (11 March 1858 – 3 May 1916) – Signator of the Irish Procolamation. Advocate for equality and freedom for Irish men and women
Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) – founder and leader of the British Suffragette Movement
Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947) – suffrage leader, president National American Woman Suffrage Association, founder League of Women Voters and International Alliance of Women
Jane Addams (1860–1935) – American reformer, co-founder of the Hull House and American Civil Liberties Union, Nobel Peace Prize winner
Ida B. Wells (1862–1931) – American journalist, early activist in 20th Century Civil Rights Movement, women's suffrage/voting rights activist
James Connolly (5 June 1868 – 12 May 1916) – Signator of the Irish Proclamation. Advocate for equal rights for Irish men and women.
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963) – American writer, scholar, founder of NAACP
Kasturba Gandhi (1869–1944) – wife of Mohandas Gandhi, activist in South Africa and India, often led her husband's movements in India when he was imprisoned
Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948) – Indian activist, movement leader, writer, philosopher, and teacher
Vallabhbhai Patel (1875–1950) Indian activist, movement leader
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a lawyer, politician, and the founder of Pakistan.Jinnah lead Pakistan Movement for the rights of Muslims in the subcontinent
Thomas MacDonagh (1 February 1878 – 3 May 1916) – Signator of the Irish Procolamation, advocate for equal rights for Irish men and women
Pádraig Pearse (10 November 1879 – 3 May 1916)) – Signator of the Irish Procolamation, advocate for equal rights for Irish men and women
Lucy Burns (1879–1966) – American women's suffrage/voting rights leader
Éamonn Ceannt (21 September 1881 – 8 May 1916) – Signator of the Irish Procolamation, advocate for equal rights for Irish men and women
Getúlio Vargas (1882–1954) – Brazilian civil leader, President of Brazil, first as dictator, from 1930 to 1945
Seán Mac Diarmada (27 January 1883 – 12 May 1916) – Signator of the Irish Procolamation, advocate for equal rights for Irish men and women
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) – women's rights and human rights activist both in the United States and in the United Nations
Alice Paul (1885–1977) – American 1910s Women's Voting Rights Movement leader, strategist, and organizer
Joseph Mary Plunkett (21 November 1887 – 4 May 1916) – Signator of the Irish Procolamation, advocate for equal rights for Irish men and women.
Sonia Schlesin (1888–1956) – worked with Mohandas Gandhi in South Africa and led his movements there when he was absent
Toyohiko Kagawa (1888–1960) – Japanese labour activist, Christian reformer, author
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) – first Prime Minister of India, central figure in Indian politics before and after independence, advocate for freedom of the press
A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979) – American labor and civil rights movement leader
B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) — reformer who drafted Constitution of India, campaigned for Indian independence, fought discrimination against Dalit people
Walter Francis White (1895–1955) – American NAACP executive secretary
Thich Quang Duc (1897–1963) – Vietnamese monk, freedom of religion self-martyr
Edgar Nixon (1899–1987) – Montgomery Bus Boycott organizer, civil rights activist
Roy Wilkins (1901–1981) – American NAACP executive secretary/executive director
Ella Baker (1903–1986) – American SCLC activist, initiated the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Marvel Cooke (1903–2000) – American civil rights leader
Myles Horton (1905–1990) – American teacher of nonviolence, pioneer activist, founded and led the Highlander Folk School
John Peters Humphrey (1905–1995) – author of Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Nellie Stone Johnson (1905–2002) – labor and civil rights activist
Willa Brown (1906–1992) – American civil rights activist, first African American lieutenant in the US Civil Air Patrol, first African American woman to run for Congress
T.R.M. Howard (1908–1976) – founder of Mississippi's Regional Council of Negro Leadership
Winifred C. Stanley (1909–1996) – First member of Congress to introduce legislation prohibiting discrimination in pay on the basis of sex
Elizabeth Peratrovich (1911–1958) – Alaska activist for native people
Amelia Boynton Robinson (1911–2015) – Selma Voting Rights Movement activist and early leader
Bayard Rustin (1912–1987) – American civil rights activist
Jo Ann Robinson (1912–1992) – Montgomery Bus Boycott activist
Harry Hay (1912–2002) – early leader in American LGBT rights movement, founder Mattachine Society
Rosa Parks (1913–2005) – American NAACP official, activist, Montgomery Bus Boycott inspiration
Daisy Bates (1914–1999) – American organizer of the Little Rock Nine school desegregation events
Claude Black (1916–2009) – American civil rights activist
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977) – activist in Mississippi movements
Marie Foster (1917–2003) – American voting rights activist, a local leader in the Selma Voting Rights Movement
Gordon Hirabayashi (1918–2012) – Japanese-American civil rights hero
Humberto "Bert" Corona (1918–2001) – labor and civil rights leader
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) – South African statesman, leading figure in anti-apartheid movement
Fred Korematsu (1919–2005) – American, Japanese internment resister during WWII
James Farmer (1920–1999) – Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) leader and activist.
Golden Frinks (1920–2004) – American civil rights organizer in North Carolina, field secretary of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
Whitney M. Young, Jr. (1921–1971) – Executive director of National Urban League, advisor to US presidents
Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley (1921–2003) – American who held an open casket funeral for her son, Emmett Till; speaker, activist
Betty Friedan (1921–2006) – American writer, women's rights activist, feminist
Del Martin (1921–2008) – American co-founder of Daughters of Bilitis, the first social and political organization for lesbians in the US
Fred Shuttlesworth (1922–2011) – American clergyman, activist, SCLC co-founder, initiated the Birmingham Movement
Clara Luper (1923–2011) – American sit-in movement leader in Oklahoma, activist
James Baldwin (1924–1987) – American essayist, novelist, public speaker, SNCC activist
Medgar Evers (1925–1963) – American, NAACP official in the Mississippi Movement
Malcolm X (1925–1965) – American author, speaker, activist, inspiration
Lenny Bruce (1925–1966) – American free speech advocate, comedian, political satirist
Ralph Abernathy (1926–1990) – American activist, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) official
Hosea Williams (1926–2000) – American civil rights activist, SCLC organizer and strategist
Cesar Chavez (1927–1993) – Chicano activist, organizer, trade unionist
Coretta Scott King (1927–2006) – American SCLC leader, activist
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) – American, writer, Holocaust survivor, Jewish rights leader
James Forman (1928–2005) – American SNCC official and civil rights activist
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) – SCLC co-founder/president/chairman, activist, author, speaker
Edison Uno (1929–1976) – American, leader for Japanese-American civil rights and redress after World War II
Harvey Milk (1930–1978) – American politician, gay rights activist and leader
Charles Morgan, Jr. (1930–2009) – American attorney, established principle of "one man, one vote"
Roy Innis (1934–2017) - American activist, longtime leader of CORE
James Bevel (1936–2008) – American organizer and Direct Action leader, SCLC's main strategist, movement initiator, and movement director
Jack Herer (1939–2010) – American pro-hemp activist, speaker, organizer, author
Julian Bond (1940–2015) – American activist, politician, scholar, NAACP chairman
Prathia Hall (1940–2002) – American SNCC activist, a leading speaker in the civil rights movement
Stokely Carmichael (1941–1998) – American SNCC and Black Panther activist, organizer, speaker
James Orange (1942–2008) – American SCLC activist and organizer, a voting rights movement leader, trade unionist
Fred Hampton (1948–1969) – American NAACP youth leader and Black Panther activist, organizer, speaker
Frankie Muse Freeman (born 1916) – American civil rights attorney, first woman appointee to United States Commission on Civil Rights
Joseph Lowery (born 1921) – American SCLC leader and co-founder, activist
Charles Evers (born 1922) – American civil rights activist
Phyllis Lyon (born 1924) – American co-founder of Daughters of Bilitis, first social and political organization for lesbians in the US
C.T. Vivian (born 1924) – American student civil rights leader, SNCC and SCLC activist
James Lawson (born 1928) – American minister and activist, SCLC's teacher of nonviolence in civil rights movement
Wyatt Tee Walker (born 1929) – American activist and organizer with NAACP, CORE, and SCLC
Dorothy Cotton (born 1930) – American SCLC official, activist, organizer, and leader
Dolores Huerta (born 1930) – American labor and civil rights activist, initiator, organizer
Desmond Tutu (born 1931) – South African anti-apartheid organizer, advocate, first black archbishop of Cape Town
Lola Hendricks (born 1932) – activist, local leader in Birmingham Movement
Andrew Young (born 1932) – American civil rights activist, SCLC executive director
Dick Gregory (born 1932) – American free speech advocate, civil rights activist, comedian
Meir Kahane (born 1932) - Controversial Jewish rights activist, Founder of the Jewish Defense League
James Meredith (born 1933) – American independent student leader and self–starting Mississippi activist
Louis Farrakhan (born 1933) – American, controversial minister and National Representative of the Nation of Islam
Gloria Steinem (born 1934) – American writer, activist, feminist
Bob Moses (born 1935) – leader, activist, and organizer in '60s Mississippi Movement
Tenzin Gyatso (born 1935) – Tibetan, 14th Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, advocate for nonviolence, compassion, and Tibetan autonomy
Charles Sherrod (born 1937) – American civil rights activist, SNCC leader
Diane Nash (born 1938) – American SNCC and SCLC activist and official, strategist, organizer
Claudette Colvin (born 1939) – American Montgomery Bus Boycott pioneer, independent activist
Bernard Lafayette (born 1940) – American SCLC and SNCC activist, organizer, and leader
John Lewis (born 1940) – American Nashville Student Movement and SNCC activist, organizer, speaker, congressman
Jesse Jackson (born 1941) – American civil rights activist, politician
Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945) – Burmese Politician, former political prisoner, democracy and human rights activist
Rebiya Kadeer (born 1946) – ethnic Uyghur civil right activist, independence right activist, businesswoman
Dana Beal (born 1947) – American pro-hemp activist, organizer, speaker, initiator
Ashok Row Kavi (born 1947) – Indian LGBT rights activist, gay rights pioneer, founder of Humsafar Trust
Benjamin Chavis (born 1948) – American activist, chemist, minister, author, leader of Wilmington Ten, led Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ, campaigner against Environmental Racism, executive director of NAACP, national director of Million Man March
Andre DiMino (born 1950) – Italian-American civil rights activist
Judy Shepard (born 1952) – gay rights activist, public speaker
Al Sharpton (born 1954) – American clergyman, activist, media
Rigoberta Menchú (born 1959) – Guatemalan indigenous rights leader, co-founder Nobel Women's Initiative
Steven Goldstein (born 1962) – American gay rights advocate, political activist
Chee Soon Juan (born 1962) – Singaporean politician, former political prisoner, democracy and human rights activist
Kayode Ajulo (born 1974) – Nigerian lawyer, civil rights activist, founded Egalitarian Mission, Africa to promote, equity, equality and rule of law in class-conscious African societies
Malala Yousafzai (born 1997) – Pakistani advocate for education for girls, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Edvin Kanka Ćudić (born 1988) – Human rights activist, founder and coordinator of Association for Social Research and Communications in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Harish Iyer (born 1979) – Indian gender and sexuality rights activist, campaigner against child sexual abuse and for animal rights
Jignesh Mevani (born 1982) – Indian Dalit activist, led a campaign by Dalit people
Grace Akinlemibola (born 1986) - American civil rights and political activist, founder of the Anti-Corruption Movement
