From the lunch counter to the ballot box to Selma marches to the Black Panthers, the Civil Rights Movement (roughly 1954–1968) birthed icons and pioneers who helped change the landscape of the United States for Black Americans. These Black heroes are the last link to a horrifying time when drinking from a “whites only” water foundation was an act of defiance, when a bus seat earned you a first-class beating, and when the right to vote was punishable by death.
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Now, nearly 60 years after the Civil Rights Movement concluded, there’s a handful of Black pioneers whom we are still blessed to have with us today— yet another nod that we’re not too far removed from that tumultuous time.
We’re giving the last few living legends of the Movement their flowers and honoring their sacrifice and perseverance, as they continue to selflessly dedicate their lives to unfinished business.
Cleveland L. Sellers Jr. — Age 80
Sellers is renowned for his work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a pivotal organization that helped coordinate nonviolent protests and sit-ins at Shaw University in the ’60s. The South Carolina native, who also worked on numerous voter registration drives, was wounded by cops in the Orangeburg Massacre in Feb. 1968 while protesting repeated segregation at a bowling alley.
He went on to earn a Master’s Degree from Harvard University and an Ed.D. in History. Sellers also served as the Director of the African American Studies Program at the University of South Carolina and became the President of Voorhees College, a HBCU in his hometown, from 2008 to 2015. He is also the father of a daughter and two sons, including former South Carolina state Rep. Bakari T. Sellers, who was one of the youngest state lawmakers in America at 22.
Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. — Age 83
He walked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., marched in Selma, and went on to become an influential minister and a pioneering politician. As a student, he led protests to help desegregate theaters and restaurants in Greensboro, North Carolina, and was part of the Greenville Eight, a group of African American students, that protested segregated libraries in 1960.
Jackson went on to establish Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) to focus on economic and educational empowerment, and even embarked on historic runs for president of the United States in 1984 and 1988. Now diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy, (PSP) a rare, degenerative brain disorder that affects his muscle control and speech, he continues to focus on social justice issues while engaging with community leaders in Chicago.
Andrew Jackson Young Jr. — Age 93
The ordained minister, politician, and diplomat was a key aide and trusted confidant to Dr. King. From 1964-1968, he served as the Executive Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an Atlanta-based organization that helped lead non-violent protests. Young, who was at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where Dr. King was shot in 1968, was a major contributor to passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
He went on to make history; he was the first African American from Georgia elected to the U.S. House of Representatives since Reconstruction and President Jimmy Carter appointed him U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in 1977, the first African American to do so. He also served as the mayor of Atlanta for two terms. The Atlanta native remains active in humanitarian efforts.
Angela Davis – Age 81
Davis’ work sits smack dab at the intersection of the Civil Rights, the Black Power movement, feminism, and prison reform all at once. One of the most recognizable figures in activism, the Alabama native is still committed to systemic change. Davis focused on the need for armed self-defense against police brutality with the Black Panthers, became a longtime and respected member of the Communist Party USA and a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism.
TIME Magazine named her “Woman of the Year” in 1971. The same publication added her to their list of the 100 most influential people in the whole world. And just this year, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Letters from the University of Cambridge. After an extensive teaching tenure, the author continues her lectures at numerous universities, conferences and events.
Ruby Bridges – Age 71
At the tender age of just six years old, Ruby Bridges became a hero and pivotal figure in the Civil Rights Movement. Dressed in a white collar shirt, a burgundy dress, white bow and black Mary Janes, the picture of her attending the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in November 1960 became a hallmark of desegregation of public schools in the South.
In 1984, she married Malcolm Hall and they share four sons. Today, Bridges continues to shine bright in The Big Easy. She’s the chair of the Ruby Bridges Foundation and is an acclaimed author of “Through My Eyes” (1999) and children’s book “I Am Ruby Bridges” (2022). She dedicates her life to civil rights advocacy and education.
Charles E. Cobb Jr. — Age 82
Cobb, who is the child of politically active parents, is a key figure from Mississippi voter registration campaigns. He not only helped establish the Freedom Schools— an alternative to segregated public schools— he established Drum and Spear in Washington, D.C., an African American bookstore, from 1968 to 1974. Cobb also co-founded the National Association of Black Journalists, a non-profit organization that offers training, career advancement and initiatives for Black journalists.
Currently, he is a senior analyst at allAfrica.com, went on to become the first Black staff writer for “National Geographic Magazine,” and is a visiting professor at Brown University where he teaches the course, “The Organizing Tradition of the Southern Civil Rights Movement.”
David J. Dennis Sr. — Age 85
Dennis is one of the original Freedom Riders from 1961, where he rode from Montgomery, Alabama, to Jackson, Mississippi, to challenge the non-enforcement of the Supreme Court rulings that banned segregation on buses and at terminals. He was arrested, jailed, and thrown in Parchman Farm prison which was notorious for forced labor. The experience was so life-changing, he dropped out of college and dedicated his life to the Movement.
Dennis went on to serve as the Mississippi Director for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), returned to school to earn a law degree from the University of Michigan, and opened up his own law firm in Lafayette, Louisiana. He continues to serve as the director and CEO of the Southern Initiative of the Algebra Project, which helps Black kids in math.
Marian Wright Edelman — Age 86
While attending Spelman College in the early ’60s, Edelman participated in sit-in demonstrations to fight segregation. She graduated from Yale Law School in 1963, and the following year she became the first Black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar. The now mom of three provided legal support to Freedom Summer activists, and in 1967, famously convinced then-Senator Robert F. Kennedy to tour the dire conditions of poverty in Mississippi, compelling the government to act.
She also became one part of the third interracial couple to marry in Virginia after she tied the knot to Peter Edelman, a white man, in July 1968. In 1973, she founded the Children’s Defense Fund to be a voice for poverty-stricken children, kids of color and disabilities. Before she retired in 2020, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000.
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