Mound Bayou is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,533 at the 2010 census, down from 2,102 in 2000. It was founded as an independent black community in 1887 by former slaves led by Isaiah Montgomery. Mound Bayou Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
William Levi Dawson was an American politician and lawyer who represented a Chicago, Illinois district for more than 27 years in the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1943 to his death in office in 1970. In 1949, he became the first African American to chair a congressional committee.
Rainbow/PUSH is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization formed as a merger of two nonprofit organizations founded by Jesse Jackson; Operation PUSH and the National Rainbow Coalition. The organizations pursue social justice, civil rights, and political activism.
Operation Breadbasket was an organization dedicated to improving the economic conditions of black communities across the United States. Operation Breadbasket was launched on February 11, 1966, under the leadership of Jesse Jackson. Its primary objective was to promote the employment of African Americans by companies operating in black communities and support the growth of black-owned businesses. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described the core principle of Breadbasket as the belief that African Americans should not support businesses that denied them job opportunities, career advancement, or basic courtesy. To achieve their goals, the activists of Operation Breadbasket adopted a strategy called "selective patronage." They focused their initial campaign on dairy companies and supermarket chains. They organized pickets and encouraged boycotts of stores that carried products from the targeted companies, aiming to pressure them into improving their employment practices and support for the black community.
The California Eagle (1879–1964) was a newspaper in Los Angeles for African Americans. It was founded as The Owl in 1879 and later The Eagle by John J. Neimore. Charlotta Bass became owner of the paper after Neimore's death in 1912. She owned and operated the paper, renamed the California Eagle, until 1951. Her husband, J. B. Bass, served as editor until his death in 1934. In the 1920s, they increased circulation to 60,000. Bass was also active as a civil rights campaigner in Los Angeles, working to end segregation in jobs, housing and transportation.
Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard was an American civil rights leader, fraternal organization leader, entrepreneur and surgeon. He was a mentor to activists such as Medgar Evers, Charles Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Amzie Moore, Aaron Henry, and Jesse Jackson, whose efforts gained local and national attention leading up to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
The Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) was a society in Mississippi founded by T. R. M. Howard in 1951 to promote a program of civil rights, self-help, and business ownership for African Americans. It pledged "to guide our people in their civic responsibilities regarding education, registration and voting, law enforcement, tax paying, the preservation of property, the value of saving and in all things which will make us stable, qualified conscientious citizens." Instead of starting from the "grass roots," however, the strategy was to "reach the masses through their chosen leaders" by harnessing the talents of blacks with a proven record in business, the professions, education, and the church.
Amzie Moore was an African-American civil rights leader and entrepreneur in the Mississippi Delta. He helped pead voter registration efforts. His former home is a Mississippi Landmark. A historical marker commemorates its history. It is now a museum and interpretive center.
Aaron Henry was an American civil rights leader, politician, and head of the Mississippi branch of the NAACP. He was one of the founders of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party which tried to seat their delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.
Charles Coles Diggs Jr. was an American politician from the U.S. state of Michigan who served in the state senate and U.S. House of Representatives. He was the first African American elected to Congress from Michigan.
Zechariah Chafee Jr. was an American judicial philosopher and civil rights advocate, described as "possibly the most important First Amendment scholar of the first half of the twentieth century" by Richard Primus. Chafee's avid defense of freedom of speech led to Senator Joseph McCarthy calling him "dangerous" to America.
Archibald James Carey Jr. was an American lawyer, judge, politician, diplomat, and clergyman from the South Side of Chicago. He was elected as a city alderman and served for eight years under the patronage of the politician William L. Dawson. He served for several years as a pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, when he became known as a civil rights activist. In 1957, he was appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower as chair of his committee on government employment policy, which worked to reduce racial discrimination.
Edward Francis Boyd was an American business executive who was responsible for the marketing of products specifically to African Americans in an era when racial discrimination was rampant and blacks had either been ridiculed or systematically ignored in advertising. His efforts for Pepsi-Cola pioneered the concept of niche marketing and allowed Pepsi to substantially increase its market share in the black community at the expense of Coca-Cola. Boyd was a leader in the African-American business community.
Linda Royster Beito is professor of political science and criminal justice at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Robert Reed Church Jr. was a prominent businessman and Republican Party organizer in Memphis, Tennessee. His father was the successful businessman Robert Reed Church, and Church Jr. succeeded his father as president of the Solvent Savings Bank and Trust Company after his father's death. An African American, he organized the first NAACP branch in Tennessee and was a member of the NAACP national board of directors. From the 1910s to 1940s, he was one of the most powerful political figures in his hometown of Memphis. Forced to leave Memphis because of harassment by Democratic boss E. H. Crump, Church moved to Washington, D.C., in 1940.
Sara Winifred Brown (1868–1948) was an African American teacher and medical doctor. She worked in disaster relief and gynecology. In 1910, she helped to found the group that would later become the National Association of University Women, and in 1924 was the first woman to serve as an alumni trustee of Howard University.
The Mississippi Enterprise was one of two African American newspapers in Jackson, Mississippi. Arrington High worked at the paper. Publication years include 1939–1980. The paper covered lynchings and murders of African Americans. It advocated for African Americans to support African-American businesses in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, a historically African-American community founded by freed slaves. The Library of Congress has an archive of the paper.
Arrington High was an American journalist and newspaper publisher. He published the Eagle Eye newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi and was an advocate for African American civil rights.
The Jackson Eagle Eye was a newspaper for African Americans published by Arrington High in Jackson, Mississippi.
Ora H. Kress Mason was an American physician, nursing educator, and hospital administrator in Murray, Kentucky, who ran for Congress in 1926.
