John Mercer Langston
John Mercer Langston was the son of Ralph Quarles, a white plantation owner, and Jane Langston, a black slave. After his parents died when Langston was five, he and his brothers moved to Oberlin, Ohio, to live with family friends. Langston enrolled in Oberlin College at age 14 and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from […]
National Council of Negro Women
National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), founded by Mary McLeod Bethune in New York City on December 5, 1935, whose mission is “to advance opportunities and the quality of life for African American women, their families and communities.” Disappointed with the lack of unity and cooperation between African American women’s groups, Bethune called upon […]
Fannie Lou Hamer
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) was a civil rights activist whose passionate depiction of her own suffering in a racist society helped focus attention on the plight of African Americans throughout the South. In 1964, working with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Hamer helped organize the 1964 Freedom Summer African American voter registration drive in her native […]