John+Lewis-+Civil+Rights+Activist



John Lewis was one of the 6 leaders in the American Civil Rights Movement. He was born on February 21, 1940. John Lewis was a supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, another civil rights leader, and Rosa Parks. He was elected for the US House of Representatives for Georgia state and has held that position till this day. In 1999, Lewis was awarded the Wallenburg Medal from the University of Michigan in recognition of his courageous life-long commitment to the defense of civil and human rights. In September 2007, Lewis was awarded the Dole Leadership Prize from the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas**.** In 2011, Lewis was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama.
 * ~Aurora**

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William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868 and died on August 27, 1963. He was an intellectual leader in the United States as sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author and editor. He was born in Massachusetts, he also graduated from Harvard, where he earned his Ph.D. he was the first African-American to earn his doctorate at Harvard. He became a professor of history and economics at Atlanta University. Du Bois rose to national attention in his opposition of Booker T Washington's alleged ideas of accommodation with Jim Crow separation between whites and blacks and disfranchisement of blacks in the South, campaigning instead for increased political representation for blacks in order to guarantee civil rights, and the formation of a black intellectual elite who would work for the progress of the African-American race.======

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Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in January 15, 1929 and died in April 4, 1968. He was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of the civil rights in the U.S. for using non-violent ideas following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. He was one of the youngest people to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent things. King was assassinated on April 4,1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986.======

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Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925 and died on February 21, 1965 at age 39. He was in three organization Nation of Islam, Muslim Mosque, inc., Organization Afro-American Unity. He was influenced by Elijah nationalism and Pan-Africanism. And his religion was Sunni Islam. He was a courageous advocate, public speaker, and human rights. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans.======

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Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S. She died on October 24, 2005 (age 92) in Detroit, Michigan. She was an African American civil rights activist, who the U.S. Congress called “the mother of the freedom movement”. she refused to obey buss driver James Blake’s order that she give her seat up to a white passenger and was arrested. Her action impacted the Civil Rights issue, Parks’ individual action of civil disobedience created further impact by sparking the Montgomery bus Boycott. She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including boycott leader Martin Luther King Jr. helping to launch him to national prominence in the civil rights movement. Although widely honored in later years for her action, she suffered for it, losing her job as a seamstress in a local department store. Eventually, she moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she found similar work. From 1965 to 1988 she served as secretary and receptionist to African-American U.S. Representative John Conyers. Parks eventually received many honors ranging from the 1979 Spingarn Medal to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal and a posthumous statue in the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall. Her death in 2005 was a major story in the United States' leading newspapers. She was granted the posthumous honor of lying in honor at the Capital Rotunda.====== -josue