Emmett Till Story

Emmett Till, also known as Bobo born July 25, 1941 in Chicago, IL.  As a young man he was always known as a very muscular, athletic boy.  By the age of 14 "Bobo" was known as the oldest looking kid in the town he fooled numerous adults into believing that he was an adult by how he acted, stood tall and by his physical presence.  With all of this happening you would think that he would be well liked and able to get along with everybody which was true, for the most part.  On August 21, 1955 he arrived outside of a local grocery store with his uncle and his cousin Curtis Jones after they skipped church.  The owners of the store were a young couple by the names of Roy and Carolyn Bryant who were around the age of 24.  That particular day Carolyn was alone working in the store when the young boys came in to buy some candy as they normally did every week.  The boys that he hung out with were constantly daring him and telling him to go talk to the alone Carolyn, and finally he took up their offer and went and spoke to her.  There is numerous different stories of what exactly he said some say he just whistled at her or some say that he said, "bye baby" to her.  Well whatever he said it still upset the white people at the time and they wanted to make sure he knew what he did was wrong and they did.  Carolyn's newly wedded husband Roy was on the look out for Emmett and when he got a tip of where he might be he jumped on it.  Him and his brother-in-law found him staying at his great uncles house for the trip.  They found him and what they did after that is unspeakable.  First they transported him to a barn in the middle of nowhere, beat his face in with different weapons, then they gouged one of his eyes out then to dispose of the body they tied a cotton gin (70 pounds) around his neck with barb wire and tossed it and him into the Tallahatchie River where his body was found 3 days later down stream.

EB, DS

Ray-Black Panthers

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was formed right here in Oakland, California in October, 1966. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale were the original founders. Later the name of the party was changed to Black Panther Party (BPP). The party was formed when there was blatant racism prevailing in the United States and most African Americans could not make much progress. In the summer of 1968 the David Brothers established the BPP branch in Brooklyn, New York. A few months later a branch was established in Harlem by Lumumba Shaker. Subsequently, many more branches of the BPP were formed all over the country, mostly in poor African American neighborhoods. BPP movement moved to the East coast and found fertile ground in Chicago, New York, and Harlem.

This Video informs you about the BPP and Revolutionary Communist Party leader, Bob Avakian speaks about the party.

Malcolm X Biography

Born: May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska
Died: February 21, 1965 in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom
Famous for: Another major leader for the Civil Right movement.

Malcolm X came from a family of 8.  His mother was a homemaker and his father was a Baptist minister.  Malcolm graduated in the top of his class, he was a very smart and focused student in school.  His dream was always to become a lawyehttp://www.malcolmx.com/about/bio.htmlr but when one of his teachers said that it was "no realistic goal for a nigger".  (This quote came from the site:  http://www.malcolmx.com/about/bio.html ).  After that quote from his teacher he lost interest in school and dropped out.  He then proceeded to move to Harlem and started committing petty crimes.  After a few years of that Malcolm moved backed to Boston and was arrested and charged with burglary and sentenced to 10 years in jail.  But, because he of parole he only ended up serving 7 years.  After getting out of prison he became a leader and began making speeches about human rights saying "human rights are something you are born with.  Human rights are your God-given rights.  Human rights are the rights that are recognized by all nation of this earth."


Malcolm X Speech




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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Bio

         Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, the middle child of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King.King Jr. had an older sister, Willie Christine King, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King. Dr. King was a great student, he skipped both the ninth and the twelfth grade and entered Morehouse College at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school.In 1948, he graduated from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology, and enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1951.King married  Coretta Scott , on June 18, 1953, on the lawn of her parents' house in her hometown of Heiberger, Alabama.They had four kids together .King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in  Montgomery, Alabama, when he was twenty-five years old, in 1954. He led the 1955, Montgomery Bus Boycott  and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference  in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963, March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he expanded American values to include the vision of a color blind society, and established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Information comes from http://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-king-jr-93650
By .SS
    This is the speech that everyone will always remember !

Rosa Parks Mini Bio

Born February 4 , 1913 in Tuskegee , Alabama
Death: October 24 , 2005
Famous For: Not giving up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus.

Born  Rosa Louise McCauley, She had to endure the hard times of the Civil Rights movement and Segregation. Her mother and father seperated and Rosa's mother moved her to a little town in Alabama.She never went to college , but she married this man by the name of Raymond Parks who was a barber and also a memeber of the (NAACP) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Thanks to him she got her high school degree in 1933. During education years Rosa attended many segregated schools in Montegomery , Alabama. To learn more about this wonderful, Strong black woman http://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715 .

Rosa Parks on the Bus in Montegomery ,Alabama 

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Jared'sThurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was a courageous civil rights lawyer during a period racial segregation was the law of land.who ended legal segregation in the United States. He won Supreme Court victories breaking the color line in housing, transportation and voting, all of which overturned the 'Separate-but-Equal' apartheid of American life in the first half of the century. It was Marshall who won the most important legal case of the century, Brown v. Board of Education, ending the legal separation of black and white children in public schools. The success of the Brown case sparked the 1960s civil rights movement, led to the increased number of black high school and college graduates and the incredible rise of the black middle-class in both numbers and political power in the second half of the century.

For more information about Marshall Click here.

He demonstrated that people of all races have the ability to be smart and succeed, and should not be held back by what other people think. He showed the American spirit by helping those who needed help, and he used his talents in the field of law to give African Americans an equal part in society. As a great American, he risked his reputation to help others. Marshall wanted to make the words "Equal Justice Under Law" a reality for all people. Because of his achievements, courtesy towards others, and integrity, Thurgood Marshall, like Martin Luther King, Jr., is a great example of what an American should be.


Here's a short film thats speaks upon the board of education and Thurgood Marshall.

Freedom Riders

Freedom Riders

Freedom Riders tells the story of a courageous band of civil rights activists who challenged segregation, simply by traveling side by side on buses and trains through the Deep South in 1961. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, more than 400 black and white college students risked their lives—and many met with bitter racism, mob violence and imprisonment—sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism. 

In the first few days, the riders encountered only minor hostility, but in the second week the riders were severely beaten.

“My objective is not just to make a point, but to bring about a real change in the situation. We will continue the Ride until people can sit wherever they wish on buses and use the facilities in any waiting room available to the public. Please tell the attorney general that we have been cooling off for 350 years. If we cool off anymore, we will be in a deep freeze. The Freedom Ride will go on.”

This article from The Oprah Show explains more on the Freedom Riders and their struggles.

PBS Video goes into the depth about the Freedom Riders and their movement toward freedom.

Freedom Riders were repeatedly attacked by violent mobs and suffered malicious attacks.

KD