Forces for Change

Ella Baker (1903–1986) dedicated her life to empowering marginalized communities. Her legacy is associated with civil rights organizations like the NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the founding of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), where she served as a mentor to emerging activists. Baker’s impactful work was primarily behind-the-scenes, emphasizing grassroots organizing. She challenged the prevalent sexism and top-down leadership in the Civil Rights Movement. Ella Baker’s unwavering dedication to justice and her belief in the power of community-driven change continue to inspire us today and emphasize that even small acts of courage can lead to monumental transformation.

In the picture, Ella Baker and voting and civil rights activists Fannie Lou Hamer are standing in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party state convention in Jackson, Mississippi in August 1964.

(Johnson Publishing Company Archive. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture)

The life of Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954) spanned from Jim Crow to Brown v. Board of Education. She was a pivotal figure in organizing for racial equality and women’s rights. From 1896 to 1900, she served as first president of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (which Mary McLeod Bethune led as eighth president from 1924 to 1928). She also served in leadership roles in civil rights organizations like the NAACP. In her eighties, Terrell led campaigns to desegregate public spaces in Washington, D.C. In the picture, civil rights activist, journalist and teacher Mary Church Terrell is standing outside the U.S. Capitol, circa 1950.

(Johnson Publishing Company Archive. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture)

Angela Davis’s unwavering commitment to the struggle against all forms of oppression has made her a leading voice in liberation movements for over half a century. A former political prisoner, Davis challenges the prison industrial complex through the organization she co-founded, Critical Resistance. Her advocacy, speeches, and books like Women, Race & Class have illuminated the path to a more equitable society. Angela Davis remains an iconic figure, inspiring generations to stand up for justice and equality.

In the picture, Angela Davis is speaking during a Free Huey Newton rally in 1969.

(Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © 2021, Stephen Shames)

Pauli Murray (1910–1985) was a pioneering lawyer, ordained Episcopal priest, and civil rights activist who helped to form the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the National Organization of Women (NOW). Murray’s impressive body of literary works includes two memoirs, poetry, short stories, and a host of essays and legal writings. Murray’s Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family (1956) was a pioneering work of African American genealogy, which foreshadowed the form and style of the contemporary American memoir.

(Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Milton Williams Archives, © Milton Williams)

A leading poet, novelist, and playwright during the 1970s and 1980s, Ntozake Shange (1948–2018) captivated audiences with the spectacular production of her first play, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (1976). Through teaching and writing, she uplifted the voices of African American women.

(Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Anthony Barboza)

The daughter of civil rights activists, Stacey Abrams pursued politics as her platform for social justice. She served as minority leader of the Georgia state legislature and ran for governor in 2018 and 2022. She said of Black women seeking elected office, “So often, we’re told to run despite who we are. I am running because of who I am.” In this photo, JONESBORO, Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams speaks at a campaign event as early voting begins on October 18, 2022 in Jonesboro, Georgia.

Considered a successor to her mentor, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862–1931) launched a fiery campaign against lynching through published works, statistics, and international lectures. She defied assumptions about a woman’s proper place, and her anti-lynching campaign also broke conventions around discussing sexual violence. By traveling abroad, she shone a spotlight on both the racism and sexism in the United States that marginalized her activism.

(Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)

A career foreign service officer, Ambassador Pamela Bridgewater (Ret.) served in South Africa during the anti-apartheid movement leading to the election of President Nelson Mandela in 1994. The longest-serving U.S. diplomat in South Africa, she established critical relations with Mandela and the African National Congress during and after the dismantling of apartheid.

(Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Pamela E. Bridgewater, United States Ambassador (Retired). Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture)

Black Lives Matter. Three words became a social media hashtag and sparked a movement spearheaded by Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Ayọ (formerly Opal) Tometi. Inspired by their fury at the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who in 2012 fatally shot teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida, the hashtag transformed into a network and then a neo-civil rights movement that turned police brutality, racism, discrimination, and inequality into a global conversation. In the photo, honorees Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi attend Glamour Women Of The Year 2016 at NeueHouse Hollywood on November 14, 2016 in Los Angeles.

(Ben Baker for Politico Magazine/Redux Pictures)

Known as “the children’s crusader,” attorney and activist Marian Wright Edelman established the Children’s Defense Fund in 1973. The organization advocates for federal laws and programs to protect the rights and improve the lives of young people, including more equitable access to education, health care, and employment, preventing gun violence, and reforming the juvenile justice system. 

(Johnson Publishing Company Archive. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture)

After the death of her son Trayvon Martin in 2012, Sybrina Fulton became an advocate for racial justice and gun control. Sybrina Fulton is the founder of the Trayvon Martin Foundation. She joined with other women who had lost children to police shootings and gun violence to form an activist group, Mothers of the Movement. Fulton wore this silk rose when she spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

(Paul Morigi/WireImage/Getty Images)

On June 27, 2015, Bree Newsome climbed the statehouse flagpole in Columbia, South Carolina, and took down the Confederate flag. She was arrested for this act of civil disobedience, which she organized with fellow anti-racism activists after the massacre of worshippers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. As a public speaker, Newsome encourages young people to take an active role in creating a just society. 

In the picture, Bree Newsome is speaking onstage at The Gifts of Faith: Cultivating Resilience during SXSW at Austin Convention Center on March 13, 2018 in Austin, Texas.

(Photo by Ismael Quintanilla/Getty Images for SXSW)