Martin Luther King, Jr. is an important figurehead for the Civil Rights Movement, no doubt. However, I feel that a lot of people put him (and maybe Malcolm X) at the forefront of the movement without acknowledging all the other influential blacks who helped put him there, and who were quite noteworthy in their own right. Here is a small list of other prominent black folks we should think of on this day (click on the links for mini-bios).- Ralph David Abernathy
- Alvin Ailey
- Richard Allen
- Marian Anderson
- Mary McLeod Bethune
- Ralph J. Bunche
- George Washington Carver
- Shirley Chisholm
- Martin R. Delaney
- Dr. Charles R. Drew
- W.E.B. DuBois
- Marcus Garvey
- Alex Haley
- Matthew Henson
- John H. Johnson
- Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
- Thurgood Marshall
- Gordon Parks
- Rosa Parks
- Colin Powell
- Paul Robeson
- A. Philip Randolph
- Harriet Tubman
- Booker T. Washington
- Ida B. Wells
- Carter G. Woodson
- Andrew Young
- Malcolm X
