greatreporter.com, October 5th, 2007
Frederick
Douglass
One of the first black civil rights leaders in
America
,
Douglass
was a slave who escaped the Deep South in 1838 and established himself as a writer and speaker of such eloquence that many believed he was an actor foisted on the public to further the anti-slavery cause!
Booker T
Washington
Born the son of a slave in 1856,
Washington
devoted his life to setting up vocational institutes for blacks. Opposed to direct action against racist laws, he believed blacks would be better off working their way up the ladder rather than ‘artificially forcing’ a change in attitudes. Militant activists were enraged.
W.E.B.
Du Bois
A towering intellectual force,
Du Bois
was the first black man to gain a Doctorate from Harvard. Bitterly opposed to
Booker T
Washington
's view that blacks should accept their social position,
Du Bois
ultimately believed that black freedom could best be achieved through Communism. For these views he was blacklisted by the government, and he eventually departed for Africa in 1961.
Elijah
Muhammad
The most controversial of black leaders,
Elijah
Muhammad
founded the Black Muslims in the 1930s and espoused the idea of an independent black state within
America
. It is widely believed that he ordered the killing of
Malcolm X, who had broken from the Black Muslims after stories of
Muhammad
's womanising surfaced.
The Later
Malcolm X
The wrathful
Malcolm X of legend is famous enough, but in his final years he had almost completely changed his outlook. The catalyst was his 1964 pilgrimage to
Mecca
, where he was moved by the sight of whites and blacks worshipping in harmony. After this epiphany he began setting out his vision of a united society cleansed of racism. He was killed shortly afterwards.
Black Panthers
Formed in 1966, the Black Panther Party was a militant organisation that firmly believed that guns could provide equality in a racist country. They campaigned against gun control measures and were often involved in armed skirmishes with the police. Their notoriety peaked when a black athlete gave the Party's raised fist salute at the 1968 Olympics.
