# 4384 FDC - 2009 42c Civil Rights Pioneers
City: New York, NY
• Mary White Ovington – Co-founded the NAACP. (1909)
• J.R. Clifford – Won the nation’s first court case declaring racial discrimination illegal. (1898)
• Joel Elias Spingarn – Introduced the Spingarn medal – for outstanding achievement by an African American. (1913)
• Oswald Garrison Villard – Used his newspapers to call the first meeting of the NAACP. (1909)
• Daisy Gatson Bates – Led the “Little Rock Nine” to de-segregating their Arkansas high school. (1957)
• Charles Hamilton Houston – Involved in almost every Supreme Court Civil Rights case between 1930 and 1954.
• Walter White – Used his fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes to “pass” as a Caucasian and covertly investigate 41 lynchings.
• Medgar Evers – Became a martyr of the civil rights movement after he was fatally shot in his own driveway in 1963.
• Fannie Lou Hamer – Fought for African American delegates to be included at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
• Ella Baker – Established a network of activists that vastly increased membership in the NAACP.
• Ruby Hurley – Went undercover to investigate several lynchings throughout the South.
Creation Of The 15th Amendment
Following the issuance of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the passage of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery, Congress began to debate the rights of former slaves. Those African Americans would now be counted as citizens in the South, which would increase Southern power in the population-based House of Representatives. Northern Republicans hoped to decrease the South’s advantage by giving African Americans the right to vote.
Under these new laws, African Americans were allowed to vote, but little was done to enforce or encourage that. Some states still did not allow them to vote, and in many cases, Union Army soldiers needed to be present to protect them.
Then in 1869, Republicans in Congress were in a lame-duck session (meeting after the Democrats were elected but before their term began) and sought to pass an amendment to protect black suffrage. During that session, several different proposals were submitted and rejected. Ultimately, a House and Senate conference committee submitted a proposal banning voter restriction based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” It didn’t mention poll taxes or the right of African Americans to hold office in the hopes of gaining wider support.
City: New York, NY
• Mary White Ovington – Co-founded the NAACP. (1909)
• J.R. Clifford – Won the nation’s first court case declaring racial discrimination illegal. (1898)
• Joel Elias Spingarn – Introduced the Spingarn medal – for outstanding achievement by an African American. (1913)
• Oswald Garrison Villard – Used his newspapers to call the first meeting of the NAACP. (1909)
• Daisy Gatson Bates – Led the “Little Rock Nine” to de-segregating their Arkansas high school. (1957)
• Charles Hamilton Houston – Involved in almost every Supreme Court Civil Rights case between 1930 and 1954.
• Walter White – Used his fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes to “pass” as a Caucasian and covertly investigate 41 lynchings.
• Medgar Evers – Became a martyr of the civil rights movement after he was fatally shot in his own driveway in 1963.
• Fannie Lou Hamer – Fought for African American delegates to be included at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
• Ella Baker – Established a network of activists that vastly increased membership in the NAACP.
• Ruby Hurley – Went undercover to investigate several lynchings throughout the South.
Creation Of The 15th Amendment
Following the issuance of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the passage of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery, Congress began to debate the rights of former slaves. Those African Americans would now be counted as citizens in the South, which would increase Southern power in the population-based House of Representatives. Northern Republicans hoped to decrease the South’s advantage by giving African Americans the right to vote.
Under these new laws, African Americans were allowed to vote, but little was done to enforce or encourage that. Some states still did not allow them to vote, and in many cases, Union Army soldiers needed to be present to protect them.
Then in 1869, Republicans in Congress were in a lame-duck session (meeting after the Democrats were elected but before their term began) and sought to pass an amendment to protect black suffrage. During that session, several different proposals were submitted and rejected. Ultimately, a House and Senate conference committee submitted a proposal banning voter restriction based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” It didn’t mention poll taxes or the right of African Americans to hold office in the hopes of gaining wider support.