Four African-American Activists You Should Know

Only 55 years ago, blacks and whites went to separate schools, ate at separate restaurants, used separate bathrooms, and even drank water from different fountains. Today, we’re standing on the precipice of a historical moment: the inauguration of America’s first African-American president.

This shift wasn’t simple, however: Millions of African-American men and women like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks fought hard for their rights to help their community, facing abuse, arrest, and even, in some cases, assassination. And while African-Americans are now entitled to the same rights by law as white people are, discrimination is still a daily fact of life for many. Here are some lesser-known African American leaders who are working to create a better world for all of us.

When James Cameron was 16, he was arrested for two crimes that he didn’t commit: shooting a white man and raping his fiancée. He was thrown in a jail cell with two other boys in Marion, Indiana. It was 1930, and people there didn’t care about providing a fair trial as far as black-on-white crime was concerned: the townspeople were ready for a lynching. Cameron and his friends were placed on a platform, with lengths of rope tied to a tree placed around their necks. The other boys were killed first, and Cameron was sure that he was next—until a voice from the crowd cried out his innocence. Against all odds, Cameron was allowed to live. From that day on, he vowed to spend his life fighting for African-American civil rights. Raise money for this cause and other causes.

Cameron served four years in prison for the crime he didn’t commit, but upon his release, he became heavily involved in activism groups. He became the Indiana State Director of Civil Liberties in 1942, investigating racial incidents and civil rights abuses within the state. He formed several regional branches of the NAACP , took part in Civil Rights marches, and wrote a book about his experiences. But in 1988, Cameron finally fulfilled a long-held dream: to establish the Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, which shares the history of the black experience in America in an effort to educate visitors about the dangers of racism. Cameron passed away in 2006, after a lifetime of fighting for social justice.

Geoffrey Canada grew up in a crime-ridden neighborhood in New York’s South Bronx. Unlike most of his friends and neighbors, he made it out of the area and became successful, achieving a Master’s degree in Education from Harvard University. Most people in his situation would never look back at where they came from—but that’s the only place Canada wanted to work.

In 1990, he returned to the South Bronx to focus on helping the children there and in similar impoverished communities as president of a nonprofit organization, Harlem Children’s Zone . The organization offers free social services, including a parenting course, pre-school, job training courses, and an anti-obesity program to residents of Harlem. The nonprofit now offers these services to residents throughout a 100-square block area and recently opened a rigorous charter school, providing tools to ensure that the area’s children are able to thrive in spite of their difficult surroundings. The organization has been hailed as a greatly successful social experiment, and Canada himself was mentioned by writer Jonathan Kozel as “one of the few authentic heroes of New York and one of the best friends children have, or ever will have, in our nation."

Viola Vaughn , a native of Detroit, graduated with an M.Ed from Columbia University and worked as an education and healthcare administrator until tragedy struck in 2000: Vaughn’s 26-year-old daughter died, leaving her and her husband to care for their five grandchildren. Vaughn decided to move the family to Senegal to experience African culture, providing each of the children with a homeschooled education. It wasn't long until other young girls began dropping by the house, asking for help with their homework. 

Vaughn quickly realized that the Senegalese schoolgirls were in urgent need of help with both education assistance and job training, and she set out to help them receive it by establishing the Women's Health Education and Prevention Strategies Alliance, and the affiliated 10,000 Girls project.  The program provides educational support in the form of textbooks, tutoring, and working with parents to get them involved in their children’s educations; and the entrepreneurial arm of the program provides job training and opportunities in 10,000 Girls’ own pastry shop and sewing workshop, providing a viable income source. To date, the organization has helped more than 1,500 girls.


Majora Carter , a lifelong resident of the South Bronx in New York City, realized her neighborhood was a mess. Litter flooded the streets and river, and the area was used as a dumping ground for tons of waste from around the city. So Carter decided to do something about it.

Carter began researching and planning how she would work to clean up the South Bronx, and it didn’t take her long to build a network of supporters. She began with a ten thousand dollar grant from a foundation in 1998, which she used to clean up the area around the river, replacing trash heaps with flowerbeds and park benches to turn the area into a place where families could gather and play. In 2001, Carter established a formal nonprofit, Sustainable South Bronx , which is dedicated to cleaning up the entire region with projects like the South Bronx Greenway, a network of biking and walking trails that run along the river and connect to adjacent neighborhoods. The nonprofit has also implemented innovative strategies like a “green jobs” training program and a “green roof” business, in which live plants are placed on rooftops to save on heating and cooling costs. It’s all part of Carter’s strategy to make the world a more hospitable environment for the people in it, starting with her very own neighborhood.