There is a lesser-known civil rights figure without whom Dr. King’s work—and nothing less than the entire civil rights movement of the 1960s—may not have succeeded, and whose absence from the iconography of American history is a disservice to all citizens: Ella J. Baker.

Ella Baker was a strategist, organizer and mother to the movement whose political acumen, humble leadership style and razor sharp political insights were legendary.

Before he became famous — and infamous — for calling on black power for black people, Stokely Carmichael was better known as a rising young community organizer in the civil rights movement.

Stokely Carmichael’s call for “Black Power!” in Mississippi indelibly transformed America’s civil rights struggle and national race relations. The Black Power Movement radicalized domestic civil rights struggles in ways that continue to transcend racial, political, cultural, and generational boundaries.

April 29, 2010, was a typical spring day in Washington, D.C., but not for the diverse crowd of mourners at Washington National Cathedral. Prominent and everyday people packed the site to celebrate the life of Dorothy Irene Height, who had died nine days earlier at age 98.

Voting rights throughout the country remain under attack as laws designed to limit participation elections are passed in states throughout the country. Dorothy Height campaigned against voter suppression her entire life and her victories provide a roadmap for ongoing struggles for voter access.

Of all the leaders of the civil rights movement, Bayard Rustin lived and worked in the deepest shadows, not because he was a closeted gay man, but because he wasn’t trying to hide who he was. That, combined with his former ties to the Community Party, was considered to be a liability.

Bayard Rustin was an indispensable force behind the Civil Rights Movement...and openly gay.

Fannie Lou Hamer walked with a limp and still had a blood clot behind her eye from being severely beaten by police in a Mississippi jail. She was the youngest of 20 children born to sharecroppers in Mississippi, where she had spent much of her life picking cotton until she was fired for trying to register to vote. And yet President Lyndon B. Johnson was terrified of her.

Fannie Lou Hamer explains her ordeal when she tried to register to vote in Mississippi. The date of the interview is uncertain, but is believed to have happened before her testimony at the Democratic National Convention in August of 1964, which shook the nation.

Whitney Young's tenure rekindled the partnership of the National Urban League with the civil rights movement and established himself as a leader in organization and achievement.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knew him as a friend and eloquent strategist. Filmmaker Bonnie Boswell knew him as “Uncle Whitney.”