Activism in the New Civil Rights Movement

They are not athletes. They are not musical artists. They are not movie stars.

They do not have millions of fans and followers worldwide or live a lavish lifestyle worthy of admiration.

They are lawyers. They are writers. They are civic engagement professionals. They are social media influencers.

They do have a passionate drive. They do have an essential purpose.

They want Americans to be better and to do better.

There are six individuals spotlighted below, but these people represent only a small fraction of the significant activists battling for racial equality nationwide. It is time we give these people our attention and strongly reflect on the path we want for the future of our society, and our country.

Bryan Stevenson Awards

MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Prize

National Medal of Liberty

Olaf Palme Prize for international human rights

NAACP William Robert Ming Advocacy Award

John Minor Public Service and Professionalism Award

SALT Human Rights Award

National Legal Aid & Defender Association Lifetime Achievement Award

Award for Courageous Advocacy

Lawyer for the People Award

Gruber Foundation International Justice Prize

Ford Foundation Visionaries Award

American Psychiatric Association Human Rights Award

2017 The Stowe Prize for Writing to Advance Social Justice

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Fred L. Shuttlesworth Award

Alabama State Bar Commissioners Award

Smithsonian Magazine American Ingenuity Award in Social Progress

Roosevelt Institute Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom from Fear Award

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

Bryan Stevenson is a public-interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned
Stevenson is the Founder & Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama
- The EJI is committed to ending mass incarceration and racial/economic injustice to protect basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society [2]
Stevenson and his staff have won reversals, relief, or release for over 125 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row [11]
He developed the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, AL to commemorate the nearly 4,000 persons who were lynched in the South from 1877 to 1950 [2]
Bryan is also a Professor at the New York University School of Law
He has received 29 honorary doctoral degrees including degrees from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Oxford University [11]
He is the author of Just Mercy, which was named by Time Magazine as one of the 10 Best Books of Nonfiction for 2014

Michelle Alexander is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, legal scholar, and best-selling author
She is a visiting professor of social justice at Union Theological Seminary in New York City [9]
Alexander served as the director of the Racial Justice Project for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California [8]
Her award-winning book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, helped to spark a national debate about mass incarceration and inspired racial justice organizing and advocacy efforts [8]
In 2018, she was hired as an opinion columnist at The New York Times and has since published three articles
- Her most recent piece, The Newest Jim Crow, discusses recent criminal justice reforms and the influence of biased mathematical algorithms and the installation of “e-carceration”

DeRay Mckesson is an American civil rights activist, podcaster, and former school administrator
DeRay came onto the scene as strong voiced supporter of Black Lives Matter after the protests in Ferguson, Missouri and the unjust murder of Michael Brown [3]
Along with fellow activists, he launched Mapping Police Violence in 2014, which collects data on people killed by police throughout each year
In 2015, Mckesson contributed to the development of Campaign ZERO (right), a data-informed platform that presents comprehensive solutions to end police violence in America
In 2016, Mckesson announced his candidacy in the 2016 Baltimore mayoral election and finished sixth in the Democratic Party primary [3]
DeRay is also the author of On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope, a memoir about his life and time as a Black Lives Matter organizer

MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Prize

Jefferson Award for Extraordinary Public Service

2017 Most Promising New Foundation President

2016 Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 40 Under 40

Woman of the Year

Ford Foundation Visionaries Award

Elected to serve District 7 on the BART Board of Directors

Lateefah Simon Awards

Lateefah Simon is a nationally recognized civil rights advocate with over 20 years of executive experience
Lateefah was Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR) of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she launched several successful community-based initiatives [5]
- She helped establish the Second Chance Legal Services Clinic, which works to overcome employment and housing barriers for clients with arrest records
In August 2016, Lateefah Simon was named President of the Akonadi Foundation, which seeks to eliminate structural racism and inequity [5]
In April 2018, The Rosenberg Foundation elected Simon to its Board of Directors supporting racial and economic justice [4]
- In the past, she served as Program Director for where she managed a portfolio of grants supporting groundbreaking advocacy
- In 2016, she helped launch the Leading Edge Fund, created to influence and develop bold ideas from the next generation of progressive movement leaders

Shaun King is an American writer and civil rights activist, noted for his use of social media to promote social causes
King has written extensively about the Black Lives Matter movement, and gained prominence following the unjust shooting of Michael Brown
He has written an astounding 1,500 articles on injustice since 2014, contributing to The Intercept, the New York Daily News, and the Daily Kos [12]
He has spoken in 35 states, on over 100 college campuses, in jails and prisons, and in corporate boardrooms, always calling for people to be better [12]
King co-founded the Real Justice PAC in February 2018, which supports progressive candidates running for district attorney offices
He led a months-long, far-reaching social media campaign resulting in the arrest of three men behind an assault that occurred during the Unite the Right rally [10]
Currently, King is working to revive Frederick Douglass' abolitionist paper, 'The North Star”, to provide people with the information on issues such as voting rights, police brutality, mass incarceration [6]

Melanie L. Campbell is an advocate on issues impacting African Americans, women, immigrants, and youth
Campbell is the President & CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) and convener of Black Women's Roundtable (BWR) Public Policy Network
In her role as convener of Black Women’s Roundtable, Campbell brings together coalitions of women from diverse races, ethnicities, and backgrounds to advocate for policies to advance women [1]
Her leadership played a pivotal role in the 2012 election where black people turned out at a higher rate than white people [7]
At the NCBCP, she created a youth-focused leadership development program, Black Youth Vote!, for which she received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Emerging Leaders Legacy Award [7]

Works Cited

[1] “Black Women's Roundtable.” NCBCP: Black Women's Roundtable, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, www.ncbcp.org/programs/bwr/.

[2] “Bryan Stevenson.” Equal Justice Initiative, eji.org/bryan-stevenson.

[3] “DeRay Mckesson.” The Ubuntu Biography Project, WordPress.com, 8 July 2017, ubuntubiographyproject.com/2017/07/08/deray-mckesson/.

[4] “Lateefah Simon Joins the Rosenberg Foundation’s Board of Directors.” News, The Rosenberg Foundation, 2 Apr. 2018, rosenbergfound.org/lateefah-simon-joins-the-rosenberg-foundations-board-of-directors/.

[5] “Lateefah Simon, President.” Akonadi Foundation, akonadi.org/staff/lateefah-simon-president/.

[6] Martin, Michel. “Activist Shaun King On Why He's Reviving Frederick Douglass' 'North Star' Paper.” NPR, NPR, 11 Nov. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/11/10/666569978/activist-shaun-king-on-why-hes-reviving-frederick-douglass-north-star-paper.

[7] “Melanie L. Campbell.” NCBCP: Black Women's Roundtable, www.ncbcp.org/who/bios/mcampbell/.

[8] Michelle, Alexander. “About the Author.” The New Jim Crow, www.newjimcrow.com/about-the-author.

[9] “Michelle Alexander.” Faculty, Union Theological Seminary, www.utsnyc.edu/faculty/michelle-alexander/.

[10] Shapira, Ian. “Finding the White Supremacists Who Beat a Black Man in Charlottesville.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 31 Aug. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/local/finding-the-white-supremacists-who-beat-a-black-man-in-charlottesville/2017/08/31/9f36e762-8cfb-11e7-84c0-02cc069f2c37_story.html?utm_term=.3dcf8458d011.

[11] Stevenson, Bryan. “Bryan Stevenson.” TED, TED Conferences, LLC, www.ted.com/speakers/bryan_stevenson.

[12] “The Official Website of Shaun King.” Shaun King, www.shaunking.org/.

These are the faces of Americans fighting for their equal rights in the twenty-first century. They may not be rich, their platform may not be big, and you may not even know their names. But what they do is important to people across the country and around the world.

Their voices need to be heard.

Their stories begin here, as a result of many of the events exhibited below. Throughout the last decade, there have been countless injustices against black Americans – neglect of rights, false reparations, and too many lives taken.

WARNING! Some of the following images may contain graphic content. Viewer discretion is advised.

They are not athletes. They are not musical artists. They are not movie stars.

They do not have millions of fans and followers worldwide or live a lavish lifestyle worthy of admiration.

They are lawyers. They are writers. They are civic engagement professionals. They are social media influencers.

They do have a passionate drive. They do have an essential purpose.

They want Americans to be better and to do better.

There are six individuals spotlighted below, but these people represent only a small fraction of the significant activists battling for racial equality nationwide. It is time we give these people our attention and strongly reflect on the path we want for the future of our society, and our country.

Bryan Stevenson

Founder & Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative

NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Nonfiction

TED2012: “We need to talk about injustice”

Bryan Stevenson Awards

Bryan Stevenson is a public-interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned

Stevenson is the Founder & Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama

Stevenson and his staff have won reversals, relief, or release for over 125 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row [11]

He developed the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, AL to commemorate the nearly 4,000 persons who were lynched in the South from 1877 to 1950 [2]

Bryan is also a Professor at the New York University School of Law

He has received 29 honorary doctoral degrees including degrees from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Oxford University [11]

He is the author of Just Mercy, which was named by Time Magazine as one of the 10 Best Books of Nonfiction for 2014

2018 People’s Choice Award for People’s Champion

NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Nonfiction

Writer for The New York Times

Michelle Alexander

TEDxColumbus: The future of race in America

Michelle Alexander is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, legal scholar, and best-selling author

She is a visiting professor of social justice at Union Theological Seminary in New York City [9]

Alexander served as the director of the Racial Justice Project for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California [8]

Her award-winning book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, helped to spark a national debate about mass incarceration and inspired racial justice organizing and advocacy efforts [8]

In 2018, she was hired as an opinion columnist at The New York Times and has since published three articles

DeRay Mckesson

1.04M followers

122k followers

DeRay Mckesson is an American civil rights activist, podcaster, and former school administrator

DeRay came onto the scene as strong voiced supporter of Black Lives Matter after the protests in Ferguson, Missouri and the unjust murder of Michael Brown [3]

Along with fellow activists, he launched Mapping Police Violence in 2014, which collects data on people killed by police throughout each year

In 2015, Mckesson contributed to the development of Campaign ZERO (right), a data-informed platform that presents comprehensive solutions to end police violence in America

In 2016, Mckesson announced his candidacy in the 2016 Baltimore mayoral election and finished sixth in the Democratic Party primary [3]

DeRay is also the author of On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope, a memoir about his life and time as a Black Lives Matter organizer

President of the Akonadi Foundation

Lateefah Simon Awards

Lateefah Simon

TEDxOakland

Lateefah Simon is a nationally recognized civil rights advocate with over 20 years of executive experience

Lateefah was Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR) of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she launched several successful community-based initiatives [5]

In August 2016, Lateefah Simon was named President of the Akonadi Foundation, which seeks to eliminate structural racism and inequity [5]

In April 2018, The Rosenberg Foundation elected Simon to its Board of Directors supporting racial and economic justice [4]

Shaun King

1.09M followers

747k followers

Shaun King is an American writer and civil rights activist, noted for his use of social media to promote social causes

King has written extensively about the Black Lives Matter movement, and gained prominence following the unjust shooting of Michael Brown

He has written an astounding 1,500 articles on injustice since 2014, contributing to The Intercept, the New York Daily News, and the Daily Kos [12]

He has spoken in 35 states, on over 100 college campuses, in jails and prisons, and in corporate boardrooms, always calling for people to be better [12]

King co-founded the Real Justice PAC in February 2018, which supports progressive candidates running for district attorney offices

He led a months-long, far-reaching social media campaign resulting in the arrest of three men behind an assault that occurred during the Unite the Right rally [10]

Currently, King is working to revive Frederick Douglass' abolitionist paper, 'The North Star”, to provide people with the information on issues such as voting rights, police brutality, mass incarceration [6]

President & CEO of The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation

Woman of Power Award from National Urban League

Melanie L. Campbell

Melanie L. Campbell: “We’re under siege from the top…”

Melanie L. Campbell is an advocate on issues impacting African Americans, women, immigrants, and youth

Campbell is the President & CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) and convener of Black Women's Roundtable (BWR) Public Policy Network

In her role as convener of Black Women’s Roundtable, Campbell brings together coalitions of women from diverse races, ethnicities, and backgrounds to advocate for policies to advance women [1]

Her leadership played a pivotal role in the 2012 election where black people turned out at a higher rate than white people [7]

At the NCBCP, she created a youth-focused leadership development program, Black Youth Vote!, for which she received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Emerging Leaders Legacy Award [7]