Published January 14, 2015
The following are profiles of some of the leaders of the civil rights movement:
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Organized Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1956; co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 and served as its president until 1968; named Person of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; received Nobel Peace Prize in 1964; organized March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963.
FAMILY: Wife, Coretta Scott King. Children, Yolanda, Martin, Dexter and Bernice.
------
HORACE JULIAN BOND
AGE: 63
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960; elected to Georgia House in 1965 but unseated twice by his opposition before finally taking his seat by U.S. Supreme Court order in 1966; served as Georgia legislator from 1966 to 1987; led challenge delegation to the 1968 Democratic National Convention, where his name was placed in nomination for the vice presidency but he declined because he was too young; named chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1998.
FAMILY: First wife, Alice; second wife, Pam. Children, Phyllis, Manny, Michael, Jeffrey and Cookie.
------
JOHN LEWIS
AGE: 63
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963 to 1966; one of the "Big Six" keynote speakers at the March on Washington in 1963; co-led 1965 Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Ala., which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act; elected in 1986 to U.S. House of Representatives, representing Georgia's 5th District, and he is serving his ninth term.
FAMILY: Wife, Lillian. Son, John Miles.
------
JOSEPH E. LOWERY
AGE: 82
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Led the Alabama Civic Affairs Association, which worked to desegregate public places, in the early 1950s; co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and named its vice president in 1957; led the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march, which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act; served as president of SCLC from 1977 to 1997; co-founded the Black Leadership Forum and the Coalition of the People's Agenda, which focuses on voter registration.
FAMILY: Wife, Evelyn Gibson Lowery. Daughters, Yvonne, Karen and Cheryl.
------
FRED SHUTTLESWORTH
AGE: 82
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Organized Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights in 1956; survived bomb attack by white racists at his Birmingham, Ala., home in 1956; co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957; founded Shuttlesworth Housing Foundation, which provides grants for poor Cincinnati families to buy homes, in 1981. Appointed interim president of the SCLC in December 2003, replacing Martin Luther King III, who took over as president of the Atlanta-based King Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
FAMILY: Wife, Ruby, died in 1971. Children, Patricia, Ruby, Fred Jr. and Carolyn.
------
HOSEA WILLIAMS
Died of prostate cancer in 2000 at the age of 74.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Arrested 124 times during Freedom Summer voter registration campaigns of early 1960s; co-led the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" march in Selma, Ala.; appointed executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1977 and ousted two years later in power struggle with then-president Joseph Lowery; founded the Hosea's Feed the Hungry and Homeless program in Atlanta in 1971; led 1987 march in Forsyth County, Ga., where he was violently confronted by Ku Klux Klan.
FAMILY: Wife, Juanita, died of anemia in 2000. Children, Elisabeth, Yolanda, Barbara, Torey, Hyron, Juanita and Hosea Jr., who died of leukemia in 1998.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/bios-civil-rights-leaders