As Black Americans enter Black History Month and stand in the face of what might very well be a Civil Rights Movement 2.0, it’s fitting to celebrate our contemporary heroes and learn about these 10 leaders who take Black lives and our civil rights seriously.
Al Sharpton
National Action Network
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Sharpton has a 60-plus-year history in the civil rights movement. The popular activist got his start as a youth director for Jesse Jackson’s Operation Breadbasket at age 13. Sharpton became notable for his response to injustice in New York City streets. The civil rights leader led a march through Howard Beach, Queens, after a white mob beat three Black men.
Ben Crump
Ben Crump Law, Civil Rights Attorney
Benjamin Crump hails from Lumberton, North Carolina, and studied criminal justice at Florida State University. Crump specializes in civil rights cases and wrongful death lawsuits. He is notable for representing the family of Trayvon Martin after an overzealous community safety officer killed the 17-year-old. Crump is currently representing Black families impacted by recent Los Angeles wildfires.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham
Love & Power Works, Activist
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Cunningham got started protesting the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson. Cunningham co-founded Campaign Zero and was chosen for former President Obama’s task force for policing. She is active in the Children’s Defense Fund Action Council and the board of New Disabled South.
Bryan Stevenson
Equal Justice Initiative, Law Professor, Social Justice Activist
Bryan Stevenson is from Milton, Delaware.
Stevenson began his civil rights work at Harvard University, where he worked at Stephen Bright’s Southern Center for Human Rights. He fought for prison reform and is most noted for founding the Equal Justice Initiative and creating the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery, Alabama.
Derrick Johnson
NAACP, President and CEO
Derrick Johnson is from Detroit, Michigan. He attended Tougaloo College and studied law at South Texas College of Law in Houston before becoming the president of the Mississippi chapter of the NAACP. Johnson is heralded for his frontline leadership with the organization and civil rights advocacy. Johnson wrote an opinion piece that laid out the connection between COVID-19 and Black death.
Sherilynn Ifill
Howard Law School, Distinguished Professor of Civil Rights
Ifill served the NAACP Legal Defense Fund as its seventh president and director-counsel emeritus after being a fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union. Ifill’s leadership and teaching on civil rights and the law provide a visionary look at contemporary civil rights. In 2020, Ifill was named “Attorney of the Year” among many other accolades, such as being named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2021. Ifill is currently a Distinguished Professor of Civil Rights at Howard Law School.
Kristen Clarke
Civil Rights Attorney
A Jamaican-born Brooklynite, Clarke got her start in civic engagement working as a trial attorney
in the United States Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division. She also worked with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, addressing voting rights. In 2021, Clarke was called to serve as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice.LaTosha Brown
Black Voters Matter
Selma, Alabama, is where Brown was born and came into her civil rights activism. Brown held the role of chairwoman of disaster relief after Hurricane Katrina. After a series of firsthand experiences with voter suppression, Brown started the Black Voters Matter Fund in 2016. She is known for her commitment to voter rights, particularly in the South. Brown’s current work is with the Southern Black Girls & Women’s Consortium.
Lee Meritt
Merritt Law Firm, Civil Rights Attorney
Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney from Los Angeles, California, fights for civil rights nationwide. He started his legal career with the Cochran firm in Philadelphia and helped launch the American Black Cross disaster relief organization. The civil rights attorney is widely known for representing cases against police brutality, tackling high-profile cases such as Ahmaud Arbery, Brionna Taylor, and George Floyd.
Marc Morial
National Urban League, President and CEO
Marc Morial was born
and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and served as the Crescent City’s youngest mayor for eight years from 1994 to 2002. Morial got his start as a Louisiana state representative. Morial is the first elected official to hold office as president and CEO of the National Urban League and continues to serve today.Melanie Campbell
President and CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
Melanie Campbell is from Mims, Florida, and has served the Black community as a civil rights activist since her youth. Campbell studied at Clark Atlanta University, where she served as a student organizer for the NAACP. Campbell is known for her mentorship, voter outreach campaign, and creating the Black Youth Vote.
Michelle Alexander
Civil Rights Advocate
Michelle Alexander is an advocate, author, and attorney born in Chicago, Illinois. As the former director of the Racial Justice Project, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California, she was part of a team that led the national “Driving While Black and Brown” campaign to fight police profiling. Alexander is most known for her critically acclaimed book, The New Jim Crow.
Tamika D. Mallory
Social Justice Activist
Tamika Mallory is a Harlem, New York, native who started her career with the National Action Network, where she served as its youngest executive director. Mallory is known for rallying younger activists around civic engagement and civil rights. She was integral in organizing the Women’s March on Washington in 2017. Mallory’s memoir, I Lived To Tell The Story, drops Feb. 11.
Tarana Burke,
me.too, Social Justice Activist
Tarana Burke is Bronx, New York-born, and she got her firsthand seat for activism at an early age. The 30-year activist served with
the 21st-century Youth Leadership organization. Burke was a leader in her work against police brutality and for equal housing. Burke is known for her social justice work around sexual violence and gender-based justice and evolving the Me Too movement.RELATED CONTENT: Top Civil Rights Leaders Meet In D.C. For Emergency Discussion On The Assault Of DEI