Angela Davis is an American political activist and abolitionist who has been highly involved in the civil rights movement in the United States and who's influence continues to effect activists today. She also joined the Black Panthers and was a professor at UCLA.
Patrisse Cullors is the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter organization. She is from Los Angeles, CA, and has been an influential leader of many Los Angeles based organizations, including Dignity and Power Now, Justice LA, and Reform LA Jails. She is an artist, activist, author, and also the Faculty Director of Arizona's Prescott College.
Marsha P. Johnson was a trans activist, drag queen, and she played a major role in fighting for LGBTQ+ rights, helping start the Stonewall Riots of 1969. She also co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), which aimed to help homeless transgender youth.
Ida B. Wells was a journalist and activist who exposed horrific lynchings that occurred in the 1890s. She was a founder of the National Association of Colored Women's Club and she also co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/against-all-odds-65322127/
Biddy Mason was a prominent land owner and also the founder of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles in 1872. Mason was born into slavery, won her freedom, and also worked as a midwife and nurse.
Bayard Rustin was an openly gay Civil Rights activist who helped to organize the March on Washington in 1963. He worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but do to widespread homophobia at the time he is not as well known.
Sojourner Truth sits in a rocking chair as she shares a story to some children. A former slave, Truth was an abolitionist, a women's right activist, and an author, delivering the famous "Ain't I a Woman" speech in 1851. Her devout advocation for civil rights has paved the path for modern-day activism.
https://www.thesojournertruthproject.com/compare-the-speeches
Mae C. Jemison stands in her space suit looking up at the stars and imagining the heights we might achieve. In 1992, Jemison went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour and became the first African-American woman to go to space. She is also a trained medical doctor, served as a Medical Officer in the Peace Corps and currently runs BioSentient Corp, a medical technology company.
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mae-jemison
Nina Simone sings to the crowd accompanied by a man playing the Djembe (traditional African instrument) and someone playing a banjo, which was invented by Black people and symbolizes African contributions to American music. Simone was a singer and activist whose songs encapsulated the love and protest of Black empowerment.
Nelson Mandela waves to people after being elected; he was the first Black President of his country, South Africa. Mandela was a South African politician and activist. He dedicated his life towards fighting for equality, ultimately toppling South Africa's system of apartheid.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/nelson-mandela-fought-apartheid-work-not-complete
John Lewis in his iconic brown trench coat and backpack walks hand and hand with Ruby Bridges.
Lewis was a civil rights leader, best known for his chairmanship of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He was also one the "Big Six" leaders of groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington.
https://www.aclu.org/congressman-john-lewis
Ruby Bridges is an American activist who became a symbol of the civil rights movement and who was, at age six, the youngest of a group of African-American students to integrate schools in the American South.
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ruby-bridges
Fahren James (who holds the SAY HER NAME sign) and London Lang (who holds the ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER sign) protest in the foreground representing local activist groups South Pasadena Youth for Police Reform and BLM South Pasadena, which they founded, respectively. Both activists were at the heart of local BLM protests and calls for anti-racist change in our community, organizing at the corner of Fair Oaks Avenue and Mission Street from June to October 2020.
https://tigernewspaper.com/local-blm-group-ends-almost-150-days-of-protesting/
Harriet Tubman and Malcolm X stand arm in arm with Black power fists.
Harriet Tubman was one of the most prominent American abolitionists and political activists, renowned for escaping and helping many others escape slavery; she made 13 rescue missions and freed around 70 people.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harriet-Tubman
Malcolm X, was a famous human rights activists and one of the most prominent leaders during the 1960's civil rights movement.
Langston Hughes sits at a typewriter writing literature, and leaning over his shoulder to consider the unfinished piece is James Baldwin.
Hughes was a writer who was in important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He was able to convey the African American experience into his writing pieces.
https://poets.org/poet/langston-hughes
Baldwin was a writer and voice for the Civil rights movements, some of his most notable works being 'The Fire Next Time,' 'Go Tell It on the Mountain,' and 'Notes of a Native Son.'
One of the coolest parts of the BLM mural design is the blank space at the right bottom corner that invites you to step into the mural and be a part of it. This interactive element represents that we all have a role in the BLM movement and a responsibility to combat racism.
Huey Newton — cofounder of the Black Panther Party
https://www.pbs.org/hueypnewton/actions/actions_freehuey.html
Ella Baker — civil rights activist
https://ellabakercenter.org/who-was-ella-baker/
Thurgood Marshall — civil rights attorney and Supreme Court Justice
https://www.naacpldf.org/about-us/history/thurgood-marshall/#:~:text=Thurgood%20Marshall%20was%20an%20influential,as%20its%20first%20Director%2DCounsel.
Opal Tometi — cofounder of BLM and former executive director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration
https://www.ted.com/speakers/opal_tometi
Alicia Garza — civil rights activist and cofounder of BLM
https://aliciagarza.com/
Ernestine Eckstein — LGBTQ+ rights and Black feminist activist in the 1960s and 1970s
http://www.newnownext.com/ernestine-eckstein-gay-civil-rights-pioneer/02/2019/
https://makinggayhistory.com/podcast/ernestine-eckstein/
Barbara Jordan — civil rights movement leader and first Black woman from the South to be elected to House of Representatives
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/barbara-c-jordan
Fred Hampton — activist and prominent leader of the Black Panther Party
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/hampton-fred-1948-1969/
https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/assassination-of-fred-hampton
Tarana Burke — activist who started the #MeToo movement
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/tarana-burke
Pauli Murray — civil rights activist and first Black woman ordained as an Episcopal priest
https://www.paulimurraycenter.com/
Shirley Chisholm — first Black woman elected to Congress and first Black presidential candidate for a major political party
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/shirley-chisholm
Alice Walker — novelist and activist, famous for publishing The Color Purple
https://alicewalkersgarden.com/about/
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/alice-walker
Marian Wright Edelman — children's rights activist, founder of the Children's Defense Fund
https://www.childrensdefense.org/staff/marian-wright-edelman/
Bryan Stevenson — civil rights lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), writer of Just Mercy
https://eji.org/
https://eji.org/bryan-stevenson/