Fannie Lou Harner
The subject of a new biography by historian Keisha N . Blain released in late 2021 , Fannie Lou Hamer rose to prominence during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s in the United States . Born to sharecropper parents in
Sunflower County , Mississippi , in 1919 , Hamer became an activist in 1962 , ultimately providing a powerful voice to a widely underrepresented segment of the African American population fighting for civil rights in the 1960s .
Bayard Rustin
The March on Washington is among the most widely remembered events during the civil rights era in the United States , and Bayard Rustin was one of the event ’ s principle organizers . Rustin , who was candid about his sexuality as a gay man in private , often worked behind the scenes during the Civil Rights Movement , which occurred during a period when homosexuality was still criminalized . Rustin later became a public advocate for gay rights in the 1980s .
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