PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: activism

The civil rights movement was a struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States. They, along with many white Americans, mobilized and began an unprecedented fight for equality that spanned two decades.

Groups During the American Civil Rights Movement

• The Black Panthers. Founded in Oakland in 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey P.
• Chicago Housing Activists.
• Citizen’s Council.
• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
• The FBI and the Civil Rights Movement.
• Fisk University.
• Howard University Student Protesters.
• The Klu Klux Klan.

• Mahatma Gandhi. Indian leader.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. American religious leader and civil-rights activist.
• Malcolm X. American Muslim leader.
• Nelson Mandela. president of South Africa.
• E.P. Thompson. British historian.
• Ai Weiwei. Chinese activist and artist.
• Malala Yousafzai.
• Michael Steele.

Magna Carta was issued in June 1215 and was the first document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law. It sought to prevent the king from exploiting his power, and placed limits of royal authority by establishing law as a power in itself.

It was the Pope who declared the Magna Carta “not only shameful and demeaning, but illegal and unjust”. The Pope then excommunicated the rebel Barons. Well, with the failure of any agreement coming from the Magna Carta, civil war broke out between King John and the Barons, this became known as the First Barons’ War.