Civil Rights Movement

More than 50 years after her refusal to surrender her bus seat to a white woman set the stage for a similar act of defiance by Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin is finally getting her due as a civil rights pioneer.

From the New York Times: During the presidential campaign, Mr. Obama sparingly addressed matters of race. But as he prepares for his swearing-in on Tuesday, his inaugural is shaping up as a watershed event in the nation’s racial history — the culmination of the long struggle for civil rights. Just over a generation ago, blacks […]

The Rev. James L. Bevel, a prominent figure in the civil rights movement whose legacy was clouded by an incest conviction, has died, a relative said. He was 72.

Reverend Joseph E. Lowery will give the benediction speech at Barack Obama’s inauguration in January. Lowery was the pastor of the Warren Street United Methodist Church, in Mobile, Alabama from 1952 until 1961, the apex of the Civil Rights Movement.