Following in the Footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr
Following in the Footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr. <h1>8 Leaders Who Carry On Martin Luther King Jr ' s Legacy</h1> <h2>With King' s dream only partially achieved they work to ensure civil and other rights</h2> Robert W. Kelley/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images As his holiday approaches, the shimmering image of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. appears on one TV screen and then another and another as his impassioned voice wells up. Those iconic words, “,” reverberate long after you’ve heard them. It’s an idyllic moment from the 1963 March on Washington and at odds with the gritty reality that King lived. Stabbed, stoned and jailed nearly 30 times, he led the civil rights movement for only a dozen or so years. And yet those years led to voting rights legislation, desegregated facilities throughout the South and an awareness that, left unattended, America’s deep racial and economic wounds would continue to fester. When his home was bombed in 1956, he put haters on notice: “If anything happens to me, there will be others to take my place.” Since his death in 1968, many have stepped up to carry on his legacy. Here are a few. of <h3>Stacey Abrams 47</h3> In the mid 1960s, many African Americans found their path to the voting booth obstructed by literacy tests, poll taxes and intimidation. After a five-day, 54-mile protest march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery that saw the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis bloodied and a minister killed, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Stacey Abrams, who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017 and became the first black woman to win a major party’s nomination for governor, now leads Atlanta-based . The mission of the nonprofit advocacy group is to build voter protection teams, promote fair elections throughout the country and encourage voter participation. Many political analysts credit her work for the surprise January 5, 2021, victories of two Democrats in the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff election that shifted the balance of power in Washington. of <h3>The Rev William Barber II 57</h3> Barber was 4 years old and living in the Midwest when King visited the Mississippi Delta and saw a teacher divide up an apple to feed eight children. The hunger and misery King witnessed inspired the Poor People’s March on Washington: a caravan of more than a dozen covered wagons — with slogans such as “Feed the Poor” painted on the side — that traveled from Marks, Mississippi, to the nation’s capital for a six-week protest. Barber nurtured this seed that King sowed, cochairing the , which advocates for living-wage laws, health care, education and prison reform, and voter rights. Like King, Barber, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, in Goldsboro, North Carolina, is known for his compelling oratory, decorated civil rights record and inclusive vision for humanity. "Prophets believe that what they proclaim on any day can be transformed into real action,” Barber says. of <h3>Patrisse Cullors 37</h3> Cullors, an artist, activist and cofounder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network, says that people often see Martin Luther King as a “superhero.” But his everyday roles as a community organizer, father and husband move her the most. The mother of a 5-year-old son named Shine, Cullors is a former senior fellow with the MomsRising organization, where she wrote about maternal mortality. Pregnancy-related deaths for African American women over 30 are four to five times higher than for white women, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Like King, whose acts of civil disobedience often landed him behind bars, Cullors has long been outspoken about the need to overhaul the criminal justice system, particularly around its treatment of black and brown people. of <h3>Alicia Garza 40</h3> Following the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, the man charged in Trayvon Martin’s death, a heartbroken Alicia Garza posted a phrase on Facebook that inspired mass protests and political change. Her words, “Our Lives Matter,” quickly became #BlackLivesMatter and evolved from a hashtag to a global network. The anti-Black racism movement Garza cofounded drew national attention after the 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. And in 2020, it took on international significance after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. During that period, Garza found voice as a journalist and podcaster. Like King, whose last protest was to support striking sanitation workers, Garza — who works for the National Domestic Workers Alliance — strives to serve a group whose labor is often overlooked and undervalued. of <h3>Rashad Robinson 41</h3> A half century ago, activists relied on word of mouth to promote campaigns such as the 1960 sit-ins that ended lunch counter and restaurant segregation across 26 Southern cities. But as head of Color of Change, Rashad Robinson and his team update old-school organizing, connecting with their million-plus members via social media and turning around online petitions quickly to press corporate and government leaders to take action. Color of Change backed the successful passage of a New Jersey bill prohibiting discrimination on the basis of hairstyle to protect African Americans’ economic and civil rights. Organizers are in the midst of circulating online petitions demanding justice for victims of police violence, and are calling for a basic guaranteed income for all Americans. Before , Robinson, of New York City, was senior director of programs for GLAAD, formerly called the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and he continues to explore how racial justice and the LGBTQ movements can work in solidarity. of <h3>Bryan Stevenson 61</h3> At the in Montgomery, Alabama, lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his team have won reversals, relief or release for more than 135 wrongly condemned death row prisoners. Sometimes Stevenson takes a break to visit a sanctuary that is walking distance from his office. At this church, now called Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, King joined forces with the Women’s Political Council to stage the Montgomery bus boycott. Back in 1955, African Americans swore off the city’s segregated buses to demand equal treatment for equal fare. Stevenson has advocated for more than 30 years on behalf of the poor — often African American — who lack the resources to secure equal justice. Sevenson’s passion for his lifesaving work is showcased in the motion picture, Just Mercy, starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx. It is based on Stevenson’s 2014 best-selling memoir of the same name. In 2018, he opened the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, also in Montgomery. Commonly called the Lynching Memorial, it has led communities across the South to acknowledge their history of racial terror. of <h3>Dorceta Taylor 63</h3> “In King’s day, we fought to drink from the same fountain. Today we fight to drink the same quality water,” says Dorceta Taylor, a professor of environmental justice at Yale University. She previously served at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, an hour’s drive south of the predominantly African American city of Flint, Michigan, where residents suffered toxic lead levels in the water. King, she notes, often spoke out against pollution, overcrowding and the need for parks — issues that today would be considered a call for environmental justice. Even the Montgomery bus boycott ties into this, Taylor points out: It ushered in a year of carpooling. Taylor’s work has also documented the racism, classism and sexism found in the environmental movement. She continues to work to secure scholarships for students studying the environment, knowing that one day they will take the reins. of <h3>Opal Tometi 36</h3> The daughter of Nigerian immigrants, Opal Tometi is one of the three cofounders of the Black Lives Matter Global Network. She helped energize the nascent movement, organizing its first social media accounts in 2013 to spread its message. Tometi had long strived to help those struggling against racism. After her parents were nearly deported, she became active in immigrant rights as a teenager, working as an observer at the U.S.-Mexico border. She later served as an executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. She now works with Diaspora Rising, a hub she founded to connect the global Black community. In late 2020, she and her BLM cofounders were awarded the esteemed Global Citizen Prize for Activism. <h3>9 Civil Rights Activists Who Died in 2020</h3> The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 92 on Jan. 15, 2021, if he had not been assassinated April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. Many other activists for African Americans’ civil rights are reaching the end of their natural lives. These are those we lost last year: • Bruce Boynton, 83, of Selma, Alabama, was arrested in 1958 for visiting a segregated bus station restaurant while traveling home from law school. His successful U.S. Supreme Court legal challenge inspired the Freedom Rides. • Lucille Bridges, 86, marched past an angry New Orleans mob in 1960 to escort her 6-year-old daughter Ruby to a formerly all-white school, a moment captured in a famous Norman Rockwell painting. • Fred L. Davis, 86, one of Memphis’ first Black city councilmen, supported the 1968 sanitation workers strike that brought King to town. He marched with the leader, and joined him on stage the day before his assassination. • Charles Evers, 97, adopted the mantle of civil rights after the assassination of his brother Medgar, an NAACP field secretary. Evers went on to serve as Mississippi’s first Black mayor since Reconstruction. • The Rev. Robert, 92, and Jeannie, 90, Graetz were among the few whites to support the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, leading to death threats and two home bombings. The couple died three months apart. • U.S. Rep. John Lewis, 80, of Atlanta, was brutally attacked by police at the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, a protest that led to passage of the U.S. Voting Rights Act. He went on to serve 33 years in Washington, where he was known as the “conscience of Congress.” • The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, 98, of Atlanta, worked closely with King, and helped lead the Montgomery bus boycott. He served as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for 20 years. • The Rev. C.T. Vivian, 95, of Atlanta, helped lead the 1960 Nashville, Tennessee, protests that launched the national sit-in movement. As a top aide to King, he was an unwavering advocate for non-violence. Editor's note: This article was originally published on January 15, 2020. It's been updated to include additional leaders. <h4>More on Events & History</h4> Cancel You are leaving AARP.org and going to the website of our trusted provider. The provider’s terms, conditions and policies apply. 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