Everyone is well aware of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, and John Lewis, as they were the civil rights activists that changed the nation with courage and tenacity, however there were many more activists that needed some recognition. 

Claudette Colvin was the teenager who refused her bus seat way before Rosa Parks did. 

In 1955, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was on a bus with three other black teenagers, who were all asked to give up their seats and Colvin refused to do so.

In an interview with NPR, Colvin said, “It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down. I couldn’t get up.”

She was arrested and put on probation. 

Nine months later, the NAACP chose Rosa Parks as the public face of the Montgomery bus boycott. 

Deciding that an unwed woman was better than a 16-year-old pregnant teenager for the face of the movement. 

That did not stop her however as she later on joined three other women as the plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the case that ultimately overturned bus segregation in Alabama.

Behind the curtain of Martin Luther King Jr.’s work was Maude Ballou, the “daredevil” who was King Jr.’s right hand. 

Maude Ballou studied business and literature in college and was a mother who worked at the first black radio station in Montgomery, Alabama as program director. 

Her husband’s friend was Martin Luther King Jr. and he offered her the position of personal secretary, which she took. 

She worked while the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Stride Towards Freedom, Prayer Pilgrimage for Peace, and the release of King Jr.’s first book. 

She was listed in 1957 as number 21 of the Montgomery Improvement Association list of “persons most vulnerable for violent attacks”. 

She was threatened, her children were as well threatened, asn she was being watched by the KKK.

Ballou told The Washington Post,  “I was a daredevil, I guess. I didn’t have time to worry about what might happen, or what had happened, or what would happen.”

Like Maude Ballou, Bayard Rustin was behind the curtains of Martin Luther King Jr.’s work. 

Rustin was an early mentor for Martin Luther King Jr. and also helped him as a proofreader, ghostwriter, and a non-violence strategist. 

He was chief organizer of the March on Washington. 

Bayard Rustin preferred staying behind the scenes and helping others as an advisor. 

He received many attacks due to his homosexuality and communist affiliations. 

These activists paved the road for the millions of African Americans today, however what about the African American activists today? 

Last summer seemed like a reflective summer of the 60s as the world saw that not much had changed. 

Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi are the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement that was founded in 2013 after the acquittal of Travyon Martin’s murderer. 

The Black Lives Matter movement is basically the 21st century version of the civil rights movement. 

Highlighting the importance of black lives in America, that they deserve respect, human treatment, and equal level of livelihood. 

They were named in Time’s most influential people of 2020. 

After the murder of George Floyd in summer of 2020, there were protests all across the globe. 

Who was behind the organization of these small to huge protests? 

Majority of the small protests were predominantly teenagers. 

Foyin Dosunmu, Madison Crenshaw, Chelsea Miller, Nialah Edari, and Armonee Jackson are one of the hundreds of the youth who took matters into their own hands and did something. 

These activists didn’t do their works to get recognition, they worked tirelessly for a cause that they so deeply believed in. 

They remind us that the events that have marked history, involved so many people and hard work.

Every single activist who has fought for equality, in small or big actions, have demonstrated courage and tenacity.