W.E.B. DuBois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. In 1909, Dubois became one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He became the editor of the NAACP’s Crisis magazine, where he often wrote about issues that affected the African American community in the early 20th century. The Souls of Black Folks is a famous book written by DuBois.
Voting In March 1870, the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted giving blacks for the first time in this country the right to vote. The Amendment states that all US citizens have the right to vote and shall not be denied that right on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Mundy Peterson of Perth Amboy, New Jersey was the first black person to vote in a US election in 1870.
Visit the National Voting Right Museum: http://www.voterights.org/
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Marlive Harris and students at McWhorter Elementary School, Carrollton, TX.
Judge Thurgood Marshall was a great lawyer and Civil Rights leader. As chief counsel for the NAACP, he won the historic Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case. This unanimous 1954 decision laid the groundwork for school desegregation. In 1967, Marshall was appointed Justice of the Supreme Court by President Johnson. This made him the first African American ever appointed to the Supreme Court