American LGBTQ rights activist Sylvia Rivera
Credit: © Justin Sutcliffe, AP Photo

Today, March 31, 2023, is International Transgender Day of Visibility. On this day, people around the world celebrate transgender voices. Transgender is a term for individuals whose identity or self-expression does not match their assigned gender. At a time when transgender rights are in the news and on the dockets throughout the United States, it is important to look at activists who have fought to protect the rights of transgender individuals, such as Sylvia Rivera.

Sylvia Rivera was an American activist for LGBTQ rights. LGBTQ is an abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning. Rivera is remembered for being a leader during the Stonewall uprising, a series of demonstrations for gay rights that took place in New York City in late June and early July 1969. Rivera was a drag queen (cross-dressing performer) and a transgender woman.

Rivera advocated on behalf of drag queens, homeless queer youth, and imprisoned gay people, groups sometimes overlooked by mainstream LGBTQ advocates. Rivera focused on the intersectional aspects of poverty, race, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Intersectionality refers to the ways in which different kinds of discrimination can interact and affect one another.

Rivera participated in a riot at the Stonewall Inn in June 1969, after police officers attempted to close the bar, which served primarily gay and transgender customers. In 1970, Rivera joined with the American transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson to found the Street Transvestite (later changed to Transgender) Action Revolutionaries (STAR). STAR had a variety of missions, including helping homeless transgender youth, advocating for sexual freedom, and allying the gay rights movement with other civil rights movements. Rivera also worked to help pass New York’s Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA). The law, which went into effect in 2003, prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, education, and a variety of other areas.

Ray Rivera Mendoza was born on July 2, 1951, in New York City and assigned the male gender. Rivera grew up in the care of a grandmother who disapproved of Rivera’s often gender-defiant behavior, such as wearing makeup. Because of her continued expression and exploration of feminine qualities, Rivera became homeless by age 11. To survive, Rivera worked as a prostitute. She found a community among New York City’s drag queens and adopted the name Sylvia. Rivera died on Feb. 19, 2002.

Bill Russell, number 6, was one of the leading rebounders in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Russell played for the Boston Celtics from 1956 to 1969. As player-coach of the Celtics from 1966 to 1969, he became the first African American head coach in major league professional sports.
Credit: © Bettmann/Getty Images

Legendary basketball player Bill Russell passed away on July 31, 2022, at the age of 88 years old. Russell won 11 league championships with the Boston Celtics. His awe-inspiring career, bold civil rights activism, and dedication to the sport prompted the National Basketball Association to retire number six, marking the third number to be retired leaguewide in all American sports. NBA players who currently wear number 6, like Lebron James of the Los Angeles Lakers, may continue wearing the number, but can also choose to switch numbers. Russell joins the ranks of NHL hockey player Wayne Gretzky (99) and MLB baseball player Jackie Robinson (42). Russell’s number will be the first number retired leaguewide in the NBA.

Russell became one of the finest defensive players in basketball history. A 6-foot-10-inch (208-centimeter) center for the Boston Celtics, Russell became a master at blocking shots and rebounding. He ranks second only to Wilt Chamberlain among the leading rebounders in the history of the NBA.

William Felton Russell was born on Feb. 12, 1934, in Monroe, Louisiana. He helped lead the University of San Francisco to win 57 of 58 games during the 1954-1955 and 1955-1956 seasons. Russell joined the Celtics in the 1956-1957 season and helped lead the team to 11 NBA championships in the 13 years he played.

Russell walked with Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Four years later, he stood up alongside football player Jim Brown and basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in support of boxer Muhammad Ali who faced criticism for not fighting in the Vietnam War. He also supported the movement against segregation in Boston schools. Russell continually stood up for himself and his Black teammates even when was unpopular in the league.

Russell served as player-coach of the Celtics from 1966 to 1969. He was the first African American head coach in major league professional sports. Russell retired as a player in 1969. He served as general manager and coach of the Seattle SuperSonics of the NBA from 1973 to 1977. He coached the Sacramento Kings of the NBA from 1987 to 1988, and served as a vice president for the team in 1988 and 1989.

Russell was a TV sports commentator between coaching assignments. He discussed his life and his views on basketball in Go Up for Glory (1970), Second Wind (1979), and Red and Me (2009). In 2011, Russell received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor awarded by the president of the United States.

A postage stamp printed in USA showing an image of Harvey Milk.
Credit: © Catwalker/Shutterstock

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning pioneers in a variety of areas.

His name appears across San Francisco, on a United States Navy oiler, and on a Presidential Medal of Freedom, but many people do not know his name. Harvey Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to a government office in California. He was a leader of the gay-rights movement in San Francisco, standing up for his hopes, his friends, and himself. He was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Later, he was shot to death while serving on the board. Milk’s political service and the circumstances surrounding his death brought widespread attention to the gay rights movement in the United States. This movement later came to be called the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights movement.

Harvey Bernard Milk was born in Woodmere, New York, on May 22, 1930. In 1951, he received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the New York State College for Teachers at Albany (now the State University of New York at Albany). He then enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After being discharged in 1955, Milk returned to New York City to work as a high-school teacher. During the 1960′s, he held jobs as an insurance company actuary (mathematician specializing in risk estimates) and as a Wall Street investment analyst. Milk moved to San Francisco in 1972 and opened a camera store on Castro Street the following year.

In 1973, Milk entered politics and ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He ran unsuccessfully again in 1975, failed in his run for the state legislature in 1976, and finally won a seat on the board in 1977. While in office, he helped pass a gay civil rights law and worked to establish alliances between the gay community and various other minority groups. Milk’s popularity with the gay community in the Castro Street area earned him the nickname “the Mayor of Castro Street.”

On Nov. 27, 1978, Dan White, a former member of the Board of Supervisors, shot and killed both Milk and Mayor George Moscone. White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to a prison term of seven years and eight months. Following the verdict, many of Milk’s supporters, believing that the sentence was too light, demonstrated in the streets of San Francisco. The demonstrations eventually erupted into a number of riots. These events became known as the White Night Riots.

Milk was a Korean war veteran, teacher, actuary, analyst, camera enthusiast, activist, and politician. Milk inspired others to be themselves and seek out the rights they deserve. Milk told his supporters, “Hope will never be silent.”

A woman carries the Pan-African flag, a symbol of black unity, at a Juneteenth parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Juneteenth celebrations commemorate the freeing of enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865.
Credit: © Tippman98x/Shutterstock

Last year, Juneteenth became a federal holiday. Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. This festival is held in many African American and other communities annually. The name of the festival refers to the date, June 19—the day the last enslaved people were freed in the southern state of Texas in 1865.

Juneteenth festivities often include family reunions, parades, prayer services, plays, and storytelling. Some communities hold longer Juneteenth festivals that span several days as a celebration of civil rights and freedom. Juneteenth is a federal holiday observed in the District of Columbia and by federal employees throughout the United States. In addition, all of the states have recognized Juneteenth in an official capacity.

The festival originated in Texas at the end of the American Civil War (1861-1865). In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared freedom for the enslaved people in the Confederate States in rebellion against the Union. However, many owners of enslaved people in Texas suppressed information about the emancipation even after the war ended in April 1865. On June 19, 1865, Gordon Granger, a Union general, entered Galveston, Texas, and ordered all enslaved people in the state to be freed. About 250,000 enslaved people, among the last remaining in the United States, were freed.

Juneteenth celebrations were held only in Texas and a few communities in other states in the South in the years following the war. Black Americans carried the celebration with them as they migrated to other regions. Today, Juneteenth festivals have become popular celebrations of freedom and Black American culture in many communities throughout the country. Texas became the first U.S. state to recognize Juneteenth officially, in 1980. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021. In some places, Juneteenth is called Black Independence Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, or Jubilee Day.

James Baldwin
Credit: Allan Warren (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature LGBTQ+ pioneers in a variety of areas.

The Black novelist, essayist, and playwright James Baldwin (1924-1987) has gained fame for his works about racial injustice and sexual identity. Baldwin was born in the United States, but he lived much of his life in France. Whether writing in the United States or abroad, he offered fiery protests against racial inequality.

Baldwin promoted civil rights and encouraged people to accept social differences in several powerful essay collections. These include Notes of a Native Son (1955), Nobody Knows My Name (1961), The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976). These five collections and other nonfiction pieces were compiled in The Price of the Ticket (1985).

Baldwin also explored interracial conflict in his fiction and drama, including the novel Another Country (1962), the play Blues for Mister Charlie (1964), and the short-story collection Going to Meet the Man (1965). In his novel Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone (1968), Baldwin presented his most detailed portrayal of civil rights activities during the 1960′s.

James Arthur Baldwin was born on Aug. 2, 1924, in the Harlem district of New York City. He was a minister as a teenager, and many of his works use the rich language and tone of Biblical scripture, Black sermons, and gospel and blues music. His early writings explore the characters’ psychological struggles with their religious faith and relationships. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), and first play, The Amen Corner (1955), portray tensions within Black families and churches. Baldwin explored the subject of homosexuality in his second novel, Giovanni’s Room (1956), and in other works of fiction.

Baldwin’s other works include the novels If Beale Street Could Talk (1974) and Just Above My Head (1979). A motion picture adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk was released in 2018. Baldwin also wrote poetry and nonfiction with other writers and civil rights activists. He wrote one children’s book, Little Man, Little Man, that portrays the world of a black child growing up in Harlem during the 1970′s. The book was originally published in 1976 and reissued in a new edition in 2018. His essays were gathered in Collected Essays (published by the Library of America in 1998) and The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings (2010). The Library of America also published two volumes of Baldwin’s fiction, Early Novels & Stories (1998) and Later Novels (2015). Baldwin died on Dec. 1, 1987.

February is Black History Month, an annual observance of the achievements and culture of Black Americans. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature Black pioneers in a variety of areas.

Barbara Rose Johns
Credit: Library of Virginia

Can you imagine inspiring all the students in your school? Maybe you already have. You might have inspired them to establish a recycling program. You might have urged students to talk with teachers and administrators about having a more diverse curriculum.

In 1951, at the age of 16, the Black civil rights activist Barbara Johns (1935-1991) inspired all the students in her school. She led a walkout of her segregated high school in protest of poor and unequal school conditions. Segregation is the separation of people by race. Johns’s walkout helped launch the desegregation movement in the United States.

Barbara Rose Johns was born on March 6, 1935, in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. During World War II (1939-1945), Johns moved to Prince Edward County, Virginia, to live with her grandmother. Johns attended the segregated Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. The school’s facilities were inadequate to handle its students. Although the school was constructed to hold about 200 students, more than 400 students attended. Classes were held in school buses and in the auditorium. When parents asked the school board for additional space, several tar-paper shacks were built.

In the 11th grade, after years of frustration, Johns began mobilizing students to protest the poor and unequal school conditions. On April 23, 1951, the students—led by Johns—left the school and did not return for two weeks. The protest attracted the attention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Lawyers from the organization agreed to help the students, as long as the students agreed to sue for an integrated (combined) school, rather than simply improved conditions at the all-Black school. The students agreed, and the suit became known as Dorothy E. Davis et al v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia. It became one of several cases consolidated into the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. In that case, in 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States declared racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional.

After organizing the walkout, Johns began receiving death threats. So, she moved to Montgomery, Alabama, to live with relatives and finish school. Johns married William Powell in 1954. She became known as Barbara Johns Powell. The couple raised five children. Johns attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, before earning a master’s degree in library science from Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1979. She became a librarian in the Philadelphia public school system. Johns died of bone cancer on Sept. 25, 1991.

In 2020, it was announced that a statue of Barbara Johns would be placed in Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol, representing the state of Virginia. It was to replace a statue of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee, which was removed for its association with racism and the legacy of slavery.

Six-year-old Ruby Bridges is escorted by United States deputy marshals at William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana, in November 1960. The first-grader was the only Black child enrolled in the school, where parents of white students boycotted the court-ordered integration law.
Credit: AP/Wide World

Ruby Bridges (1954-…) is another important figure in the history of integrated schools. She became one of the first Black children to integrate an elementary school in the Deep South region of the United States. In 1960, as a 6-year-old first-grader, she was the only Black student to enter the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. On Nov. 14, 1960, federal marshals escorted Bridges on her first day of school. The child was met by angry mobs. Parents of white students boycotted the court-ordered integration and took their children out of the school.

Bridges was taught by a white teacher named Barbara Henry, and she was the only student in her class for the entire school year. By the time Bridges entered second grade, Frantz Elementary had been successfully integrated. There were no more protests, and Bridges was able to attend the school unescorted.

American civil rights leader John R. Lewis
Credit: Office of John Robert Lewis

The world lost a major voice for the rights of African Americans on Friday, July 17, with the death of the American politician and civil rights leader John Lewis at the age of 80. A Democrat from Georgia, Lewis was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 until his death in 2020. He became nationally known in the early 1960’s for organizing student protests against segregation (the enforced separation of African Americans) and racial discrimination in the South. Throughout his life, Lewis worked to promote the rights and political involvement of African Americans.

John Robert Lewis was born near Troy, Alabama, on Feb. 21, 1940. Lewis attended segregated schools, and later graduated from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. As a university student in 1961, Lewis volunteered as a “Freedom Rider,” challenging segregation at bus terminals throughout the South.

In 1960, Lewis became a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which organized student protests, such as sit-ins at lunch counters. In 1963, Lewis was a keynote speaker at the March on Washington, where Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. In 1965, Lewis was a leader in the voting rights protest march from Selma, Alabama. He and other marchers were attacked by state troopers in an event that became known as “Bloody Sunday.” Lewis also suffered beatings by angry mobs and was arrested by police dozens of times.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Lewis to help lead ACTION, a federal agency that directed volunteer programs. In 1981, Lewis was elected to the City Council of Atlanta, Georgia. He served from 1982 to 1986, when he was elected to his first term in Congress.

Lewis was also the author of several books centered on his involvement in the civil rights movement. In 2011, Lewis received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor awarded by a U.S. president.

Lewis died on the same day as C. T. Vivian, a civil rights organizer and leader under King. Lewis’s death took on added significance in the wake of protests against police use of force against African Americans sparked by the killing of George Floyd and others.

February 14, 2020

Tomorrow, February 15, is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the women’s rights activist and reformer Susan B. Anthony in 1820. She is best known for helping organize the woman suffrage movement, which worked to get women the right to vote. Anthony, who was arrested for voting in 1872, died on March 13, 1906. In 1920, 100 years ago, her lifelong dream came true as the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States became law, giving women the right to vote.

Susan B. Anthony was born 200 years ago on Feb. 15, 1820. Credit: Library of Congress

Anthony was born in Adams, Massachusetts. Her family were Quakers, who became known for their belief in the equality of men and women. Anthony’s family supported major reforms, such as temperance, the campaign to abolish alcoholic beverages, and the abolition of slavery.

From 1839 to 1849, Anthony taught school. She then joined the temperance movement. But most temperance groups consisted of men who did not allow women to help the movement. In 1852, she attended a temperance rally in Albany, New York, but was not allowed to speak because she was a woman. Soon after, she formed the Woman’s State Temperance Society of New York.

The Anthony dollar, minted for circulation in 1979 and 1980, honored woman suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony. A profile of Susan B. Anthony is on the front and the American eagle is on the reverse. Credit: WORLD BOOK photo by James Simek

Through her temperance work, Anthony became increasingly conscious of the disparity in rights between men and women. In 1851, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leader of the women’s rights movement. The two women became close friends and co-workers. Soon, Anthony devoted herself completely to women’s rights and became a leader of the movement.

Before and during the American Civil War (1861-1865), Anthony and Stanton supported abolitionism. After the war, however, they broke away from those who had been involved in the abolitionist movement. Many of these people showed little interest in woman suffrage and supported the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment gave the vote to black men, but not to women. In 1869, Anthony and Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association and worked for a woman suffrage amendment to the Constitution. In 1872, Anthony voted in the presidential election and was arrested and fined $100 (a large sum at the time), but she vehemently refused to pay it.

From 1881 to 1886, Anthony and Stanton coedited three volumes of a book called History of Woman Suffrage. Anthony published a fourth volume of the book in 1902. In 1904, she established the International Woman Suffrage Alliance with Carrie Chapman Catt, another leader of the suffrage movement.

January 20, 2020

Yesterday, January 19, was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonpartisan organization devoted to defending the rights and freedoms of people in the United States. The ACLU works mainly by providing lawyers and legal advice for individuals and groups in local, state, and federal courts. ACLU officials also testify before state and federal legislative committees, advise government officials, and conduct educational programs. The chief goal of the ACLU is to protect the fundamental rights of individuals as described in the Constitution of the United States.

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ACLU logo. Credit: © ACLU

In 1917, a group of social activists founded the National Civil Liberties Bureau (NCLB) to support the Bill of Rights. The NCLB was led by Roger Baldwin, a social worker and civil rights champion, and Crystal Eastman, a lawyer and leader in the woman suffrage and equal rights movements. The NCLB became the ACLU in 1920, the same year that women in the United States won the right to vote.

The ACLU has defended the constitutional rights of a wide range of individuals and groups. It played an important part in Supreme Court rulings that guaranteed legal aid to poor people. The group has supported fair treatment of conscientious objectors, people whose conscience does not allow them to take part in war. The ACLU urged the desegregation of schools and promoted the African American civil rights movement. One of the current goals of the ACLU is the abolition of capital punishment. The group also calls for further restrictions on government investigative agencies and for stricter separation of church and state. In addition, it seeks greater protection for the rights of immigrants who enter the United States without the required papers and for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

The ACLU has played a significant part in some of the landmark civil rights cases in American history. The ACLU backed both biology teacher John Scopes and attorney Clarence Darrow in the Scopes trial of 1925, which challenged a Tennessee law that outlawed the teaching of evolution in schools. During World War II (1939-1945), the ACLU fought against the internment of Japanese Americans. In 1954, the ACLU joined with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to challenge racial segregation in public schools. The ACLU defended individual freedom of speech in 1968 and women’s reproductive rights in 1973. In 1978, the ACLU famously defended the free speech of an American Nazi group who wanted to march in Illinois. The ACLU believes that constitutional rights apply to everyone regardless of individual ideology.

February 23, 2018

World Book’s celebration of Black History Month continues with happy birthday wishes for African American leader W. E. B. Du Bois <<doo BOYS>>, who was born 150 years ago today on Feb. 23, 1868. During the first half of the 1900′s, Du Bois was the leading black opponent of racial discrimination in the United States. He also won fame as a historian and sociologist. Modern day historians still use Du Bois’s research on blacks in American society.

W. E. B. Du Bois was born 150 years ago today on Feb. 23, 1868. Credit: Library of Congress

Du Bois was one of the first African Americans to express the idea of Pan-Africanism. Pan-Africanism is the belief that all people of African descent have common interests and should work together to conquer prejudice. In 1900, Du Bois predicted that humanity’s chief problem of the new century would be “the color line.”

Credit: © African American History Month

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on Feb. 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He graduated from Fisk University in 1888. In 1895, he became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. degree at Harvard University. From 1897 to 1910, Du Bois taught history and economics at Atlanta University. In 1900, he attended the First Pan-African Conference in London, England. He later organized Pan-African conferences in Europe and the United States.

To fight racial discrimination, Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement in 1905. In 1909, he helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). From 1910 to 1934, he was editor of the NAACP magazine, The Crisis. Du Bois left the NAACP in 1934 and returned to the faculty at Atlanta University. From 1944 to 1948, he again worked for the NAACP. After 1948, Du Bois became increasingly dissatisfied with the slow progress of race relations in the United States. He moved to the west African country of Ghana in 1961. Du Bois died in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, on Aug. 27, 1963.