Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and social activist who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968.King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is remembered each year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday since 1986.Inspired by advocates of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi, King sought equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest.
Integration of Schools
Brown v. Board of Education, 1954; overturns the ruling in Plessy vs. Ferguson which allowed for separate but equal facilities.NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall argued the case in front of the Supreme Court.
William C. Marland
Thirty-four-year-old William Casey Marland (March 26, 1918-November 26, 1965) was elected governor of West Virginia in 1952, at the height of a meteoric career. Only five years earlier he had been a law student at West Virginia University.
Born in Illinois, Marland moved at age seven with his family to Glen Rogers, Wyoming County. His father was mine superintendent there. Marland was educated at the University of Alabama and WVU Law School, with time out for service in the navy in World War II. He received his law degree in June 1947, and the following August was named law clerk for Judge Ben Moore of the U.S. District Court for Southern West Virginia, a position traditionally offered to the top law student each year at WVU. In August 1948, Marland was made assistant attorney general by Attorney General Ira J. Partlow. This was followed by Marland’s appointment in late December 1949 by Govenor Patterson to the position of attorney general (vacated by Partlow), which resulted in his subsequent election to that office in 1950.
Born in Illinois, Marland moved at age seven with his family to Glen Rogers, Wyoming County. His father was mine superintendent there. Marland was educated at the University of Alabama and WVU Law School, with time out for service in the navy in World War II. He received his law degree in June 1947, and the following August was named law clerk for Judge Ben Moore of the U.S. District Court for Southern West Virginia, a position traditionally offered to the top law student each year at WVU. In August 1948, Marland was made assistant attorney general by Attorney General Ira J. Partlow. This was followed by Marland’s appointment in late December 1949 by Govenor Patterson to the position of attorney general (vacated by Partlow), which resulted in his subsequent election to that office in 1950.
Leon Sullivan
Famed civil rights leader Leon H. Sullivan was born in Charleston on October 16, 1922. He was raised in a small house in a dirt alley in one of Charleston's poorest sections. Sullivan has often re-told the event which set a course for the remainder of his life. At the age of twelve, he tried to purchase a Coca-Cola in a drugstore on Capitol Street. The proprietor refused to sell him the drink, saying, "Stand on your feet, boy. You can't sit here." This incident inspired Sullivan's lifetime pursuit of fighting racial prejudice.Sullivan attended Charleston's Garnet High School for blacks and received a basketball and football scholarship to West Virginia State College in 1939. A foot injury ended his athletic career and forced Sullivan to pay for college by working in a steel mill. He also worked as a part-time minister. During a visit to West Virginia, noted black minister Adam Clayton Powell convinced Sullivan to move to New York to attend the Union Theological Seminary. He also served as Powell's assistant minister at the Abysinnian Baptist Church. Sullivan took his first active role in the civil rights movement by helping to organize a march on Washington, D.C. in the early 1940s.
He moved to Philadelphia to take over the Zion Baptist Church in 1950. Under Sullivan's leadership the congregation grew from 600 to over 4,000 in just a decade. He also began organizing a civil rights movement in Philadelphia. Sullivan believed jobs were the key to improving African-American lives and asked that the city's largest companies interview young blacks. Only two companies responded positively so Sullivan organized a boycott of various businesses. The boycott was extremely effective since blacks constituted about 20 percent of Philadelphia's population. Sullivan estimated the boycott produced thousands of jobs for African Americans in a period of four years. Sullivan's work was recognized nationally and he was asked by Dr. Martin Luther King to organize boycotts in Atlanta in the early 1960s.
He moved to Philadelphia to take over the Zion Baptist Church in 1950. Under Sullivan's leadership the congregation grew from 600 to over 4,000 in just a decade. He also began organizing a civil rights movement in Philadelphia. Sullivan believed jobs were the key to improving African-American lives and asked that the city's largest companies interview young blacks. Only two companies responded positively so Sullivan organized a boycott of various businesses. The boycott was extremely effective since blacks constituted about 20 percent of Philadelphia's population. Sullivan estimated the boycott produced thousands of jobs for African Americans in a period of four years. Sullivan's work was recognized nationally and he was asked by Dr. Martin Luther King to organize boycotts in Atlanta in the early 1960s.
Sit In
By 1960, the Civil Rights Movement had gained strong power. The nonviolent measures employed by Martin Luther King Jr. helped African American activists win supporters across the country and throughout the world.
On February 1, 1960, a new tactic was added to the peaceful activists' strategy. Four African American college students walked up to a whites-only lunch counter at the local Woolsworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and asked for coffee. When service was refused, the students sat patiently. Despite threats and intimidation, the students sat quietly and waited to be served.
The civil rights sit-in was born.
On February 1, 1960, a new tactic was added to the peaceful activists' strategy. Four African American college students walked up to a whites-only lunch counter at the local Woolsworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and asked for coffee. When service was refused, the students sat patiently. Despite threats and intimidation, the students sat quietly and waited to be served.
The civil rights sit-in was born.