Dr. King’s involvement in the Montgomery County Bus Strikes and battle for equality was sparked with the case of Mrs. Rosa Parks, who would not give up her seat on a public bus to a white person. King, who by that time had received his PhD from Boston College in 1955, started the bus boycott that would see his arrest and the bombing of his house. It was the first time King had actually used the philosophy he had studied intensely – non-violent civil disobedience. He saw that it, more than violence, caught attention, created frustration, and made a strong point when employed collectively.

Following, King worked hard over the next years to fight the Jim Crow Laws that segregated his people. His work in the poor neighborhoods and ghettos in the south, which in turn brought media attention to the hardships and dearth environment that his fellow blacks were suffering each day. With his work, King made the Civil Rights Movement the most focused-upon issue of the day. Similar to President Abraham Lincoln’s battle, King, although 100 years later, was fighting for the same cause: to keep America focused, together, and aware of the undeniable inequality of the various races living in the United States.

One of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s strongest beliefs was that black people living in the United States should be compensated for America’s past wrongs. He claims that the blacks who built America to be the superpower it would become, would not have done so without the backbreaking labor enforced upon slaves.

In the “March on Washington”, King deliberately gave his “I have a dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 to the crowd of thousands who had come for the right to jobs and freedom. The March made some clear-cut demands, including equal rights in schools and public places, police brutality clauses, and minimum wage standards.
In April of 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed by an assassin’s bullet. A small-time thief by the name James Earl Ray was sentenced for the assassination, although a conspiracy theory holds that Ray did not commit the crime. Many claim it was the FBI, who had been keeping tabs on King since early 1961. Others involved in the plot have come forth, leaving room for many unanswered questions.

Amongst the struggles of her early childhood were the Jim Crow laws that separated African Americans from whites in public domains – namely on the bus, in restaurants, theaters, cinemas, and even bathrooms. While she was always told to be proud of her heritage, as an engaging child, she wondered why she and her family had to often live in fear.

She soon moved with her family to Denver, which was much more accepting of African Americans holding high positions. Condoleezza’s father held a position at the University of Denver and young Rice attended a Catholic school where she received a top-notch private education. Her father soon became a dean at the University and that is when Condoleezza began studying there.

Earning her B.A. in only a couple of years, she went on to receive a Master’s Degree from the University of Notre Dame in political science, which saw her as an instant candidate to work for the United States Department. By the time she was 26, she had earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from Denver. Following, she worked at Stanford University and Dr. Rice soon became Provost Rice and was in charge of the school’s multi-billion dollar endowment.

When George W. Bush began running for president, Condoleezza Rice became active in his campaign and rose to become his foreign policy advisor. After Bush won the presidency, Rice became a proponent of the invasion of Iraq. She became Bush’s National Security Advisor in 2004 and with the resignation of Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice became the U.S. Secretary of State.

His parents both died tragically, when Ray was young. In his latter teens, he decided to leave Florida and head to Seattle, where he wanted to secure musical gigs to make a living. While there, he was able to get some recording sessions with Swingtime Records, where he recorded his hits, Confession Blues. In 1952, he followed by signing with the much larger Atlantic Records, who would market his talent across the full U.S.

In the mid-1950s, Ray Charles saw boundless success while recording singles. Here, he recorded such hits as I Got a Woman and Lonely Avenue. His fame grew even more when he began to perform live, offering the audience new takes on old favorites and even singing songs prior to their actual release date. He soon topped the charts with The Night Time is the Right Time.

Wanting artistic control over his music, Ray Charles moved to ABC records and performed an enchanting America the Beautiful. In his latter career, Charles saw the advantages of hopping onto the pop music arena and from thereon became internationally known for his appearances in both TV and film. A biography of Ray Charles referred to as a biopic was released in 2004. Actor Jamie Foxx depicts Ray Charles’ remarkable life and career. His portrayal won him an Academy Award for his role.

Ray Charles was taken into Police custody in 1965 after investigators found heroin in his possession. While that was a repeated offense, he made a deal that he would join a rehabilitation clinic. Upon his release, he had kicked the habit. Following, his career was both up and down, but he remained in the public’s eye by performing concerts all over the U.S. In The Blues Brothers, Ray Charles makes a cameo and sings on film. With the film’s popularity, people began searching for more types of soul music. Although he had a personal life that was up and down, along with a musical career that spanned decades, Ray Charles became an iconic representative of American mainstream music.

Taken back to his original birthplace and following the abolition of slavery, he was raised by the family that had enslaved him. They knew he was bright for his age and encouraged him in his educational pursuits. He would go to Kansas for High School as schools farther south were not open to African American attendance yet. When George applied to different colleges, he was rejected once they learned his was black. His name did not reveal his color. Finding disappointment in this, he moved even farther north into Iowa, where he would eventually attend Iowa State University as the first black student. It was during this period that he adopted the name George ‘ Washington’ Carver since there was another George Carver in his classes. Later on in his career, he would become the sole African American faculty member. He even remained there and received a Master’s Degree, where he gained international recognition as a budding botanist.

Upon graduation, he was recruited and paid a substantial salary to teach at Tuskegee University. Initially, he was hired by Booker T. Washington, who promoted industry and labor as a way for his fellow African American brethren to rise in society. At Tuskegee, George Washington Carver would stay, completing research and teaching for nearly fifty years. Through his research, he found a variety of uses for the peanut plant. He worked on better concoctions for glue, ink, makeup, oils, soaps, salts, and recipes for the home. It is even claimed that he invented peanut butter.

Over the remaining years in his career and life, George Washington Carver did not publish his autobiography, but a lot has been written about his life. He gave advice to numerous presidents, and was aided in his hopes that soy could be used for fuel by Henry Ford. He has had museums, schools, libraries, scholarships, and other awards named in his honor

Born near Vinci, Leonardo grew up in Florence where he began sketching, drawing, and eventually painting. At age fourteen, Leonardo began an apprenticeship with Andrea del Verrocchio. However, his work was so admired that he was soon employed by the Duke of Milan from circa 1480 to 1500. Under the duke, Leonardo was to construct a huge bronze horse statue called Gran Cavallo. But, as the French soon attacked the city, the bronze had to be used for weaponry. However, his drawings and sketches of how the horse would look and be built still exist.

For a few years starting in 1513, Leonardo lived in Rome and was in rank with the greatest artists of the time, Michelangelo and Rafael. There, he was commissioned for various artistic endeavors and lived comfortable on his earnings. His wrangles with Michelangelo meant fierce artistic onslaughts and criticisms of each other’s artistic abilities. Leonardo even had Michelangelo’s Statue of David moved from its original location.

Leonardo da Vinci, according to his biography, was a man of strict moral character. Feeling at one with animals, he was an outspoken vegetarian, or by today’s standards, a vegan. He believed that animals were divine and should not be used callously by man. He thought that one day Nature would have its revenge upon man.

Although his first early work of genius was Madonna and Child, which led to his later work known worldwide as The Last Supper, Leonardo also designed court festival arenas for the Duke. He also pursued his engineering sketches and was given several apprentices to aid him in his work. 

Included in his artwork are his nearly 15,000 pages of sketches and engineering notes. He was also left-handed and mastered writing backwards then using a mirror since the use of a quill pen was difficult to ‘push’ rather than to ‘pull’. It has been stated that this also helped him to keep his works from being easily read by others who might use his inventions for malice – such as his invention of the modern tank. Designs of a robot called “Leonardo’s Robot” were not discovered until the 1950s. These sketches included drawings on how the heart would pump the blood to the muscles of the ‘created’ being. He also produced drawings and sketches of how humans could fly. By studying birds, he invented the glider, parachute, a machine that would later allow humans to fly – the helicopter.

Rescuing  slaves, nursing them to health, gathering funds, and helping the Union gather key intelligence before the Civil War, Tubman was literally a woman of all trades. Before she would have been sold into the south, she decided to escape northward from her owner, Eliza Brodess. And, in 1849, she made her move. Through the night she ran. Through the day, she hid. Along the way, some caring members of various backgrounds, churches and others involved in the Abolitionist Movement aided her. Upon her entrance into freedom, Harriet knew that she would have to return to Maryland to help others escape.

With her difficult childhood of abuse looming in her mind, she wanted help both young and old slaves escape, including those of her own family. Taking her life into her own hands, she was able to free her parents, four brothers, but was not able to reach her sister in time before she passed away in 1859.

One of the most interesting facts, detailed in her biography entitled Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, is that she acted as a spy for the Northern armies. She was never captured in any of her expeditions. She would often lead slaves into Union camps where they would revitalize, hope for the arrival of other family members, and decide in which direction they would continue. Tubman even plotted and led a raid at the Combahee River Ferry in South Carolina where many slaves ran to awaiting Union boats.

After the end of the Civil War, Harriet Tubman should have received a pension from the Union, but did not until some 30 years following. With the proceeds from the sales of her biography, she was able to purchase a house in New York. She then married Nelson Davis. During this time, she founded and funded the Harriet Tubman Home for Sick or Indigent African Americans. There, she was taken care of when she became too sick to care for others. Upon her death, Tubman was honored with a full military burial for not only her help with the Union forces and her donation to the betterment of humanity, but her unyielding work freeing her African-American counterparts from bondage.

As the driver, Mr. James Blake, moved a ‘colored section’ sign farther back in the bus to make room for additional white passengers, Rosa Parks refused to move toward the back of the bus, but instead slid over towards the window. Following, the bus driver called the police and had her arrested. With the backing of the NAACP and legal counsel, the Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted well beyond a year was initiated. It became and still remains one of the grandest public displays against racial segregation in U.S. history.

At age eleven, Rosa stopped her home schooling with her mother Leona McCauley, a teacher at the time, and attended the Industrial School for Girls. Following, she attended secondary school but had to drop out because she had to take care of her sick grandmother and eventually her own mother.

In 1932, at the age of 19, she wed Mr. Raymond Parks who was also a physical rights activist alongside the NAACP. Ten years after finishing her high school degree in 1943, Parks became the secretary for the NAACP where she worked until 1957. In her autobiography entitled My Story, Parks revealed that she had always resisted mistreatment in many instances, but her arrest triggered the profound reaction and boycott.      

While some segregationists turned to violence, the African-American community of Montgomery held strongly together as the nation and even the world watched. In November of 1956, the United States Supreme Court outlawed further segregation on buses. Following, Parks moved to Virginia and found a job working at an inn. Eventually, her and her husband moved to Detroit, Michigan to be near Rosa’s family. In 1965, U.S. Representative John Conyers hired Parks until 1988. In 1995, she published another autobiography titled Quiet Strength that discussed how her faith kept her strong.

In her lifetime, Parks won numerous prestigious awards. This included the Congressional Gold Medal, the Alabama Academy of Honor and the Governor’s Medal of Honor. In 1996, Bill Clinton presented Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And, she even had a prize named after her called the Rosa Parks Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden.

Rosa Parks’ case wasn’t just a deciding factor for the removal of segregation on public buses, but an everlasting spark that helped the Civil Rights Movement burn even brighter.

At the age of three, Oprah began showing signs of being a whiz kid as she could read and recite from her favorite childhood books and even the Bible. Being a prodigy child allowed her to skip a few levels in grade school. And, after some rough years and in high school, she moved to the Tennessee where she graduated with honors. During that time, she won a full academic scholarship to university.

In 1976, after spending some time in Nashville’s local media circle as a news anchor, she moved to Baltimore. Then, seven years later, she moved to Chicago to host a show called AM Chicago. When the show moved from last place in the rankings to first nationwide, overtaking other top talk-show hosts, her success was only beginning. In a field dominated by white male hosts, other networks were in a dire need to keep up with Oprah’s avalanche-like success.

In the mid to late 90s, when other shows began doing more tacky material, she forced her show to stay on track with what it had always been successful delivering – honest stories of triumph or despair. With such a reputation, she was able to interview top celebrities about their real-life trials and tribulations on her show. Oprah allowed such idolized stars time to to share and show the public that they are in fact human too.

Oprah is more than just one of America’s most adored talk-show hosts. In 1985, she was a main character in a movie based on the novel The Color Purple. For her role, she was nominated for an Academy Award. More recently, in 1998-1999, she worked on the acclaimed novel-to-film adaptation of Beloved, where she also played the protagonist. In 2005, she was involved in the film-television making of Their Eyes Were Watching God.  Additionally, she published two magazines, one called O and another called O at Home. In 2006, she will release her sixth book, not a biography or autobiography, but a book about weight loss. Furthermore, she will be doing a talk show with XM Radio, currently titled Oprah and Friends, where she will do a 30-minute show once per week.

In her early thirties, Winfrey became a millionaire. Today, she is the only African- American billionaire and one of the richest people in the world. Her charity work is never-ending and she has won numerous awards for her philanthropy. She has donated more money and worked for more causes than many of the richest people in the world. She has even been adorned with the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.

She continues her humanitarian stride at an unstoppable pace, while still bringing light to the issues that face our daily lives with all the empathy, care, and insightful commentaries that have made her one of the world’s most watched women.

Born in a small village would have its disadvantages for the rearing and schooling of young Nelson. But, thanks to his father’s position as a councillor to the king, when Nelson’s father died, the new King Jongintaba Dalindyebo adopted him as his own, ensuring he would continue his schooling, which he did, at the Clarkebury Boarding Institute.

At Fort Hare University, where Mandela would be kicked out for his involvement in a sit-in, he met Oliver Tambo, who would become Mandela’s ally and best friend. Upon leaving university, Mandela had to flee to Johannesburg to avoid an arranged marriage set up by the king. While there, he completed his studies, became a lawyer, and helped blacks pro bono in many court cases where they might not have had representation.

In the autobiography of Nelson Mandela entitled A Long Walk to Freedom, he touches upon the political and emotional strife that led him from a proponent of non-violence to forming a group he called the Umkhonto we Sizwe, which was modeled after Jewish guerilla warfare tactics. In raising funds for the newly established movement, he traveled extensively through Africa, namely to Algeria and Ghana where he received financial support and weapons for the cause.

Once the South African government caught him, they put him on trial and sentenced him on the grounds of treason. Not only did he write his own autobiography in prison, but also he aided a journalist who wrote a biography called Mandela: The Authorized Biography. Upon his release, he gave a speech declaring that the battle was not over, that the fight to end apartheid would continue, pushing the need for non-violent measures, but not completely canceling out armed conflict should it be needed. In 1994, Mandela became the president of South Africa where he worked endlessly to end minority rule and apartheid. During his latter years, he has also worked hard to fight the AIDS epidemic in his country and in other parts of Africa.

Born Cassius Clay Jr., Ali started with his first coach who led him all the way to the Rome Olympics. While there, Muhammad won a Gold Medal in the light, heavyweight division – an event that solidified his path to the professional boxing ring in the United States. He would later throw his Gold Medal into a river because he could not stand representing a country full of racism. It was this act and his public presence that intrigued Malcolm X to invite Ali into the Nation of Islam.

Before changing his name to match the will of the founder of the Nation of Islam, Ali was ranked in the top ten fighters in the country. As Ali climbed the rank in the boxing circuit, he also received more coverage than any of the other boxers. Some claim it was Muhammad Ali alone who revitalized a sport many sports enthusiasts stopped watching. With such attention and a public profile, he was offered a 50 – 50 split of his fights – the highest ever offered in boxing history.

In his first battle for the heavyweight championship of the world, Ali fought Sonny Liston in Miami. Claiming he was destined to win the fight, Muhammad came into the ring as sharp, strong, and pumped as ever. Although Liston was the more powerful contender, he couldn’t keep up with Ali who maintained his endurance and eventually outsmarted Liston to become the World Champion at only 22 years of age.

As the Vietnam war led to the draft in the United States, Muhammad Ali, being of a member of the Islamic faith, was a conscientious objector. With his quick and witty tongue, Ali revealed, “I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong … no Vietcong ever called me nigger.” Due to his anti-war status and refusal to enter the draft, Ali was stripped of his boxing title and was sentenced to five years in prison – a decision that was later reverted in the appeals process. During this time, Ali fought abroad and gave talks at different public institutions against racism and fought hard to teach others about equal rights. Only in 1970 was Ali allowed to fight in the United States, an act granted by a senator of Georgia, as the state had no boxing commission.

The Fight of the Century, as it was later dubbed, saw Ali versus Frazier at their best. The fight went until the last round when Ali was knocked to the ground. This was Ali’s first loss as a professional fighter.  In his next, highly advertised fight, Ali fought George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle, which was created by none other than Don King. Ali knew Foreman didn’t have the same endurance he did so he let Foreman pulverize him against the ropes in the early rounds, which wore Foreman out. By the eighth round, Ali came back to knock-out Foreman with one striking blow.

Currently, Muhammad Ali is retired and has two battles which he faces daily; his own long-lasting fight against Parkinson’s disease, and helping those less fortunate in the world – especially in Africa. Ali published an oral autobiography of his life in the early 1990s. And, in the acclaimed movie Ali in 2001, Will Smith portrayed the fighter’s life, his fights, and his personal and religious battles on the big screen. Along with many other awards given to him for his humanitarian deeds, Ali received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in 2005.