Rest in Power
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Trayvon Benjamin Martin
Died: February 26, 2012 — Black Lives MatterOn February 26, 2012, 28-year-old George Zimmerman shot to death 17-year-old Trayvon Benjamin Martin (1995–2012), who was walking home to his dad's house from a convenience store where he had purchased a bag of Skittles and a bottle of juice. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, was... Read more...
Nicholas Naquan Heyward, Jr.
Died: September 28, 1994 — Just Because They Were BlackOn the evening of September 27, 1994, thirteen-year-old Nicholas Naquan Heyward, Jr. (1981–1994), was playing cops and robbers with his friends when a housing project community police officer, Brian George, shot him. George was responding to gunshots fired in the Gowanus Houses and mistook Nicholas... Read more...
Martin Luther King, Jr., Michael King, Jr.
Died: April 4, 1968 — Civil Rights MovementDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968), was the youngest person (age thirty-five) to win the Nobel Prize for Peace (1964). While a Baptist minister in Montgomery, Alabama, he led the successful bus boycott that ushered in the American civil rights movement and led to the passage of the Civil... Read more...
Malcolm X, el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, Malcolm Little
Died: February 21, 1965 — Civil Rights MovementMalcolm Little is the birth name of el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (1925–1965), known as Malcolm X, a minister of the Islam faith, public speaker, and civil rights activist who said the most important issues for Black Americans were identity, integrity, and independence. He loved his people and lost his... Read more...
Denise McNair, Carol Denise McNair
Died: September 15, 1963 — Civil Rights MovementCarol Denise McNair (1951–1963), a student at Center Street Elementary School who held events to raise money for muscular dystrophy, was just 11 years old when she was killed on September 15, 1963, during a bomb blast at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, carried out by four Ku... Read more...
Cynthia Dionne Wesley
Died: September 15, 1963 — Civil Rights MovementCynthia Dionne Wesley (1949–1963), a student at Ullman High School excelling in math, reading, and band, was just 14 years old when she was killed on September 15, 1963, during a bomb blast at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, carried out by four Ku Klux Klan member. It was the... Read more...
Carole Rosamond Robertson
Died: September 15, 1963 — Civil Rights MovementCarole Rosamond Robertson (1949–1963), a student at Parker High School, member of the marching band, Girl Scout, and Jack and Jill member, was just 14 years old when she was killed on September 15, 1963, during a bomb blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, carried out... Read more...
Addie Mae Collins
Died: September 15, 1963 — Civil Rights MovementAddie Mae Collins (1949–1963), a student at Hill Elementary School, an avid softball player, and a budding artist, was just 14 years old when she was killed on September 15, 1963, during a bomb blast at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, carried out by four Ku Klux Klan members... Read more...
Medgar Wiley Evers
Died: June 12, 1963 — Civil Rights MovementOn June 12, 1963, civil rights leader Medgar Wiley Evers (1925–1963) was assassinated in the doorway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi—shot in the back after returning home from a meeting. As one of the first martyrs of the civil rights movement, his death changed the tone and the course of the... Read more...
Emmett Louis Till, Bobo Till
Died: August 28, 1955 — Civil Rights MovementOn January 11, 2022, nearly 67 years after the brutal murder by White supremasists of Emmett Louis Till (1941–1955), the U.S. Senate passed a bill to award posthumously the Congressional Gold Medal to Emmett and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, whose insistence on having an open casket showing the... Read more...