Rest in Power

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Trayvon Benjamin Martin

Died: February 26, 2012 Black Lives Matter
On 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 Black
On 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 Movement
Dr. 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 Movement
Malcolm 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 Movement
Carol 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 Movement
Cynthia 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 Movement
Carole 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 Movement
Addie 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 Movement
On 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 Movement
On 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...

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