Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African American boy who was murdered in cold blood for a racially-charged crime he did not commit. His mother held a 5-day open casket of Emmett’s mangled body to show the world the abhorrent injustice.

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, was imprisoned at 21 for larceny and soon introduced to Islam where his violent views for achieving racial equality would form the basis for his eventual assassination.

The widely underreported Orangeburg Massacre caused by a South Carolina bowling alley owner who refused entry to blacks would result in three dead and many more injured by police.

In a young nation divided over slavery, on June 19th, 1865, Union Major General Granger declared all enslaved people free from bondage in Texas, leading to Juneteenth as a recognized holiday to celebrate the abolition of slavery in the US.

Sojourner Truth, born Isabella Baumfree, escaped from slavery leaving four of her five children when she fled. Her previous owner tried to illegally sell her five-year-old son, so she filed a lawsuit and won custody. She dedicated her life to civil rights activism for black Americans.

Established by an act of Congress on March 3rd, 1865, the Freedmen’s Bureau was conceived as a temporary agency to last the remainder of the war plus one year to follow. The intent of the act was to help the four million newly-freed blacks transition from slavery to a free-labor economy.