These women may be lesser known to most Americans, but they are my heroes and
I walk gratefully in their footsteps.
Americans may know the names of Rosa Parks or Coretta Scott King, but the numerous other women who played key roles in the fight for equal rights are too often wiped from the history books.
“There’s a Chinese saying, ‘Women hold up half the world,”‘ the late civil rights historian and NAACP chair Julian Bond told NBC News in 2005. “In the case of the civil rights movement it’s probably three-quarters of the world.”
Here are just nine of other women who made indelible contributions to the civil rights era:
Continued on MLK Day: Meet 9 lesser known women behind the civil rights era’s biggest achievements
