African-American activist, born in

Breaking with the Muslims (1964), he founded the Muslim Mosque in an effort to internationalize the Afro-American struggle, and journeyed to Muslim lands abroad where he was impressed with their lack of racial bias. Returning to the US convinced that whites were not inherently racist, he called himself El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz and formed the Organization of African American Unity, hoping to co-operate with progressive white groups. Before his assassination in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City (Mar 1965), he came to believe that leaders of the Nation of Islam and powerful elements within the US government wanted him dead; the only legal trial put all the blame on members of the Nation of Islam.

Alex Haley helped immortalize him as co-author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), and Spike Lee's 1992 film renewed interest in the man and his message. He proved as powerful after his death as alive, influencing disparate movements with his positions on black power and neo-colonialism, and transforming the consciousness of a generation of African-Americans.

Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.