freedom rider - one of an interracial group of civil rights activists who rode buses through parts of the South in order to protest racial segregation

crusader, meliorist, reformer, reformist - a disputant who advocates reform

Julian Bond, Bond - United States civil rights leader who was elected to the legislature in Georgia but was barred from taking his seat because he opposed the Vietnam War (born 1940)

Du Bois, W. E. B. Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois - United States civil rights leader and political activist who campaigned for equality for Black Americans (1868-1963)

Evers, Medgar Evers, Medgar Wiley Evers - United States civil rights worker in Mississippi; was killed by a sniper (1925-1963)

James Leonard Farmer, Farmer - United States civil rights leader who in 1942 founded the Congress of Racial Equality (born in 1920)

Jesse Jackson, Jesse Louis Jackson, Jackson - United States civil rights leader who led a national anti-discrimination campaign and ran for presidential nomination (born in 1941)

Martin Luther King, Martin Luther King Jr., King - United States charismatic civil rights leader and Baptist minister who campaigned against the segregation of Blacks (1929-1968)

Malcolm Little, Malcolm X - militant civil rights leader (1925-1965)

James Howard Meredith, James Meredith, Meredith - United States civil rights leader whose college registration caused riots in traditionally segregated Mississippi (born in 1933)

Parks, Rosa Parks - United States civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery (Alabama) and so triggered the national civil rights movement (born in 1913)

Paul Bustill Robeson, Paul Robeson, Robeson - United States bass singer and an outspoken critic of racism and proponent of socialism (1898-1976)

Roy Wilkins, Wilkins - United States civil rights leader (1901-1981)

Whitney Moore Young Jr., Whitney Young, Young - United States civil rights leader (1921-1971)