# Who is the second greatest civil rights figure in US history? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 20, 2014, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276 "2014-01-20T15:01:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/41 "2014-01-21T04:19:02Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > I would put in Jefferson, all of those who wrote the Constitution - perhaps a generic Founding Fathers list in the top 5 of Civil Rights figures. The Constitution has provided a framework for individual rights. Yes, it had and still has its flaws - but it has been a necessary part of our nation’s evolution. I feel the real change came with Jackson. He was the one who changed American politics into a system where the common people mattered. Granted, he didn’t always use the power wisely - Jackson shared in and catered to many of the popular prejudices of his time. But Jackson was the one who shifted us from the idea of an elite ruling on behalf of the people to the people ruling on their own behalf. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/42 "2014-01-21T04:48:14Z")
Bayard Rustin, who actually did the organizing for the March where MLK gave that speech. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/43 "2014-01-21T07:40:27Z")
Mildred and Richard Loving ? ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/44 "2014-01-21T13:18:52Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > He freed your country. Or don’t the rights of white people count? Because the way Great Britain treated white Americans was not as bad as the way white Americans treated women, blacks, native Americans, gays, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/45 "2014-01-21T13:47:23Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Heck, LBJ belongs in contention. I agree and was going to post that. I worked hard to remove him in the sixties having only a one dimensional Viet Nam view. Later I realised how wrong I was. Imagine a second Johnson Lame duck term- nothing to lose and the chance of really enforcing civil rights. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/46 "2014-01-22T06:06:06Z")
I don’t know if its useful to rank figures like presidents/civil rights leaders… But one major figure that gets little attention today is Walter Francis White (leader of the NAACP from 1931-1955) who led the group’s transition toward effective legal activism (carried through by Justice Marshall) and an active stand against segregation (later led by King). He also was also instrumental in getting federal involvement in lynch laws from 1919-1940s. An interesting aspect of his career is the fact that, while African American by law, he was mostly European by ancestry, and investigated lynchings by going “undercover” in the white south…White often wryly made note of the arbitrary nature of race in his autobiography, A Man Called White. He was also an active participant in the cultural life of the Harlem Renaissance, and I think one cannot discount the impact that black writers, musicians, and artists had in breaking these barriers. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/47 "2014-01-22T07:12:02Z")
Since Martin Luther King is first, shouldn’t #2 go to someone like David Duke or Don Black? ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/48 "2014-01-22T15:57:29Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > Since Martin Luther King is first, shouldn’t #2 go to someone like David Duke or Don Black? oh…kay. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/49 "2014-01-22T18:51:45Z")
> [@syncrolecyne](#): > > An interesting aspect of his career is the fact that, while African American by law, he was mostly European by ancestry Homer Plessy was another example of a “black” civil rights figure who was actually mostly white. When he was making his stand on defying segregation laws he had to inform train conductors of his black ancestry. Here’s an [illustration](http://lightskinnededgirl.typepad.com/my_weblog/images/2008/05/13/homerplessy_3.jpg) of Plessy and here’s a [photograph](http://www.awesomestories.com/images/user/5e6f557671.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![DeepLiquid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deepliquid/32/14893_2.png) [@DeepLiquid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepLiquid)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/50 "2014-01-22T19:05:17Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > I’m a big fan of Harvey Milk, but there are probably better choices. I’d go with Milk too. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/51 "2014-01-22T23:54:47Z")
What about John Brown? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/52 "2014-01-23T01:13:29Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Here’s an [illustration](http://lightskinnededgirl.typepad.com/my_weblog/images/2008/05/13/homerplessy_3.jpg) of Plessy Just for the record, that’s not an illustration of Plessy. The caption reads, “Negro Expulsion from Railway Car, Philadelphia” Plessy’s case happened in Louisiana. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/53 "2014-01-25T01:56:46Z")
Harriet Tubman. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/54 "2014-01-25T02:00:40Z")
> [@AppallingGael](#): > > Harriet Tubman. Hmm, good one. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276/55 "2014-01-25T04:28:32Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Just for the record, that’s not an illustration of Plessy. The caption reads, “Negro Expulsion from Railway Car, Philadelphia” Plessy’s case happened in Louisiana. The picture was from an article about Plessy and the subject was identified as Plessy. But I checked further and somebody said the picture wasn’t Plessy; they said it was P.B.S. Pinchback, the “black” Governor of Louisiana who was also expelled from a train seat. Like Plessy, Pinchback was also mostly white but was identified as black by law. But now things get weird. I wanted to see a photograph of Pinchback to compare his real appearance to the caricature in the cartoon. And I got [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._B._S._Pinchback). Notice anything unusual about this photograph? Does it look strangely familiar? Yes, Pinchbeck was the subject of both the photograph and the cartoon. And Plessy was improperly identified as the subject of both. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-second-greatest-civil-rights-figure-in-us-history/679276.md?page=2)