Big Six (civil rights)

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The Big Six leaders during the height of the American Civil Rights movement are generally considered to be:

• James Farmer-(January 12, 1920 – July 9, 1999) was a one of the leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In 1942 Farmer founded the Congress of Racial Equality or CORE, a pacifist organization dedicated to achieving racial harmony and equality through non-violence
• Martin Luther King, Jr.-(January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was a Baptist minister and activist who was the most famous leader of the Civil Rights Movement. King won the Nobel Peace Prize and Presidential Medal of Freedom before being assassinated in 1968. For his promotion of non-violence and racial equality, King is considered a peacemaker and martyr by many people around the world. Martin Luther King Day was established in his honor.
• John Lewis-(born February 21, 1940) is an American politician and was an important leader in the American Civil Rights Movement as president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He has represented the 5th District of Georgia (map) in the United States House of Representatives since 1987. The district takes in almost all of Atlanta.
• A. Philip Randolph- (April 15, 1889 – May 16, 1979) was a socialist in the labor movement and the US civil rights movement. In 1925, Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. This was the first serious effort to form a labor union for the employees of the Pullman Company, which was a major employer of African Americans.
• Roy Wilkins-(August 30, 1901 – September 8, 1981) was a prominent civil rights activist in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. In 1955, Wilkins was named executive director of the NAACP. He had an excellent reputation as an articulate spokesperson for the civil rights movement. He participated in the March on Washington (1963), the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965), and the March Against Fear (1966).
• Whitney Young-(July 31, 1921 - March 11, 1971) was a civil rights leader. He spent most of his career working to end employment discrimination in the South and turning the National Urban League from a relatively passive civil rights organization into one that aggressively fought for justice.

Malcolm X commented: “The late President has a bigger image as a liberal, the other whites who participated have bigger liberal images also, and the Negro civil rights leaders have now been permanently named the Big Six (because of their participation in the Big Fix?)… but the black masses are still unemployed, still starving, and still living in slums… and, I might add, getting angrier and more explosive every day.“ (Page 118 - Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare, James H. Cone, Orbis Books, NY, 1991)