Civil Rights: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow You are the “Dream” & the Dreamers…

Frederick Douglass (February 1818-February 1895) Frederick Douglass was born a slave in February, 1818. He advocated for the right of women to vote and in 1848, was the only African American to attend the 1st Women’s Right’s Convention. During the Civil War (1861-1865) Frederick Douglass was a consultant to President Abraham Lincoln. He fought for the right for African Americans to vote.

Harriet Tubman & Rosa Parks It is said that Harriet Tubman wore many hats. She was an active proponent of women’s suffrage (the right to vote in political elections). During the Civil War, Harriet also worked for the Union Army as a cook, a nurse and even a spy. Rosa Parks was born February 4, 1913. Harriet Tubman died March 10, 1913. It has been said that Harriet Tubman lived long enough for Rosa Parks to be born in order to pass the fight for Civil Rights onto Rosa.

Mr. & Mrs. William Henry Ray had four children: two boys, two girls Mr. & Mrs. William Henry Ray had four children: two boys, two girls. The youngest is a girl Ethel May Ray born April 13, 1899. She is my grandmother. 1883: In Pace vs. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that state-level bans on interracial marriage do not violate the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The ruling would hold for more than 80 years. My great-grandfather, who was African American, married my great-grandmother, who was a white woman from Sweden in 1890. Did they break the law banning interracial marriages? Between 1913 and 1948, 30 out of the then 48 states enforced anti-miscegenation laws (bans on interracial marriage). Only Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alaska, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia never enacted them. Since my great-grandparents were married in Minnesota & lived there, they were not in violation of the law.

Ethel Ray Nance Graduated from high school in 1917 & college in 1978 What did she accomplish in her lifetime? Her father was the president of the Duluth chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP). Early on, Nance worked for the Minnesota State Relief Commission. In 1921, at the age of 22, she met W. E. B. Du Bois. Nance gained national recognition in 1923 for breaking the secretarial color barrier in the Minnesota State Legislature. In Kansas City, Nance was executive secretary for the local chapter of the Urban League. She moved to New York in 1924 and became Charles S. Johnson's secretary. She assisted him with research at Opportunity magazine. Nance died on July 11, 1992, in San Francisco, California.

In 1951, members of the CA Bay Area NAACP-GI Assistance Committee raised more than $5000 for NAACP special counsel, Thurgood Marshall who was investigating charges of widespread court martials of Negro Servicemen in Tokyo, Japan. My grandmother, Ethel Ray Nance, was a member of this committee & is pictured (to the far left) with Thurgood Marshall in the photo (Mr. Marshall is second from the left). Thurgood Marshall was also counsel for the NAACP & fought in court for equality of African Americans. In 1954, he won the Brown vs. Board of Education case, in which the Supreme Court ended racial segregation in public schools. On October 2, 1967, he became the 1st African American Supreme Court justice.

W. E. B. DuBois was the 1st African American to earn a Ph. D W.E.B. DuBois was the 1st African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1890. He co-founded the NAACP in 1909. In 1920, William Henry Ray, my great-grandfather, started the 1st NAACP chapter in Duluth, Minnesota after three African American circus workers were wrongly accused of harming a white woman. These men were killed. At the 1st NAACP meeting, Mr. Ray asked Mr. DuBois to give the opening speech. He was introduced to the audience by my grandmother, Ethel Ray who was 21 years old. This marked the beginning of a 40-year friendship between my grandmother & DuBois.

44th President of the United States & 1st African American president, Barack Obama states: “The Civil Rights Act Opened New Doors”

9 year old Yolanda Renee King commented on the 50th anniversary of her grandfather’s death (April 4, 2018) at ‘March for our Lives” that “My grandfather had a dream that his four little children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” she said. “I have a dream that enough is enough and that this should be a gun-free world, period.”