Fannie Lou Hamer didn’t ask for access to power. She exposed how power worked, who it protected, and what it required to challenge it. She became a leading organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later a central figure in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The MFDP wasn’t symbolic opposition. It was a direct challenge to the legitimacy of Mississippi’s all-white Democratic delegation, which had been elected through voter suppression and terror.

Bayard Rustin deserves recognition alongside the prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement. As a master strategist, pacifist, and mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., Rustin was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington, which remains one of the most significant demonstrations in American history.

The Kansas State Colored Convention was not just a fleeting event; it was a formative movement. This powerful assembly signified that Black people have always organized to not just survive but actively shape America.