CLARENCE M. MITCHELL JR. (19111984) Civil rights activist; USA As head lobbyist for the NAACP, Mitchell actively led the fight for civil rights through legislation. He carried out numerous campaigns on Capitol Hill to push for policies such as the Civil Rights Act of 1957, 1960 and 1964; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. (For his efforts, he was nicknamed “the 101st U.S. Senator.”) In 1960, Mitchell, along with future Congressman John Lewis, future NAACP chairman Julian Bond, and many other activists co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which became a major source of student participation in the fight for civil rights.
ARTHUR WINSTON (1906-2006) “The Hardest-Working Man”; USA Winston, a black custodian, embodies the most-admirable work ethic of all time, having worked at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in Los Angeles for 72 years straight (1934-2006). He established a reputation for always arriving early and never leaving early; he claimed only one sick day—to attend the funeral of his wife, Frances, in 1989. Awarded an “Employee of the Century” citation by President Bill Clinton in 1996, he retired in 2006, the day after his 100th birthday, and passed away less than a month later.
CHARLES W. MILLS (1951-2021) Professor, author and philosopher An esteemed professor at the CUNY Graduate Center, Northwestern University and other universities, Mills shaped black intellectual history through his views on the relationship between liberalism and the racial contract. For his influential book The Racial Contract (1997), Mills was awarded the 2021 Benjamin E. Lippincott Award, which is presented to a political theorist whose work remains significant at least 15 years after its original publication date. This groundbreaking book helped uncover the relationship between anti-black racism and the liberal political and philosophical tradition of the West. Mills’ work has cemented injustice as a philosophical problem.
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ALBERT J. RABOTEAU (1943-2021) Afrocentric scholar; USA Best known for his contributions to the field of African and African American religious studies, Raboteau transformed academia when he disclosed that enslaved blacks didn’t automatically take on the Christian faith from their white oppressors. These findings had a great influence on the study of black culture and American religion. Raboteau began teaching at Princeton in 1982 and held this position for 30 years until he retired in June 2013. He was awarded Princeton’s Martin Luther King Day Journey Award for Lifetime Service in 2006 for his efforts to promote King’s dream for America.
MARY BOWSER (c. 1839?-??) Union Army spy; USA Bowser, an African American spy during the Civil War, was an undercover agent, posing as a servant in Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ home and reporting information to Union Army General Ulysses S. Grant. She played the role of an uneducated servant so well that Davis was often loose with confidential military and government information in her presence. The steady leak of information from such a high position was deemed vital to the Union’s war efforts, leading her to be inducted into the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame in Fort Huachuca, Ariz. Like a good spy, little is known of her background or her postwar years.
Do you want to nominate someone for the Roll of Honor? Tell us your choice. Email us at eab@bavual.com.
BAVUAL:
The African Heritage Magazine
| Winter 2022
