Gone But Not Forgotten: The Activists and Notables We Lost in 2020
From John Lewis to Rev. C.T. Vivian to Bishop Barbara C. Harris to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, here are the activists and other notables who passed away in 2020, including those whose racially-motivated deaths galvanized America’s racial reckoning.
Yolanda Carr
1965? - Jan. 9, 2020
Cause of death: Ongoing illness
Activism: Mother of Atatiana Jefferson, who was her mother’s caretaker until police in Fort Worth, TX fatally shot her on Oct. 12, 2019
Ahmaud Arbery
May 11, 1994 - Feb. 23, 2020
Cause of death: Homicide by gunshot
Activism: His death, at the hands of three white men who chased him down and fatally shot him, helped galvanize the modern civil rights movement
Darius L. Swann
1925? - March 8, 2020
Cause of death: Pneumonia
Activism: His case Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, whose decision mandated busing as a method to desegregate schools
Breonna Taylor
June 5, 1993 - March 13, 2020
Cause of death: Homicide by gunshot
Activism: Frontline worker who was fatally shot by Louisville Metro Police during a botched raid, Breonna’s Law has since banned no-knock warrants in the city
Barbara C. Harris
June 12, 1930 - March 13, 2020
Cause of death: Unknown
Activism: First female bishop in the Episcopal Church of the United States and in the worldwide Anglican Communion, challenged the Episcopal hierarchy to accept women, as well as Black and LGBTQ+ people
Monika Diamond
? - March 18, 2020
Cause of death: Fatally shot at age 34
Activism: Businesswoman and transgender activist who created safe spaces for Charlotte’s LGBTQ+ community
Airickca Gordon-Taylor
1969 - March 22, 2020
Cause of death: Kidney problems
Activism: Relative of Emmett Till who spent her life educating the youth about civil rights, founded the Mamie Till Mobley Memorial Foundation
Joseph E. Lowery
Oct. 6, 1921 - March 27, 2020
Cause of death: Natural causes
Activism: Co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr. and led the organization until 1997, his civil rights activism included organizing to desegregate Alabama buses and advocated for the rights of marchers in Selma to the governor
Earl G. Graves
Jan. 9, 1935 - April 16, 2020
Cause of death: Alzheimer’s
Activism: Established the Black Enterprise media company that highlighted Black-owned businesses and created a platform for economic justice
Fred L. Davis
May 8, 1934 - May 12, 2020
Cause of death: Unknown illness
Activism: March with Martin Luther King Jr., pioneering Black entrepreneur, Memphis’s first Black city council chairman
Emma Amos
March 16, 1937 - May 12, 2020
Cause of death: Complications from Alzheimer’s
Activism: contemporary artist who explored the intersectionality of race and gender before it was a mainstream term, art depicted the vibrance of Black middle-class life and American culture
Wilson Roosevelt Jerman
Jan. 21, 1929 - May 16, 2020
Cause of death: COVID-19
Activism: Served 11 U.S. presidents (From Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama) as a member of the White House staff, began career as a cleaner, was promoted to butler, and advanced to maître d
George Floyd
Oct. 14, 1973 - May 25, 2020
Cause of death: Homicide by cop
Activism: Publicly killed by Minneapolis police while in custody, his death, along with those of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, set off a chain reaction of protests across the United States and the globe, and amplified the call for Black lives to matter
Emma Sanders
Sept. 24, 1928 - June 24, 2020
Cause of death: Unknown
Activism: Was an anti-segregationist and pushed to have a federal building named for civil rights activist Dr. A.H. McCoy, which was the first federal building named for a Black person
Zindzi Mandela
Dec. 23, 1960 - July 13, 2020
Cause of death: Unknown
Activism: Read her father Nelson Mandela’s rejection of former president P.W. Botha’s offer to be released from prison, served as South Africa’s ambassador to Denmark, was supposed to lead a new mission to Monrovia
Feb. 21, 1940 - July 17, 2020
Cause of death: Stage-4 pancreatic cancer
Activism: Lifelong activist, public servant, and integral figure in the Civil Rights Movement, one of the original Freedom Riders, head of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, represented Georgia’s 5th Congressional District
C.T. Vivian
July 30, 1924 - July 17, 2020
Cause of death: Natural causes
Activism: Participated in the Freedom Rides, was an executive member of the Souther Christian Leadership Conference, created Upward Bound, launched the Black Action Strategies and Information Center, and wrote Black Power and the American Myth, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2013
Roy C. Hammond
Aug. 3, 1939 - Sept. 16, 2020
Cause of death: Liver cancer
Activism: Wrote socially-conscious songs, like “Open Letter to the President” and “Great Great Grandson of a Slave,” his “Impeach the President” was a response to Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
March 5, 1933 - Sept. 18, 2020
Cause of death: Pancreatic cancer
Activism: Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States who was a legal, cultural, and feminist icon,
Monica Roberts
May 4, 1962 - Oct. 5, 2020
Cause of death: Complications of a pulmonary embolism
Activism: Trans rights activist and journalist, whose GLAAD Award-winning blog, TransGriot, focused on trans stories within the Africa Diaspora, also wrote for Ebony, The Advocate, and OutSmart Magazine
Lucille Bridges
Aug. 12, 1934 - Nov. 17, 2020
Cause of death: Cancer
Activism: Considered a mother of the Civil Rights Movement for allowing her daughter Ruby Bridges to become the first Black student to integrate a New Orleans elementary school
Drew Days III
Aug. 29, 1941 - Nov. 15, 2020
Cause of death: Complications of dementia
Activism: Champion of racial equality, one-time lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the first Black person to lead the Justice Department’s civil rights division
Bruce Boynton
June 19, 1937 - Nov. 23, 2020
Cause of death: Cancer
Activism: Inspired the 1961 Freedom Rides, his and Thurgood Marshall’s victory in Boynton v. Virginia (1960) declared segregated bus stations illegal
David Dinkins
July 10, 1927 - Nov. 23, 2020
Cause of death: Natural causes
Activism: World War II veteran and the first Black mayor of New York City, America’s largest city
Marcus Garvey III
1930? - Dec. 8, 2020
Cause of death: Alzheimer’s
Activism: Son of Pan-African activist and Black nationalist Marcus Garvey who maintained the role of president of the United Negro Improvement Association, was also an electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist
James L. Netters Sr.
1927? - Dec. 13, 2020
Cause of death: Unknown
Activism: Worked to end segregation in the South, and alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred L. Davis, was one of the first Black elected officials voted into Memphis City Council
Alfred Thomas Farrar
Dec. 26, 1920 - Dec. 17, 2020
Cause of death: Unknown
Activism: Aerospace engineer and former Tuskegee Airman
Joe Clark
May 8, 1938 - Dec. 29, 2020
Cause of death: Long battle with illness
Activism: The bat-wielding New Jersey school principal immortalized in the film Lean On Me
