DNA Vs. Discrimination: Who Came Out On Top?

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Via Flickr
Adé Hennis
January 23, 2025

Blood is thicker than water, and for these activists, their powerful legacy created a bloodline of activism that trickled down to their children.

#1: Martin Luther King Sr. and Martin Luther King Jr.: Before his son had a dream, Martin Luther King Sr. held leadership roles in the Atlanta Civic and Political League and the NAACP starting in the 1940s. Some of his greatest accomplishments were massive voter registration drives. His son would learn from his father’s efforts, and contributed to the passage of the Voting Act of 1965.

#2: Floyd McKissick Sr. and Floyd McKissick Jr.: McKissick Sr. was a lawyer for many civil rights activists. His son not only followed in his footsteps, but went even further. As a North Carolina state senator, in 2019, he proposed bills for prison reform and equal pay.

#3: Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) and Bokar Carmichael: Credited with popularizing the term “Black Power,” Ture had his hand in everything: the SNCC, NAACP, and the Black Panthers. Bokar Carmichael serves underprivileged communities across the U.S. and is helping build infrastructure in multiple African nations.

These father-son duos built a legacy of activism, a foundation anyone can create in their community, regardless if we’re blood or not. United, we become “two peas in a pod” with Black liberation.

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