PHOTO: Project Gutenberg/Public Domain
By MAYA DAVIS, age 13
1. I was born July 16, 1862, to a family of former slaves.
2. My parents died from an illness when I was 16. To support my siblings, I became a teacher.
3. On May 4, 1884, I refused to move to a train car that was for Blacks only and was carried out of the train. I later sued the train company and won the case.
4. As an investigative journalist who spoke up against the lynching of Black men, I used the pen name “Iola.”
5. In 1909, I co-founded the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), an organization that works to build racial harmony.
