After speaking during a press conference, the Rev. Jesse Jackson walks to the front of the “Invading our community with peace” weekly Friday peace walk led by St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham, Chicago on June 25, 2021. (Vashon Jordan Jr./Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
On Thursday (Jan. 29), federal agents arrested Don Lemon and three other Black leaders for documenting anti-ICE protests at a Minnesota church last week. While Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort were later released on Friday, Jan. 30, their arrests serve as a chilling reminder of what it means to be Black and speak out against injustice in America.
Throughout history and over the last decade, Black political figures, journalists and celebrities have been arrested for fighting for civil rights in America, and Lemon’s latest arrest is no different. Here are 17 more times Black public figures were arrested for the same
Martin Luther King Jr.
5/26/1966-ORIGINAL CAPTION READS: Close-up of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. shown in this photo headshoulders, alone.
During the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested over 20 times for charges ranging from civil disobedience to traffic charges, according to Boise State University.
Rosa Parks
American Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks poses as she works as a seamstress, shortly after the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, February 1956. (Photo by Don Cravens/Getty Images)
Rosa Parks was famously arrested for violating segregation laws in Birmingham, Alabama, when she refused to move from her seat on a bus. Parks’ bravery helped to launch the Alabama bus boycott.
Claudette Colvin
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 05: Claudette Colvin, Civil Rights Activist speaks onstage during the 2020 Embrace Ambition Summit by the Tory Burch Foundation at Jazz at Lincoln Center on March 05, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Tory Burch Foundation)
Nine months before Parks’ arrest, Claudette Colvin was arrested for the same charges. While she was not the face of the bus boycott movement, Colvin was a principal witness in the Browder v. Gayle lawsuit, helping to ban segregation on public transport, according to The Root.
Jesse Jackson
After speaking during a press conference, the Rev. Jesse Jackson walks to the front of the “Invading our community with peace” weekly Friday peace walk led by St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham, Chicago on June 25, 2021. (Vashon Jordan Jr./Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Rev. Jesse Jackson has been arrested multiple times during his career as a civil rights activist. In 1960, Jackson was part of the Greenville Eight, a group of eight college students arrested for reading in the whites-only Greenville Public Library in South Carolina. Most recently, Jackson was arrested in 2021 in Washington, D.C., for protesting voting rights, according to ABC.
Julian Bond
ATLANTA, UNITED STATES – JANUARY 01: Congressional candidate Julian Bond, flanked by his wife and mother, on primary election night. (Photo by Thomas S. England/Getty Images)
The late civil rights activist Julian Bond was arrested twice throughout his career. In 1960, as a student at Morehouse College, Bond was arrested for organizing a protest against segregated public facilities in Atlanta. In 1985, Bond was arrested again for protesting apartheid in South Africa outside the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C., according to The New York Times.
Harry Belafonte
American singer-songwriter and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, wearing a striped shirt, in an recording studio, circa 1957. The sound engineer is visible working at the console to the right of the frame. (Photo by Archive Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
In 1985, the entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte was arrested alongside Julian Bond for protesting apartheid in South Africa, according to The Washington Post. Belafonte also put his money to good use. In 1963, he helped raise close to $50,000 to release King and other civil rights activists from jail after their protest in Birmingham, Alabama, according to NBC News.
Maya Angelou
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 09: Maya Angelou attends the AARP Magazine’s 2011 Inspire Awards at the Ronald Reagan Building on December 9, 2010 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Riccardo S. Savi/WireImage)
In the 1980s, poet and activist Maya Angelou was arrested for protesting apartheid in South Africa at U.C. Berkeley’s Sproul Hall, according to the Zinn Education Project.
DeRay Mckesson
LISBON, PORTUGAL – NOVEMBER 12: DeRay Mckesson, Civil Rights Activist & Podcaster Pod Save The People, Katherine Maher, CEO NPR, and Richard Schiff, Actor, Star of ‘The West Wing’, discuss about “A new Trump era” at center stage during the second day of Web Summit on November 12, 2024 in Lisbon, Portugal. The annual conference brings together founders and CEOs of technology companies, as well as policymakers, to discuss the future of the Web. This year Web Summit, the annual conference that brings together founders and CEOs of technology companies, as well as policymakers, to discuss the future of the Web, runs from November 11 to November 14. The 2024 event announced that has officially sold out its Lisbon flagship event with more than 70,000 attendees, a record breaking 3,000 exhibiting companies, 1,000 investors and 2,000 global media. This year’s Web Summit marks the comeback of Paddy Cosgrave, CEO and co-founder of the event, who had resigned in 2023 and was replaced by Katherine Maher. Ms. Maher left after three months and, in April 2024, Cosgrave decided to return as CEO. (Photo by Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Getty Images)
Only ten years ago, in 2016, activist Deray McKesson was arrested for filming Black Lives Matter protests in Baton Rouge, La. McKesson was recording along the Airline Highway when he was arrested for obstruction of a roadway, according to ABC News.
Earl Caldwell
UNITED STATES -March 30: Journalist Earl Caldwell was the only reporter present when Martin Luther King was assassinated 50 years ago on April 4, 1968. He recounted the last moments of Dr. King’s life at the Daily News on Friday March 30, 2018 (Photo by Susan Watts/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
In 1968, journalist Earl Caldwell was held in contempt of court for refusing to inform the FBI about the Black Panther Party, according to the law project from Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute, Oyez.
Angela Davis
FBI Wanted poster for Angela Davis. Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, scholar, and author. She emerged as a prominent counterculture activist and radical in the 1960s as a leader of the Communist Party USA, and had close relations with the Black Panther Party through her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, although she was never a party member. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Political activist and author Angela Davis famously spent time on the FBI’s most wanted list before being arrested after guns used during an attack on a courthouse were found to be under her name, according to The Root. She spent 16 months in jail before being acquitted on all charges.
Ralph Abernathy
(Original Caption) 6/24/1968-Washington, D.C.: Reverend Ralph David Abernathy gives the victory sign from a police van after he was arrested along with other Poor People campaigners. The march leader was carrying a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste in his shirt pocket.
As a civil rights activist, Rev. Ralph Abernathy walked alongside and was arrested with Martin Luther King Jr. multiple times. In 1967, the pair served a jail sentence for peacefully protesting against bans on “race mixing” in Birmingham, Ala., according to the Equal Justice Initiative.
Wesley Lowery
(L-R): Bishop T.D. Jakes, senior pastor of The Potters House, a global humanitarian organization and 30,000-member church located in Dallas, and Wesley Lowery, Pulitzer Prize-winning national correspondent at the Washington Post, on-air contributor at CNN, participated on a panel discussion on Race in America, , at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C., on Monday, January 15, 2018. (Photo by Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In 2015, journalist Wesley Lowery was charged with trespassing for covering the protests in Ferguson, Miss. after the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014, according to Reuters. Brown was reporting at a nearby McDonald’s that was being used as a staging area for journalists.
Porsha Williams
WATCH WHAT HAPPENS LIVE WITH ANDY COHEN — Episode 23008 — Pictured: Porsha Williams — (Photo by: Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty Images)
Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams was arrested twice during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 for protesting the shooting of Breonna Taylor, according to Vanity Fair.
Trae Tha Truth
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 28: Trae tha Truth at the BET Media House on June 28, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Julia Beverly/Getty Images)
Houston rapper Trae Tha Truth was arrested in 202o for protesting against the death of Breonna Taylor outside the front lawn of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s house in Louisville, Ky., according to Pitchfork.
Cordae
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 14: Cordae attends the 2024 GQ Men Of The Year Party at Bar Marmont on November 14, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Olivia Wong/WireImage)
Along with Trae Tha Truth, rapper Cordae, formally known as YBN Cordae, was arrested for protesting the shooting of Breonna Taylor, per the radio station, Capital XTRA.
Kwame Ture
(Original Caption) This photograph shows Stokely Carmichael wearing sunglasses as he speaks passionately before a bank of microphones.
Kwame Ture, née Stokely Carmichael, was arrested over 30 times during his political career, according to the independent socialist magazine Monthly Review. As a member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), he was arrested for challenging segregation laws. In 1986, he was arrested in Guinea, Africa, after being accused of a coup attempt against Guinean President Lansanah Conteh, according to TIME.
Dick Gregory
PLYMOUTH, MA – APRIL 30: Comedian and activist Dick Gregory poses for a portrait in Plymouth, MA on Apr. 30, 1992. (Photo by Janet Knott/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Late comedian and activist Dick Gregory was arrested numerous times during his career. In 1963, he was arrested for civil disobedience for protesting in Birmingham, Ala., according to the National Park Service. In 1975, Gregory was arrested for protesting against “involvement by the Central Intelligence Agency in domestic assassinations” in front of the White House without a permit, per The New York Times.
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