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Religious Leaders

30 people, across 4 fields.

Martin Luther King Jr. 1929–1968Civil Rights & Social ReformBaptist minister and civil rights leader whose nonviolent activism ended legal segregation in America.Malcolm X 1925–1965Civil Rights & Social ReformCivil-rights leader whose critique of racism and advocacy of Black dignity reshaped American political thought.Billy Graham 1918–2018Religion & Religious MovementsEvangelist whose mass crusades, media reach, and presidential relationships made him a defining figure in modern American Protestantism.Joseph Smith 1805–1844Religion & Religious MovementsFounder of the Latter Day Saint movement, one of the most consequential religions to originate in the United States.Sitting Bull 1831–1890Indigenous Leaders & Native NationsHunkpapa Lakota leader and spiritual figure who resisted U.S. expansion and defended tribal sovereignty.Roger Williams 1603–1683Religion & Religious MovementsFounder of Rhode Island and early advocate of religious liberty and separation of church and state.William Penn 1644–1718Political Leaders & StatecraftFounder of Pennsylvania who advanced representative government and religious toleration in colonial America.Charles Manson 1934–2017Notorious FiguresCult leader whose followers’ murders became a lasting symbol of violence and the collapse of 1960s countercultural idealism.Jesse Jackson 1941–2026Civil Rights & Social ReformCivil rights leader whose 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns expanded Black political participation.Brigham Young 1801–1877Religion & Religious MovementsReligious and territorial leader who directed Mormon migration and settlement in the American West.JEJonathan Edwards 1703–1758Religion & Religious MovementsTheologian and preacher whose role in the Great Awakening shaped American evangelical religion.Nat Turner 1800–1831Civil Rights & Social ReformLed the 1831 Virginia slave rebellion that prompted harsher slave codes across the South.Jim Jones 1931–1978Notorious FiguresPeoples Temple founder whose 1978 Jonestown murder-suicide killed over nine hundred followers.L. Ron Hubbard 1911–1986Religion & Religious MovementsScience-fiction writer who founded Scientology, creating a controversial and internationally influential American religious movement.Jerry Falwell 1933–2007Religion & Religious MovementsPastor and political organizer who helped make conservative evangelicalism a major Republican constituency.Mary Baker Eddy 1821–1910Religion & Religious MovementsFounder of Christian Science and a major female religious leader and publisher.Anne Hutchinson 1591–1643Religion & Religious MovementsReligious dissenter whose trial and banishment exposed tensions over authority, gender, and conscience in Puritan New England.Lucretia Mott 1793–1880Civil Rights & Social ReformAbolitionist and women’s-rights organizer who helped convene the Seneca Falls Convention.Dorothy Day 1897–1980Religion & Religious MovementsCo-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, combining religious faith with radical commitments to peace and the poor.Reinhold Niebuhr 1892–1971Religion & Religious MovementsTheologian whose Christian realism influenced American foreign policy, civil rights, and public ethics.John Winthrop 1588–1649Political Leaders & StatecraftLong-serving Massachusetts Bay governor whose vision of a covenant community influenced New England political culture.Elijah Muhammad 1897–1975Religion & Religious MovementsLeader who built the Nation of Islam into a major religious and Black nationalist movement.TMThomas Merton 1915–1968Religion & Religious MovementsTrappist monk and writer whose books popularized contemplative spirituality, social criticism, and interfaith dialogue.Fulton J. Sheen 1895–1979Religion & Religious MovementsCatholic bishop whose radio and television programs made him one of America’s first major religious media personalities.Norman Vincent Peale 1898–1993Religion & Religious MovementsMinister whose bestselling positive-thinking message joined American Protestantism with modern self-help culture.Aimee Semple McPherson 1890–1944Religion & Religious MovementsEvangelist and media innovator who founded the Foursquare Church and pioneered religious broadcasting and celebrity ministry.Pauli Murray 1910–1985Civil Rights & Social ReformLawyer and activist whose legal arguments laid groundwork for Brown v. Board and LGBTQ rights.Abraham Joshua Heschel 1907–1972Religion & Religious MovementsRabbi and theologian who linked Jewish thought with civil-rights and antiwar activism.Quanah Parker 1845–1911Indigenous Leaders & Native NationsLast Comanche war leader who became a reservation-era negotiator and figure in the Native American Church.William J. Seymour 1870–1922Religion & Religious MovementsPreacher who led the Azusa Street Revival, a foundational event in the global growth of Pentecostal Christianity.