Britton (1855-1925) was Kentucky's first woman licensed medical doctor. Throughout her life she advocated for the civil rights of blacks, women, and the poor. Her activism was immortalized by Paul Lawrence Dunbar in his poem "To Miss Mary Britton," which he wrote after witnessing her give a speech to the Kentucky legislature for the desegregation of public transportation in 1893.

Sprague (1839-1906) was the daughter of famed abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass. After she converted to Adventism around 1889, she continued to operate as her father's assistant and spoke out against racial injustice in the Adventist Church.

Brown and his brother, Darryl, founded the first Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) chapter in Central Florida. For more than fifty years, Brown has organized and led civil rights initiatives.