With the end of the Civil War came the end of slavery, but the beginning of a long and harsh struggle for Civil Rights in America. It has been a struggle that has spanned the 20th century as our nation grappled with the idea of what “equality and justice for all” really means.

Nowhere is this struggle better documented than at Arlington National Cemetery.

On June 11, 1963 Alabama Governor George Wallace stood in the doorway at the University of Alabama to block the enrollment of two black students.  President Kennedy responded quickly and federalized the Alabama National Guard to force the enrollment of those students.  During the President’s televised speech on Civil Rights the next day, a civil rights activist in Jackson, Mississippi watched with great interest.  Later that night, upon returning home, he was shot and killed in his driveway by a White supremacist.  From then on, the young man named Medgar Evers came to be known as among the first martyrs in the American Civil Rights Movement. 

What most people do not know, though, is that Evers was also an American war hero who was awarded two Bronze Stars for his bravery in storming the beaches of Normandy on D-day. 

Medgar Evars is buried at Arlington.

Joe Louis is considered by many the greatest boxer of all time.  But it was, of course, his legendary bout with the German heavyweight Max Schmelling that provided a pivotal moment in the cause of Civil Rights.

In 1936, Schmelling – the underdog – surprised everybody by knocking Louis out in the 12th round.  Max Schmelling became Adolf Hitler’s icon of the Aryan Super Race.

But it was their historic rematch two years later, as Hitler’s armies marched across Europe, that galvanized all of America – white and black, young and old – in support of “the Brown Bomber.” For the first time in history, young white men and women had a black hero.

Joe Louis knocked Schmelling out in the first round.  He would go on to serve in the U.S. Army, and ultimately, he was awarded the Legion of Merit.  Upon his death in 1981, President Reagan authorized Joe Louis’ burial at Arlington.  The greatest boxers in history traveled to Arlington to attend Joe Louis’ funeral.  The man who traveled the farthest was Max Schmelling.

Louis remains today amidst a small plot of land filled with some of the greatest military heroes in our nation’s history.

Thurgood Marshall was the grandson of a slave who went on to become one of the greatest constitutional lawyers of the 20th century.  In 1930, at the age of 22, he was denied admission to a prominent law school because he was black – an event that would ultimately define his entire professional life.

After earning a law degree from Howard University, he became a true champion of Civil Rights in America winning 32 of the 35 cases he argued before the Supreme Court – including the landmark case of Brown vs. Board of Education.

In June 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court.

But even beyond the famous names, Arlington Cemetery is filled with “unknown” heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.

Few would know the name of Daniel James, the first black four star General in military history.  Affectionately known as “Chappie” James, – he loved his country so much, despite the racial prejudice he experienced, that he once said, "I've fought in three wars and three more wouldn't be too many to defend my country. I love America, and as she has weaknesses or ills, I'll hold her hand."

Or Benjamin Oliver Davis – the first African American to hold the rank of General in the Army. In 1997 the U.S. Postal Service honored him with a commemorative stamp bearing his image. 

Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., following in his father’s footsteps, survived intense discrimination to graduate from West Point and became leader of the famed all-black Tuskegee Airmen.

Today, Benjamin O Davis Jr. and Sr. – father and son are buried next to each other at Arlington.

The Civil Rights heroes are everywhere at Arlington - names that will never make the history books, but lives that nonetheless left their mark on the American soul. 

Paul Bates - Edward Carter - Henry Johnson – and scores of others – each contributing to the struggle for freedom and equality, each proving that regardless of rank or title, one life can make a difference.