Ralph Abernathy

Born on March 11, 1926 in Alabama, Ralph Abernathy would grow up to become one of America's most important civil rights leaders. One of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s closest confidants in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, after King's 1968 assassination he delivered King's eulogy and ran the Conference for nine years. His autobiography "And The Walls Came Tumbling Down" came out in 1989, creating controversy by addressing King's adultery. He had five children with Juanita Jones and died on April 17, 1990 at age 64.