Dion Diamond's Civil Rights Work

"He was active so many places and arrested so many times, I think he helped make a lot of change."-Joan Trumpauer Mulholland (Fellow Civil Rights Activist)

Dion Diamond has started and participated in many protests. In 1956, at the age of 15, he started to protest. He used to protest at lunch counters, schools, and stores. Dion was arrested more than 30 times for Civil Rights protests. Our favorite protest that Dion Diamond did was when a white boy pointed his finger in Dion's face. Dion said he wanted to slap the kid in the face, but he couldn't because he was in a group called the Non-Violent Action Group. Members in this group were Civil Rights Activists from Arlington, Virginia, and students who knew him from high school and college. The Non-Violent Action Group did not support violence, and would protest with their voices, instead of hurting other people. Security guards would be very disrespectful to him, because he was an African-American. One time when he was in jail, one security guard told another security guard, "If you give him a hard time, you'll get time off for good behavior." Dion said this was the most frightening thing that ever happened to him while he was in jail. In this photograph, Dion was in Jackson, Mississippi. This photograph was also one of the first times he got arrested. Dion Diamond protested many times, and made a change in the world.    

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