These are not coffee table names but they influenced the worlds of Music and Civil Rights for 5 decades. Bassist Charlie Haden and Journalist John Seigenthaler.
During my pioneer years in the late 1960s and early 1970s my pioneeer buddy and I would go to the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, Ca.. and listen to the great Jazz artists of the time. When we were underage they would let us in through the alley door. Is was another world entirely, there was great music improvisation but also a certain equality between all races and walks of life, music, their music especially, Free Jazz, had that unifying effect.
Jazz Bassist Charlie Haden was at the forefront of the jazz explosion in 1959 thru the 60s and on into the last few weeks of his life. But Charlie was more than the go to Bassist that Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman,, Ringo Starr, Chet Baker, Keith Jarrett, Ginger Baker and so many more turned to he was the consumate spiritual leader in the music influenced civil rights and Anti-War Movements. Charlie's Liberation Music Orchestra had a cadre that held together for many decades. I included their Anti War piece The Ballad For The Fallen
John Seigenthaler was a Journalist and Reporter who worked with John and Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King. He reported the developing Civil Rights Movement in the South and suffered injuries with the Freedom Riders Marchers. He fought for equality and civil rights until his last breath.
They will be missed