Showing titles in Activists

The life of Martin Luther King Jr. was painfully short but joyously valuable. Using non-violent direct action and the principles of Christian love, King became the most influential pioneer of the civil rights movement in the United States of America. A husband, father, pastor, and leader, King preached a message of hope by taking to the streets and changing the world.

Shenandoah Chefalo is on a wholly dysfunctional journey through a childhood with neglectful, drug- and alcohol-addicted parents. She endures numerous moves in the middle of the night with just minutes to pack, multiple changes in schools, hunger, cruelty, and loneliness. Finally at the age of 13, Shen had had enough. After being abandoned by her mother for months at her grandmother's retirement community, she asks to be put into foster care. Surely she would fare better at a stable home than living with her mother?

Christabel Harriette Pankhurst (September 22, 1880-February 13, 1958) was a British suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU)—and daughter of women's suffrage movement leader Emmeline Pankhurst and radical socialist Richard Pankhurst—she directed its militant actions from exile in France from 1912 to 1913. In 1914, Pankhurst supported the war against Germany. After the war, she moved to the United States, where she worked as an evangelist for the Second Adventist movement. This is a recording from 1908.

Henry Gerber was the father of American gay liberation. Born in 1892 in Germany, Henry Gerber was expelled from school as a boy and lost several jobs as a young man because of his homosexual activities. He emigrated to the United States and enlisted in the army for employment. After his release, he explored Chicago’s gay subculture: cruising Bughouse Square, getting arrested for “disorderly conduct,” and falling in love.

For more than 50 years, Wendy McCarthy has been on the leading edge of Australian feminism, and her trailblazing advocacy and leadership have made her a widely respected and revered figure: a woman who shaped her times as much as she was shaped by them. Now, at 80 years of age, she shares her remarkable life and achievements. From sheltered country schoolgirl to relentless campaigner for abortion and contraception, from passionate teacher to lifelong advocate for education, Wendy smashed the glass ceiling again and again.

The Grimke sisters, Sarah and Angelina, have been highly revered figures in American history, lauded for leaving behind their lives as elite slave-owning women on a plantation in South Carolina to become firebrand abolitionists in the North. Yet the focus on their story has obscured the experiences of their Black relatives, the progeny of their brother, Henry, and one of the enslaved people he owned, a woman named Nancy Weston.

Charlo Greene presents her rules for life in her must-hear memoir, from her childhood as one of seven first-generation Nigerian American siblings in Alaska to her fight to the top in the broadcasting industry and her historic achievement of legalizing cannabis in her home state. Greene shamelessly puts her life on display, from her childhood traumas and family betrayals to her journey through sexual assault, eating disorders, and stripping her way through college, as well as the events leading up to the viral “F--k it, I quit” moment viewed more than 100 million times worldwide.

In the most inspiring speech of his career, Ted Kennedy once vowed: "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die". Unlike his martyred brothers, John and Robert, whose lives were cut off before the promise of a better future could be realized, Ted lived long enough to make many promises come true. During a career that spanned an astonishing half-century, he put his imprint on every major piece of progressive legislation - from health care and education to civil rights.

In Radical Tenderness, Gisele Barreto Fetterman courageously shares her story of power through vulnerability—from her childhood survival years as a Brazilian-American undocumented immigrant, to the prejudice she experienced in corporate and political settings, to her hardships and resilience stepping into her husband’s role when he suffered a stroke. Through it all Gisele learned that leading with tenderness—whether at the office, as a boss, or as a human being—can help us face challenges in a healthier, more authentic way, and in turn guides others to do the same.

In September of 2022, twenty-five years after Leonard Peltier received a life sentence for the murder of two FBI agents, the Democratic National Committee unanimously passed a resolution urging President Joe Biden to release him. Peltier has affirmed his innocence ever since his sentencing in 1977—his case was made fully and famously in Peter Matthiessen’s best-selling In the Spirit of Crazy Horse—and many remain convinced he was wrongly convicted. A wise and unsettling book, Prison Writings is both memoir and manifesto, chronicling Peltier’s life in Leavenworth Prison in Kansas.

The two-time Emmy-award-winning Camerota retraces her steps down an often gritty path toward her dream of becoming a journalist. At times heartbreaking and pulse-pounding, Combat Love is an inspiration for anyone who's ever searched for that elusive place called home.

In the 1990s, Steve Farrell cofounded and led two high-growth technology companies based in Silicon Valley that were featured in the INC500 and spanned the United States and Europe. A New Universal Dream is the inspiring story of Steve's journey from the pursuit of wealth and traditional ideas of success toward a more fulfilling life of caring and service to others and to humanity. It's also the story of the potential each of us has for profound change.

Mаhаtmа Gаndhi, byname of Mоhаndаѕ Karamchand Gаndhi (born on Oсtоbеr 2, 1869 in Pоrbаndаr, Indiа, and diеd on January 30, 1948 in Delhi) was an Indian lawyer, роlitiсiаn, ѕосiаl асtiviѕt, аnd writеr whо bесаmе thе lеаdеr of the nаtiоnаliѕt movement against thе Britiѕh rulе оf Indiа. Aѕ ѕuсh, he came tо be соnѕidеrеd the father оf hiѕ соuntrу. Gаndhi iѕ internationally esteemed fоr hiѕ doctrine of nоnviоlеnt protest (ѕаtуаgrаhа) tо асhiеvе роlitiсаl аnd social рrоgrеѕѕ.

Seenotrettung hautnah - an der tödlichsten Meeresgrenze der Welt. Im Frühsommer 2021 half Tobias Schlegl für mehrere Wochen als Notfallsanitäter bei der Seenotrettung Geflüchteter vor der Küste Libyens - und es wurden dramatische Wochen für die Crew und ihn. Erst Schwierigkeiten bei Übungseinsätzen und das bange Warten auf den ersten Einsatz, dann: Notrufe, Verfolgungsjagden mit der libyschen "Küstenwache", Menschen im Wasser, Menschen, die an Bord bewusstlos zusammenbrechen. Schließlich die quälende Suche nach einem sicheren Hafen für die mehr als 400 Geretteten.

Everyone has dreams of what they want to accomplish in life. Marty Essen’s childhood dream of becoming a herpetologist gave way to his dream of becoming a popular DJ, which led to his dream of becoming a big-time talent manager, which morphed into the dream of becoming an in-demand author and college speaker. While he achieved most of his dreams at various levels, he also realized that he didn’t necessarily have to reach the top to find success or happiness. Sometimes, “almost” is close enough.

For 20 years after World War II, the United States was in the grips of its second and most oppressive red scare. The hysteria was driven by conflating American Communists with the real Soviet threat. Thousands lost their jobs, careers, and reputations in the hysteria, though they had committed no crime and were not disloyal to the United States. Among those individuals who experienced more of anticommunism’s varied repressive measures than anyone else was Clinton Jencks.

For many, it can feel like change just takes too long, and that it might seem we have not moved very far. But, political activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar believes that publicprotest is a vital part of affecting change, even if that change doesn’t come “right now.” He examines the activism of people of all ages, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds that helped change America, documenting events from the Free Speech Movement through the movement for civil rights, women’s and LGBTQ rights, and, of course, the protests against the Vietnam War

Publié en France en 2017 par Actes Sud, le recueil "Le silence même n'est plus à toi" rassemble quelques-unes des chroniques d'Aslı Erdoğan parues dans le journal Özgür Gündem, où elle dénonçait les atteintes à la liberté d'opinion. Elle le fait avec une grande exigence poétique, mêlant lucidité et beauté de la langue.

In the tradition of Uzodinma Iweala's Beasts of No Nation by way of Christopher McDougall's Born to Run, this is the inspirational true story of the Ugandan boy soldier who became a world-renowned runner, then found his calling as director of a world-renowned African children's charity.

A veteran activist's guide to direct action and strategic civil disobedience as the most radical and rapid means to social change. For decades, Lisa Fithian’s work as an advocate for civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action has put her on the frontlines of change. For anyone who wants to become more active in resistance or is just feeling overwhelmed or hopeless, Shut It Down offers strategies and actions you can take right now to promote justice and incite change in your own community.