MOVERS & MOVEMENTSS
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“The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.”
-GLORIA STEINEM

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

“Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.”
-SUSAN B ANTHONY

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR
 

n More Information About Activists and Activism

n More Information About Resources and Tools

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Among the most notable movers and shakers on the political scene are the human rights leaders of various campaigns and movements throughout history, in all segments of society, worldwide. 

These remarkable activists include such civil rights heroes in the US as Harriett Tubman, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X, Joseph Lowery, and Jesse Jackson. 

Overseas, we recognize other such activists for social justice as Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Lech Walesa.

Also included are such women's rights heroes as Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Gloria Steinem.
 

Included, too, are activists and heroes in the gay rights movement, such as Harvey Milk, Candace Gingrich, Bishop Gene Robinson, and Mel White.

 

CIVIL RIGHTS

Civil rights movements have taken place throughout the world in a variety of settings and focusing on any number of causes...  Northern Ireland Conflict, African Independence Movements, Canada's October Crisis, African American Civil Rights Movement, Black Power Movement, Chicano Nationalist Movement, American Indian Movement, South African Anti-Apartheid Movement, Polish Solidarity Movement, Anti-Nazi German Student Movement, French Communist Revolution, Chinese Cultural Revolution, Worker's Rebellions, Gender Equity Issues, Gay Liberation, and countless ethnicity equity movements worldwide.

n Info Please: Civil Rights Movement in US
n Wikipedia: African American Civil Rights Movement
n CNN: US Civil Rights Movement
n Wikipedia: Civil Rights Movements Worldwide
 

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood."
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

"A right delayed is a right denied."
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

"A riot is the language of the unheard."
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

"I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

"Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?"
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

"The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict."
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

"The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice."
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

"The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
-MARTIN LUTHER KING JR
 

n The King Center
n Info Please
n I Have a Dream
 

HARRIET TUBMAN

n Wikipedia: Harriet Tubman
n PBS: Africans in America
n Natl Geo: Underground Railroad
n PBS: Underground Railroad
 

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE
 

SUSAN B ANTHONY

Working closely with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony was a primary organizer, speaker, and writer for the 19th century women's rights movement in the United States, especially the first phases of the long struggle for women's vote, the women's suffrage movement.

“Men their rights and nothing more; women their rights and nothing less.”
-SUSAN B ANTHONY

“It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.”
-SUSAN B ANTHONY

“The fact is, women are in chains, and their servitude is all the more debasing because they do not realize it.”
-SUSAN B ANTHONY

“I always distrust people who know so much about what God wants them to do to their fellows.”
-SUSAN B ANTHONY

“Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done.”
-SUSAN B ANTHONY

n Wikipedia: Susan B Anthony
n About Women’s History: Susan B Anthony
n Women in History: Susan B Anthony
n PBS: Not For Ourselves Alone

WOMEN'S RIGHTS

The ongoing struggles for women's rights over the years were expressed and demonstrated through a number of campaigns... the women's suffrage movement... the women's rights movement ... the women's liberation movement... the feminist movement.

n YouTube: The Suffragettes
n YouTube: Womens Rights 1920s
n YouTube: Suffragette City / Womens Rights
n YouTube: Womens Suffrage Movement
n Schoolhouse Rock: Suffering Until Suffrage
n Vagina Monologues
n HBO Documentary: Vagina Monologues
n YouTube: Scenes from Vagina Monologues
n YouTube: Female Circumcision in Africa
n YouTube: Islam / Female Genital Mutilation
n YouTube: Clitoraid
n YouTube: Paying the Price / Women & Minorities



FEMINIST MOVEMENT

n National Womens Hall of Fame
n Wikipedia: Feminist Movement
n Info Please: Womens Rights Movement in US
n Womens International Center

GLORIA STEINEM

“The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.”
-GLORIA STEINEM

“The authority of any governing institution must stop at its citizen's skin.”
-GLORIA STEINEM 

n Feminist: Gloria Steinem
n Wikipedia: Gloria Steinem
n About Womens History: Gloria Steinem
 

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

Defender of human rights... Advocate and ally... The greatest American first lady.



First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt.  A shy, awkward child, starved for recognition and love, Eleanor Roosevelt grew into a woman with great sensitivity to the underprivileged of all creeds, races, and nations. Her constant work to improve their lot made her one of the most loved and most revered women of her generation.

She regarded the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be her greatest accomplishment.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."

-ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't."
-ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

"I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on."

-ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

"I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision."

-ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

"Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both."

-ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

"Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life."

-ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, I have lived through this horror, I can take the next thing that comes along. You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

-ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

-ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

"People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built."

-ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

MARIAN ANDERSON CONTROVERSY

In 1939, in the final years of the Great Depression and before the entry of the United States into WWII, a famous incident took place in Washington that clearly showed Eleanor's stand on racial equality. The world famous African American female singer, Marian Anderson, was denied the use of the public Constitution Hall by its owners, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The DAR stated that the use of their hall was restricted to white performers only. Eleanor, a DAR member, quickly sent in her resignation letter and this action made national news.

Marian Anderson, with the help of other Roosevelt administration officials, went on to sing her concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday 1939 to an integrated crowd of 75,000. In January 1943 Marian Anderson finally sang in Constitution Hall and she performed again at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 and in 1965. She had once stated that racism was like "…a hair that blows across your face. Nobody sees it, but it's there and you can feel it." When asked about her opinion on Eleanor's DAR resignation she told a reporter "I am not surprised at Mrs. Roosevelt's action, because she seems to me to be one who really comprehends the true meaning of democracy."

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT'S EDITORIAL COLUMN

I have been debating in my mind for some time, a question which I have had to debate with myself once or twice before in my life. Usually I have decided differently from the way in which I am deciding now. The question is, if you belong to an organization and disapprove of an action which is typical of a policy, should you resign or is it better to work for a changed point of view within the organization? In the past, when I was able to work actively in any organization to which I belonged, I have usually stayed until I had at least made a fight and had been defeated.

Even then, I have, as a rule, accepted my defeat and decided I was wrong or, perhaps, a little too far ahead of the thinking for the majority at that time. I have often found that the thing in which I was interested was done some years later. But in this case, I belong to an organization in which I can do no active work. They have taken an action which has been widely talked of in the press. To remain as a member implies approval of that action, and therefore I am resigning.

n Eleanor Roosevelt’s Resignation Letter

n Eleanor Roosevelt and Civil Rights

n American Revolution Blog: Eleanor Roosevelt Resigns DAR

n ERIC: A Study in Conscience: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Resignation From DAR

n E Roosevelt and Universal Declaration of Human Rights

n Wikipedia: Eleanor Roosevelt

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The Gay Rights Movement, originally under the banner of Gay Liberation, has evolved to represent the struggles and disenfranchisement of not just gay men, but also lesbians, bisexuals, transgender persons, and members of any sexual minority group.

"No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love."
-RITA MAE BROWN

"The people who would forbid gays from marrying in the country are those who would have made Rosa Parks sit in the back of the bus.”
-JASON WEST / Mayor of New Paltz, NY

“Discrimination is discrimination no matter who the victim is, and it is always wrong. There are no special rights in America, despite the attempts by many to divide blacks and the gay community with the argument that the latter are seeking some imaginary special rights at the expense of blacks.”
-JULIAN BOND / NAACP Board Chairman

“At the end of the day it doesn’t matter which group is most oppressed or whether they are identically oppressed, what matters is that no group be oppressed.”
-KEITH BOYKIN / President of The National Black Justice Coalition

n Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
n Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)
n Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
n Parents Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG)
n National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF)
n Sexual Information & Education Council of the United States (SIECUS)
n Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund
n Soul Force

HARVEY MILK

“More people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, my friends, that is true perversion.”

-HARVEY MILK

“If a bullet should go through my head let that bullet go through every closet door.”

-HARVEY MILK

“Hope will never be silent”

-HARVEY MILK

n Wikipedia: Harvey Milk

n Biography Shelf: Harvey Milk

n Answer: Harvey Milk

n Info Please: Harvey Milk
 

CORETTA SCOTT KING

"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people."

"Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group."

"I've always felt that homophobic attitudes and policies were unjust and unworthy of a free society and must be opposed by all Americans who believe in democracy.  The civil rights movement thrives on unity and inclusion, not division and exclusion. My husband's struggle parallels that of the gay rights movement."

"For many years now, I have been an outspoken supporter of civil and human rights for gay and lesbian people. Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Ga. and St. Augustine, Fla., and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions."

"We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say “common struggle” because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination."

"For too long, our nation has tolerated the insidious form of discrimination against this group of Americans, who have worked as hard as any other group, paid their taxes like everyone else, and yet have been denied equal protection under the law.... I believe that freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. My husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' On another occasion he said, 'I have worked too long and hard against segregated public accommodations to end up segregating my moral concern. Justice is indivisible.' Like Martin, I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others. The great promise of American democracy is that no group of people will be forced to suffer discrimination and injustice."

HUMAN RIGHTS NOTEBOOK