PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: activism
Indian social activist, lawyer, and politician
Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of the Indian Independence Movement against British rule. As such, he came to be considered “the father...
American civil rights activist and religious leader
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Baptist minister and social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. His leadership was...
Ugandan politician, performer, and activist
Bobi Wine is a Ugandan politician, performer, and activist who first garnered acclaim for his popular hits and socially conscious songs he called “edutainment”—the fusion of education and entertainment....
president of South Korea
Moon Jae-In is a South Korean lawyer and civil rights activist who was the president of South Korea (2017–22) and leader of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (2015–16). Moon’s parents were refugees...
Russian lawyer and anti-corruption activist
Alexei Navalny was a Russian lawyer, anti-corruption activist, and politician who achieved international recognition as one of the most prominent domestic critics of Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin (1999–2008,...
American politician and environmental lawyer
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is an American environmental lawyer who serves as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2025– ) in the second administration of Pres. Donald Trump. He is...
Guatemalan activist
Rigoberta Menchú is a Guatemalan Indigenous-rights activist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1992 for her efforts to promote social justice and reconciliation in Guatemala. A member of the...
Canadian businesswoman and civil libertarian
Viola Desmond was a Canadian businesswoman and civil libertarian who built a career as a beautician and was a mentor to young Black women in Nova Scotia through her Desmond School of Beauty Culture. However,...
Indian engineer and activist
Sonam Wangchuk began his professional life as an engineer working to reform education in his native Ladakh, in the Indian Trans-Himalayas, gaining international recognition as an innovator and a climate...
American entrepreneur
A beauty pageant winner, an athlete, an entrepreneur, a Christian podcaster, a wife, and a mother. That pretty much described Erika Kirk’s life until September 10, 2025, when her husband, Charlie Kirk,...
American civil rights activist, lawyer, and writer
Pauli Murray was a key figure who helped define the intellectual foundations of the 20th-century civil rights and women’s rights movements. The legal analysis and research by the activist, lawyer, nonbinary...
American Indian activist
Leonard Peltier is a Native American (mostly Ojibwa) activist who, after becoming one of the best-known indigenous rights activists in North America, was convicted in 1977 of having murdered two Federal...
anti–gun violence activist
As a kid, David Hogg struggled with ADHD and dyslexia. When he was in fifth grade, his father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. During his freshman year in high school, his family moved from California...
civil rights leader, presidential candidate, and orator
Jesse Jackson was one of the most significant leaders of the 20th-century American civil rights movement, whose reputation as a peacemaker, troublemaker, groundbreaker, and iconoclast helped pave the way...
American politician, lawyer, and activist
Stacey Abrams is an American politician, lawyer, and activist who is an influential figure in the Democratic Party, especially known for her work involving voting rights. She gained national prominence...
American activist and author
Ron Kovic is a Vietnam War veteran, activist, and author who became a leading antiwar figure in the 1970s. Kovic had been wounded and paralyzed during his service in the war. In 1976 he detailed his experiences...
South African journalist, activist, and politician
Helen Zille is a South African journalist, activist, and politician who served as the national leader (2007–15) and chairperson of the federal council (2019–26) of the Democratic Alliance (DA) party, and...
Chinese activist and artist
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist and activist who produced a multifaceted array of creative work, including sculptural installations, architectural projects, photographs, and videos. While Ai’s art was lauded...
American writer
Larry Kramer was an American playwright, screenwriter, and gay rights activist whose confrontational style of advocacy, while divisive, was credited by many with catalyzing the response to the HIV/AIDS...
American sociologist, historian, and activist
W.E.B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, author, editor, and activist who was the most important Black protest leader in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. He shared...
Venezuelan politician
María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan politician and pro-democracy activist, has emerged as one of her country’s most vocal advocates for political change as Venezuela has moved toward authoritarianism. Despite...
American zoologist and social activist
Roger Arliner Young was an American zoologist and social activist. Young was the first Black woman to earn a doctorate in zoology in the United States. Young was born in Virginia to a mother who worked...
American minister and civil rights activist
James Lawson was an American minister who was instrumental in the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and trained a generation of civil rights activists in the Gandhian tactics...
president of South Africa
Nelson Mandela was a Black nationalist and the first Black president of South Africa (1994–99). His negotiations in the early 1990s with South African Pres. F.W. de Klerk helped end the country’s apartheid...
American minister and civil rights activist
Fred Shuttlesworth was an American minister and civil rights activist who established, with Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Ella Baker, and others, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference...
American activist
Fred Hampton was an American civil rights leader and deputy chairman of the Black Panther Party’s Illinois chapter who formed the city of Chicago’s first “Rainbow Coalition.” Hampton was killed during...
American lawyer, activist, and military officer
Dovey Johnson Roundtree was an American lawyer, civil rights activist, military officer, minister, and an important figure in the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s. A member of the first...
American activist and Black nationalist leader
Malcolm X was an African American leader and prominent figure in the Nation of Islam who articulated concepts of race pride and Black nationalism in the early 1960s. After his assassination, the widespread...
American civil rights activist
Rosa Parks was an American civil rights activist whose refusal to relinquish her seat on a public bus precipitated the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, which became the spark that ignited the...
Iranian journalist and human rights activist
Narges Mohammadi is an Iranian journalist and human rights activist who received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2023. The award came after an especially tumultuous year of unrest in Iran following the death...
American journalist and social reformer
Born into slavery, Ida B. Wells would in her lifetime become the most famous Black woman in the United States for her meticulous, data-driven reporting that exposed the systematic killing of Black men...
Indian lawyer and social activist
Baba Amte was an Indian lawyer and social activist chiefly known for his rehabilitative initiatives for underprivileged leprosy patients and his involvement in the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA; “Save Narmada...
Palestinian activist and politician
Marwan Barghouti is a Palestinian political activist and politician who rose to prominence as a youth leader in the years leading up to the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, (1987–93). Barghouti,...
American actor and social activist
Edward James Olmos is a Mexican American actor, director, producer, and activist known for his gruff voice and distinctive features and for his crafting of complex Latino characters in film, television,...
slain conservative activist
Charlie Kirk was a political prodigy who never held elective office. • He was 18 when he founded Turning Point USA, a conservative counterpoint to liberal advocacy groups such as MoveOn.org. Turning Point...
American activist
Opal Lee’s life has been defined by one date: June 19. Lee became widely known in the 21st century as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” for her role in having the date—when Union soldiers arrived in Texas...
Australian activist, athlete, minister, and politician
Douglas Nicholls was a Yorta Yorta activist, athlete, minister, and politician who sought to establish the rights of Australian Aboriginal peoples. After early success as an athlete, Nicholls used his...
American activist
Lilly Ledbetter was an American activist whose equal-pay lawsuit against the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company led to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which ensured that women have fair and effective...
British historian
E.P. Thompson was a British social historian and political activist. His The Making of the English Working Class (1963) and other works heavily influenced post-World War II historiography. Thompson participated...
American journalist and political activist
Mumia Abu-Jamal is an American journalist and political activist who was sentenced to death and then to life in prison for the 1981 murder of a police officer, Daniel Faulkner, in Philadelphia. Wesley...
Turkish-American activist
Ayşenur Eygi was a Turkish-American citizen and longtime activist for multiple causes. While participating in a protest on September 6, 2024, in the occupied West Bank, she was fatally shot by an Israeli...
American writer and activist
John Oliver Killens was an American writer and activist known for his politically charged novels—particularly Youngblood (1954)—and his contributions to the Black Arts movement and as a founder of the...
Pakistani activist
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist who, while a teenager, spoke out publicly against the prohibition on the education of girls that was imposed by the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP; sometimes called...
media mogul imprisoned for criticizing the Chinese government
Jimmy Lai’s life has been defined and bookended by the actions of the Chinese Communist Party. As a boy, his family lost just about everything in the Communist Party takeover. As an adult, the Chinese-born...
American politician
Andrew Cuomo is an American politician and attorney who served as the governor of New York from 2011 to 2021, when he resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations. He previously served as secretary of Housing...
Waorani leader, activist, and author
Nemonte Nenquimo is an Indigenous activist, author, and leader of the Waorani people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. She is internationally recognized for her advocacy of Indigenous rights and environmental...
American politician and physician
Jill Stein is a former practicing physician and an environmental activist who has run as the candidate of the Green Party of the United States in multiple elections. She was the Green Party’s 2024 presidential...
American social activist
Anna Jarvis was an American social activist who is generally recognized as the founder of the legal holiday known as Mother’s Day in the United States and in many other countries. The first Mother’s Day...
Australian author
Catherine Helen Spence, was a writer and activist who sought to improve educational and welfare programs in Australia and to reform the country’s voting system. An immigrant from Scotland, she was a major...
American civil rights leader and politician
John Lewis was an American civil rights leader and politician best known for his chairmanship of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and for leading the march that was halted by police...
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