Jane Addams
This founder of Hull House fought for the rights of poor and immigrant workers.
"The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for
all of us and incorporated into our common life."
Madeha al Ajroush
A Saudi “Freedom Rider”, she fights for women’s rights in Islam.
Tammy Baldwin
This Wisconsin senator fights for universal health care and gay rights.
Michael Bloomberg
This former Mayor of NYC advocates gun control, as well as bans on smoking and soft drinks.
Margaret Chan
Director of World Health Organization, she fights to improve health care throughout world.
"I have a reputation of being a straight talker."
Eugene Debs
This socialist and labor union leader ran for President.
"Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization."
John Dewey
This educational philosopher advocated for many reforms still in practice today.
"We only think when we are confronted with problems."
W.E.B. DuBois
This African American writer advocated for early civil rights practices in the U.S.
"The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression."
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
This "rebel girl" supported the IWW and socialist movement.
"I am in the labor movement and I speak my own piece."
Emma Goldman
A self-avowed anarchist.
"The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought."
Samuel Gompers
He was an American labor union leader who fought for worker's rights.
"Show me the country that has no strikes and I'll show you the country in which there is no liberty."
William "Big Bill" Haywood
He was a union leader in the IWW.
Mother Jones (Mary Harris)
She fought for miners’ rights and against child labor.
"Whatever your fight, don't be ladylike."
Samuel "Golden Rule" Jones
He was the Mayor of Toldeo....
Hellen Keller
Famous for overcoming her disability, she was also a socialist and women’s suffrage worker.
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
Florence Kelley
This social reformer worked on behalf of women's rights and child laborers.
Robert "Fighting Bob" LaFollette
He was a Wisconsin political leader and labor refomer.
"Every nation has its war party. It is commercial, imperialistic, ruthless. It tolerates no opposition"
Aldo Leopold
A naturalist, he supported preservation of the environment.
"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds."
Bill McKibben
He advocates recognition and response to climate change.
John Muir
He fought to preserve the environment and to set aside wilderness areas
Ralph Nader
Consumer protection, environmental issues.
"We must strive to become good ancestors."
Carrie Nation
Prohibitionist who used radical tactics for her cause
Libertarian Kentucky Senator. Limit government intervention in people's lives.
"Liberty thrives when government is small."
Gifford Pinchot
Nation’s first professional forester. Conservationist.
Michael Pollan or Morgan Spurlock
These men address the influence of business on food production
Pope Francis
This leader and reformer in the Catholic Church addresses poverty, worldwide.
"A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold, and more just."
Diane Ravitch
She is a modern education reformer.
Jacob Riis
This photographer devoted is career to capturing the conditions of urban poor.
"The slum is the measure of civilization."
Marco Rubio
Tea Party Senator interested in immigration reform, limiting size of government
Paul Ryan
Wisconsin Congressman, advocating to limit the size of government and balance the budget.
"Every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a
community of persons working together."
Margaret Sanger
She advocated for women's rights and birth control.
Rose Schneiderman
Jewish Labor Activict
Upton Sinclair
Wrote about poor conditions in meatpacking facilities, socialist.
"I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."
Billy Sunday
Promoted American morality, former baseball player
"The world is wrong side up. It needs to be turned upside down in order to be right side up."
Ida Tarbell
A leading muckraker who took on John D. Rockefeller.
Mary Church Terrell
Head of National Association of Colored Women, fought against lynching.
Neil deGrasse Tyson or Bill Nye
Science education and allocating more government money to research and technology.
Booker T. Washington
African American civil rights and equality.
"I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him."
Feminist and celebrity activist for women's rights.
" We want to empower women to do exactly what they want, to be true to themselves, to have the opportunities to develop.”
Ida B. Wells
African American writer, co-founder of NAACP, fought against lynching.
"Brave men do not gather by thousands to torture and murder a single individual, so gagged
and bound he cannot make even feeble resistance or defence."
Victoria Woodhull
Women’s political activist
Frank Lloyd Wright
Architect
"No house should ever be on a hill...It should be of the hill. Belonging to it."
Malala Yousafzai
Pakistani girl targeted by Taliban for advocating educating girl.