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 being assassinated in 1968. He is best known for advancing civil rights through civil disobedience and nonviolence.
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest person to receive a Nobel Prize. Since being a young teenager, she has spoken out publicly against the Taliban's prohibition on the education of girls and gained global attention when she survived an assassination attempt at age 15.
Mahatma Gandhi is renowned for leading the Indian independence movement through his method of civil disobedience. His widespread advocacy for peaceful protest has influenced many other activists, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela.
As a member of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking and a survivor of human trafficking, Shandra Woworuntu uses her experiences to support other survivors through an organization she founded, Mentari.
After surviving the Parkland shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School, Emma Gonzalez worked together with her fellow students to organize the March for Our Lives and co-found the gun-control advocacy group Never Again MSD.
Susan B. Anthony was one of the first women’s rights activist during the 19th century and formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. She fought for gender equality, the abolition of slavery, and the right to vote for all, earning her a place on the American silver dollar and in American history as one of the most influential reformers.
As the first openly transgender woman to win a Daytime Emmy as an executive producer, Laverne Cox is a trailblazer in promoting tolerance and awareness of LGBTQ individuals and continues to promote equality by playing transgender roles in TV shows.
Jackson T. Katz is an American educator, filmmaker, and author. He has created a gender violence prevention and education program named the Mentors in Violence Prevention, which is used by U.S. military and various sporting organizations.
An adjunct professor at Columbia (and former head of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies), James Hansen is often called the "father of climate change awareness" and consistently warns people of the dangers of global warming and fossil fuel use.
After coming to the United States at age 13 as an undocumented immigrant, Cristina Jimenez experienced poverty, abuse by police, and fear of deportation growing up. Today she fights to make a change for undocumented immigrants as the co-founder United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth led-organization in the country, as well as one of the creators of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival Program(DACA).
