Showing titles in Activists

In March 1969, eight young men were indicted by the federal government for conspiracy to incite a riot. Some of them barely knew one another, having come together briefly to protest the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the war in Vietnam. First dubbed the "Conspiracy 8" and later the "Chicago 7", the group included firebrands like Abbie Hoffman and Bobby Seale, but also a little-known community activist and social worker named Lee Weiner, who was just as surprised as the rest of the country when his name was called.

Pacifists who fought against the Second World War faced insurmountable odds—but their resistance, philosophy, and strategies fostered a tradition of activism that shaped America right up to the present day. In this provocative and deeply researched work of history, Akst takes listeners into the wild, heady, and uncertain times of America on the brink of a world war, following four fascinating resisters and their daring exploits: David Dellinger, Dorothy Day, Dwight MacDonald, and Bayard Rustin.

Nine months before Rosa Parks kicked off the bus boycotts, Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was fifteen. In 1912, women’s rights activists organized a massive march in support of women’s suffrage. Leading them up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was not one of the mothers of the movement, but a teenage Chinese immigrant named Mabel Ping-Hua Lee.

Jeremy Schreiber was on top of the world—athletic, newly married, successful. And then something went terribly wrong. In this moving memoir, he shares his journey after he received a terrifying diagnosis: ALS. As the devastating disease robbed him of movement and speech, he was abandoned by his wife and betrayed by a society that shuns people with disabilities. But it’s not all doom and gloom. He found love, support, and a powerful purpose. While fighting for his independence and then for his life, Jeremy gave his all to the ALS and disability communities.

Having conversations about race is uncomfortable. But for progress between individuals (and our communities) to happen, we need to be able to speak openly and honestly. Podcast hosts of The Kinswomen Yseult and Hannah use their own friendship and experiences from different racial backgrounds to offer guidance on navigating these layered conversations. In Real Friends Talk About Race, the duo share their two perspectives on the ways in which culture, history, and white supremacy have prevented us from having the skills to build trust and healthy relationships across race.

Few figures are more seminal in the abolitionist movement in America than John Brown. His firebrand approach to the movement arose out of his religiously inspired and deep-seated belief that slavery was not only morally unjust but that its removal from American society could only be achieved through armed insurrection. Prominent African American W. E. B. Du Bois chronicles the life of John Brown in this 1909 biography. In the words of Du Bois, John Brown was "a man whose leadership lay not in his office, wealth or influence, but in the white flame of his utter devotion to an ideal."

He burst upon the fusty corridors of Victorian spirituality like a breath of fresh air, regaling the prime minister with his sense of humor, and touching the lives of seven presidents.

Ruth M. Glenn wasn’t surprised the first time her husband beat her. She was hurt and disappointed but after a childhood in a broken and violent home, she was not surprised. After all, this was just the way things were, right? It was only after she lay bleeding in a carwash parking lot, after being shot three times by him, that Glenn resolved—if she managed to survive—to spend the rest of her life standing up to domestic violence.

A full and poignant portrait of one of the geniuses of the 1960s counterculture. From the creation of the Yippies!; and the tumult of the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests; to the humor and agony of the Chicago conspiracy trial; the scandal of Abbie's 1973 cocaine bust, and his years as a fugitive; to his final struggle with manic-depressive illness, this biography offers an intimate examination of the contradictions that make Abbie Hoffman such a compelling figure - with the information and affection only a brother could bring to the complexities of Abbie's life.

Axel Kirschner was a lifelong New Yorker, all Queens hustle and bravado. But he was also undocumented. After a minor traffic violation while driving his son to kindergarten, Axel was deported to Guatemala, a country he swore he had not lived in since he was a baby. While fighting his way back through Mexico on a migrant caravan, Axel met Levi Vonk, a young anthropologist and journalist from the US. That chance encounter would change both of their lives forever.

"This book has the important element that is missing in most of the books and articles on Garvey - a political analysis of what the Garvey Movement was about." (John Henrik Clarke, The Black Scholar) A classic study of the Garvey movement, this is the most thoroughly researched book on Garvey's ideas by a historian of Black nationalism.

Nineteen people from across the globe, ranging in age from 20 to 70-plus, tell their stories of living and thriving in diverse fields - in sport, the arts, medicine, business, and more. With refreshing frankness, they share their successes along with their struggles - grit is the one characteristic they all have in common. These are not stories of people overcoming disability - they’re stories of people accommodating disability while pursuing their dreams. Pure Grit shines a light on boundless possibility whatever the individual challenge.

Bob Marley, the most prominent reggae musician of all time, was truly an icon. In later life, Marley became a champion for political freedom and even managed to get two vehemently opposed political leaders to shake hands on stage - all to the backdrop of a reggae groove. Bob Marley was many things to many people - in this book, we explore all facets of his unique personality.

In the first major biography of Baldwin in more than a decade, Bill V. Mullen celebrates the personal and political life of the great African American writer who changed the face of Western politics and culture. As a lifelong anti-imperialist, Black queer advocate, and feminist, Baldwin (1924-1987) was a passionate chronicler of the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, the US war against Vietnam, Palestinian liberation struggle, and the rise of LGBTQ rights.

Renowned sociologist Janice Johnson Dias has devoted her life to nurturing and training girls to become changemakers - whether through her investment in her daughter Marley’s humanitarian projects or through her work with the GrassROOTS Community Foundation “SuperCamp” she cofounded for girls. In these unprecedented times, her work has never been more urgent, as parents find themselves asking: How do we teach girls to change the world?

Dorothy L. Sayers is now famous for her Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane detective series, but she was equally well known during her life for an essay asking “Are Women Human?” Women’s rights were expanding rapidly during Sayers’s lifetime; she and her friends were some of the first women to receive degrees from Oxford. Yet, as historian Mo Moulton reveals, it was clear from the many professional and personal obstacles they faced that society was not ready to concede that women were indeed fully human.

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a former slave and great American abolitionist, author, and orator. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is his best-selling autobiography, written in 1845.

When Rosayra “Rosy” Pablo Cruz made the agonizing decision to seek asylum in the United States with two of her children, she knew the journey would be arduous, dangerous, and quite possibly deadly. But she had no choice: violence - from gangs, from crime, from spiraling chaos - was making daily life hell. Rosy knew her family’s one chance at survival was to flee Guatemala and go north.

Dave Zirin's book redefines an American icon, and not always in a flattering light. At 81 years old, Brown continues to speak out and look for fights. His recent public support of Donald Trump and criticism of Colin Kaepernick are just the latest examples of someone who seems restless if he is not in conflict. Jim Brown is a raw and thrilling account of Brown's remarkable life and a must-listen for sports fans and students of the Black freedom struggle.

In the three decades since April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot to death in Memphis, scores of books and articles have questioned whether James Earl Ray, King's killer, acted alone or was part of a larger conspiracy. Now, based on explosive new interviews, confidential files, and previously undisclosed evidence, best-selling author Gerald Posner finally resolves the simple truth of the last great political murder mystery of the 1960s, definitively proving that Ray acted alone.