Vaclav Havel

Vaclav Havel

Vaclav Havel was a dissident playwright, the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic. According to Iva K. Naffziger, “He led his country from the defeat of communism in 1989, to its first free elections in 1990, to its economic revival, and to its reincorporation into the international community—into NATO and soon the EU.”

Francois Nguyen Van Thuan

Francois Nguyen Van Thuan

Nguyen Van Thuan was born into a prominent Vietnamese family with a long Catholic tradition.  His relatives were among the Vietnamese martyrs since l698, including the assassinated Vietnam leader, President Diem.  Father Van Thuan had premonition that he would suffer martyrdom just like his relatives, therefore his arrest and imprisonment by the communist regime did not come as a surprise.    However, while Thuan was in prison, his jailers asked him why he was usually so happy and he replied, ”Because I have faith in my God.”[1] Father Van Thuan was appointed the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and was subsequently elevated to Cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II.

Cesar E. Chavez

Cesar E. Chavez

Cesar Chavez was a Mexican-American labor leader and the founder of the NFWA, the first union of farm workers in America.   Chavez said,“From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor and a civil rights activist. He was noted for the significant role he played in bringing an end to the racial segregation of African American citizens in the United States. In pursuit of freedom and equality for African Americans, King was arrested and detained several times. He was stabbed and almost killed by an assailant in Harlem while on a speaking tour. However, he maintained resolute and continued non-violent struggle against racial discrimination for the African Americans, an idea he picked from Mohandas Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence in India.

Adeeb Yousif Abdel Alla

Adeeb Yousif Abdel Alla

Adeeb Yousif Abdel Alla is a human rights activist from Darfur, Sudan. He co-founded the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), a grassroots human rights, relief, and development organization. He also helped to initiate the Rebel Letters Campaign and worked with the Never Again International. Adeeb was detained twice and he spent about 12 months in prison for exposing the crimes committed by the Sudanese government against Darfur to the international community.