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.”

Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi is a human rights activist and politician from Burma. The daughter of the de facto prime minister of British Burma, who was assassinated in 1947, Aung studied abroad in her early years, obtaining a bachelors degree from the University of Oxford in 1969.

Ebrahim Rasool

Ebrahim Rasool

Ebrahim Rasool born on July 15, 1962, in Capetown, South Africa, is currently South Africa’s ambassador to the United States. Prior to his present position at the Embassy, Rasool held a wide range of positions and enjoyed a lengthy political career, including Special Advisor to the State President of the Republic of South Africa and Premier, Member of the Parliament in the National Assembly and posts in various governmental departments, including the departments of health, welfare, and economic development.

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.

José Ramos-Horta

José Ramos-Horta

José Ramos-Horta is a political activist who fought for East Timor’s independence for 24 years in exile. During his time in exile, Ramos-Horta was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, “for their work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor.”1