Partial List of Human Rights Advocates and Defenders
The following are examples of individuals who have demonstrated courage and commitment to spur the positive change to make it possible for all people to experience the equality, justice and dignity called for by the UDHR. The last page provides room to add more people to the list as part of inspiring students to consider their own actions to further the principles of the UDHR.
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Listed in alphabetical order by last name
- Abernathy, Ralph (1926-1990) clergyman, activist, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) official
- Abzug, Bella (1920-1998) social activist, a leader in the women’s movement, lawyer
- Acuña, Máxima (1970-) Peruvian subsistence farmer who fought to save land from mining
- Alexander, Michelle (1967–) civil rights advocate, law professor, historian, writer
- Anthony, Susan B. (1820-1906) women’s suffrage/voting rights leader
- Baker, Ella (1903-1986) civil rights and human rights activist
- Bates, Daisy (1914-1999) civil rights activist, publisher, writer
- Beal, Dana (1947-) pro-hemp leader, activist, organizer, author
- Bevel, James (1936-2008) SCLC’s main strategist, organizer, and Direct Action leader
- Bridges, Ruby (1954-) first African-American child to attend an all-white public elementary school in the American South, civil rights activist
- Bond, Julian (1940-2015) activist, politician, scholar, lawyer, NAACP chairman
- Brown, John (1800-1859) led slave revolt
- Burns, Lucy (1879-1966) women’s suffrage/voting rights leader
- Carmichael, Stokely (1941-1998) civil rights activist
- Chavez, Cesar (1927-1993) Chicano activist, organizer, trade unionist
- Chisholm, Shirley (1924-2005) politician, educator, author
- Cox, Laverne (1972–) LGBTQ+ activist and actress
- Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987) African American educator and civil rights activist
- Colvin, Claudette (1939-) pioneer student and independent activist
- Cooke, Marvel (1903-2000), journalist, writer, trade unionist, civil rights activist[1]
- Cotton, Dorothy (1930-2018) SCLC activist and leader
- Cuney, Norris Wright (1846–1898), Texas politician and leader of the Texas Republican Party
- Du Bois, W. E. B. (1868-1963), writer, scholar, founder of NAACP
- Evers, Charles (1922-2020) civil rights activist
- Evers, Medgar (1925-1963) NAACP official
- Farmer, James (1920-1999) CORE leader and activist
- Forman, James (1928-2005) SNCC official and activist
- Foster, Marie (1917-2003) activist, local leader in Selma Movement
- Friedan, Betty (1921-2006) writer, activist, feminist
- Gandhi, Mahatma (1869-1948) peace activist, lawyer
- Hall, Prathia (1940-2002) SNCC activist, civil rights movement speaker
- Hamer, Fannie Lou (1917-1977) activist in Mississippi movements
- Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins (1825-1911) American abolitionist, suffragist, poet, teacher and writer
- Hayes, Randy, Founder of Rainforest Action Network
- Hendricks, Lola (1932-2013) activist, local leader in Birmingham Campaign
- Herer, Jack (1939-) pro-hemp activist, organizer, author
- Hernandez, Aileen (1926-) organizer and activist
- Hill, Robert (1892-1963) African American sharecropper, founder of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America.
- Hobson, Julius Wilson (1919-1977) organizer, agitator, researcher, plaintiff
- hooks, bell, pen name for Gloria Jean Watkins (1952-2021), American author and social activist
- Horne, Lena (1917-2010) civil rights activist
- Horton, Myles (1905-1990) teacher of nonviolence, pioneer activist
- Howard, T.R.M. (1908-1976) civil rights leader
- Huerta, Dolores C (1930-) activist, organizer, labor rights
- Hunter, John (1954-) educator, world peace game inventor, musician
- Jackson, Jesse (1941-) clergyman, activist, politician
- Johns, Barbara Rose (1935-1991) civil rights activist
- Jones, Van (1968-) civil rights lawyer
- Johnson, Marsha P. (1945–1992) Gay Rights and Liberation Activist
- Jordan, June (1936-2002), writer, poet, civil rights activist, feminist
- Keys, Sarah Louise (1929-) Civil Rights activist
- Khoury, Angela Jurdak (1915-2011) Lebanese diplomat and college professor, helped draft the UDHR
- King, Coretta Scott (1927-2006) American author, activist, and civil rights leader
- King Jr., Martin Luther (1929-1968) clergyman, SCLC co-founder and president, activist
- Korematsu, Fred (1919-2005) American civil rights advocate who resisted internment of Japanese Americans during World War II
- Lawson, James (1928-) teacher of nonviolence, activist
- Lafayette, Bernard (1940-) SCLC and SNCC activist and organizer
- Lee, Eugene Yang (1986–) American filmmaker, actor, producer, author, director, and activist
- Lewis, John (1940-2020) Civil Rights activist and U.S. Congressman
- Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865), 16th President of the United States, promulgated Emancipation Proclamation
- Lorde, Audre (1934-1992), American writer, womanist, professor and civil rights activist
- Lowery, Joseph (1921-2020) SCLC leader, activist
- Luper, Clara (1923-2011) Sit-in movement leader, activist
- Maathai, Wangari (1940–2011) social, environmental, and political activist
- Mandela, Nelson (1918–2013) South African anti-apartheid activist and politician
- Marshall, Thurgood (1908-1993) American civil rights lawyer and jurist
- Meredith, James (1933-) independent student leader and self-starting activist
- Milk, Harvey (1930-1978) politician, gay rights activist
- Morgan, Irene (1917-2007) Civil rights activist (racial segregation in public facilities and transportation)
- Moses, Robert “Bob” (1935-2021) leader, activist, and organizer
- Nakate, Vanessa (1996–) climate justice activist
- Nash, Diane (1938-) SNCC and SCLC activist and organizer
- Nixon, Edgar (1899-1987) American civil rights leader and union organizer in Alabama
- Orange, James (1942-2008) SCLC activist and organizer, trade unionist
- Parks, Rosa (1913-2005) NAACP official, activist
- Paterson, Eva (1949- ) civil rights lawyer
- Paul, Alice (1885-1977) women’s suffrage/voting rights leader
- Pierre, Sonia (1963-2011) Human Rights advocate in the Dominican Republic
- Pope, Roslyn (1938-2023) American Civil Rights activist and academic
- Porter, Billy (1969–) American actor, singer, writer, and director / fashion / LGBTQ+ activist
- Randolph, A. Philip (1889-1979) socialist, labor leader
-
Rivera, Sylvia (1951–2002) Transgender Rights and Liberation Activist
- Robinson, Amelia Boynton (1911-2015) voting rights activist
- Rodriguez, Michaela Antonia Jaé (she/her) (1991–) American actress and singer / LGBTQ+ activist
- Rustin, Bayard (1912-1987), civil rights activist
- Seeger, Pete (1919-2014) musician and activist
- Sherrod, Charles civil rights activist, SNCC leader
- Shuttlesworth, Fred (1922-2011) clergyman, activist
- Smith, Samantha Reed (1972-1985) grade school student, peace activist
- Stanton, Elizabeth Cady (1815-1902) women’s suffrage/voting rights leader
- Simon, Lateefah (1977- ) activist for at-risk youth and young women
- Sotomayor, Sonia (1954 – ) Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
- Steinem, Gloria (1934-) writer, activist, feminist
- Stevenson, Bryan A. (1959-) lawyer, social justice advocate
- Stone, Lucy (1818-1893) women’s suffrage/voting rights leader
- Takei, George (1937–) American actor and activist
- Tenayuca, Emma (1916-1999) American labor leader, union organizer, civil rights activist, and educator
- Tubman, Harriet (1820 or 1821- 1913) American abolitionist and activist
- Vivian, C.T. (1924-2020) student leader, SNCC activist
- Walker, Wyatt Tee, clergyman, activist: NAACP and CORE in Virginia, Executive Dictator, SCLC (1960-1964)
- Wathuti, Elizabeth (1995–) environment and climate activist
- Wells, Ida B. (1862-1931) journalist, women’s suffrage/voting rights activist
- White, Walter Francis (1895-1955) NAACP executive secretary
- Wilkins, Roy (1901-1981), NAACP executive secretary/executive director
- Willard, Frances 1839-1898) women’s rights, suffrage/voting rights leader
- Williams, Robert F.(1925-1996) civil rights leader and organizer
- Woodson, Carter G. (1875-1950) historian, author and founder of the Association for the Study of African America Life and History
- X, Malcolm (1925-1965), author, activist
- Young, Andrew (Andy) Jr. (1932-) clergyman, SCLC activist and executive director.
- Young, Whitney M., Jr. (1921-1971) Executive Director of National Urban League and advisor to Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon
- Malala Yousafzai, (1997-) Education activist
Prepared by Sandy Sohcot, Director of The World As It Could Be Human Rights Education Program © with content credit to Andrea McEvoy Spero as of 2023.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.