Social Activists

The New York Times best-selling true story of an all-American girl and a boy from Zimbabwe and the letter that changed both of their lives forever. It started as an assignment. Everyone in Caitlin's class wrote to an unknown student somewhere in a distant place....

It was April 5, 1943, and the Gestapo would arrive any minute. Dietrich Bonhoeffer had been expecting this day for a long time....

At age six the sharp bite of a whip taught Harriet Tubman what it meant to be a slave. The other slaves scoffed when Harriet resolved to escape north someday. Little did they know that this girl would one day lead hundreds of slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad....

At age two, Helen Keller became deaf and blind. She lived in a world of silence and darkness and she spent the rest of her life struggling to break through it. But with the help of teacher Annie Sullivan, Helen learned to read, write, and do many amazing things....

In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. This seemingly small act triggered civil rights protests across America....

Once a kidnapped slave baby, George Washington Carver found freedom in learning everything he could about the world around him. Overcoming poverty and racism, George became a brilliant scientist and a gifted professor who dedicated his expertise to helping black farmers....

On August 14, 2016, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began a protest when he refused to stand for the national anthem. He wanted to make a statement about the oppression of people of color in the United States after he had spent a summer speaking out against police brutality....

Exposed to the horrendous living conditions of women prisoners and their children, Elizabeth Fry pledged to improve the lives of society's most desperate people—something no one else dared to do....

At one time Lew Alcindor was just another kid from New York City with all the usual problems: He struggled with fitting in, with pleasing a strict father, and with overcoming shyness....

On March 2, 1955, a slim, bespectacled teenager refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Mont-gomery, Alabama....

Learn about the amazing life of the former world No. 1 tennis player who fought for gender equality in sports! Billie Jean King's legacy as a tennis star, a feminist, and an LGBTQ+ trailblazer shines through in this addition to the #1 New York Times Best-Selling Series....

Born into slavery in Maryland in 1818, Frederick Douglass was determined to gain freedom - and once he realized that knowledge was power, he secretly learned to read and write to give himself an advantage....

Mary Hamilton grew up knowing right from wrong. This powerful story honors an unsung heroine who took a stand for respect—and won....

Escaping from slavery, Frederick Douglass became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in America, the greatest orator of his day, an influential newspaper publisher, writer, and statesman, and the most important African American of the nineteenth century....

In Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder: On Life as a Pioneer Woman, Laura tells her listeners what it was like to be a pioneer in the early 1900s. Her stories and insights show us how difficult even the simplest chores or tasks were for the early pioneers....

When Charles Mulli was a child, his family repeatedly abandoned him, and he lived in fear of his abusive, alcoholic father. With an extraordinary will, the young Kenyan struggled to feed and educate himself and, encountering hope in the gospel, found a reason to live and to forgive....

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was only 25 when he helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott and was soon organizing black people across the country in support of the right to vote, desegregation, and other basic civil rights....

The descendant of Cherokee ancestors who had been forced to walk the Trail of Tears, Wilma Mankiller experienced her own forced removal from the land she grew up on as a child....

Gandhi spent the later part of his life working to make India independent. Calling for non-violent civil disobedience, he led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights around the world. Gandhi is recognized internationally as a symbol of hope, peace, and freedom....

Each book in the series focuses on a particular character trait that made that role model heroic. For example, Rosa Parks dared to stand up for herself and other African Americans by staying seated, and helped end public bus segregation and launch the country’s Civil Rights Movement....

As a child he dreamt of changing South Africa; as a man he changed the world. Nelson Mandela spent his life battling apartheid and championing a peaceful revolution. He spent 27 years in prison and emerged as the inspiring leader of the new South Africa....

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the most influential leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. Influenced by Gandhi, Thoreau, and Jesus, he used nonviolent resistance to become a social activist. Martin led civil rights marches and gave powerful and influential speeches....

When Helen Keller was very young, she got a rare disease that made her deaf and blind. Suddenly, she couldn't see or hear at all, and it was hard for her to communicate with anyone. But when she was six years old, she met someone who changed her life forever: her teacher, Annie Sullivan....

The story of Fred Korematsu’s fight against discrimination explores the life of one courageous person who made the United States a fairer place for all Americans, and it encourages all of us to speak up for justice....

February 19, 1942. George Takei is four years old when his world changes forever. Two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares anyone of Japanese descent an enemy of the United States....