Peaceful protests have long been effective forces of change, and this volume gives us brief profiles of 21 activists who have used non-violent actions to do just that. “Moral acts of courage are contagious,” writes author Diane Stanley in the introduction, whether they are great movements or “the quiet act of a brave individual.”
Featured figures include: Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Woody Guthrie, Mohandas Gandhi, Irena Sendler, The Hollywood Ten, Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, The Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-in protestors, Martin Luther King, Jr., Larry Itliong, Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Richard Oakes, The Tree-Sitters of Pureora, Father Luis Olivares, Tank Man, Nelson Mandela, Ryan White, Ai Weiwei, the “It Gets Better” Project, The March For Our Lives protestors, and Greta Thunberg. Stanley’s softly colored illustrations accompany each profile.
The one LGBTQ-inclusive profile here is the one about the It Gets Better Project, the initiative launched in 2021 by Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller in response to the suicide of a teen who had been bullied for years.
There is also a profile of Ryan White, who experienced threats and exclusion after he contracted AIDS via a blood transfusion. White was not (as far as we know) queer, but the stigma he experienced was deeply tied to anti-LGBTQ bias. That bias is not mentioned in the book, however, which feels like a key omission.
The other profiles range far and wide over places and movements, and may inspire young readers to follow in their footsteps.
Content warning: Mention of suicide.
