“ We are beginning to understand that the world is always being made fresh and never finished; that activism can be the journey rather than the arrival. ”
“ Abolition is really about rethinking the kind of future we want, the social future, the economic future, the political future. It's about revolution, I would argue. ”
ContextDavis on abolition as a constructive project, not just the absence of policing and prisons.Read More: Black Activism
Their StoryScholar and activist whose work on race, gender and the prison system has shaped decades of organising. Briefly jailed and tried in the early 1970s after guns registered in her name were used in a courtroom takeover, she was acquitted and went on to a long academic and activist career arguing for the abolition of prisons and policing.Her memoir and lectures, widely available online, are the fullest primary sources.See Their Full Story
Widely credited to this person; primary source not yet confirmed.
ContextRivera crediting drag queens and trans women at the front lines of Stonewall.Read More: LGBTQ+ Voices
Their StoryLatina transgender activist present at the 1969 Stonewall uprising, who co-founded STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) with Marsha P. Johnson to house homeless queer and trans youth in New York. She died in 2002.Her 2001 speech, widely archived online, is a direct primary source.See Their Full Story
Their StoryLatina transgender activist present at the 1969 Stonewall uprising, who co-founded STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) with Marsha P. Johnson to house homeless queer and trans youth in New York. She died in 2002.Her 2001 speech, widely archived online, is a direct primary source.See Their Full Story
“ Stop assuming we're incompetent. We are talented; we work hard. It's just ableism, the assumption that people with disabilities are inferior, that gets in our way. ”
Their StorySwedish climate activist who began a solitary school strike outside the Swedish parliament in 2018, aged 15, which grew into the global Fridays for Future movement. She is autistic and has spoken publicly about it as part of how she sees the climate crisis clearly.Her collected speeches, published as 'No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference', are a direct primary source.See Their Full Story
Their StoryJapanese-American activist interned with her family during the Second World War, who went on to organise alongside Malcolm X and across the Black, Asian-American and Puerto Rican independence movements for the rest of her life. She died in 2014.Interviews and archival footage from her later life are the clearest primary sources.See Their Full Story
Widely credited to this person; primary source not yet confirmed.
ContextKochiyama, a Japanese-American activist, on solidarity and interdependence across movements.Read More: Asian Voices
Their StoryJapanese-American activist interned with her family during the Second World War, who went on to organise alongside Malcolm X and across the Black, Asian-American and Puerto Rican independence movements for the rest of her life. She died in 2014.Interviews and archival footage from her later life are the clearest primary sources.See Their Full Story
Their StorySwedish climate activist who began a solitary school strike outside the Swedish parliament in 2018, aged 15, which grew into the global Fridays for Future movement. She is autistic and has spoken publicly about it as part of how she sees the climate crisis clearly.Her collected speeches, published as 'No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference', are a direct primary source.See Their Full Story
Widely credited to this person; primary source not yet confirmed.
ContextHeumann's rallying line from the documentary on the disability rights movement she helped lead.Read More: Disability Rights
Their StoryA leader of the international disability rights movement, sometimes called its mother. Denied a school place as a child for being a fire hazard, she went on to help drive the 1977 Section 504 sit-in and the shaping of landmark accessibility law.Her memoir 'Being Heumann' is the primary source for her own framing.See Their Full Story
“ My question is, why are people so quick to assume that locking away an increasingly large proportion of the U.S. population would help those who live in the free world feel safer and more secure? ”
Their StoryScholar and activist whose work on race, gender and the prison system has shaped decades of organising. Briefly jailed and tried in the early 1970s after guns registered in her name were used in a courtroom takeover, she was acquitted and went on to a long academic and activist career arguing for the abolition of prisons and policing.Her memoir and lectures, widely available online, are the fullest primary sources.See Their Full Story
ContextFrom the school climate strikes she began alone, which grew into a global movement.Read More: Disability Rights
Their StorySwedish climate activist who began a solitary school strike outside the Swedish parliament in 2018, aged 15, which grew into the global Fridays for Future movement. She is autistic and has spoken publicly about it as part of how she sees the climate crisis clearly.Her collected speeches, published as 'No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference', are a direct primary source.See Their Full Story
