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Congressman and Anti-hunger advocate

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George Thomas "Mickey" Leland was America's most effective spokesman for hungry people in the United States and throughout the world. During six terms in the Congress, six years as a Texas state legislator and, Democratic National Committee official, he focused much needed attention on issues of health and hunger and rallied support that resulted in both public and private action. Leland combined the skills of the charismatic leader with the power of a sophisticated behind-the-scenes congressman. He matured during his years in Congress into a brilliantly effective and influential advocate for food security and health care rights for every human being. When Mickey Leland died in 1989, he was Chairman of the House Select Committee on Hunger. His committee studied the problems associated with domestic and international hunger and then delivered the practical solution of food.

Early Life and Education George Thomas "Mickey" Leland, III, was born on November 27, 1944, in Lubbock, Texas, to Alice and George Thomas Leland, II. At an early age, he, along with his mother and brother (William Gaston Leland), took up residence in the Fifth Ward of Houston, Texas.

Growing up in a predominately African American and Hispanic neighborhood, Leland's first experience with the "public" was in a segregated public school. Leland showed early promise as a student, however. He ranked in the top ten percent of his class when he graduated in 1964 from Philis Wheatley High School in Houston, Texas. While attending TSU (Texas Southern University) in the late sixties, Leland emerged as a vocal leader of the local civil rights movement and brought national leaders of the movement to Houston. He graduated from Texas Southern University's School of Pharmacy in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy. He served as an Instructor of Clinical Pharmacy at his alma mater from 1970-71, and set up a "door to door" outreach campaign in low-income neighborhoods to inform people about their medical care options and to perform preliminary screenings. During the same period Mickey Leland organized and led the Black Citizens Action Teams ("Black Cats") to protest against police brutality.

During the administration of President Leonard O. Spearman, Leland received an honorary doctorate degree from Texas Southern University. He married the former Alison Clark Walton, a Georgetown University law student, in 1983. Congressman Leland fathered three children, Jarrett David (born February 6, 1986) and twins, Austin Mickey and Cameron George (born January 14, 1990, after Leland's death).

Leland's Political Career In 1972, Mickey Leland was elected to the Texas House of Representatives from the 88th District of Houston, Texas. He served in the Texas Legislature until 1978. In Austin, Leland became famous as the champion of health care rights for the poor. Leland was largely responsible for the passage of legislation that provided low-income consumers with access to affordable generic drugs. He also supported the creation of health care access through Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO's). To accomplish his goals in Austin, he served on the Texas State Labor Committee, State Affairs Committee, Human Resources Committee, Legislative Council, and Subcommittee on Occupational and Industrial Safety. Leland was also elected Vice Chairman of the Joint Committee on Prison Reform. He was the first African-American legislator to serve on the Senate-House conference Committee as a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

Congressman Leland was elected in November 1978 to the United States House of Representatives from the 18th Congressional District of Houston, Texas. His Congressional district included the neighborhood where he had grown up, and he was recognized as a knowledgeable advocate for health, children and the elderly. His leadership abilities were quickly noted in Washington, and he was chosen Freshman Majority Whip in his first term, and later served twice as At-Large Majority Whip. Leland was re-elected to each succeeding Congress until his death in August 1989.

As he visited soup kitchens and makeshift shelters, he became increasingly concerned about the hungry and homeless. The work for which he is best remembered began when Leland co-authored legislation with Rep. Ben Gilman (R-NY) to establish the House Select Committee on Hunger. Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neil named Leland chairman when it was enacted in 1984. The Select Committee's mandate was to "conduct a continuing, comprehensive study and review of the problems of hunger and malnutrition."

Although it had no legislative jurisdiction, the committee, for the first time, provided a single focus for hunger-related issues. The committee's impact and influence would stem largely from Congressman Leland's ability to generate awareness of complex hunger alleviation issues and exert his personal moral leadership. In addition to focusing attention on issues of hunger, his legislative initiatives would create the National Commission on Infant Mortality, better access to fresh food for at-risk women, children and infants, and the first comprehensive services for the homeless.

Leland's sensitivity to the immediate needs of poor and hungry people would soon make him a spokesman for hungry people on a far broader scale. Reports of acute famine in sub-Saharan Africa prompted Speaker O'Neil to ask Leland to lead a bipartisan Congressional delegation to assess conditions and relief requirements. When Leland returned, he brought together entertainment personalities, religious leaders and private voluntary agencies to create general public support for the Africa Famine Relief and Recovery Act of 1985. That legislation provided $800 million in food and humanitarian relief supplies. The international attention Leland had focused on the famine brought additional support for non-governmental efforts, saving thousands of lives.

Leland's ability to reach out to others with innovative ideas and to gain support from unlikely sources was a key to his success in effectively addressing the problems of the poor and minorities. He met with both Pope John Paul II about food aid to Africa and with Fidel Castro about reuniting Cuban families. In Moscow as part of the first Congressional delegation let by a Speaker of the House in the post-Cold War era, he proposed a joint U.S. - Soviet food initiative to Mozambique. As chairman of the Black Caucus, Leland proudly presented the first awards the Caucus had ever given to a non-black, rock musician Bob Geldof and news person Ted Koppel. Geldof was honored for his Band Aid concert and fund-raising efforts for African famine victims and Koppel for his news stories on the African famine.

Mickey Leland was a powerful advocate on other causes as well. While chairing the House Select Committee on Hunger, Leland was a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the Subcommittees on Telecommunications and Finance, Health and the Environment, and Energy and Power. He chaired the Subcommittee on Postal Operations and Services and served on the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service and the Subcommittee on Compensation and Employment.

Minority Affairs Mickey Leland was a very effective promoter of responsible and realistic broadcast television and cable programming. Through widely publicized congressional hearings he aroused the nation's conscience and reduced violence in children's television programming. And he advocated ethnic diversity through Affirmative Action in broadcast employment, both on and off camera, and ownership. In particular, he worked to assure that all of the characters in the media avoided ethnic stereotypes and fairly portrayed the rich diversity that makes up the American public. When the federal government began to privatize federal assets, such as Conrail, Mickey Leland successfully included legislative language that required the participation of minority investment bankers in the negotiations.

Mickey Leland's sincere concern for ethnic equality earned him a leadership position in politics. During 1985-86, Congressman Leland served as Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) for the 99th Congress. The CBC was created in 1971 with only 13 members. By 1987, the CBC had grown to 23 members. Leland was also a member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 1976-85. He served as Chairman of the DNC's Black Caucus from 1981-1985, and in that capacity, he served on the DNC's Executive Committee.

World Hunger and Peace When running for re-election in 1988, Congressman Leland was quoted as saying, "This is my 10th year in Congress, and I want to go back." He stated further, "The more influence I get, the more I can help the people of the 18th District, but also (people) throughout the country." Leland was becoming increasingly successful in international human rights and world hunger issues. He fought against the injustice of South African Apartheid, and led successful boycotts against South Africa Airways and was instrumental in obtaining a congressional override of President Reagan's veto of economic sanctions against South Africa.

He worked endlessly to solve the problems of domestic and international hunger and malnutrition. Mickey Leland fought hard to prevent food aid from being used as a political tool. He advocated communication with all governments, even those considered enemies, in order to further humanitarian goals and supported the right of U.S. citizens to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians of any nation. His successful initiatives expanded funding of primary health care in developing countries, including UNICEF's child survival activities and Vitamin A programs supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Under Leland's aegis, the Select Committee reemphasized the priority of hunger and the alleviation of poverty within the foreign assistance program of the United States. The committee successfully campaigned for expanding credit to the poorest individuals in low-income countries and the use of proceeds from the sale of donated U.S. commodities for health, education and other grass-roots development activities.

Mickey Leland died as he had lived, on a mission seeking to help those most in need. While leading another relief mission in 1989, to an isolated refugee camp, Fugnido, in Ethiopia, which sheltered thousands of unaccompanied children fleeing the civil conflict in neighboring Sudan, Leland's plane crashed into a mountainside in Ethiopia. The force of the crash killed everyone aboard, including the Congressman, his chief of staff Patrice Johnson, and 13 other passengers from a number of government, humanitarian, and development organizations.

George Thomas "Mickey" Leland ▪ Born November 27, 1944, Lubbock, TX ▪ Died August 7, 1989, Gambela, Ethiopia
Biography provided by the Mickey Leland Center on World Hunger & Peace at Texas Southern University.

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George Thomas "Mickey" Leland was America's most effective spokesman for hungry people in the United States and throughout the world. During six terms in the Congress, six years as a Texas state legislator and, Democratic National Committee official, he focused much needed attention on issues of health and hunger and rallied support that resulted in both public and private action.

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Leader of the Black Panther Party and founder of Free Breakfast Program

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Civil Rights Leader, focused on education

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MLA - Michals, Debra. "Ruby Bridges." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. Date accessed.

Chicago - Michals, Debra. "Ruby Bridges." National Women's History Museum." 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ruby-bridges.

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Trailblazer Ruby Bridges was only six when she advanced the cause of civil rights in November 1960 when she became the first African American student to integrate an elementary school in the South. Learn more about her on womenshistory.org.

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Indigenous activist for land rights, poet

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John Trudell has been identified as a poet, a fighter for Native American rights, an agitator, and lots of other things.

But if you were to have asked him which of these descriptions best suits him he would have refused to be pinned down. "Actually I don't consider myself to be any of those things. They're things that I do...but they're parts of me. They're not the total." Indeed, Trudell was the complex sum of all that he saw, endured and accomplished in his 69 years, a time in which he experienced more than most people might in several lifetimes.

John Trudell did not set out to be a poet. He never studied poetry in school. He took that road primarily through a series of detours, and his poetic and political sensibilities were forged by the remarkable, sometimes horrifying circumstances of his life.

John Trudell was born on February 15, 1946 in Omaha, Nebraska, and grew up on and around the nearby Santee Sioux reservation. (His father was a Santee, his mother's tribal roots were in Mexico.) Trudell became acquainted with hardship at an early age. His mother died when he was 6, and he watched his father struggle to feed and clothe his large family. This experience left Trudell with a deep contempt for the American "work ethic," compounded by the endemic racial and economic injustice which surrounded him.

In 1963, like so many young people with limited economic opportunities, Trudell found himself in the military. Trudell saw active Navy duty in the coastal waters off Vietnam, on a ship doing search-and-rescue missions for downed pilots. What combat he saw was from a distance. But Trudell's heritage sensitized him to the racism he saw during the war, whether by Americans toward Asians, or the U.S. military toward its own minority troops.

Trudell left the Navy after four years. A résumé he put together for a press kit a few years ago contains the following listing:

1967 - 1969: Jobs, School, Disillusionment

Among the illusions Trudell quickly abandoned was that military service was a way of buying into the American dream. He then had a series of unsatisfying educational experiences. "I was in a holding pattern," he said, until 1969, when his sense of indigenous roots and connections was galvanized by the Indians of All Tribes Occupation of Alcatraz Island. That event, for which Trudell acted as national spokesman, was the first time that the plight of Native Americans was brought into mainstream American consciousness. And along with the recognition of the media came the attention of the U.S. government, particularly that of the F.B.I.

The occupation of Alcatraz Island eventually wound down, ending in 1971. But something more lasting was poised to replace it: the American Indian Movement, of which Trudell served as National Chairman from 1973 to 1979. The government response to A.I.M. was swift: Trudell bluntly states, "They waged war against us. They hunted us down. They killed, jailed, destroyed, by any means necessary. They saw that magical thing that happened with Alcatraz...all of a sudden all this pirit is popping up and gaining momentum through A.I.M., and this is why the spirit-hunters, those who hunt free thought, came after us." A 17,000 page F.B.I. file bearing Trudell's name remains a testament to his years under government scrutiny.

In 1979 that war took a terrible personal toll on John Trudell, in the form of an unspeable tragedy that changed his life forever.

On February 11, 1979 Trudell had burned an American flag during a demonstration in front of the J.Edgar Hoover building, the headquarters of the F.B.I. In Washington, DC, Trudell explained his motives for the flag-burning. "In the military, they said if the flag has been desecrated, the only way to properly dispose of it is to burn it. But they defined desecration of the flag as if it drops on the earth. I say injustice and racism and classism and your whole way of life desecrates whatever you say this thing's supposed to mean." About 12 hours after the flag incident, in the early morning of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, a fire "of suspicious origin" burned down Trudell's home on the Shoshone Palute reservation in Nevada, killing Trudell's wife, Tina, their three children and Tina's mother. Not surprisingly, the F.B.I. declined to investigate, and the blaze was officially ruled an "accident." But Trudell flatly stated "It was murder; they were murdered as an act of war."

Devastated by the tragedy, Trudell withdrew from the world for a time, and it was during this period of grief and exile that Trudell discovered his poetic gift. "It was when I was looking for something to hang on to, to keep me connected to this reality, that I started writing. I did not write poetry prior to that...Tina was the writer. She wrote poetry. And almost six months after the fire, when I was looking for help - I was looking to cut any spiritual deal. I was pissed off at God, at the Great Spirit, at all of 'em because this was a betrayal to me... And then the lines came. The lines were my bombs, my explosions, my tears, they were my everything."

What began as a form of therapy soon turned into much more: the words poured out of Trudell, and he began to incorporate poetry into his speaking engagements.

In 1982 he published a book of poems, Living in Reality. But he was searching for a new mode of presentation and soon he became inspired, in part, by someone who was to become his close friend, Jackson Browne. "In 1979 I met Jackson. He allowed me to roam around in his world, so I was around recording studios, and musicians. And I've always like rock 'n' roll anyway. I just considered it to be a period of osmosis. By '82 I had decided that I wanted to try to record the poetry with music, but I didn't know how I was going to work with contemporary musicians. So I began by putting the poetry with the oldest musical form. For us, that meant the drum and the chants. We ended up recording a tape called TRIBAL VOICE at Jackson's studio. And when that was recorded, I wanted to then mix the spoken word with the latest musical forms...synthesizers, electric guitars, drum machines. I stayed on hold with that one for two years because it was very hard for me to find someone who would work with me on the music. To me it was important that it remain spoken word. I wanted to mix those two identities, music and poetry. I wanted those two identities to be distinct, yet together.

"Then I met Jesse Ed Davis on May Day, 1985,"

Jesse Ed Davis, himself a Kiowa from Oklahoma, was something of a musical legend, having recorded and toured with the likes of Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, all of the former Beatles and countless others. His innate understanding of blues and rock 'n' roll turned out to be just what Trudell had been looking for. He remembers that first meeting fondly: "He told me his name. And the very next thing he said to me was, 'I can make music for your words.'"

Together, Trudell and Davis started gigging and recording as The Graffiti Band, and this partnership produced its first album titled AKA GRAFITTI MAN, in 1986. It was released on Trudell's own Peach Company label in a cassette-only format, and sold through mail-order and at the band's shows. Even with this limited distraction, the album attracted considerable attention and critical praise, including supporters like Bob Dylan. In an interview in Rolling Stone, Dylan called AKA GRAFITTI MAN "the best album of 1986," and had the album played over the P.A. system during intermissions in his 1987 tour. Among Trudell's other fans is Kris Kristofferson, who wrote the song "Johnny Lobo" as a tribute to his remarkable life.

Trudell and Jesse Ed Davis recorded a second album together, HEART JUMP BOUQUET. Following Davis' untimely death in 1988, Trudell began to collaborate with Mark Shark, who had been the rhythm guitarist in the Graffiti Band. With Shark as co-writer, Trudell and the Graffiti Band recorded a third album, FABLES AND OTHER REALITIES (a second in the "Tribal Voice" series, titled ...BUT THIS ISN'T EL SALVADOR, had been released in 1987). The band toured in 1988 as an opening act for the Australian rock band Midnight Oil.

In 1992, Rykodisc released AKA GRAFITTI MAN to an international audience for the first time.

The release gathered work from all of Trudell's albums (except the first TRIBAL VOICE recording), covering a period from 1985 to 1991. The original recordings were remixed and overdubs added (including guest vocals by Browne and Kristofferson), but the essence of the work remained intact, particularly in the searing guitar work of Jesse Ed Davis.

This work represents a broader spectrum of Trudell's concern from the most global to the most personal. His keen poetic eye and ear touch on the Persian Gulf war in "Bombs Over Bagdad," in which he refers to George Bush as "Queen George." "The line was originally "King George's war," he explained, "but that's not what's going on...he's trying to prove his machismo." Another famous American is the subject of much more sympathetic treatment in "Baby Boom Che." Elvis Presley, who, as the song title suggests, Trudell considered a cultural revolutionary. "Yeah," he laughs, "Elvis liberated a lot of white people from Lawrence Welk!" The album's other tracks cover the vast range of the poet's social and personal concerns - incisive song-poems contain images of the decaying American dream (as on "Graffiti Man"), but also loving remembrances of Trudell's wife ("Tina Smiled"). The album is infused throughout with Trudell's deep belief in the human spirit, and the spirit of the Earth itself.

At the time of AKA GRAFITTI MAN's release, Trudell's visibility was increasing in other media as well. He was interviewed at length in the Michael Apted film "Incident at Oglala," a documentary about Native American prisoner of conscience Leonard Peltier and the American Indian Movement. He also had a featured role in the Tribeca Films release "Thunderheart," starring Val Kilmer and Sam Shephard, also directed by Apted, released in April 1992.

Trudell went on to release several more records:
1994 Johnny Damas & Me
1999 Blue Indians
2001 Descendant Now Ancestor
2001 Bone Days (produced by the actress Angelina Jolie)
2003 The Collection
2005 Live à Fip
2007 Madness & The Moremes (double album)
2010 Crazier Than Hell
2014 Through The Dust (feat. Kwest)
2015 Wazi's Dream (feat. Bad Dog: Quiltman, Mark Shark, Billy Watts, Ricky Eckstein)

Once John Trudell was asked about events surrounding the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of America. He replied, "Columbus was lost. He didn't have an idea what planet he was on, he didn't have a clue where he was at. And then I think of the descendants of Columbus..they're lost too. They don't know where their lives are going. There's a way to live and a way to exist. We're here so we should be living, rather than just existing. That's what Alcatraz and the A.I.M. were all about. We call it sovereignty, honoring treaties, but it really has to do with life."

As an artist, as an activist, as a human being, John Trudell demands to live.

WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT JOHN TRUDELL

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But if you were to have asked him which of these descriptions best suits him he would have refused to be pinned down. "Actually I don't consider myself to be any of those things. They're things that I do...but they're parts of me. They're not the total."

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environmental activist who helped found Earth Day

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https://snccdigital.org/people/diane-nash-bevel/
Civil rights activist, SNCC member

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https://billyfrankjr.org/
Native American environmental leader and treaty rights activist

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president of the United Automobile Workers (UAW), social activist, Detroiter

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writer, nurse, physical therapist, inventor and forensic scientist

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Civil Rights advocates focused on education

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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In 1954 the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were illegal. The case, Brown v. The Board of Education, has become iconic for Americans because it marked the formal beginning of the end of segregation.

But the gears of change grind slowly. It wasn't until September 1957 when nine teens would become symbols, much like the landmark decision we know as Brown v. The Board of Education, of all that was in store for our nation in the years to come.

The "Little Rock Nine," as the nine teens came to be known, were to be the first African American students to enter Little Rock's Central High School. Three years earlier, following the Supreme Court ruling, the Little Rock school board pledged to voluntarily desegregate its schools. This idea was explosive for the community and, like much of the South, it was fraught with anger and bitterness.

On September 2, 1957 the night prior to what was to be the teens' first day in Central High classrooms, Arkansas governor Orval Faubus ordered the state's National Guard to block their entrance. Faubus said it was for the safety of the nine students.

On September 4, just 24 hours after a federal judge ordered the Little Rock Nine to begin attending Central High immediately, a belligerent mob, along with the National Guard, again prevented the teens from entering the school.

Sixteen days later a federal judge ordered the National Guard removed. Once again on September 23, the Little Rock Nine attempted to enter the school. Though escorted by Little Rock police into a side door, another angry crowd gathered and tried to rush into Central High. Fearing for the lives of the nine students, school officials sent the teens home. They did, however, manage to attend classes for about three hours.

Finally, 52 years ago today, on September 25, 1957, following a plea from Little Rock's mayor, Woodrow Mann, President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and sent U.S. Army troops to the scene. Personally guarded by soldiers from the National Guard soldiers and the Army's 101st Airborne, the Little Rock Nine began regular class attendance at Central High.

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The "Little Rock Nine," as the nine teens came to be known, were to be the first African American students to enter Little Rock's Central High School. Three years earlier, following the Supreme Court ruling, the Little Rock school board pledged to voluntarily desegregate its schools.

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Filipino-American labor organizer

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https://srlp.org/about/who-was-sylvia-rivera/
Activist, Stonewall participant

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Disability rights advocate and trailblazer

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trade unionist and civil-rights leader

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American politician, prominent attorney, and revolutionary, community organizer, from the city of Detroit

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https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/patsy-mink
First woman of color elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first Asian-American woman to serve in Congress. Advocate for women's rights. First Asian American to run for US President.

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Educator and activist

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radical activist for worker's rights in Detroit

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writer on labor, historian, academic, and autoworker

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Filipino American labor leader, farmworker, and leader in the Asian American movement

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Disability rights advocate

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senator, activist, founder of Earth Day

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Gaylord Nelson was a leading figure in the fight against environmental degradation and social injustice in the 20th century.

Growing up steeped in Wisconsin's progressive heritage and New Deal liberalism, Nelson began his political career as one confident in both the political power of ordinary citizens and the government's ability to promote the public good. Though the 1950s brought prosperity to some Americans, Nelson's attention was with those in the city and the countryside who were disadvantaged. He never overlooked the social and ecological costs of technological innovation and industrial expansion.

As a senator, Nelson contributed to important liberal reforms but struggled for years to interest his colleagues in environmental protections. So he turned instead to the people, proposing April 22, 1970 as a day for Americans to speak out about the environmental crises they faced. Earth Day's massive public support forced politicians to see the severity of the problems and the extent of public concern.

The first Earth Day galvanized Congress into creating some of the most important U.S. environmental legislation. Gaylord Nelson earned environmentalism a lasting place in national politics.

From the Land, for the People

Born in the North Woods of Wisconsin in 1916, Nelson grew up admiring both the beauty of the Wisconsin land and the progressive politics of the state's famous Senator "Fighting Bob" La Follette. He earned his law degree at the University of Wisconsin and, after fighting in World War II, he returned to Madison where he helped revive the long-moribund Democratic Party.

As progressives fled a Republican Party under the sway of Joe McCarthy, Nelson and others invited them into a coalition that envisioned a liberal state government that used its regulatory power and tax revenue to address pressing social and economic problems.

The First 'Conservation Governor'

Nelson's innovative vision resonated with Wisconsin residents. Through the 1950s, residents had grown increasingly concerned with their crowded and dilapidated state parks, the exploitation of public resources by private industry, and the pollution of the state's waterways.

Nelson promised comprehensive reforms and was elected to two terms as governor. In office, he established unprecedented high levels of public funding for education, health care, unemployment, highways, and urban and rural development.

But it was Nelson's overhaul of the state's natural resource program that earned him a national reputation as the "conservation governor." He condensed a sprawling bureaucracy into a single Department of Resource Development, and established a Youth Conservation Corps to create green jobs for over 1,000 unemployed young people.

Most striking, Nelson fought to earmark $50 million for the Outdoor Recreation Action Program (ORAP) to acquire land to be converted into public parks and wilderness areas. The extreme popularity of these conservation measures catapulted Nelson into the U.S. Senate in 1962.

Fighting Pollution and Poverty in the Senate

In Washington, he helped President Kennedy to undertake a national tour for conservation and the environment. With President Johnson, he advanced civil rights legislation and waged the War on Poverty. Nelson saw these battles as part and parcel of his environmental agenda, believing:

"Environment is all of America and its problems. It is rats in the ghetto. It is a hungry child in a land of affluence. It is housing not worthy of the name; neighborhoods not fit to inhabit."

Refusing to accept the notion that economic prosperity is at odds with environmental protection, Nelson pushed programs like Operation Mainstream, which appropriated millions of dollars for the creation of conservation jobs and skills training for the poor and the elderly under the Green Thumb project.

Despite these successes, Nelson struggled through the 1960s to get his colleagues in Congress to take ecological concerns seriously. Nelson spoke out early and often against the Vietnam War and ballooning defense spending, which he saw deflecting funds and focus away from domestic crises.

Nelson's Earth Day: Giving Voice to a Concerned Nation

In 1969, Nelson devised a new approach to raise awareness and put pressure on politicians to act on environmental legislation.

Reflecting on the empowering effects of campus activism, Nelson proposed a day when citizens nationwide would host teach-ins to raise awareness of environmental problems. His proposal was met immediately with overwhelming support. The national media widely broadcast the plans for this so-called "Earth Day" and Nelson's office was flooded by enthusiastic letters.

But while Nelson established a small national office to offer support to the thousands of grassroots efforts, he firmly rejected a top-down organization. Instead, "Earth Day planned itself," he later reflected. An estimated 20 million Americans, young and old, gathered on April 22, 1970 to confront the ecological troubles in their cities, states, nation, and planet - and to demand action from themselves and from their elected officials.

The First Day of the 'Environmental Decade'

Earth Day was a watershed moment for environmental politics, kicking off what is now termed the "Environmental Decade" of radical legislative reforms. After struggling to pass legislation through the 1960s, Nelson was now deeply involved in many of the most important environmental protection legislation:

Clean Water Acts

National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act

Federal Pesticides Act

Clean Air Act

Environmental Education Act

National Hiking Trails and National Scenic Trails Acts

Establishment of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Gaylord Nelson's Legacy

Like many of his liberal colleagues, Nelson lost his reelection bid in 1980 at the dawn of the Reagan era. But he remained a national figure in environmental politics as Counselor of the wilderness Society until his death in 2005. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest honor for civilians, in 1995. In the speech he gave that year to mark the 25th anniversary of Earth Day, he kept his gaze on the horizon:

"The opportunity for a gradual but complete break with our destructive environmental history and a new beginning is at hand.... We can measure up to the challenge if we have the will to do so - that is the only question. I am optimistic that this generation will have the foresight and the will to begin the task of forging a sustainable society."

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Meet Gaylord Nelson | Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day

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Gaylord Nelson was a leading figure in the fight against environmental degradation and social injustice in the 20th century. Growing up steeped in Wisconsin's progressive heritage and New Deal liberalism, Nelson began his political career as one confident in both the political power of ordinary citizens and the government's ability to promote the public good.

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Founder of the Special Olympics

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Pioneering leader of disability rights movement

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Disability rights advocate and professor

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Disability Rights advocate

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Disability rights advocate

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American disability rights advocate who championed the cause of equality and employment of disabled people in workforce

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American community organizer

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Disability Rights Advocate

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American disability rights leader and author

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American activist and disability rights advocate

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35th president of the United States

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American academic, historian, ethnographer and author

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A Group of women laborers protesting for fair treatment and wages

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Victim of police violence, sparked protest

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community organizer in New York, who worked across racial and religious lines

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American labor organizer and advocate for immigrant workers

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https://www.margaretchin.nyc/aboutmargaret
councilwoman, immigrant, advocate, organizer

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https://www.aafe.org/who-we-are/our-history
Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE)’s first executive director

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36th president of the United States, in office from 1963 to 1969

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https://www.lowellmilkencenter.org/programs/projects/view/the-voluntary-prisoner/hero
only known non-spouse, non-Japanese American who voluntarily relocated to a World War II Japanese American internment camp

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/suzan-harjo
advocate for Native American rights, poet, writer, lecturer, curator, and policy advocate

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/06/19/activist-lehman-brightman-who-taught-and-made-history-has-died/
Activist and professor

# data[].attributes.body
Apache actress and activist for Native American rights
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacheen_Littlefeather

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Russell-Means
activist for the rights of Native Americans, libertarian political activist, actor, writer and musician

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marlon-Brando
American actor, film director, and activist

# data[].attributes.body
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Robinson_(activist)
Activist for Native American and African American rights

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.sagchip.org/council/events/2011/dennisbanksbio.pdf
Native American activist, teacher, and author

# data[].attributes.body
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_%22Mad_Bear%22_Anderson
Tuscarora Native American activist predominantly active in the 1950s who became a spokesman for Native American Sovereignty.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-indian/2020/12/24/most-important-indian-hank-adams-19432020/
American Native rights activist

# data[].attributes.body
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Satiacum
American political and environmental activist

# data[].attributes.body
https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/gloria-e-anzaldua
American scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory

# data[].attributes.body
https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/clemente-roberto
Puerto Rican professional baseball right fielder

# data[].attributes.body
http://sylviamendezschool.org/who-is-sylvia-mendez
Civil rights activist of Mexican-Puerto Rican heritage, played an instrumental role in the Mendez v. Westminster case, the landmark desegregation case of 1946

# data[].attributes.body
http://nationalyounglords.com/?page_id=15
Founder of the Young Lords, a national human rights movement

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.humanitiestexas.org/programs/tx-originals/list/hector-p-garcia
Mexican American physician, surgeon, World War II veteran, civil rights advocate, and founder of the American G.I. Forum

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/larrazolo.html
First Mexican-American and first Latino United States Senator, New Mexico's first Latino Senator and governor

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/about/people/orgs/bios/ochoa.html
American engineer, former astronaut and former director of the Johnson Space Center, first Hispanic woman to go to space

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.veteransofhope.org/veterans/rodolfo-corky-gonzales/
Chicano boxer, poet, political organizer, and activist

# data[].attributes.body
https://twu.edu/twhf/honorees/lucy-g-acosta/
Advocate for women, Hispanic Americans, and youth

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.history.com/topics/mexico/cesar-chavez
Labor leader and civil rights activist

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/shirley-chisholm
Politician, educator, and author, first black woman elected to the United States Congress

# data[].attributes.body
https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/11178
Politician

# data[].attributes.body
Gay rights activist
In his own words: http://www.kamenypapers.org/index.htm

# data[].attributes.body
LGBTQ+, AIDS, and labor activist, lecturer, and author

https://www.clevejones.com/inner/about-cleve

# data[].attributes.body
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Hudson
Gay rights activist, writer, and actor

# data[].attributes.body
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Isay
American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, author and gay activist

# data[].attributes.body
https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/brenda-howard
Feminist and gay rights advocate

# data[].attributes.body
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Donaldson_(activist)
Political activist advocating for prison reform and bi-sexual rights

# data[].attributes.body
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Chan
Lesbian activist and biologist

# data[].attributes.body
https://gilbertbaker.com/biography/
Political activist and rainbow flag creator

# data[].attributes.body
https://ucnj.org/mpj/about-marsha-p-johnson/
Activist and icon

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/22/us/william-dale-jennings-82-writer-and-gay-rights-pioneer.html
LGBT rights activist, playwright and author

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/02/myth-buster
Psychologist and truth-seeker

# data[].attributes.body
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gruber
American teacher and early LGBT rights activist. Founder of Mattachine Society.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harry-Hay-Jr
Gay rights activist, founder of Mattachine Society

# data[].attributes.body
https://milkfoundation.org/about/harvey-milk-biography/
Politician and activist

# data[].attributes.body
https://badassasianamericans.wordpress.com/2016/09/12/merle-woo-poet-educator-revolutionary-activist/
Poet, educator, activist

# data[].attributes.body
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Martin_and_Phyllis_Lyon
Feminists and co-founders of Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian social and political organizing group in the US

# data[].attributes.body
https://doloreshuerta.org/dolores-huerta/
Feminist and organizer for diverse workers rights

# data[].attributes.body
https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/14080
Teacher, congresswoman, pushed for Title IX which required equality in schools and sports for young people.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.veteranfeministsofamerica.org/legacy/INEZ%20CASIANO2.htm
Founder of NOW and advocate for women's rights.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/aileen-clarke-hernandez
Civil rights, union and women’s rights activist

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.history.com/topics/first-ladies/eleanor-roosevelt
Feminist and activist for equality, former First Lady of the United States

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/catherine-east/

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/us/08graham.html
Original member of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Founder of NOW

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/gloria-steinem
Acclaimed journalist, trailblazing feminist, and one of the most visible, passionate leaders and spokeswomen of the women’s rights movement in the late 20th and early 21st centuries

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographyginsburg.aspx
Supreme Court Justice, feminist

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/betty-friedan
Journalist, author, activist, and co-founder of the National Organization for Women

# data[].attributes.body
https://snccdigital.org/people/stokely-carmichael/
Grassroots organizer, civil rights activist

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/obituaries/brad-lomax-overlooked.html
Civil rights activist, disability rights advocate

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/hedgeman-anna-arnold-1899-1990/
Political activist and educator

# data[].attributes.body
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Robinson_(activist)
Civil rights activist

# data[].attributes.body
https://snccdigital.org/people/bob-moses/

Educator, Political activist, member of SNCC, Freedom Summer Participant

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/grace-lee-boggs-asian-american-labor-organizer-writer-og-history
Detroiter, organizer for equal rights and worker's rights

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/coretta-scott-king
Civil rights activist, member of NOW

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.biography.com/musician/joan-baez
Musician and activist

# data[].attributes.body
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/ballou-maude-l-williams
Secretary and civil rights activist

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.biography.com/news/claudette-colvin-rosa-parks-bus-boycott
Civil rights activist