Notable Peace & Justice Activists Posters “Ar...-Az...-”
with curriculum enrichment resources for social studies classrooms, teachers, home schoolers, offices.

Yasser Arafat
Klas Pontus Arnoldson
Arthur Ashe
Emperor Ashoka

Tobias Michael Carel Asser
Saint Francis of Assisi
Mary Astell

Klas Pontus Arnoldson
b. 10-27-1844; Sweden
d. 2-20-1916

Author, journalist, politician, and committed pacifist Klas Arnoldson received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1908 as a founding member and first chairman of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society.

Arthur Ashe
b. 7-10-1943; Richmond, VA
d. 2-6-1993; NYC

Arthur Ashe, a professional tennis player, won three Grand Slam titles, and made great effort to further social causes.

Emperor Ashoka
flourished - 304-232 BC; India

Ashoka embraced Buddhism after witnessing the destruction and mass deaths he caused in wars of conquest. He spread Buddhism across Asia and established monuments marking several significant sites in the life of Gautama Buddha. He is considered just after Gautama in the history of Buddhism.

Ashoka is known today as a devotee of ahimsa (nonviolence), love, truth, tolerance, vegetarianism, and a philanthropic administrator.

St. Francis of Assisi with Scenes from His Life, Giclee Print

Saint Francis of Assisi
b. 9-26-1181; Assisi, Italy
d. 10-3-1226; Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi, Roman Catholic friar and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans), is known as the patron saint of animals, birds, and the environment and noted for his aestic lifestyle.

As a young man Francis had a carefree life as the son of a wealthy family which lead to a disillusionment toward the complications of the world. He believed commoners should be able to pray to God in their own language and is considered the first Italian poet by literary critics.

• Saint Francis of Assisi: A Life of Joy by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
• Francis and Clare: The Complete Works (Classics of Western Spirituality
• St. Francis Prayer - Mother Teresa poster

Mary Astell
b. 11-12-1666; Newcastle upon Tyne, England
d. 5-11-1731; breast cancer

Considered the first English feminist, author Mary Astell advocated an education for women that would extend their choices beyond being only either a mother, or a nun.

Astell's best known books, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest (1694) and A Serious Proposal, Part II (1697), were outlines of a new type of institution, a protected environment, for women to assist in providing women with both religious and secular education.

Mary Astell quotes ~
• “If all Men are born free, how is it that all Women are born Slaves?”
• “Women are not so well united as to form an Insurrection. They are for the most part wise enough to love their chains, and to discern how becomingly they fit.”

Miguel Ángel Asturias
b. 10-19-1899; Guatamala City, Guatemala
d. 6-9-1974; Madrid

Tobias Michael Carel Asser
b. 4-28-1838; Amsterdam, The Netherlands
d. 7-29-1913

Tobias Michael Carel Asser, a Dutch jurist and worker for world peace, was the initiator of the International Conferences of Private Law in The Hague for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1911.

Hubertine Auclert
b. 4-10-1848; Auvergne, France
d. 8-4-1914

Hubertine Auclert was a feminist and a campaigner for women's suffrage as well as demanding that women be given the right to run for public office, claiming that the unfair laws would never have been passed had the views of female legislators been heard.

Sri Aurobindo
née Aurobindo Ghose
b. 8-15-1872; Calcutta (now Kolkata), India
d. 12-5-1950

Sri Aurobindo is best remembered today as a philosopher, yogi, and guru (teacher) for his vision of human progress and spiritual evolution. As a young man he joined the Indian movement for freedom from British rule and became one of its most important leaders. When Gandhi asked him to become the spiritual leader of India, he declined, saying he was concerned for the whole world.

His teaching are expressed in the founding of Auroville “an international township endorsed by UNESCO to further human unity near the town of Pondicherry, which was to be a place ‘where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities’”.

FYI - Margaret Wilson, the daughter of Woodrow Wilson, visited Pondicherry in 1938 and lived there for the rest of her life.