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

Flora Tristan
Dalton Trumbo

Sojourner Truth
Desmond Tutu

Flora Tristan
b. 4-7-1803; Paris, France
d. 11-14-1844; Bordeaux, France

Flora Tristan, a writer and activist, was one of the founders of modern feminism, and a maternal grandmother to post-impressionist painter Paul Gauguin.

• The Way to Paradise (biographical historic novel exploring the social reform and artistic truth sought by Tristan and Gauguin).

Dalton Trumbo
b. 12-9-1905; Montrose, CO
d. 9-10-1976; Los Angeles, CA

Academy Award winning screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo authored the anti-war story about a Canadian soldier who loses his limbs and face in WWI. Johnny Got His Gun was later made into a movie.

Trumbo is best remembered for being blacklisted for his refusal to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigating the motion picture industry.

Sojourner Truth
b. c. 1797; New York
d. 11-26-1883; Battle Creek, Michigan

Sojourner Truth could not read or write but in 1850 her dictated memoirs were published as The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave. She became a well known speaker at anti-slavery and woman’s rights lectures, and in 1851 she delivered her best known speech ‘Ain’t I A Woman?’ at the Women’s Rights Convention.

Harriet Tubman-
b. c. 1820; Maryland
d. 3-10-1913; NY

“I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other."
Harriet Tubman devoted her life to fighting slavery, helping slaves and ex-slaves, and championing the rights of African Americans and women. She served as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, a secret system of people of all races who helped slaves escape to freedom. An extremely brave person, Tubman was called the "Moses of her people.”

• more Harriet Tubman posters
• more Black History Biographical Timeline posters

Nobel Peace Prize Winners, 1984 -
Bishop Desmond Tutu
b. 1931, Klerksdorp, South Africa

Poster Text: Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his work to end the system of apartheid, or racial separation, in South Africa. When is gave out he award, the Nobel committee said the prize should be seen as a way to recognize the courage of all black South Africans in their long struggle for freedom and equal rights.

Desmond Tutt was born in 1931 in the village of Klerksdorp in the Transvaal in South Africa. His father was a teacher in a mission school that Desmond attended. As a young boy, Desomnd's dream was to become a doctor. But his family could not afford to send him to medical school. Instead, he went to college and studied to be a teacher. At the age of 25, Desmond decided that he wanted to become a priest in the Anglican church. In 1960, he got his wish. Since then, Desmond Tutu has been appointed to more and more powerful positions in the Church. In 1975, he became the first black Anglican dean at Johannesburg, one of South Africa's lagest cities. In 1978, he was named the head of a group called the South African Council of Churches – a group with more than twelve million members.

For many years Bishop Tutu was one of the most important leaders of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement. Like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. – two leaders Bishop Tutu admires – he believes that change can be made through peaceful, nonviolent means. Bishop Tutu urged nations to use measure such as economic sanctions and other punishments to force and end to apartheid. And other many years of struggle, his efforts paid off. Gradually apartheid issues were removed. In 1994, the last apartheid barrier was lifted, and South Africa held its first election that was open to blacks as well as whites. The country's overwhelming black majority elected a black Prsident, Nelson Mandela. The new government formed a group called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the crimes and atrocities that occurred under apartheid. Bishop Tutu was the chairman of the commission.

• Africa posters
• Bishop Desmond Tutu at Amazon.com

Mark Twain
b. 11-30-1835; Florida, MO
d. 4-21-1910; Redding, CT

“Loyalty to a petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul.”

Mark Twain was the pen name for Samuel Clemens (1835-1910). He was a famous humorist and wrote many autobiographical works, travel books, and novels.

Hannibal, Missouri was the river town of his boyhood. The experiences he had along the wide Mississippi were a rich source for many of his books. Two of his most famous characters, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, have been endeared to young and old alike with their irresponsible and mischievous escapades.

Samuel Clemens was also a serious social critic. He used humor to express his offense to all forms of narrow-mindedness and prejudice.

• “Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out ... and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel ... And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for ‘the universal brotherhood of man’ - with his mouth.”

• more Mark Twain posters