APRIL 2021

Coretta Scott King
April 27, 1927 to January 30, 2006 

Remembered as “the First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement” Coretta Scott King was not only the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but a leader in her own right. From the start of the movement King made an effort to include more women in positions of power and to simply take part in the development of the country for the better. After the assassination of her husband in 1958, King became the de-facto leader where she expanded the demands of the Civil Rights movement to include LGBT rights. She is also the responsible for making Martin Luther King Day a national holiday. She used her own inspirations to ensure that her husband's memory would live on as a cause for improvement within the United States. She was a pacifist and often used her platform to advocate for world peace, and during the Vietnam War, she advocated for its end. 

George Takei
April 20, 1937 to Present 

Best known for his role in the hit TV Series Star Trek, Takei has become a more active voice for social movements in the last two decades. During his long and rewarding career as an actor Takei kept his sexuality private and only revealed it to the public in 2005. From then on, he used his notoriety to fight for LGBT rights and condemned racism in the United States. Over the last decade he has used every opportunity to expose injustices to the LGBT community. This includes but is not limited to posting funny quips on Twitter directed at the last administration to highlight a misdeed. In this regard, Takei has served the community as an activist that people could put their trust behind earning him many awards for his activism including the LGBT Humanist Award.          

Garry Kasparov
April 13, 1963 to Present 

Grandmaster Kasparov is better known in the United States amongst chess players for his tactical skills and knowledge of this ancient and well-known game among the global community. However, having lived through the end of the USSR and the rise of its current political regime under Vladimir Putin, Kasparov has had concerns with the political nature of his native Russia since his youth. He became disillusioned with the Communist party that had ruled his nation since 1922 (the 1917 government being more of a transitional government) at the age of thirteen when he had traveled to Paris for an international chess competition. This trip gave him a shock about how different nations granted their citizens political freedoms, such as freedom of speech and other liberties that his own at the time did not grant, not to mention past atrocities under Stalin. Kasparov is still acting as a political advocate for his fellow countrymen and for better global relations between the nations. He has participated in many demonstrations that included the likes of Alexey Navalny and Yevgeniya Chirikova. In 2011 he was made chairmen of The Human Rights Foundation, using his position to not only point out the wrongs of his native Russia but her close allies that have also committed human rights violations. His book Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped (2015) is one of his many writings on his political ideologies and concerns.