SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES (Part 2) Activist Personalities from the Awakening Periods Vesey, Denmark ("Telemaque') ? 1767 -- 1822 Insurrection leader, born probably on St Thomas, West Indies. The property of Captain Vesey, a Charleston, SC, slave trader and planter, he spent 20 years sailing with his master. In 1800 he purchased his freedom (allegedly having won a lottery), took up carpentry in Charleston, and prospered at his trade. By 1818 he was preaching to slaves at plantations throughout the region, and drawing on the Bible, he told them that, like the Israelites, they would gain their freedom. Although he would later deny it, he allegedly held meetings at his home to collect arms for an uprising he was planning for as many as 9,000 African-Americans in South Carolina. The plan was betrayed by several fearful slaves and he and others were seized. He defended himself ably at his trial but was sentenced and hanged along with about 35 blacks; some 35 others were sold to West Indian plantation owners. It would have been the largest slave revolt in US history but its end result was the passing of even stricter laws against African-Americans. Lundy, Benjamin 1789 -- 1839 Abolitionist; born in Sussex County, N.J. Observing slavery as a saddler in Virginia (1808--12), he formed a pioneering antislavery group soon after settling in St. Clair, Ohio (1815) and, risking harm, published several abolitionist papers, including The Philanthropist (with abolitionist Charles Osborne) and The Genius of Universal Emancipation (1821). He journeyed to such places as Haiti and Canada seeking colonies for freed slaves, and, though more of a gradualist, was an early influence on William Lloyd Garrison who coedited the latter paper for a time. In 1836 Lundy started The National Enquirer and Constitutional Advocate of Universal Liberty, which opposed the annexation of Texas as a slaveholders' plot. After racist mobs destroyed all of his papers, he briefly reestablished The Genius shortly before his death. Turner, Nat 1800 -- 1831 Leader of slave insurrection. Born in 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. With Frederick Douglass and John Brown, Turner was a principal figure in the pre-abolition movement in the United States. Turner was born on the Virginia plantation of Benjamin Turner, who allowed him to be instructed in reading, writing, and religion. He was sold three times during his childhood and hired out to John Travis in the 1820s. He became a fiery preacher and leader of African-American slaves on Benjamin Turner's plantation, as well as throughout Southampton County. He claimed that he had been chosen by God to lead them from bondage. Highly spiritual, it was during an eclipse of the sun in 1831 that Turner became inspired to rebel against his captors. He enlisted the help of four other slaves in the area and an insurrection was planned. Beginning August 21, 1831 until the next day, Turner and six other slaves killed the Travis family, managed to secure arms and horses, and enlisted about 75 other slaves in a disorganized insurrection that resulted in the deaths of 51 white people. Afterwards, he remained in hiding for six weeks until he was discovered. Following his conviction, Turner was hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia, along with 16 of his followers. The incident left Southerners deeply fearful of future slave insurrection and effectively halted the organized emancipation movement in that region. Garrison, William Lloyd 1805 -- 1879 Journalist, abolitionist, social activist; born in Newburyport, Mass. With little formal education, he was a printer by trade who became editor of several small New England papers (1824--28). Turning his attention away from temperance to slavery, in Boston (1829) he delivered the first of his innumerable and inflammatory public addresses against slavery; later that year he joined Benjamin Lundy in Baltimore to help edit the Genius of Universal Emancipation. If not the first abolitionist, Garrison was one of the earliest to demand the "immediate and complete emancipation" of slaves. Founder/editor of The Liberator (1831--65), he continued his uncompromising attacks on slavery despite threats and harassment from pro-slavery opponents and often disagreement and dismay from other less absolute abolitionists. Cofounder and agent for the New England Anti-Slavery Society (1831) and its president (1841--63), he favored a peaceful separation of the North and South. To dramatize his contempt for the U.S. Constitution's acceptance of slavery, he publicly burned a copy in Framingham, Mass. (1854), but as a pacifist he opposed the actions of John Brown and others who supported violence. With the end of the Civil War and slavery, he turned his passions and energies to crusading for such reforms as prohibition, the plight of Native Americans, and, above all, women's rights. In 1840, when the world's antislavery convention met in London, he had refused to attend sessions because women were excluded. Coxey, Jacob (Sechler) 1854 -- 1951 Businessman, monetary reformer; born in Selinsgrove, Pa. Owner of a silica sand company in Massillon, Ohio (1878--1951), he sought to promote non-metal-based legal-tender currency. In the 1890s he championed make-work projects for the unemployed, to be financed by "greenbacks." Inspired by Carl Browne, a sideshow medicine man who injected the theme of reincarnation of souls into the crusade, Coxey marshaled a group of 100 unemployed to march on Washington to raise awareness of the greenback issue (1894). Numbering 500 by the time it reached Washington, "Coxey's army" was allowed to march down Pennsylvania Avenue, but not to the Capitol itself. Coxey made a dash for the Capitol steps and was seized; he was sentenced to 20 days in jail. Between 1894 and 1943 he constantly ran for major offices, from the Ohio governorship to president of the U.S.A.; the only office he held was mayor of Massillon, Ohio (1932--34). August Spies 1855-1887 Spies was born in Germany and emigrated to America in 1872. In 1875 he became interested in leftist politics and by 1880 was a leader of the Chicago school of anarchism. Also in that year he became the editor of the Arbeiter Zeitung. Despite his extremist persona, it seems certain that Spies was not involved in any bombing plot. He even tried to keep the May strikes in Chicago from becoming destructive confrontations. He did, however, write and circulate the "Revenge." He also corresponded with John Most about dynamite and spoke at the Haymarket meeting. This was enough to involve him in the alleged plot, and he was executed. Debs, Eugene V. (Victor) 1855 -- 1926 Labor leader, political activist; born in Terre Haute, Ind. At age 15 he went to work on the railroads. After serving as secretary of his local of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (1875--80), he became the union's national secretary and editor of its magazine (1880--92). He served in the Indiana legislature (1886--88). Championing the cause of industrial unionism, he organized the American Railway Union in 1892, and led the boycott of all Pullman cars during the great strike of 1894; for defying the government's injunction he was jailed for six months. Converting to socialism while in jail, he helped found the Social Democratic Party in 1897, which merged in 1901 with another group to form the Socialist Party (SP). In 1905 he helped found the Industrial Workers of the World, which he eventually disavowed because of its use of violence. He ran for the U.S. presidency in 1900, 1904, 1908, and 1912 as the SP's candidate, winning over 900,000 votes, 6\% of the total cast, in the 1912 election. During these years he supported himself by lecturing and writing. In 1918 he spoke out against the trials being conducted under the 1917 Espionage Act, under which individuals opposed to America participating in the world war were being charged with sedition; he himself was then tried for sedition and sentenced to ten years in jail. While there in 1920, he again ran for president on the Socialist ticket; he received his largest vote ever. Public protest persuaded President Harding to release him in 1921, but Debs never ceased working for the cause of Socialism. Bryan, William Jennings 1860 -- 1925 Political leader and orator; born in Salem, Illinois, USA. After practicing law, he was elected to the US House of Representatives (Democrat, 1891--5) and began to develop his reputation as "the Great Commoner,' using his oratorical skills on behalf of the causes of the common folk. He opposed high tariffs and he called for an income tax, direct popular election of senators, a Department of Labour, prohibition, and women's suffrage. Out of office, he turned to journalism and lecturing and when he showed up at the Democratic national convention of 1896 and delivered his famous "Cross of Gold' speech on behalf of free silver, the agrarian West prevailed over the urban East and he ended up with the presidential nomination. He lost, as he would when he ran again in 1900 and 1908. After helping Woodrow Wilson gain the Democratic nomination in 1912, he became Wilson's secretary of state (1913); devoted to establishing arbitration as the solution to international disputes, he resigned in 1915 rather than go along with Wilson's belligerent warnings to Germany; when America entered World War 1, however, he supported Wilson. In 1920 he moved to Florida where, participating in the real-estate boom, he made a fortune; he continued his career as a lecturer, known especially for his support of prohibition and of a literal interpretation of the Bible. It was in this last capacity that he made his final public appearance, speaking for the prosecution at the Scopes anti-evolution "monkey trial' in 1925. King, Martin Luther, Jr. 1929 -- 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister and civil rights leader was born January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, and assassinated April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. There was always something special about Martin Luther King, Jr., even as a child, according to his father. He loved books and liked to keep them around him, even before he could read. King early recognized his talent as an orator and sought ways for its best use. He deliberated for years about becoming a minister like his father but felt that the ministry was not sufficiently intellectual to allow him to speak on contemporary problems. He then considered medicine, law, and other professions, but he remained unable to make up his mind. In 1940 King entered Morehouse College, having skipped a year in high school. He majored in sociology and in his junior year decided to enter the ministry. Voicing his opinion on the role of education, he wrote, "The function of education ... is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society.... The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals." After graduating from Morehouse College in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary to further his training for the ministry. While there he attended a lecture by Modecai Johnson, president of Howard University, on Indian pacifist Mahatma Gandhi. Johnson's lecture provided King the direction he needed for his life. "His message was so profound and electrifying," King later said, "that I left the meeting and bought a half dozen books on Gandhi's life and works." After graduating from Crozer in 1951 with the highest grade average in his class, King entered Boston University as a doctoral student. In Boston he met his future wife, Coretta Scott, who was studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music. King received his doctorate from Boston University in 1955, then became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. The future course of his ministry became apparent when he joined the supporters of Rosa Parks, a black woman who had been arrested in Montgomery for quietly refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person. King also began his relationship with Ralph Abernathy, a minister with whom he would work for the rest of his life. In 1957 King and Abernathy were instrumental in founding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, one of several groups King helped start. On January 14 that year, King's home and church in Montgomery were bombed as violence against black protesters continued. After this bombing King began to reveal more of the dual nature of his personality—the desire to live and fight for the rights of black people, but also the resignation to die and thus become a martyr. William Robert Miller, one of King's biographers, commented on this nature: "When he did obey what seemed to be an occasional irresistible inner compulsion, he said that he felt seriously called to be a martyr--but he found it extremely difficult, and equally difficult to admit that he was worried about what he regarded as his inadequacy for the destiny that God had given him. After the Montgomery bombing, King had said: "Lord, I hope no one will have to die as a result of our struggle for freedom in Montgomery. Certainly I don't want to die. But if anyone has to die, let it be me." Though always conscious of the possibility of death, King was steadfastly dedicated to nonviolence because of its power over violence. "Nonviolence can touch men where the law cannot reach them," he felt, because nonviolence allows the just consciences of the "great decent majority" of people to shine through, as Gandhi had demonstrated. He knew black people would have to suffer while adopting the role of nonviolence. "The Negro all over the South must come to the point that he can say to his white brother: `We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. We will not hate you, but we will not obey your evil laws. We will soon wear you down by pure capacity to suffer!'" King's life was filled with confrontations, for he was always ready to rush to a city or a scene where he could help demonstrate the power of nonviolence. In March of 1963, the scene was Birmingham, Alabama. A New York Times reporter had said that Birmingham was a city that was culturally and racially backward: "The striking thing about Birmingham," he wrote, "is that it seems so advanced industrially and so retarded politically." Into this fray King threw himself. He was one of the black leaders whom most people watched and from whom the most was expected. He led with stirring oratory and insistence on nonviolence: "If you don't go," he said of the proposed march, "don't hinder me! We will march nonviolently. We shall force this nation, this city, this world, to fact its own conscience. We will make the God of love in the white man triumph over the Satan of segregation that is in him.... The struggle is not between black and white. But between good and evil." These were the days when King began to use the language and wisdom of the visionary. In Detroit he had used the "I have a dream" motif which was to carry him to his greatest heights of persuasiveness. Speaking at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963, from the Lincoln Memorial, he began the litany that would sound in the hearts of every listener: He dreamed of that day, he said, when "my four little children ... will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character." It was a note that touched the very heart of America. King ended is talk with the stirring lines: "Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" Through the years King continued to be the center around which a whirlwind of events made history. In 1963 he became Timemagazine's Man of the Year. In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the youngest recipient of that prize in history. And through the years he was always willing to demonstrate for civil rights, as he did in leading a march across Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 21, 1965. His resulting speech, delivered from the steps of Alabama Capitol in Montgomery, demonstrated again King's unequaled gift for oratory. How long, he asked, would it take for justice to take over the world? "How long? How long? Because mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord," he quoted from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Though himself a nonviolent person, King was surrounded by violence and by allies who preached violence on his part. In Harlem while autographing copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom he was stabbed. King was frequently jailed, but he regarded this as a realistic and practical way of symbolizing his willingness to suffer and sacrifice for the common good. He expected no less of fellow sympathizers, black and white. Nonviolence "may mean going to jail," he said. "If such is the case the resister must be willing to fill the jail houses of the South. It may even mean physical death. But if physical death is the price a man must pay to free his children and his white brethren from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing could be more redemptive." Further, King's marches were not always successful. In 1966 he had taken on militancy in Chicago, further arguing for nonviolence, but did not win. Such radical leaders as Stokely Carmichael criticized King for his stand. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell of Harlem derisively called the great leader Martin "Loser" King. And at times even his closest friends, such as Andrew Young and Ralph Abernathy, began to feel that King was becoming so visionary as to be ineffective. King's wife, Coretta, remarked on her husband's demons in life: "My husband was what psychologists call a guilt-ridden man. He was so conscious of his awesome responsibilities that he literally set himself the task of never making an error in the affairs of the Movement." In the violent America of the 1960s, perhaps it was inevitable that the driven civil rights leader would meet fatal violence. He went to Memphis, Tennessee, to help out striking garbage workers in their push toward better salaries. Perhaps it was fitting that King saw his highest and most tragic goal in this setting. "Well, I don't know what will happen now," he said in his speech. "But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. I won't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long time. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land." He darkened his vision with strong hints of his own doom: "I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man." And he ended this emotional climb with the words: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!" King was assassinated April 4, 1968, on the balcony outside his Memphis motel room. Perhaps no more fitting tribute could be raised to the slain believer in the power of nonviolence than one of his own statements: "If a man hasn't found something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.