Printer-friendly versionWhite Anti-Racist Biographies
Margaret Gunderson
It was 1942. The United States was at war with Germany and Japan.
The U.S. government worried about Japanese Americans. The government thought they would be loyal to Japan.
The government made many Japanese Americans leave their homes. The government made them live in prisons.
It was wrong to treat citizens this way. Margaret Gunderson knew this. She became a teacher at one of the prisons, Tule Lake.
Margaret's students did not have enough food. They did not have doctors to take care of them. Margaret taught her students about injustice. She taught them that the government was wrong.
Margaret's student, Walter Miyao, remembers her. "She told us ... we shouldn't be there. ... It was a violation of the Constitution."
Margaret was proud to be a teacher at the prison. "No teaching experience can compare to the joy and satisfaction of work at Tule Lake."
Jack Greenberg
Jack Greenberg was a 27-year-old lawyer. It was 1954. He was standing in front of the most powerful court in the land. His friend, Thurgood Marshall, stood next to him.
They told the Supreme Court that it was wrong to keep black and white children separate. They told the Court that black and white children should go to the same schools.
The Court agreed.
The case was called Brown v. Board of Education. It changed America forever. Black and white children could finally be together.
Jack later worked as the director of the NAACP's Legal Defense and Education Fund. It is one of the most powerful civil rights organizations in the world. He argued more than 40 civil rights cases. He also helped start a civil rights organization for Asian Americans.
Today, Jack teaches at Columbia University.
Myles Horton
Myles Horton grew up in a Southern white family that didn't have a lot of money. As a young man, he dreamed of uniting black and white people to end poverty.
In 1932, Myles' dream came true. He opened the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee.
Myles and his school were controversial from the start. In Tennessee, it was against the law for white people and black people to study together. But Myles ignored these laws and welcomed students and teachers of all races.
In the 1950s, some Southern states made people take reading and writing (literacy) tests before they could vote. So, the Highlander Folk School started a literacy program. Myles and his friends taught thousands of black people how to read and write.
Myles' school taught people how to stand up for civil rights. Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Fanny Lou Hamer were his friends.
In 1960, Tennessee courts told Myles to close his school. They didn't like that Blacks and Whites were working together.
Myles did not close his school. Instead, he renamed it the Highlander Research and Education Center.
Myles died in 1990. His friend Paulo Freire said, "[Myles'] presence in the world is something whichjustifies the world."
The Highlander Research and Education Center continues today.
Laurie Olsen
Laurie Olsen cared about immigrant students. She cared about how they did in school. She started the Immigrant Students Project in California. It was 1986.
Laurie talked to students and their families. She talked to teachers and principals. Laurie learned that many immigrant students felt left out at school. Students bravely told their stories -- more than 400 students in all.
Laurie shared their stories. She talked to schools and to the California government. She asked them to improve how immigrant students were treated. They agreed.
Immigrant students felt safer at school.
Today, Laurie is the director of California Tomorrow. The organization makes sure all students are treated fairly.
