Angela Davis (born Jan. 26, 1944) is a political activist, academic, and author, who has been highly involved in the civil rights movement in the U.S. She is well known for her work and influence on racial justice, women's rights, and criminal justice reform. Davis is a professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in its History of Consciousness Department, and a former director of the university's Feminist Studies Department. In the 1960s and 1970s, Davis was known for her association with the Black Panthers Party—but actually spent only a short time as a member of that group—and the Communist Party. For a time she even appeared on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's "Ten Most Wanted" list. In 1997, Davis co-founded Critical Resistance, an organization working toward the dismantling of prisons, or what Davis and others have called the prison-industrial complex.

Cherríe Morgana (born Sept. 25, 1952) is a Chicana writer, feminist, activist, poet, essayist, and playwright. She is part of the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Department of English. She is a founding member of La Red Xicana Indígena, an advocacy network of Xicanas working in education, the arts, spiritual practice, and indigenous women’s rights. She also co-founded the group “Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press,” an activist and advocacy organization devoted to the liberation struggles of all oppressed people that also helped traditionally marginalized writers get published. Moraga's work in the theatre has contributed to the growth of the Chicano Theatre. Her plays deal with the themes surrounding feminism, ethnicity, sexuality, and other gender-related issues. Moraga's involvement in writing began early in her life, but her serious works emerged after her “coming out” as a lesbian. Her lesbianism became an avenue to her success in writing from her heart and her mind, together. She is one of the first Chicana/Lesbian writers of our times, and has helped mentor and set the stage for younger generations of minority writers and activists.

Ghassan Kanafani (April 8, 1936 - July 8, 1972) was a Palestinian refugee, a journalist, an editor and a political activist. First and foremost, though, he was a writer, "a commando who never fired a gun, whose weapon was a ball-point pen, and his arena the newspaper pages," said his obituary in Lebanon's Daily Star. Throughout his life he wrote short stories, novels, and plays as well as journalistic articles and analytic studies. Many of his works have been translated and published in sixteen languages. Kanafani argued that Palestinian resistance literature was deeply connected with international struggles against oppression and his literature has played an important role in keeping the Palestinian identity alive. "Palestinian resistance literature, just like armed resistance, shapes a new circle in the historical series which practically has not been cut throughout the last half century in the Palestinian life," wrote Kanafani.

Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 - July 6, 1992) was a transgender women who was an LGBTQ+ rights activist and an outspoken advocate for trans people of color. She, along with Silvia Rivera, established the Street Transvestite (now Transgender) Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group committed to helping homeless transgender youth in New York City. An eccentric woman known for her outlandish hats and glamorous jewelry, she was fearless and bold. Whenever she was asked what the “P” in her name stood for and when people pried about her gender or sexuality, she quipped back with “pay it no mind.” Her forthright nature and enduring strength led her to speak out against injustices. Johnson is most famous for spearheading the Stonewall riots in 1969 in response to police targeting of the queer community, and she is widely recognized as one of the vanguards of the gay liberation movement in the United States.

Yuri Kochiyama (May 19, 1921 - June 1, 2014) was a tireless political activist who dedicated her life to contributing to social change through her participation in social justice and human rights movements. In 1943, under President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, Kochiyama and her family were sent to a concentration camp in Jerome, Arkansas, for two years. This experience and her father’s death made Kochiyama highly aware of governmental abuses and would forever bond her to those engaged in political struggles. She participated in the Asian American, Black, and Third World movements for civil and human rights, ethnic studies, and against the war in Vietnam. She was a fixture in support movements involving organizations such as the Young Lords and the Harlem Community for Self Defense. As founder of Asian Americans for Action, she also sought to build a more political Asian American movement that would link itself to the struggle for Black liberation. Kochiyama's work helped build bridges between people across movements.