Human Rights Champions
Throughout history, brave and visionary people have devoted themselves to fighting for equality, dignity and freedom. This exhibit features portraits of prominent human rights defenders – people who experienced or witnessed injustice and decided to take action.
The National Center for Civil and Human Rights
Portrait Artist - Rossin
Courageous People Take Up the Call.
Throughout history, brave and visionary people have devoted themselves to fighting for equality, dignity and freedom. This exhibit features portraits of prominent human rights defenders – people who experienced or witnessed injustice and decided to take action. For these human rights champions, advocating for equality and freedom required taking on powerful leaders who fought, often brutally, to maintain control.
Portrait of Mohandas Gandhi (2014) by RossinThe National Center for Civil and Human Rights
Mohandas Gandhi
Known to his followers as Mahatma or “great soul,” Gandhi is revered for pioneering the practice of nonviolent civil disobedience. He helped lead his native India to independence from British rule in the 1940s, proclaiming love to be the greatest weapon.
Pioneer of Nonviolence
Many of Gandhi’s followers were harassed and threatened. Some, like Gandhi, were thrown in prison. But at Gandhi’s urging, and by his example, India’s independence movement maintained an unwavering commitment to non-violent civil disobedience.
Portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt (2014) by RossinThe National Center for Civil and Human Rights
Eleanor Roosevelt
The wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, she was one of the country’s most passionate advocates for women, minorities, and the poor. Her skills as a diplomat united a divided world around a common standard of human dignity. She was later dubbed the “First Lady of the World."
Mother of Human Rights
As the first Chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1946, Eleanor Roosevelt led the charge to create the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, now known as the “Bill of Rights for all humankind.”
Portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2014) by Artist - RossinThe National Center for Civil and Human Rights
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Universally regarded as the leader of the civil rights movement in America, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired blacks and whites, particularly young people, to take enormous personal risks in the 1950s and 1960s to end racial segregation in the United States.
Father of the US Civil Rights Movement
King was a forceful advocate for civil rights in the US. He was threatened, jailed—and assassinated in 1968, but adhered to the ideal of pursuing social change without violence by staging marches, sit-ins, and boycotts. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
Portrait of Yelena Bonner (2014) by Artist - RossinThe National Center for Civil and Human Rights
Yelena Bonner
Yelena Bonner, a dedicated human rights advocate, was routinely harassed and defamed by the Soviet government, but was considered by ordinary people in the Soviet Union – and supporters around the world – to be the conscience of their nation.
Portrait of Nelson Mandela (2014) by Artist - RossinThe National Center for Civil and Human Rights
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela helped mobilize millions to end apartheid, South Africa’s official policy of racial segregation that oppressed the country’s black population. During his 27 years in jail, Mandela became a symbol of resistance to apartheid.
Champion of the End to Apartheid Rule in South Africa
Mandela was freed in 1990 after a sustained national and international campaign for his release. Four years later, he was elected the first black president of South Africa. As president, he focused on inequality, poverty, and peacefully fostering racial reconciliation.
Portrait of Václav Havel (2014) by RossinThe National Center for Civil and Human Rights
Václav Havel
Vaclav Havel was a Czech playwright and poet. Havel was a co-signer of the Charter 77 manifesto and helped lead the Velvet Revolution – 18 days of peaceful protest that brought down 40 years of communist rule. Just a few weeks later, Havel was elected president of his country.
Playwright, Poet, President & Human Rights Leader
Havel was a leading dissident under constant surveillance and was repeatedly imprisoned. Working with other leaders, Havel was a co-signer of the Charter 77 manifesto, which criticized the Czech government for failing to protect human rights.
Each of these champions endured retaliation. Some were threatened, others defamed or imprisoned; two were assassinated. Though they faced violence, most did not resort to violence. Rather, they dedicated themselves to pursuing human rights through peaceful protest and organizing.
The Human Rights Champions are featured in the Spark of Conviction: Global Human Rights Exhibition.
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Portrait Artist - Rossin
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Original Exhibit Curator - Jill Savitt
Digital Curator - Samuel Landis
