May 19: Malcolm X, American Muslim minister and civil rights activist

BORN MAY 19:

Malcolm X (1925-1965) was an American Muslim minister and icon of the civil rights movement. Born Malcolm Little, upon his release from prison at age 22 (for larceny and breaking and entering), he changed his name to "X," eschewing his "white slavemaster name" and using "X" as a signifier for his unknown African name. (After making the pilgrimage to Mecca as a member of the Nation of Islam--he had converted in prison--he changed his name again to el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz). He stood against the mainstream non-violent civil rights movement--he called Martin Luther King Jr. a "chump" for his perceived cooperation with the "white establishment." Rejecting that strategy, he famously argued that black people should advance their cause "by any means necessary." Dozens of streets, schools, colleges, and libraries have been named after Malcolm X. He was assassinated in 1965, most likely at the hands of the Nation of Islam, though some look to the NYPD, the FBI, or the CIA.

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May 8: Gary Snyder, American poet

BORN MAY 8:

Gary Snyder (1930 - ) is an American man of letters best known as a Beat-type poet, but also an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist (see his "Smokey the Bear Sutra"). He won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1974 book Turtle Island, poems and essays on Snyder's vision for humans to live in harmony with the earth and all its creatures. ("Turtle Island" is a name for the continent of North America used by many Native American tribes.) He is also a translator of Buddhist literature from ancient Chinese and modern Japanese; a long-time Buddhist with strong connections to Japan, he was the inspiration for the character "Japhy Ryder" in Jack Kerouac's novel The Dharma Bums. He is now professor emeritus of English at the University of California, Davis, where he began teaching writing in 1986.

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Apr. 5: Booker T. Washington, American educator, author, and presidential advisor

BORN APRIL 5:

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was an American educator, author, and presidential advisor. He was born enslaved on a Virginia plantation and taught himself to read and write around age 9 or 10. He worked hard to put himself through college and, at 25 years old, was chosen to lead a new teacher's training college in Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute. He oversaw students in building the school, which emphasized practical trades: his students would not just learn to make buildings and to grow crops and farm animals, but to teach others to do the same. He saw education as the solution to the oppression of American blacks, especially in the South. His two autobiographies, The Story of My Life and Work and Up From Slavery, are worth reading, though the latter is a more polished version of the first and might be read alone.

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Apr. 4: Maya Angelou, American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist

BORN APRIL 4:

Maya Angelou (1928-2014), born Marguerite Annie Johnson, was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist who published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry. She is also credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. The first of her autobiographies, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, tells of her life up to the age of 17 and and is widely read in high schools and colleges (perhaps more than any other book by an African American woman)--and widely challenged for its unvarnished portrayal of violence and sexuality, and use of "crude" language. Angelou has received numerous honors, including reciting her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton.

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Mar. 1: Charles Fletcher Lummis, American character

BORN MARCH 1:

Charles Fletcher Lummis (1829-1928) American journalist, historian, ethnographer, archaeologist, poet, L.A. City Librarian, and Southwest Museum founder. It's not often I get to celebrate a personal hero, and this month I'll celebrate two (Joseph Campbell comes up on the 26th). I have been to El Alisal, the house Lummis built on the edge of Arroyo Seco in northeast L.A.; I have traipsed the places he traipsed in New Mexico; and own and have read hard copies of a half-dozen of his works (and countless books and articles online) plus three biographies. He edited a booster-ish SoCal mag called Land of Sunshine (later called Out West), which helped create an influx of easterners coming west. Books like Some Strange Corners of Our Country, The Land of Poco Tiempo, and Flowers Of Our Lost Romance helped romanticize the Spanish era; and A Tramp Across the Continent, an account of his walk from Ohio to L.A. and the hardships along the way, made both his legend and his career.

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Feb. 23: W. E. B. Du Bois, American scholar and activist

BORN FEBRUARY 23:

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor. After becoming the first African American to earn a doctorate at Harvard, he became a professor at Atlanta University. He was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. He worked for full civil rights and increased political representation for blacks, and fought for the independence of African colonies from European powers, making several trips to Europe, Africa and Asia. Dr. Du Bois was a prolific author. He opened his seminal work, the collection of essays titled The Souls of Black Folk, with this central thought: "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line."

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Feb. 20: Ansel Adams, American photographer

BORN FEBRUARY 20:

Ansel Adams (1902-1984) was one of America's best-known photographers, famed for his black-and-white images of the American West. With fellow photographer Fred Archer he developed the "Zone System," a way to calculate exposures to capture maximum detail in the shadows and highlights of an image. He not only photographed wild places; he was an environmentalist who worked to protect and preserve them through working with the Sierra Club and the U.S. Department of the Interior; a famous book title was My Camera in the National Parks. Famous shots include Monolith, The Face of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, 1927; and Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941.

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Feb. 7: Charles Dickens, English writer and social critic

BORN FEBRUARY 7:

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) English writer and social critic whose A Christmas Carol teaches more about "true religion" than many a sacred text. Some of the world's best-known fictional characters people his fifteen novels, five novellas, and hundreds of short stories. His better-known novels include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations.

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Jan. 12: Jack London, American writer

BORN JANUARY 12:

Jack London (1876-1916) American novelist, short story writer, journalist, and activist, and one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. His rough-and-ready novels include The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Sea Wolf; and stories "To Build a Fire," "An Odyssey of the North," "Love of Life," "The Pearls of Parlay," and "The Heathen"; the non-fiction work The People of the Abyss was an exposé of the conditions of the working class in the east end of London.

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Dec. 19: Jean Genet, French writer

BORN DECEMBER 19:

Jean Genet (1910-1986) French writer--once a vagabond and petty criminal--who became a novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist; novels include the largely-autobiographical Our Lady of the Flowers and The Thief's Journal (only partly autobiographical); and the plays The Balcony and The Maids (not at all autobiographical, as far as I can tell).

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Dec. 11: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and activist

BORN DECEMBER 11:

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) Russian novelist, historian, and short story writer better known for his outspoken criticism of communism and his activism regarding political repression in the Soviet Union (USSR). This led to eight years of imprisonment, described in works like The First Circle, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and The Gulag Archipelago. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature (1970).

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Nov. 20: Nadine Gordimer, South African writer and political activist

BORN NOVEMBER 20:

Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014) South African writer and anti-apartheid political activist remembered for The Conservationist; Burger's Daughter; and July's People; Nobel Prize in Literature (1991). The Nobel Committee stated that "her magnificent epic writing has ... been of very great benefit to humanity."

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Nov. 18: Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer and activist

BORN NOVEMBER 18:

Margaret Atwood (1939 - ) Prolific Canadian poet, novelist, essayist, and activist best known these days for The Handmaid's Tale (four seasons on TV and counting). It's the standout among her 18 novels, 18 books of poetry, 11 books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, and two graphic novels.

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Oct. 13: Kobayashi Takiji, Japanese novelist

BORN OCTOBER 13th:

Kobayashi Takiji (1903-1933) Japanese novelist who wrote The Crab Cannery Ship (Kanikosen), which tells of the hard life of cannery workers, fishermen, and seamen, and the beginning of their revolt against their employer. It was banned by government censors. A leftist author of "proletarian literature," he died of a heart attack while being tortured by the police. For fear of the authorities, no hospital would perform an autopsy.

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Oct. 2: Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Social Activist

BORN OCTOBER 2nd:

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian lawyer, activist, and philosopher who used nonviolence in a successful campaign to end British colonial rule in India. He was inspired by the writings of Thoreau and Tolstoy, and in turn inspired Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Though named Mohandas, he was widely known as "Mahatma," meaning "Great Soul." His writings included an autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth.

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Sep. 6: Jane Addams, American social activist

BORN SEPTEMBER 6th:

Jane Addams (1860-1935) American social activist known for women's rights and suffrage, and for winning the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize. Her thoughts a century ago sync with the best progressive thinking today. Addams wrote Twenty Years at Hull-House; The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets; and Democracy and Social Ethics.

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Sep. 4: Richard Wright, American author

BORN SEPTEMBER 4th:

Richard Wright (1908-1960) American writer known for his novel Native Son, an early portrayal of systemic racism; and his personal memoir Black Boy, which details his own experiences of racism in America.

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