Introduction
I published Heroes: Inspiration For All Ages in January 2014, available only as an ebook. You can download it free from my web site. There are a few other offerings there. Before beginning that book, I made a list of amazing people and kept adding to it. After finishing Heroes, I found that there were a few individuals that I left out. The people in this book are some of them. As you might guess, there were still some heroes left for another book, so don’t rule that out.
Like the previous book, Heroes You May Not Know has eight chapters and about three men or women in each. I use the word about because a chapter may mention four or more heroes, rather than a mere three. For example, chapter six has at least five, while chapter four includes dozens, even though all are not named. In this book, there are businessmen included, such as J. L. Wilkinson, who was the only white owner of a team in the Negro Leagues. I also considered him as an athlete, which I’ll get into shortly. J. L. had teams of all races but his African American teams consistently beat white teams from the major leagues. Wilkinson was a great man, treating his players with dignity – others too, I’m sure. He also was responsible for the night baseball with his system of portable lights.
Jackie Robinson was the first black player in Major League baseball, joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, thanks to Branch Rickey. Not only a great player on the diamond, he excelled in football, track and basketball. He had to put up with jeers because of the color of his skin, and the taunts didn’t stop in 1947. He was booed and yelled at by spectators in the stands as well as by some players in the opposing team’s dugout. By accepting it and excelling on the diamond, Robinson did a great deal for others that came after him in the sport.
Roberto Clemento came from Puerto Rico and he too was a great baseball player. When he joined the Pittsburgh Pirates, they were at the bottom of the league. He changed that with his hitting and play on defense. Talented as he was, he also helped those in need, giving to others when he could. When the earthquake demolished Nicaragua in late 1972, he pitched in to help the victims of the disaster.
Cassius Clay, Jr. changed his name to Muhammud Ali and was one the greatest boxers, ever. Consistently winning in the ring, he even predicted in which round the fight would end with his victory. He was right many times. He’s included because of an event outside sports. He refused to be drafted and go to fight in Vietnam. As a result, he lost his title and didn’t box for four years. Eventually, the newspaper headlined his victory in an 8-0 decision, which you can read about in chapter 3.
If you’ve seen the 1981 movie, Chariots of Fire, you know who Eric Liddell was. If you missed the flick, he was a great runner, specializing in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter events. He won Olympic medals and was the first Scot to do so. What the motion picture doesn’t show is what he did after his running days waned – he still ran and won races, just not as many as previously. As a missionary in China, he followed in his parents’ footsteps. Unfortunately, he was in China during the time of the invasion of the country by the Japanese.
Wilkinson, whom I mentioned earlier, was a baseball player but an injury to his wrist ended his possibilities of becoming a great pitcher. Instead, he went into management. It’s something I never did and never cared to do, but J. L. set an example of what businesses should be. Sadly, not enough bosses knew about him and what he accomplished. In my first book on work, one of the chapter titles is Boss spelled backwards is double SOB.
The names of two other phenomenal businessmen are David Bronner and Benjamin Montgomery. David continued the family soap production in the way his grandfather and father did. They created safe, environmentally friendly soaps while paying the workers what they deserved. David continues doing this while his company keeps recording profits. He’s also a troublemaker, who just tries to make the planet better. No one can argue with that.
Montgomery lived in the nineteenth century and was a slave who became a plantation owner. He favored labor rights and community, helping those who needed work to find it while paying them a truly decent wage. He believed in civil rights, treating his staff the way servants and slaves on other plantations in the south should have been dealt with.
This book talks of many individuals who may have been artists, but I’ve only included one: Marian Anderson. With her brilliant contralto voice, her family’s poverty couldn’t provide her with singing lessons, but fortunately others helped. She was the recipient of discrimination throughout her life, even being turned down to perform in Washington, DC, at Central High School and Constitution Hall. Both the Board of Education and Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) rejected her. Instead she sang at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, before 75,000 people.
Hector Garcia was a doctor who went to war. At first he hoped to be a medical doctor there, but instead became an officer in the infantry. Later they took advantage of his degree. The Armed Services may be a bit slow. As a physician, he served all the people, especially the poor, relating to them better than white doctors did. If someone couldn’t pay him for his services, he didn’t demand it of them. A strong civil rights activist, he had one addiction: working too much. Fortunately, his wife was very understanding.
Ida Tarbell was a journalist, and you couldn’t find a better one. Ida wrote for McClure’s, joining other muckrakers such as Lincoln Steffens and Ray Stannard Baker. She took on the criminal corporations – if I’m not mistaken those two words are a pleonasm. Tarbell went after the oil companies, specifically John D. Rockefeller, exposing his monopoly schemes that crowded out other companies. Tarbell grew up in western Pennsylvania, so she and her family knew a great deal about oil.
Daisy Bates was a civil rights worker who was responsible for the integration of Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. Nine students volunteered and they had great support from teachers, parents, friends, Daisy and her spouse, Lucious Christopher Bates, who also served the cause. Unfortunately, there was much opposition to the black students entry into the school, as the Little Rock Nine suffered from the racism of students and adults. The school was integrated, but it took time and was very difficult for many people.
The three women, Sylvia McLaughlin, Kay Kerr and Esther Gulick, were housewives living in San Francisco in the middle of the twentieth century. They saw what was happening to the Bay, which was being used as a landfill. They took action and though they had great support from their husbands – professors with connections – they and others saved the Bay. Their initiative was the beginning of the earth movement, which set an example for all nations and continues today.
John Wesley Powell and Aldo Leopold were two other environmentalists born in the nineteenth century. John lost an arm in the Civil War, but that didn’t stop him from exploring the Colorado River. Aldo lived out west and saw the need to preserve the beauty of nature, rather than exploit it. The two were of like mind – both naturalists.
Despite all the civil rights activists already mentioned, there were others. A. Philip Randolph advocated for the rights of the workers, especially the Sleeping Car porters. George Pullman created the luxury car as well as the town of Pullman, Illinois, and hired African Americans to serve the people traveling in luxury. At the same time, the black workers on the train were paid as little as possible. Randolph helped change that, but his struggle and that of the porters was a difficult one as the Pullman people stalled and stalled, before finally settling.
Ella Baker was another civil rights leader. Her mother envisioned her being a teacher and though Ella never was trained for it, she did a great deal of teaching while leading others. She was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) and more than three-dozen other organizations.
Paul Kagame is one of the politicians I selected. He led Rwanda through extremely difficult times. Before coming to power, the Tutsi and Hutu were engaged in genocide. The conflict may have been over, but another could have been brewing. Encouraging forgiveness and even being almost a dictator, he brought the country to a semblance of order. You don’t find many today, but he is truly one good politician.
Another was William Wilberforce of Great Britain. He started out in Parliament and kept advancing. While on a journey, his faith was questioned and he thought he might have chosen the wrong profession. Instead he put them together and worked for the people. He is largely responsible for ending the slave trade in England and leading the way for other nations to follow.
Robert La Follette was a lawyer who became a politician. He was also a Republican. That sounds like three strikes against him, but he was progressive. Don’t forget that Lincoln was also of the same party as well as a lawyer. La Follette wouldn’t defend the guilty and spent hours on cases. He continued that process once he joined the Congress. He always fought for what was right and represented the people. He stood up against monopolies, corporations, the trusts, anti-Semitism, the Ku Klux Klan, World War I, the League of Nations and racial discrimination.
Barbara Jordan came from Texas and served in both the Texas Senate and U. S. House of Representatives. She was a civil rights leader and didn’t avoid a good party, especially a fine barbeque. She was an outstanding speaker and the first African American woman to deliver the keynote address at a convention of the Democrats. For her unselfish service she received many honors including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Many of these heroes were leaders, writers, teachers and humanitarians. I’ve already mentioned Liddell and Wilberforce and their religious quests, but there are three more in that class: St. Thérèse Martin (the Little Flower), Pope Francis and Jerzy Popiełuszko. Martin suffered the loss of her mom when she was four and it deeply affected her. As a child, she wanted to be a Carmelite nun and she was accepted when she turned fifteen. Those at the abbey made her wait until after Easter and once she entered there, many of the religious treated her very badly. She accepted it and only lived to be 24. She had been sickly and conditions at the nunnery could have been better. After her death, miraculous events occurred, resulting in her sainthood.
Pope Francis hasn’t been the Bishop of Rome very long, but already his life, influence and acceptance have made a presence. He has always believed in mercy, simplicity and forgiveness. The way he has and continues to live has impressed many people around the globe.
Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko was small of stature and frail throughout his life, but he became a priest and was assigned to St. Stanislaw Kostka Church in Warsaw in the early 1980s. This was the time of Lech Walesa and the Solidarność movement. In fact, he became the priest of Solidarity and a labor leader. As expected, he had a great following. When he said Masses at Kostka, not only was the church filled, crowds were massive outside.
All these inspiring people that I read about and write about in Heroes You May Not Know amazed me. One seemed to outshine the other, but they were just doing what was and is right. A few are still living and continue to impress. Now I’m working on a book about four legged heroes with the tentative title, Smart People? Smarter Animals. The title should tell you what it’s about. As I said, my list of humans still has quite a few more heroes.
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