Harry Belafonte - We Are the Change: Words of Inspiration from Civil Rights Leaders

If the system is broken, my inclination is to fix it rather than to fight it.

Sonia Sotomayor

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

Helen Keller

WITH ART FROM:

Selina Alko

Alina Chau

Lisa Congdon

Emily Hughes

Molly Idle

Juana Medina

Innosanto Nagara

Christopher Silas Neal

John Parra

Brian Pinkney

Greg Pizzoli

Sean Qualls

Dan Santat

Shadra Strickland

Melissa Sweet

Ral the Third

Illustrations copyright 2019 by Selina Alko, Alina Chau, Lisa Congdon, Emily Hughes, Molly Idle, Juana Medina, Innosanto Nagara, Christopher Silas Neal, John Parra, Brian Pinkney, Greg Pizzoli, Sean Qualls, Dan Santat, Shadra Strickland, Melissa Sweet, and Ral Gonzalez.

: Still I Rise from And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems by Maya Angelou, copyright 1978 by Maya Angelou. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

: Excerpt from 1957 sermon Loving Your Enemies reprinted by arrangement with The Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr., c/o Writers House as agent for the proprietor New York, NY. Copyright 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. renewed 1991 Coretta Scott King.

: Excerpt from Paul Robeson by Gwendolyn Brooks, originally published in Family Pictures. Reprinted by consent of Brooks Permissions.

: Excerpt from My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor, copyright 2013 by Sonia Sotomayor. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

: Excerpt from Wouldnt Take Nothing for My Journey Now by Maya Angelou, copyright 1993 by Maya Angelou. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

: Brief excerpt from pp. 2678 from Letters of E. B. White, Revised Edition, originally edited by Dorothy Lobrano Guth and revised and updated by Martha White. Copyright 2006 by White Literacy LLC. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Penguin Random House LLC, HarperCollins Publishers, Brooks Permissions, and/or Writers House for permission.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.
ISBN 978-1-4521-7039-8 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4521-7045-9 (epub, mobi)

Design by Alice Seiler.
Typeset in Brandon, LunchBox, and PaperCute.

Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, California 94107

Chronicle Bookswe see things differently.
Become part of our community at www.chroniclekids.com.

This book was inspired by the continuing work of the AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION , which guards the rights of all Americans under law.

So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, well be called a democracy.

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDER ROGER BALDWIN

When the founders of our country wrote the Constitution, they began with three revolutionary words: We the People. They began with the extraordinary idea that the future of a country is its peoples futureand their fate will be its fate.

This is an idea that invests in citizenship a profound majesty, an individual dignity, and a lifelong responsibility of each man and woman to one another.

This is an idea that invests in equality the assurance that when opportunity is shared, it does not divide but rather multiplies, advancing the horizons of each individual and each industry.

This is an idea that testifies powerfully to the truth that when we turn our backs on one another, we turn the world against us, and we leave ourselves each to fight alone... but that when every man and womans plight is our plight, then we find at every hand brothers and sisters to fight for us, and at our sides.

This ideae pluribus unumout of many, oneinsists that through our sacred bond with one another, a people can climb to a height undreamt of by the tyrannical past, and that in that light, all rights, human rights and civil rights, rights of law and rights of conscience, are, at the beginning and the end, what makes us all one, together.

Ahead of us are you, our future leaders, who will continue to learn the historical accomplishments, along with the mistakes, of our ancestors. Take this opportunity to explore this illustrious book highlighting some of the most influential figures in the historical fight for equality and justice.