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Great White Leaders In History?

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Shallow:
Martin Luther





Martin Luther dealt the symbolic blow that began the Reformation when he nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church. That document contained an attack on papal abuses and the sale of indulgences by church officials.

But Luther himself saw the Reformation as something far more important than a revolt against ecclesiastical abuses. He believed it was a fight for the gospel. Luther even stated that he would have happily yielded every point of dispute to the Pope, if only the Pope had affirmed the gospel.

And at the heart of the gospel, in Luther's estimation, was the doctrine of justification by faith--the teaching that Christ's own righteousness is imputed to those who believe, and on that ground alone, they are accepted by God.

http://www.educ.msu.edu/homepages/laurence/reformation/Luther/Luther.htm

Lincoln:
^^ Good call on Martin Luther & Tommy Douglas.

Pierre Elliot Trudeau 1919-2000


The Right Honorable Pierre Elliot Trudeau was the Prime Minister of Canada for most of the years between 1968 and 1984. He died on Thursday, September 28, 2000 from prostate cancer. He was born in Montreal, Quebec on October 18, 1919 and given the name Pierre Philippe Yves Elliot Trudeau.


The son of a French speaking father and English-speaking mother, he possessed that ideal Canadian talent known as perfect bilingualism. It was his love for Canada and his home province of Quebec that finally drove him into politics in the 1960's. He was bilingual and believed that all Canadians should be, too. He was a Canadian nationalist and felt that politics would be the way that he could do battle with separatist elements and keep Quebec in Canada.


Mr. Trudeau quietly entered politics in the fall of the year 1965. A law professor at the University of Montreal, he had been a critic of the Liberal Party for fifteen years before deciding to join them and run for a seat in Parliament in the upcoming national elections. He won a seat in the riding of Town of Mount Royal on his first attempt.


He was soon given the portfolio of justice minister and made his mark on the nation with his famous "omnibus bill". The new law decriminalized homosexual activity, other sexual activities previously deemed illegal and vulgar, and allowed for therapeutic abortions when the mother's health was threatened. The bill also allowed for the Breathalyzer test to be used on suspected drunk drivers. This new outlook was a watershed in Canadian legal history. Mr. Trudeau's famous quote to reporters was "There is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation."


In 1968, then Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson retired and Mr. Trudeau decided to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party. Mr. Trudeau won a leadership race that was contested by a large slate of aspirants, a leadership convention where he won every ballot. A wealthy 48-year-old bachelor, he incited "Trudeaumania" wherever he appeared. He represented fresh new hope and ideas. His style was a marked contrast to the stodgy Canadian politics of the past. Later that same year he became Prime Minister of Canada in a general election.


Pierre Elliot Trudeau's first years in office were exciting and star studded. His promise of a new "just society" was on everyone's mind and lips. In 1969 he was photographed with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on their "Give Peace a Chance" tour. He was also known in Hollywood as the man who was dating Barbara Streisand in 1970.


Those heady days were interrupted when the FLQ (Front de liberation du Quebec) kidnapped a government minister and a British diplomat. The FLQ were a separatist-terrorist group with the aim of overthrowing the Canadian Government in Quebec. Mr. Trudeau reacted quickly by outlawing the FLQ and proclaiming the War Measures Act in order to apprehend suspected terrorists without warrant. One of the kidnap victims was murdered and the terrorists were exiled. Some went to Cuba.


In 1971 Pierre Trudeau married the twenty-two year old Margaret Sinclair. After three children (all boys) and a stormy relationship, the marriage ended in 1977. In 1979, after three consecutive election victories for the Liberals, they lost the election of that year to the progressive Conservatives under their new leader, Joe Clark. Mr. Trudeau resigned for a short time but returned to lead the Liberals to another victory in 1980.In that same year there was a referendum held on Quebec independence and Mr. Trudeau campaigned hard for the "no" side, which won easily.


His greatest achievements came during this last term as he repatriated the constitution, which had been in England, and entrenched the Charter of Rights and freedoms as part of the new constitution. In the negotiations between the ten provinces and the Federal Government, Quebec's Parti Quebecois could not be satisfied so the constitution was signed by all of the provinces except Quebec. This has been a thorn in Quebec's and Canada's side here ever since.


Pierre Elliot Trudeau left politics in 1984. He retired to a quiet life working in a legal office and rarely made public appearances. He devoted most of his free time to his three sons, whom he doted on. He came out of retirement briefly in 1988 to voice his objections to the Meech Lake Accord. This accord was another effort to get Quebec's signature on the constitution. He saw it as an agreement that weakened the federation and such was his influence in the country that the accord was defeated.


He could be seen daily walking the streets of Montreal on his way to and from work. Close friends say that he was never the same after his youngest son Michel died in an avalanche while skiing in British Columbia in 1998. The last year of his life he had been suffering from Parkinson's and prostate cancer and had a stroke.


His two remaining sons, Justin and Sasha, along with his former wife Margaret, were at his bedside when he died. He would have turned 81 in October 2000. He was the first Canadian born Prime Minister in the 20th century.

Lincoln:
John Brown

John Brown was a man of action -- a man who would not be deterred from his mission of abolishing slavery. On October 16, 1859, he led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His plan to arm slaves with the weapons he and his men seized from the arsenal was thwarted, however, by local farmers, militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Within 36 hours of the attack, most of Brown's men had been killed or captured.

John Brown was born into a deeply religious family in Torrington, Connecticut, in 1800. Led by a father who was vehemently opposed to slavery, the family moved to northern Ohio when John was five, to a district that would become known for its antislavery views.

During his first fifty years, Brown moved about the country, settling in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York, and taking along his ever-growing family. (He would father twenty children.) Working at various times as a farmer, wool merchant, tanner, and land speculator, he never was finacially successful -- he even filed for bankruptcy when in his forties. His lack of funds, however, did not keep him from supporting causes he believed in. He helped finance the publication of David Walker's Appeal and Henry Highland's "Call to Rebellion" speech. He gave land to fugitive slaves. He and his wife agreed to raise a black youth as one of their own. He also participated in the Underground Railroad and, in 1851, helped establish the League of Gileadites, an organization that worked to protect escaped slaves from slave catchers.

In 1847 Frederick Douglass met Brown for the first time in Springfield, Massachusetts. Of the meeting Douglass stated that, "though a white gentleman, [Brown] is in sympathy a black man, and as deeply interested in our cause, as though his own soul had been pierced with the iron of slavery." It was at this meeting that Brown first outlined his plan to Douglass to lead a war to free slaves.

Brown moved to the black community of North Elba, New York, in 1849. The community had been established thanks to the philanthropy of Gerrit Smith, who donated tracts of at least 50 acres to black families willing to clear and farm the land. Brown, knowing that many of the families were finding life in this isolated area difficult, offered to establish his own farm there as well, in order to lead the blacks by his example and to act as a "kind father to them."

Despite his contributions to the antislavery cause, Brown did not emerge as a figure of major significance until 1855 after he followed five of his sons to the Kansas territory. There, he became the leader of antislavery guerillas and fought a proslavery attack against the antislavery town of Lawrence. The following year, in retribution for another attack, Brown went to a proslavery town and brutally killed five of its settlers. Brown and his sons would continue to fight in the territory and in Missouri for the rest of the year.

Brown returned to the east and began to think more seriously about his plan for a war in Virginia against slavery. He sought money to fund an "army" he would lead. On October 16, 1859, he set his plan to action when he and 21 other men -- 5 blacks and 16 whites -- raided the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry.

Brown was wounded and quickly captured, and moved to Charlestown, Virginia, where he was tried and convicted of treason, Before hearing his sentence, Brown was allowed make an address to the court.



. . . I believe to have interfered as I have done, . . . in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it be deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit: so let it be done."



Although initially shocked by Brown's exploits, many Northerners began to speak favorably of the militant abolitionist. "He did not recognize unjust human laws, but resisted them as he was bid. . . .," said Henry David Thoreau in an address to the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts. "No man in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the dignity of human nature. . . ."

John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859.

Shallow:

--- Quote from: Lincoln The Reform-A-Tory on February 11, 2005, 07:56:51 PM ---^^ Good call on Martin Luther & Tommy Douglas.

--- End quote ---


What about Kolokotronis?



Any way;


Mary Harris Jones


Mary Harris Jones was over fifty years old before she began her career as a labor organizer. She was born in Ireland, but her family was forced to emigrate because they rebelled against British rule. While living in the northeast, she completed school, became a teacher, and married an iron moulder. From her husband, George E. Jones, she learned how workers were struggling against abuses by unscrupulous employers. Two tragic events changed her from a bystander to a fighter for the rights of labor. In 1867 Mary Jones lost her husband and four children in a yellow fever epidemic. And as she was rebuilding her life in Chicago four years later, her successful dressmaking business was destroyed in the famous Chicago fire.

Destitute and alone, Mary Jones strongly identified with working people who had no protection against low wages, long hours, and dangerous working conditions. Owners often used blacklists and violence to intimidate workers and prevent unionism. "Mother" Jones, as she came to be called, was neither frightened nor discouraged. She fearlessly began to organize both men and women to fight for their rights.

A fiery and electrifying speaker, "Mother" Jones specialized in creating a public outcry over the inhuman treatment of workers. She once put together a caravan of children on a march to dramatize the evils of child labor. Her most famous efforts were attempts to organize the miners of West Virginia and Colorado. Scorning jail, deportation to other states, and threats on her life, "Mother" Jones became an enemy of the wealthy business owners. Well into her eighties, she continued to agitate and actively assist in the struggle to unionize streetcar, garment, and steel workers. Unique as a woman in the predominately male labor movement, "Mother" Mary Harris Jones became a symbol of labor's insistence on its right to decent treatment and wages.


http://www.greatwomen.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=89

TraceOneInfinite:

--- Quote from: Lincoln The Reform-A-Tory on February 11, 2005, 07:56:51 PM ---^^ Good call on Martin Luther


--- End quote ---

So far I agree with Lincoln on John Brown being a great leader, some of the other names I wasn't familiar with.

As for Martin Luther, before you guys select Martin Luther as being a great white man, I just want to make sure your comfortable with these statements he made about Jews...

*****************

Martin Luther on Jews....

"What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews?  Since they live among us and we know about their lying and blasphemy and cursing, we can not tolerate them if we do not wish to share in their lies, curses, and blasphemy...Let me give you my honest advice.
"First, their synagogues should be set on fire...[/i]
"Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed...
"Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer-books and Talmuds in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught.
"Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more...
"Fifthly, passport and traveling priveleges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews..."--- On the Jews and Their Lies 1543 Information obtained from yashanet.com and The roots of Christian anti-semitism by Malcolm Hay, the online encyclopedia wikipedia.com; www.humanitas-international.org; www.rmember.org


*********


Shallow and Lincoln, in light of these remarks, do you still consider Martin Luther as a white hero?

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