Civil Rights, Advocacy

Angelou, Maya

Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in California. Her parents divorced when she was a young child and she and her brother were sent by their father to live with his mother i... [more]

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Apess, William

Apess's parents were itinerant basket-makers and he lived as a young child mostly with his grandparents, who were very cruel to him. When his grandmother broke his arm he was rescued by an ... [more]

Bálint, Lea

Balint spent part of World War II living under an assumed name in a Polish convent in Brwinow, near Warsaw. Her parents placed her there when she was five and she emerged at the end of the ... [more]

Bates' mother was murdered by white racists when she was a baby. Her father left to look for her and never returned, so she was adopted by his best friend. She was the prime mover in the fam... [more]

Batley, Robert Thompson (under Honorific Adoption)

It is not unusual for adults to be adopted as honorary members of a family, clan or tribe. There are two main types. One is the publicity-stunt adoption of politicians, usually western l... [more]

Bird, A. John

Bird is the founder of The Big Issue, the magazine produced and sold by the homeless in Britain. He was one of six sons of a poor London family. After his parents were evicted from their... [more]

Brady, John Green

Brady was born in New York. His mother died when he was very young. His father remarried, but Brady seems to have been unhappy with his step-mother, and he ran away from home when he was ei... [more]

Brown, Leslie Calvin

Brown and his twin brother, born in a Miami ghetto, were adopted at six weeks of age by a single woman. He was hyperactive as a child and labeled a slow learner. After high school he bec... [more]

Brown, Rita Mae

Brown was born to an unmarried woman who left her in an orphanage. She was soon placed with birth relatives who adopted her. She was raised in poverty on a farm in the rural South and now f... [more]

Burnum, Burnum

Burnum was born Harry Penrith (he took an Aboriginal name after his great grandfather in 1976) into a nomadic Aboriginal family at Wallaga Lake, New South Wales. When his mother died soon a... [more]