Individuals Interviewed for the Veterans of Hope Project Video Archive,
1997- 2004

Ms. Ruby Sales is an activist for women’s rights and community development in Washington, D.C. She is a veteran of the southern freedom movement where she organized disfranchised African Americans in her native Alabama. In the course of that activity, Sales witnessed the brutal shotgun murder of her friend and fellow movement worker, the Rev. Jonathan Daniels, a white Episcopalian seminary student. Sales graduated from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• SpiritHouse: The Jonathan Daniels and Samuel Young Forum for Social Justice.
  SpiritHouse uses the arts, research, action, spiritual reflection , coalition building , and education to dismantle injustice and to build a nonviolent movement for social change. Ruby Sales is the founder of this organization. Link

Ms. Sonia Sanchez, author of thirteen books and the 1985 American Book Award winner, is one of the preeminent American poets of our time. For over 40 years she has worked in the Black arts movement, the women’s movement and various human rights struggles — always moving with a deep sense of compassion, commitment and creativity. In 2001 she was awarded the Robert Frost Medal by the Poetry Society of America. Sanchez recently retired from Temple University where she held the Laura Carnell Chair in English.

• The Academy of American Poets.
  This is a website for the Academy of American Poets. It contains essays on poetry, biographies of more than 450 poets, texts of more than 1400 poems, and RealAudio of one hundred poems read by their authors or other poets. Sonia Sanchez is a member of this organization. She is also featured on this page. Link
• Temple University ‘s Lindback Awards
  The page lists Sonia Sanchez as recipient of the Lindback Award for distinguishing teaching at Temple University. It also lists several awards and distinctions that Sonia Sanchez received prior to this.Link

Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi. Reb Zalman (as the Rabbi is affectionately known) is a leader in the Jewish Renewal movement and is known for his deeply ecumenical, activist and mystical vision of the Jewish faith. For many years he has developed the concept of “Sage-ing” as a model for articulating and respecting the experience of elders. He currently holds the Wisdom Chair in Religious Studies at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.

• Ohalah Project
  OHALAH, a project of HYPERLINK "http://www.aleph.org" Aleph: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, brings together rabbis and cantors from a wide spectrum of the Jewish people to participate in the transformation and renewal of Judaism. Ohalah provides a network of collegial support as well as opportunities for sharing in all areas of Jewish learning, life and practice. The Ohalah project contains an index of the works of Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi. Link
• ALEPH
  Aleph is a core institution in the HYPERLINK "http://www.aleph.org/renewal.html" Jewish renewal movement, dedicated to the Jewish people's sacred purpose of partnership with the Divine in the inseparable tasks of healing the world and healing our hearts. Rabbi Zalman Schacter Shalomi is a member of this organization. Link

Mr. Charles Sherrod, Jr., a native of Petersburg, Virginia, was a pioneering member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who set the audacious mold for SNCC’s powerful contributions to the southern freedom movement. In the years since the freedom movement, Sherrod has continued his organizing work – developing farming cooperatives, serving as an elected official and, most recently, working as a chaplain in local prisons in southwest Georgia.

• This Far By Faith
  This is a PBS series that examines the African -American religious experience through the last three centuries. Mr. Charles Sherrod is featured in the Episode: Witnesses to Faith. Link
• Albany Civil Rights Museum at Old Mt. Zion Church, Albany, GA
  The mission of the Mt. Zion Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum is to commemorate the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in Albany and southwest Georgia so that it serves as an educational resource for the community, the nation, and the world. Mr. Charles Sherrod’s involvement in the Albany Civil Rights Movement is mentioned in this page. Link

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a native of Alabama, was a leader of the history-making Birmingham (Alabama) mass movement. At Shuttlesworth’s invitation, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference came to Birmingham and joined the breakthrough, desegregation efforts in that city. King called him, “the most fearless Negro leader in America.” Shuttlesworth is currently a resident in Cincinnati, Ohio where he continues to work for faith-based social justice.

• Human and Constitutional Rights Resource Page.
  This is a website that includes constitutional rights, charts and links to human rights and constitutional rights websites, hot topics and other resources. Rev Shuttlesworth is featured on this page. Link
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
  With Martin Luther King, Jr. at its helm, and many others such as Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy and C.T. Vivian among its officers, SCLC was one of the major organizations of the southern freedom movement. Rev. Shuttlesworth is President and Chief Executive officer of this organization. Link
• The Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice (SOC)
  This is a Southwide multi-issue, multi-racial network of people working in communities against racism, war, economic injustice and environmental destruction. Fred Shuttlesworth and Anne Braden are the co-chairs of this organization. Link

Dr. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons is a women’s rights activist, a scholar of Islam and member of the faculty in the Department of Religion at the University of Florida, Gainesville. A former leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Laurel, Mississippi and Atlanta, Georgia, Simmons helped found a number of independent black organizations in the 1970s. Dr. Simmons, a Sufi Muslim, draws on the compassion and inclusiveness of her faith in her work as activist, scholar and educator.

• The Bawa Muhaiyadeen Fellowship
  The fellowship serves as a pond where individuals can gather to contemplate the truth and unity of God. Outwardly, this is done by studying the teachings and examples of M. R. Bawa Muhaiyadeen. Zoharah Simmons is a member of this organization. Link
• The University of Florida
  This is Zoharah Simmons’s website at the University of Florida. Link
• This Far By Faith
  This is a PBS series that examines the African -American religious experience through the last three centuries. Zoharah Simmons is featured in the Episode: Witnesses to Faith. Link

Mr. Michael Simmons has been a peace and justice activist for over forty years. A Philadelphia native, Simmons worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in his youth. Simmons has been involved in the fair housing movement, the anti-apartheid movement and other human rights struggles. He is presently director of European Programs for the American Friends Service Committee, where he has made justice for Roma (Gypsies) a major priority of AFSC’s work on the European continent.

• American Friends Service Committee AFSC
  This is an organization that works on issues of peace and justice based on the Quaker religious tradition. Since 1986 Michael Simmons has been the Director for European Programs of the AFSC. Link

Achaan Sulak Sivaraksa is a lay Buddhist teacher and pro-democracy leader in Thailand. His teachings and activism center on the need to embrace alternatives to Western consumerism and to seek indigenous sources of wisdom for personal an societal transformation in Asia. In Thailand he has created several institutions for leadership development and has published widely on resources for social transformation from the cultural and religious resources of Thai Buddhism.

• Peace Brigade International
  This is non-governmental organization, which protects human rights and promotes nonviolent transformation of conflicts. A biography of Sulak Sivaraksa is featured on this page. Link
• The Buddhist Peace Fellowship
  The Buddhist Peace Fellowship serves as a catalyst and agent for socially engaged Buddhism. Its aim is to help beings liberate themselves from the suffering that manifests in individuals, relationships, institutions, and social systems. BPF's programs, publications, and practice groups link Buddhist teachings of wisdom and compassion with progressive social change. Sulak Sivaraksa is a member of the international advisory board of this organization. He is also featured on this page. Link

Prof. Tran Van Dinh, a native of Vietnam, served in the Vietnamese diplomatic corps in Thailand, Burma and Washington D.C. A professor of international politics and communications, he also taught at Temple University, where he chaired the Department of Pan-African Studies for many years. Prof. Van Dinh has published two novels and several books on Vietnamese history, international Buddhism, communications and Third World independence movements. He has contributed hundreds of articles to professional publications as well as to The New York Times, The Nation, The Christian Science Monitor and other journals. He is especially concerned about building human community through a visionary educational process.

• War, Literature & the Arts Journal
  War, Literature and the Arts Journal was founded in 1989. It is the journal of the Air Force Humanities Institute.  The journal is indexed in the American Humanities Index, Literary Criticism Register, The MLA American Periodical Verse, and the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature and is a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals and the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses. Tran Van Dinh has articles that are featured in this Journal. Link

Mrs. Nuong Van Dinh Tran was born in Vietnam where, as a young adult, she was a leader in the movement against French colonialism. Mrs. Van Dinh Tran is a painter and printmaker. Her work is part of the permanent collections of the Pushkin Museum (Moscow, Russia), the Library of Congress Fine Arts Collection, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and many other national and international private collections. She is a founder and current member of the board of directors of the Washington Printmakers Gallery. Her present work explores spiritual dimensions of traditional Vietnamese arts.

• Washington Printmakers gallery is a cooperative print gallery located in Washington, DC. Some of Nuong Van Dinh Tran’s artwork is displayed in the gallery. The website has slides showing the work of artists from different parts of the world. Link

Rev. C. T. Vivian is a nationally recognized racial reconciliation facilitator and diversity trainer. Originally from Peoria, Illinois, Vivian moved to Tennessee in the early 1960s and became a major force in the southern freedom movement. An ordained minister, Rev. Vivian worked in Nashville with James Lawson, Kelly Miller Smith, John Lewis, Diane Nash and others on that city’s pivotal nonviolent desegregation campaigns. Vivian is a founder of the Anti-Klan Network and continues his work as a racial justice and human rights activist.

• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
  With Martin Luther King, Jr. at its helm, and many others such as Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy and C.T. Vivian among its officers, SCLC was one of the major organizations of the southern freedom movement. Link
• National Center for Human Rights Education
  The mission of this project is to build a human rights movement in the United States of America by training community leaders and student activists to apply human rights standards to issues of injustice. Rev. C.T. Vivian helped to found this organization. Link

Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker is a Baptist minister, human rights activist and national authority on African American religious music. Former executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Walker is a long-time community activist. Presently, he is senior pastor of Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem -- one of the largest and most socially conscious African American churches in New York City. Rev. Walker is author of several books, including, Somebody's Calling My Name: Black Sacred Music and Social Change and Road to Damascus.

• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
  With Martin Luther King, Jr. at its helm, and many others such as Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy and C.T. Vivian among its officers, SCLC was one of the major organizations of the southern freedom movement. Rev Wyatt Tee Walker served as executive director of this organization. Link
• Blackseek.com
  The website features material on Black History. Rev. Wyatt Walker’s biography is featured on this website. Link

Mayor Wellington Webb recently completed his third and final term as mayor of the city of Denver, Colorado. Webb previously served as a state legislator and as city auditor and was a well-known teacher and community organizer before that. He is the first African American to hold the office of mayor in Denver and has been noted for his ability to encourage collaboration among various communities and interest groups in the city. An active AME lay leader, Webb recognizes an important relationship between his spiritual faith and his political/social calling.

• US Mayors Conference
  The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of the nation's 1183 U.S. cities with populations of 30,000 or more. Each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. Mayor Wellington Webb was named president of this organization in June 1999. The Mayor’s acceptance speech is included in the press release on this page. Link
• The HistoryMakers
  The HistoryMakers is a national non-profit video oral history archive headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and dedicated to preserving African American history. Wellington Webb is featured on this page. Link
• The National Conference of Black Mayors, Inc
  The National Conference of Black Mayors, Inc. (NCBM) serves over 500 mayors , nationwide, who represent more than 30 million citizens. Wellington Webb also served as president of this organization and was a member of the Board of Directors from 2003-2004. Link

Ambassador Andrew Young is best known for his years of service on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s where he was a co-worker and close companion of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Young served as Executive Director and Vice-President of SCLC. Young was also former mayor of Atlanta, Georgia; representative to US Congress from Georgia, and ambassador to the United Nations during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

• The GoodWorks International Group The group comprises of GWI Consulting, GWI Ventures Nigeria Ltd, GWI Trading and GoodWorks International Foundation. Each entity functions uniquely to meet different aspects of the company's goals. The GoodWorks International Foundation provides the framework for corporate social responsibility, while political risk management and market access form the core services of the other subsidiaries. Ambassador Andrew Young is the chairperson of GoodWorks International group. Link
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
  With Martin Luther King, Jr. at its helm, and many others such as Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy and C.T. Vivian among its officers, SCLC was one of the major organizations of the southern freedom movement. Link

The Veterans of Hope Project has conducted and filmed several group interviews. These included a panel of Denver-area African-American religious leaders – Rev. J. Langston Boyd, African Methodist Episcopal minister and Denver community activist; Rev. Gilbert Caldwell, United Methodist minister and Denver community activist; and Ms. Carlotta Lanier, one of the Little Rock Nine, who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. We also organized a two-day program on "The Spirituality of the Japanese-American Internment Experience" featuring autobiographical reflections by many members of the local Denver Japanese-American community -- including former Denver Post editor, Bill Hosokawa, community activist Marge Taniwaki, and United Methodist minister, Lowell Uda.