REAL HEROES - Rosa Parks

We live in society where football players and reality TV contestants are regularly described by the media as 'heroes' - some of them might be but most are not

I'm not sure about you but my heroes tend to be selfless and a lot more heroic and braver than that 

I came up with the idea for 'REAL HEROES' a while back - a series which identifies and celebrates my heroes and you're welcome to download and share them as you please (non-commercial use only)

Some of my heroes have charities and I have included a link  - donate if you can

                                                                                                      

REAL HEROES - Rosa Parks

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African American woman boarded a Montgomery City bus to go home from work. She sat near the middle of the bus, just behind the 10 seats reserved for whites. Soon all of the seats in the bus were filled. When a white man entered the bus, the driver insisted that all four blacks sitting just behind the white section give up their seats so that the man could sit there. 

Mrs. Parks, who was an active member of the local NAACP, quietly refused to give up her seat.

Her action was spontaneous and not pre-meditated, although her previous civil rights involvement and strong sense of justice were obvious influences. "When I made that decision," she said later, “I knew that I had the strength of my ancestors with me.”

While it’s hard to believe from this distance, America was a very different place in 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested and convicted of civil disobedience. Mrs. Parks appealed her conviction and thus formally challenged the legality of segregation.

Parks' act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. 

She acted as a private citizen "tired of giving in". Although widely honoured in later years, she also suffered for her act; she was fired from her job as a seamstress in a local department store.

If you ever think that you are too small and insignificant to make a difference, think of Rosa Parks 

Rosa sat, so that Martin could walk,

Martin walked, so that Obama could run,

Obama ran, so that our children can fly

REAL HEROES - Angelina Jolie

We live in society where football players and reality TV contestants are regularly described by the media as 'heroes' - some of them might be but most are not

I'm not sure about you but my heroes tend to be selfless and a lot more heroic and braver than that 

I came up with the idea for 'REAL HEROES' a while back - a series which identifies and celebrates my heroes and you're welcome to download and share them as you please (non-commercial use only)

Some of my heroes have charities and I have included a link  - donate if you can

                                                                                                      

REAL HEROES - Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie has won an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and three Golden Globe Awards and was named Hollywood's highest paid actress in 2009, 2011, and 2013.

The thing is that she doesn’t have to do humanitarian work, she could kick back on private beach, on her own island is she wanted to but thankfully she chooses to help those less fortunate than her.

Her work with refugees as a Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) draws the attention of an otherwise uninterested media to the plight of refugees.

You can donate to the UNHCR here

REAL HEROES - Malala Yousafzai and Atticus Finch

We live in society where football players and reality TV contestants are regularly described by the media as 'heroes' - some of them might be but most are not

I'm not sure about you but my heroes tend to be selfless and a lot more heroic and braver than that 

I came up with the idea for 'REAL HEROES' a while back - a series which identifies and celebrates my heroes and you're welcome to download and share them as you please (non-commercial use only)

Some of my heroes have charities and I have included a link  - donate if you can

                                                                                                      

REAL HEROES - Malala Yousafzai

WHO IS MALALA?

That is the question the Taliban asked when they stormed the 15 year old Malala’s school bus on October 9th 2012. They shot her in the head in an attempt to silence her and end her campaign for girls’ rights to go to school.

Her shooting, and her refusal to stand down from what she believed was right, brought to light the plight of millions of children around the world who are denied an education today.

"The terrorists thought that they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born."

Donate to the Malala Fund here 

REAL HEROES - Atticus Finch

Harper Lee's fictional character from To Kill A Mockingbird was played by Gregory Peck in the 1962 film  and never before or since has an actor been so perfectly suite for a role.

Atticus is the widowed father of Jem and Scout but he is also a lawyer and when asked to defend an African American accused of raping a white woman, he displays compassion, enormous strength and depth of character and becomes not only his children's hero but also, I suspect, a nation's moral compass.

“Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”

“The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.”


“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”


“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.”


“It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.”