Courageous Professionals
Muhammad Abduh was born to a peasant family which struggled to give him a proper education, yet by the age of 10, he had memorized the entire Quran. In 1872, he left the University of Cairo to become a disciple of Jamal ad-Din Afghani, a reformer and pan-Islamic political activist. When a new leader came to power, Abduh was placed under house arrest and his mentor, Afghani, was expelled from Egypt. When Abduh began speaking out about reforms and nationalism in 1882, he too was expelled from Egypt. When he was allowed to return six years later, he became a judge and began serious institutional reforms in the face of conservative and orthodox opposition. In 1899, he was appointed Mufti of Egypt, which was a position he held until death and used to try breaking the rigidity of Muslim societies. Like his mentor, Abduh's goal was to "organize Islamic societies in a way that the basic Islamic spirit was not lost and yet the Muslims could compete with the demands of the modern world." As such, Abduh encouraged reasoning, freedom of the will, rational thinking, equity, and welfare over ignorance and the blind acceptance of traditions. He was one of the premier "Islamic modernists" of the time.
Mahmood, Iftekhar, ed. Islam Beyond Terrorists and Terrorism: Biographies of the Most Influential Muslims in History. Maryland: University Press of America, 2002.
As a young girl, Florence watched her father act as congressman to fight against foreign oil imports and the exploitation of markets. In her own life, Florence worked to fight against the exploitation of the working class, specifically women and children. Florence spent several years of her life as a state inspector, entering rooms in sweatshops where disease ran so rampant it was ingrained in the fabrics. Risking her health with no hesitation, Florence's goal was to thoroughly investigate the working and living conditions of society's most vulnerable individuals. Florence's reports inspired her to take a law course at Northwestern University. As her inspector reports became more tenacious, Florence used her newly gained knowledge in law to fight for a new child labor law that demanded more responsibility from law-enforcement officers. Her success launched her into a series of battles, fights for minimum wage laws, work place standards, educational standards, and woman suffrage. In 1905, she wrote Some Ethical Gains through Legislation, which presented a number of goals for Progressive law to achieve. The most taxing and challenging of her efforts, however, was collecting evidence of how women and children were affected differently by labor than men. Her research challenged the idea that a law could only be valid if it was applied universally. Florence's findings provided the main thrust behind the well-known "Brandeis Brief," in which the maximum ten-hour workday for women was defended before the Supreme Court.
Thomas Dewey stepped onto the great legal stage in 1935 as a criminal gang prosecutor. Only six years out of law school, Thomas went after powerful New York masterminds with corrupt holds on innumerable businesses. The national press reveled in his energy: Thomas gathered and trained his own investigators, used wile and wit to bypass politicians and criminal protectors, and ultimately put dangerous bosses behind bars. Even more courageously, Thomas took it upon himself to protect his informers, who risked their safety to help expose the ringleaders terrorizing their streets. Winning guilty verdict after guilty verdict, Thomas also began receiving a slew of death threats. Later, investigators discovered a number of plans to assassinate Thomas that had luckily never been attempted. With such unprecedented success, Thomas became the District Attorney of New York. As his popularity skyrocketed, roles in films were written after him and streets even took his name. Nothing attested to his credibility more, however, than when he was put in the running for the Republican nomination for president. Although he lost, it was not long before Thomas became the governor of New York. As governor he gleaned momentous respect from leaders around the country-so much respect, in fact, that Thomas won the Republican nomination in 1944 to run against Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although he was defeated, Thomas spent the duration of his career supporting and advising the Republican party.
Constance Motley's experience in law began in 1954, when she helped write briefs during the groundbreaking Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. With that introduction, Constance was propelled into a tremendous legal career. Many of her beginning cases involved representing young African-Americans whose university attendances had been barred. Her career gathered momentum as she served as associate counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. During this time, she continued to argue in cases involving desegregation in schools, public housing and accommodations, and transportation. Fighting tenaciously before state and federal courts in over eleven states, Florence could not be stopped. Out of ten civil rights cases she argued in the Supreme Court, Constance won nine. Alongside other members of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, she helped lift several injunctions against individuals like Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, and the great Martin Luther King. Her civil rights work proved her worthy of appointment to the New York State Senate in 1964, the first appointment of its kind ever achieved by a black woman. After only a year, Florence was called to fill a vacancy as the Borough of Manhattan's president. She was the first woman to ever hold such a position and was reelected for another four-year term. Florence's term as borough president will be remembered for her work revitalizing Harlem. The peak of her career occurred, however, when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her against great opposition to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York where she served for four years.
Daisy Bates is one of the twentieth century's most important civil
rights activists and journalists. Raised by adoptive parents, Daisy
Bates learned when she was eight that her mother had been raped and
murdered by three white men, and that her father had fled, afraid to
prosecute the suspects. With her adoptive parents' loving care, she
was able to get a fantastic education and began writing with her husband
with the Arkansas State Press. During that time of her life, Daisy witnessed
and reported on several horrific accounts of violent discrimination
and murder on blacks. The newspaper gained a reputation as the people's
independent voice, one which strove to improve the social and economic
situation for blacks. Daisy's real heroics emerged, however, when the
U.S. Supreme Court declared in 1954 that segregation in public schools
was unconstitutional. Out of seventeen children that were eligible to
enter Central High School, the first to attempt integration, nine children
were placed under Daisy Bates' custody. On the way to their first day
of school, the "Little Rock Nine" were harassed by such a large mob
that the National Guard was needed to escort them into the school. Daisy
Bates was their brave and strong mentor, caring and keeping in close
contact with each of them. Because of Daisy Bates and her children,
the entire world saw how committed black youth and their parents were
to attaining their full citizenship rights.
Franklin, V.P. "Daisy Bates." Epic Lives: One Hundred Black Woman Who Made a Difference. Ed. Jessica Carney Smith. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1993. pp 26-32.
