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Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 - April 8, 1993) was an American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century. An African-American, Anderson became an important figure in the struggle for black artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid twentieth century. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall. Their race-driven refusal placed Anderson into the spotlight of the international community on a level usually only found by high profile celebrities and politicians. With the aid of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to a crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience in the millions. She continued to break barriers for black artists in the United States, notably becoming the first black person, American or otherwise, to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, occurring on January 7, 1955. Her performance as Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera at the Met was the only time she sang an opera role on stage. Anderson later became an important symbol of grace and beauty during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, notably singing at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. She also worked for several years as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and as a "goodwill ambassadress" for the United States Department of State.

Jacob Needleman is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University and the author of many books, including The Essential Marcus Aurelius, Why Can't We Be Good?, The American Soul, The Wisdom of Love, Time and the Soul, The Heart of Philosophy, Lost Christianity, and Money and the Meaning of Life. In addition to his teaching and writing, he serves as a consultant in the fields of psychology, education, medical ethics, philanthropy, and business, and has been featured on Bill Moyers's acclaimed PBS series A World of Ideas.

Walter Reuther was president of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) from 1946 until his death in 1970. Under his leadership, the UAW grew to more than 1.5 million members, becoming one of the largest unions in the United States. Reuther was widely admired as the model of a reform-minded, liberal, responsible trade unionist the leading labor intellectual of his age, a champion of industrial democracy and civil rights who used the collective bargaining process and labor's political influence to advance the cause of social justice for all Americans. Walter Reuther was born in Wheeling, W.V., on Sept. 1, 1907, the son of Valentine Reuther, a German socialist, and his wife, Anna Stocker. Reuther received an early education in socialism and union politics from his father. A visit to the prison where Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs was being held for his resistance to World War I made an indelible impression on the young Reuther, who became a committed Debsian socialist. Bored with his studies, Reuther dropped out of Wheeling High School at 16 and eventually became an apprentice tool-and-die maker. Fired for trying to organize a union, Reuther moved to Detroit in 1927, drawn by the Ford Motor Company's promise of high wages and a shorter workweek. He quickly established himself as one of the most skilled and respected mechanics at Ford's River Rouge plant. Working nights, Reuther earned his high school diploma at the age of 22 and took classes at Detroit City College (now Wayne State University), where he was joined by his younger brothers Victor and Roy. In 1939, Reuther became director of the UAW's General Motors department, and in 1942 he was elected the union's first vice president. During World War II, Reuther also served with the Office of Production Management, the War Manpower Commission and the War Production Board. As director of the UAW's GM division, Reuther won the respect of industry executives as well as the loyalty of the rank and file. When a wildcat strike movement swept GM's shops in 1944-1945, Reuther skillfully handled the crisis, championing the cause of the workers without running afoul of the government or the company. Then, in 1946, after the war's end, Reuther led a 116-day strike against GM, calling for a 30 percent wage increase without an increase in the retail price of cars, and he challenged GM to "open its books" to prove the demand impossible. GM refused both demands but did offer an 18 percent wage increase, which Reuther accepted. In 1968, frustrated at what he perceived to be an unwillingness or an inability to seize opportunities for action, Reuther pulled the UAW out of the AFL-CIO. He formed a short-lived Alliance for Labor Action with the Teamsters, which had been expelled from the AFL-CIO for corruption in the 1950s. Before the new group could launch any initiatives, however, Reuther; his wife, May; and two others were killed in a private plane crash. Reuther left a legacy of reform-minded unionism, civil rights activism and social justice idealism upon which the labor movement continues to draw.

Loretta Napoleoni is the best selling author of Terror Incorporated and Insurgent Iraq. She is an expert on financing of terrorism and advises several governments on counter-terrorism. She is senior partner of G Risk, a London based risk agency. As Chairman of the countering terrorism financing group for the Club de Madrid, Napoleoni brought heads of state from around the world together to create a new strategy for combating the financing of terror networks. Born and raised in Rome, in the mid 1970s Loretta Napoleoni became an active member of the feminist movement and a political activist. She was a Fulbright scholar at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC and a Rotary Scholar at the London School of Economics. As an economist she worked for several banks and international organizations in Europe and the US. In the early 1980s she worked at the National Bank of Hungary on the convertibility of the florin that became the blue print for the convertibility of the ruble a decade later. Ms Napoleoni is also a journalist and has worked as a foreign correspondent for several Italian financial papers. Her work appears regularly in many journals and publications, including several European newspapers. She lectures regularly on the financing of terrorism. She has written novels, guide books in Italian and translated and edited books on terrorism; her most recent novel, Dossier Baghdad, is a financial thriller set during the Gulf War. She was among the few people to interview the Red Brigades in Italy after three decades of silence. Loretta Napoleoni lives in London and Whitefish, Montana, with her husband and their children.