Speak Truth to Power

Through photographs by Eddie Adams and interviews by human rights activist Kerry Kennedy, gripping stories are revealed of 51 men and women around the globe who put their lives on the line, surviving imprisonment, torture, and death threats, because of hope for and dedication to a future where equality is common and oppression rare.

Anonymous wears a black shroud and a hangman's noose. Unnamed and masked, perhaps he or she will avoid the fate suggested in the haunting photograph that graces the cover of this remarkable book.

Anonymous is one of the mostly unsung heroes interviewed by Kerry Kennedy Cuomo who are fighting for human rights in places where torture, imprisonment, and death are the side effects of speaking out against such atrocities as child soldiers, sex slavery, honor killings, and repression of political rights.

In Anonymous's case, teaching Sudanese women their rights where a civil war is being waged by Islamic extremists could land him or her in a "ghost house" of torture, or, if lucky, in prison for an undetermined amount of time. In an age when heroes seem almost a thing of the past, these 51 human rights defenders emonstrate that real moral courage is alive and well on planet Earth.

As Kennedy Cuomo writes in her introduction, these are the Martin Luther Kings of the world, and "courage, with its affirmation of possibility and change, is what defines them."