George Elliott Clarke (born February 12, 1960) Canadian novelist, poet, playwright, professor
and in the University of Toronto magazine
Excerpt from Africadian Petition (1783):
We be hauling Hardships long as pines—
All White whips which you Putting
to us here Since we be breathing
And Luvving. Goddam lashings harp
our Crimsoning hirt.
Your Onnour verry well knose
wheather Ragerlations shell change,
shift, for our Sattersfaction.
You forgit us, so we be Nothing—
Like rain, Sobbing over water.
Read the entire poem here
George Elliott Clarke speaks of the history of Canadian racism
here
Abraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809) – U.S. president, 1861-1865 – “The Emancipation Proclamation” (1863)
Read about Abraham Lincoln here
Read an excerpt of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (1862)
Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: "That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom."
Charles Darwin (born February 12, 1809) U.K. naturalist – On the Origin of Species
Read about Charles Darwin here
Read an excerpt from Darwin's On the Origin of Species (Chapter 14)
The similar framework of bones in the hand of a man, wing of a bat, fin of the porpoise, and leg of the horse—the same number of vertebrae forming the neck of the giraffe and of the elephant—and innumerable other such facts, at once explain themselves on the theory of descent with slow and slight successive modifications. The similarity of pattern in the wing and in the leg of a bat, though used for such different purpose—in the jaws and legs of a crab—in the petals, stamens, and pistils of a flower, is likewise, to a large extent, intelligible on the view of the gradual modification of parts or organs, which were aboriginally alike in an early progenitor in each of these classes. On the principle of successive variations not always supervening at an early age, and being inherited at a corresponding not early period of life, we clearly see why the embryos of mammals, birds, reptiles, and fishes should be so closely similar, and so unlike the adult forms.
Yael Dayan (Hebrew: יעל דיין ) (born February 12, 1939) Israeli politician and author
Read about Yael Dayan here