281 articles
Rachel Corrie
Rachel Aliene Corrie (1979–2003) was an American peace activist from Olympia, Washington, crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza, while protecting a Palestinian home from demolition.
Rachel Dolezal
Rachel Dolezal, later Nkechi Diallo, is an American activist who led the Spokane NAACP chapter until June 2015, when her parents said she was white; she resigned and said she identifies as black.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin
Rachel Goldberg-Polin, American-Israeli educator and activist, mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, taken October 7, 2023 from the Nova festival and murdered in Gaza in August 2024; TIME100 2024, Lantos Prize 2025, memoir When We See You Again.
Raina Knyaginya
Raina Knyaginya (Райна Княгиня), born Raina Popgeorgieva Futekova, was a Bulgarian teacher who sewed and carried the flag of the Panagyurishte rebels in the 1876 April Uprising against Ottoman rule.
Rajiv Dixit (राजीव दीक्षित)
Rajiv Dixit (राजीव दीक्षित), 1967–2010, Indian swadeshi activist and orator; founded Azadi Bachao Andolan, was National Secretary of Bharat Swabhiman Andolan with Baba Ramdev, left 5,000+ Hindi lectures; died on his 43rd birthday amid disputed circumstances.
Ralph Abernathy
Ralph David Abernathy (1926–1990) was a Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr.'s closest friend, co-founder of the SCLC, and its second president (1968–1977), leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Poor People's Campaign.
Rania Khalek
Rania Khalek is a Lebanese-American journalist based in Beirut who hosts Dispatches and co-hosts BT Live on BreakThrough News, reporting on the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy.
Redeemed Zoomer
Redeemed Zoomer, real name Richard Ackerman (born 2002), is an American Presbyterian YouTuber and seminary student whose denominations explainer passed 14.5 million views and who leads Operation Reconquista, a Gen Z conservative-reform movement targeting mainline Protestant churches, notably the PCUSA.
Rennie Davis
Rennie Davis (Rennard Cordon Davis, 1940-2021) was an SDS leader, MOBE project director, and Chicago Seven defendant convicted of inciting a riot and later overturned on appeal; he later followed Guru Maharaj Ji and worked on environmental projects.
Revilo P. Oliver
Revilo P. Oliver (1908-1994) was a University of Illinois classics professor and classical philologist who co-founded the John Birch Society, wrote "Marxmanship in Dallas," and became a leading intellectual figure of American white nationalism.
Richard B. Spencer
Richard B. Spencer, born Richard Bertrand Spencer, is an American white nationalist credited with coining "alt-right" in 2008 and who led the National Policy Institute through 2016 and 2017.
Richard Girnt Butler
Richard Girnt Butler (1918–2004) was an American white supremacist and Christian Identity minister who took over the Church of Jesus Christ Christian and built it into the Aryan Nations at Hayden Lake, Idaho.
Ridvan Aydemir
Ridvan Aydemir, known online as Apostate Prophet, is a Turkish-German ex-Muslim YouTuber born in Germany, formerly devout Sunni Muslim, then atheist, converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in 2025, critiquing Islam and debating apologists.
Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú Tum is a K'iche' Maya human rights activist from Guatemala. She won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her work on indigenous rights and social justice.
Rita Schwerner Bender
Rita Schwerner Bender, American civil rights activist and family law attorney, widow of CORE worker Michael Schwerner, killed by Klansmen in Neshoba County, Mississippi on June 21, 1964 during Freedom Summer; later an ACLU and public defender lawyer in Seattle and prosecution witness at the 2005 Killen trial.
Rob K. Henderson
Rob K. Henderson, American writer and psychologist (Yale BS; Cambridge PhD), coined 'luxury beliefs' in 2019 and wrote the 2024 memoir Troubled about foster care, family, and social class.
Robby Starbuck
Robby Starbuck, Nashville-based conservative activist and former music video director, led 2024 anti-DEI campaigns against Tractor Supply, Ford, Walmart and others, then sued Meta over AI defamation and became its AI-bias adviser in an August 2025 settlement.
Roger Hallam (activist)
Roger Hallam (Julian Roger Hallam) is the British activist who co-founded Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain, and Just Stop Oil; a former Welsh organic farmer and King's College London civil-disobedience researcher, he received a five-year prison sentence in July 2024 for the M25 gantry protest conspiracy, reduced to four years in March 2025.
Rohith Vemula (రోహిత్ చక్రవర్తి వేముల)
Rohith Vemula (రోహిత్ చక్రవర్తి వేముల), born 1989, was a Dalit PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad who died by suicide on 17 January 2016 after suspension and hostel expulsion following a dispute with ABVP students, sparking nationwide caste-discrimination protests.
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks (Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, 1913–2005), American civil rights activist whose December 1, 1955 refusal to yield her Montgomery bus seat sparked the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott and ended bus segregation via Browder v. Gayle.
Rouhollah Zamzameh
Rouhollah Zamzameh, known as Rouhollah Zam (روحالله زم), Iranian dissident journalist and founder of the Telegram channel Amadnews; exiled in France, abducted from Iraq in 2019, executed by Iran on 12 December 2020.
Roy Jeffs
Roy Jeffs (Leroy Barlow Jeffs, 1992-2019), a son of FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs, left the sect in February 2014 and publicly described his father's abuses before dying by suicide at age 26.
Rula Daood
Rula Daood (רולא דאוד), born 1985 in Kafr Yasif, is a Palestinian Christian citizen of Israel, former speech therapist, and national co-director of Standing Together with Alon-Lee Green since 2019; TIME100 Next 2024 honoree and 2026 co-founder of the A Place for Us All party.
Russell Means
Russell Means (Oglala Lakota, 1939–2012), AIM leader who led the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation, later an actor in The Last of the Mohicans and author of Where White Men Fear to Tread.
Sabina Wurmbrand
Sabina Wurmbrand, born Sabina Oster, was a Romanian-born evangelist imprisoned under communism who co-founded The Voice of the Martyrs with her husband Richard and wrote The Pastor's Wife.
Saima Wazed
Saima Wazed (সায়মা ওয়াজেদ), Bangladeshi school psychologist and autism advocate, daughter of Sheikh Hasina; WHO South-East Asia Regional Director February 2024 to September 2026, ending in fraud allegations, leave, and resignation.
Salwan Momika
Salwan Momika, Iraqi refugee and anti-Islam activist known for 2023 Quran burnings in Stockholm with Salwan Najem; deported in 2024, charged with hate speech, shot dead in Södertälje in January 2025.
Sam Brinton
Sam Brinton (Samuel Otis Brinton, born 1987) is an American nuclear engineer and LGBTQ activist, first openly genderfluid DOE official, fired in December 2022 after airport luggage theft charges; known for anti-conversion therapy advocacy.
Sam Childers
Sam Childers, the Machine Gun Preacher, is an American missionary and author who founded Angels of East Africa, an orphanage in Nimule, South Sudan, for children affected by the LRA; his armed-rescue claims are disputed by the SPLA.
Sarah Ransome
Sarah Ransome, South African-born Epstein and Maxwell survivor, sued in 2017 (settled 2018), testified at Maxwell's 2022 sentencing, and wrote the 2021 memoir Silenced No More; her 2016 sex-tape emails are disputed.