By INDYKIDS STAFF
Here are some important people who died in 2008.
Odetta
U.S. civil rights activist, folk singer. Known as the voice of the civil rights movement (a movement from the 1950s to 1970s to end racial discrimination), Odetta sang “O Freedom” at the 1963 March on Washington. Her music influenced artists such Joan Baez, Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan.
Miriam Makeba
South African civil rights leader, folk singer. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, she used her singing to raise awareness about apartheid (a system that separates people by race) in South Africa and to support causes for social justice. She was a Grammy Award-winning artist also known as Mama Afrika.
Studs Terkel
Radio host, author. A Pulitzer Prize-winning author of books about the working class, he is best known for his oral histories, including interviews with workers struggling during the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Paul Newman
Actor, philanthropist. An award-winning actor and U.S. screen icon who starred in films such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Newman dedicated much of his later life to doing good work, including donating proceeds from his line of Newman’s Own products to charities.
Utah Phillips
Folksinger, political activist. A lifelong anarchist (a person who believes there should be no government) and a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (an international union of workers), he composed songs about railway workers, miners and the trade union movement.
George Carlin
Comedian, actor. His radical routines caused much controversy, including his famous monologue “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” for which he was arrested.
