For me it has to be Malcom X, I’m not American, but I read his autobiography
when I was young and it left a life long impression on me about justice and
resiliency. He grew up in an extremely oppressive society, his dad was murdered
and his mother was sent to the loony bin and he was clearly lost and
traumatized. When he went to jail he was smart enough to be like what the hell,
why am I here? Educating himself and channeling his energy into caring about
others and justice transformed him into one of the most powerful and well
respected leaders of his time. He is often denigrated by Americans as violent
and contrasted with King Jr. but by all accounts whenever he was in a position
to project violence he chose de-escalation like during the Harlem riots and
saved lives as there were people in the US in positions of military power who
would have loved an excuse to do to them what they did to the indigenous across
the entire country. He was angry but principled and really set a template for me
about how to be a leader and help me process my own anger and channel it into
something more positive.