Via Wikimedia Commons
Pedro Albizu Campos
Liberation1891–1965
Nationalist leader, Harvard Law graduate, and president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party who dedicated his life to independence
Pedro Albizu Campos was a Puerto Rican attorney, political leader, and president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. He was the first Puerto Rican to graduate from Harvard University, where he studied chemistry, literature, and law. Elected president of the Nationalist Party in 1930, he launched a massive campaign for Puerto Rican self-determination and independence from the United States. He was imprisoned multiple times by U.S. federal authorities for seditious conspiracy, spending a total of over 25 years in prison, and remains one of the most significant figures in the Puerto Rican independence movement.