Please Note: this list is presented in good faith — while the majority have been confirmed, there is no guarantee that any of these people still are, or ever were, vegetarian.

Historical Figures and Activists

Adam and Eve, first human beings, ancestors of the whole human race (probably vegan)

Ammon Henneacy (1893-1970), Roman Catholic non-violent anarchist

Anne H. Ehrlich, assocuate director and policy coordinator of the Center for Conservation Biology, Stanford University, co-author

Aviva Cantor, femenist, author

Benjamin Lay (1681 – 1760), philanthropist, abolitionist

C.T. Lawrence Butler, author, founder, Food Not Bombs

Chandrashekar Subrahmanyam, astrophysicist, Nobel Laureate (Physics, 1983)

Clara Barton. a.k.a. Clarissa Harlowe Barton (1821-1912), humanitarian, organizer of The American Red Cross

Coretta Scott King (1927-2006), community leader (vegan)

D. Marshall, NY Homeless shelter worker

Daniel Berrigan, non-violent peace activist, Roman Catholic priest

Daniel O’Steen, National Director, National Right to Life

Dexter King, MLK Center for Social Change, son of Martin Luther King, Jr and Coretta Scott King (vegan)

Donald Watson, inventor of the word vegan

Dorothy Day (1897-1980), Roman Catholic journalist, social activist, anarchist

Edgar Kupfer-Koberwitz, Holocaust survivor/Diarist

Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer, anarchist

Emarel Freshel (1867 – 1949), socialite, designer, activist

Emma Goldman (1869-1940), anarchist writer, speaker, femenist

Eustace Miles (1868-1948), pioneer fitness writer, athlete, philosopher and health-reformer, Olympian (1908)

Fenner Brockway (1888-1988), British anti-war activist, politician (Parliament)

Frank and Mary Hoffman, activists, founders of all-creatures.org, board members of christianveg.com

Gary Francione, activist attorney, author, founder of Rutgers University Animal Rights Law Clinic

Gregory R. Smith, 16-year-old Ph.D candidate, child prodigy, political activist (became vegetarian at age 2)

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), Bohemian-Austrian composer and conductor

Holly Hazard, activist attorney

Isadora Duncan (1877-1927), Mother of Modern Dance

John Chapman, a.k.a. Johnny Appleseed (1774-1847), orchardist, missionary, genius entrepreneur, conservationist, ecologist, American legend in his own time

John Howard (1726-1790), philanthropist, prison reformist

Lewis Gompertz (1779-1865), founder of The Soceity for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1824 (later became RSPCA)

Monrovia Van Hoose, experimental social worker

Paul Watson, founder, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Peace Pilgrim (1908-1981), pacifist, peace activist, first woman to walk the Appalachian Trail. She vowed to walk until humanity found peace. For the next 28 years she walked 8 times around the USA as a vegan

Peter Tosh (1944-1987), pioneer reggae musician, trailblazer for the Rastafarian movement

Plutarch (46-127), Greek historian, biographer, essayist

Pythagoras (approx. 562 BC-507 BC), Greek mathematician and philosopher

Richard H. Schwartz, Professor Emeritus, Mathematics, College of Staten Island; Jewish vegetarian activist

Richard St. Barbe Baker (1889-1962), English environmentalist

Richard Wagner (1813-1883), German composer, conductor, music theorist and essayist

Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897), inventor of shorthand