Lots. I had a number of abolitionists as ancestors: Stephen and Ruth Mosher, who had a station on the underground railroad, in Ohio. They were Quakers.
My great-great grandfather, Rev. Peter Winebrenner, preached against slavery, and encouraged his flock, during the Civil War, to fight to free the slaves. His cousin once removed, Rev. John Winebrenner, was also an abolitionist and allowed women to speak in church. He also spoke out against unscrupulous behavior by wealthy members of the church. He was considered too radical by the German Reformed Church that ordained him, as well as by the church that he pastored. They locked him out of his church. He started the Church of God.
Rev. Peter Winebrenner
My great-grandfather, C. C. Stoner, who married Rev. Peter Winebrenner's daughter, enlisted in the Civil war with his brother and 3 cousins. He was on Gen. Sherman's march from Tennessee through the south, and was at Lincoln's review of the troops at Washington D.C. He was the only one of the 5 in his family that enlisted to survive the war. When he was older, he served in the Kansas state legislature, as a member of the People's Party.
C. C. Stoner and his wife Rachel (daughter of Peter Winebrenner), soon after the Civil War.
Another great-grandfather, Henry Forrey, also fought in the war to free the slaves, as did at least one of my great-great grandfathers, W. K. Eggleston.
Francis Cooke was my 11-greats grandfather. He was enough of an activist to take the hazardous voyage on the Mayflower to an unknown land, to start a new life for himself and his family.
My 7-greats grandfather was Bishop Johannes Steiner, an Anabaptist from Switzerland. When the Swiss Reformed Church was persecuting Anabaptists, he and his family fled for their lives, first to Germany, then the Netherlands, and finally to Pennsylvania.
My mother, Lois, was an activist in both the mothering and teaching fields. I remember that just before I entered kindergarten, she taught me about the existence of racist people, and how it was not okay to think that way, and told me specific racist names for people, explaining that she was only doing so that I would know what they were and not accidentally use them after hearing someone else do so.
Her second year teaching, in southern California (around 1950-ish), she was given a class that was considered to be a "difficult" class. They were 3rd graders, and all non-readers, supposedly all either mentally "slow" or with severe emotional problems. She soon discovered that the vast majority of the class simply didn't speak English. She taught the lessons in English and Spanish, while teaching them English as a second language. She got the whole class up to grade level by the end of the year. She was asked to take the same students a second year, and by the end of that year, they were testing at 5th grade level in most subjects. She actually lost her job for doing it too well. No one could believe that her students could learn, and she was accused of cheating on the tests. She asked the principal to re-test them, which he did, and they came out the same, but she was not re-hired the next term.
My mother, Lois Gardner, about 1988.
I, myself, am a radical liberal activist and environmentalist. I have marched and picketed and protested, and signed a lot of petitions.
