Despite being assigned to the galley as a mess attendant, this African-American man saved white soldiers and downed enemy planes the morning of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Mary Jenkins describes growing up in the Jim Crow era and frequently being told, “You can’t”—both by a mother terrified of what might happen to her daughter if she stepped out of her expected place, and by a system that had institutionalized segregation as a way of life.

The freedom riders, black and white, joined together to effect change. Traveling across the South while enduring ridicule and pain, they helped ensure that doors were open to all people, regardless of skin color.