Exploring Culture through our Stories

In this poem, the speaker explores how our culture would be lacking—in people, in music, in movements, in contributions—without contributions of African Americans.

This excerpt explains that families are defined by love, caring and sharing, not the number or gender of its members.

This story, illustrated by Don Kilpatrick, describes a group of people who immigrated from Germany to the United States in order to seek religious asylum and practice their way of life in peace, but were met by continued persecution, which only escalated when World War I broke out.

These creation myths, from two different cultures, consider how the world came to be.

“Connected to Everything” is a story written by Jennifer Greene and published in the Fall 2009 issue of Teaching Tolerance. This story is adapted from a traditional tale of the Bitterroot Salish, a Native American tribe in Montana.

As a young Muslim girl, Zahrah wore her hijab to school on what is considered to be the most important day of the week in Islam—Friday. Not everyone at Zahrah's school understands her religious traditions, but a visit from her mom changes this.

Hussein, the narrator of My Name Was Hussein, lives in Bulgaria. His Muslim family takes great pride in their religion and traditions. But soldiers soon arrive in their village and force all of the Muslims to adopt Christian names, thereby inhibiting their freedom and identities.