Social Movements

In this poem, a black woman carefully analyzes her interaction with a white waitress, whose actions, although civil, are smoldering with superiority.

In this excerpt, Virginia Woolf declares that any talented woman born in the 16th, 17th, 18th or even 19th centuries would have been so hindered from sharing her gifts due to her sex--and if she somehow overcame this obstacle, her name would not have been tied to her work.

In this video, young people reflect on society's rules for what males and females can and cannot do.

In this personal narrative, Clare explores multiple facets of the self and questions why gender is still discussed as a binary. He acknowledges the tortured lives that many have lived as a result of their gender ambiguity and declares that all those who "gawk," "gape," and "stare" at those who are different never get it right.

In this essay, the author gives a short history of race riots, showing how they were originally organized by whites in an effort to show dominance over African Americans, particularly in the South.

This article presents facts and statistics pertaining to the media's negative influence on female body image, the diet industry's booming numbers, and the link between media and peer pressure to look younger and stay thinner.

The discovery of a memoir by one of President Madison's slaves sheds light on the role slavery played in the White House.

“You said that you were in the wrong body, that you should be a man.”

In his article, physician and journalist Lawrence K. Altman describes the early cases of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and the uncertainty that surrounded the infectious disease at its naming.

Young people speak out against fitting every person into one of two narrowly conceived gender categories.

Bella Abzug was a prominent liberal activist and politician in the 1960s and 1970s who championed women’s rights, human rights and the environment.

On April 14, 1947, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld the lower court decision in Mendez v. Westminster, which required the school to integrate and set the stage for Brown v. Board of Education.

In this excerpt from his book, Walking with the Wind, John Lewis describes his involvement in the sit-ins in Nashville, Tenn., in the spring of 1960.

One of the earliest assaults on segregated transit in the South occurred in Louisville, Ky., in 1870-71. There, the city’s black community organized a successful protest that relied on nonviolent direct action, a tactic that would give shape to the modern civil rights movement nearly a century later.

In this poem, the speaker traces the senseless killings taking place abroad and at home, with a particular focus on the African-American community. The speaker also calls communities to action to "grow our hope and heal our hearts" in order to live together in peace.

This article examines the history of the 19th Amendment, which secured the right to vote for women. It examines women's participation at the polls since then and considers the possibility and impact of greater numbers of women in public office.

In this article, Suzanne Bilyeu details how the sit-in by the "Greensboro Four" at Woolworth's store in North Carolina created a domino effect which led to sit-ins across the country and galvinized support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Freedom Riders looked to invoke federal action and gain national attention as they traveled on interstate bus lines across the South seeking service at white-only waiting rooms and lunch counters.