Patty, a young enslaved girl, shares some insight about life on a South Carolina plantation.

In this spoken word piece, Elizabeth Acevedo addresses the beauty standard that is epitomized by fair skin and straight hair.

Why do we dance? African-American social dances started as a way for enslaved Africans to keep cultural traditions alive and retain a sense of inner freedom. They remain an affirmation of identity and independence. In this electric demonstration, packed with live performances, choreographer, educator and TED Fellow Camille A. Brown explores what happens when communities let loose and express themselves by dancing together.

Although raised in a prosperous and prestigious African-American home in Tuskegee, Ala., Sammy Younge found himself drawn most to the civil rights movement. While the cause cost him his life, his actions and determination helped to transform this Southern city.

This story follows a girl who befriends the first African American to attend High Point Central High School, as a result of desegregation. What begins as an unintended and awkward experience in the cafeteria, becomes a strong and admirable friendship.

In this poem, the speaker recounts his or her shifting view of the white man stoically standing between Tommie Smith and John Carlos during their medal ceremony in Mexico City for the 1968 Olympics.

Bayard Rustin was an African American leader who worked for the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) in the 1940s and 1950s for equal rights for all Americans using nonviolence. In this story, he writes about the struggle for an African American man to order a simple hamburger at a restaurant in the Midwest.

After growing up in foster care, Ashley, a young Native-American Caucasian woman, converts to Islam in hopes of finding structure in a life where it never existed. However, with that decision comes the risk of losing one of the few biological connections she still has.

“The Ponca’s challenge of the U.S. government marked a turning point on the long path of Indian resistance. Increasingly, after Standing Bear v. Cook, the fight for Native rights would shift from the battlefields to the courtrooms of the growing nation.”

“In response to legislation that would have criminalized immigrants, thousands of high school students from across the country walked out of their classrooms and into history.”