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In his anonymous protest of a bill that would institute taxation for established religion, James Madison asserts the necessary separation of church and state and the right of every person to practice religion freely.

In his 1941 State of the Union Address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined four fundamental human freedoms—the freedom of speech, of worship, from want, and from fear—for the United States and the rest of the world.

In this court case, the United States Supreme Court ruled Congress' act to ban slavery in federal territories unconstitutional and determined that no person of African descent was a citizen of the United States.

In this letter, President George Washington reflects on religious persecution and rejoices in prosperity and security for all religious groups. He emphasizes religious diversity as a “natural right,” not something to be merely tolerated.

With the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln freed all enslaved people in “rebellious” states, forbid the military from repressing their freedom and sanctioned their military service for Union forces. This decree made emancipation a clear objective of the American Civil War.

This excerpt focuses on the lives of African American students during Freedom Summer. After reading Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech in class in 1963, students in main character C.J.'s school are asked to share their dreams at an assembly.