These images are from The Negro Motorist Green Book 1940 edition. The Green Book, published from 1936 – 1964, served as a guide for African Americans traveling around the country during the Jim Crow segregation era. To explore the complete issues visit the New York Public Library Digital Collections at https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/the-green-book#/?tab=ab…

In the graphic novel March, Congressman John Lewis documents his experiences as a young civil rights activist. Hear him describe his first arrest employing a nonviolent resistance strategy, as captured in the book.

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 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.

Elizabeth MacQueen is the sculptor of Four Spirits, a monument built to memorialize the four girls killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. In her memoir, she discusses how the project revealed to her how sheltered she had been as a child growing up in Birmingham.

Following a presidential debate in 2012, Ann Coulter referred to President Barack Obama as a "retard" in one of her tweets. Stephens, a 30-year-old man with Down syndrome wrote this open letter to Coulter in response to her hurtful and uninformed comments.

This essay expounds on the injustices and false perceptions faced by women in the welfare system. Tillmon contends that the system is overrun with sexism and that until American women are liberated by equal pay, the welfare system will continue to be a trap for them.

Abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott convened the first women’s rights convention in 1848 in Seneca Falls, N.Y. Their Declaration of Sentiments, modeled after the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, demanded the full rights of citizenship for women.

Cesar Chavez delivered this speech on November 9, 1984. Chavez was a high-profile leader of the United Farm Workers and remains an inspiring figure in the larger labor movement.