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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.

Frances dreams of swimming with her classmates, but will everyone be welcome at her new community pool?

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, over 110,000 Japanese Americans, mostly U.S. citizens, were incarcerated in “War Relocation Camps.” These photographs were taken at Manzanar, one of the ten Japanese internment camps, in 1942.

In this excerpt from his memoir, Rodriguez provides a stirring recollection from his adolescence: the first time he experienced racism as a result of being an immigrant in America. As he says, the experience "stays with [him] like a foul odor."

The announcement on November 20, 1969 from 89 American Indians – mostly students from colleges and universities – that they were taking over Alcatraz Island, set in motion what would become the longest occupation of a federal facility by Native Americans to date. This report aired a year later on NBC News, in December 1970, six months before the occupation ended.

This news segment from 2000 recalls the march that took place in Selma, Ala. on March 7, 1965. This day, known as Bloody Sunday, was marked by violent attacks by state and local police upon protesters as they reached the end of Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge.

This 1974 print depicts Bloody Sunday, when a group of nonviolent protestors marching for voting rights in 1965 faced police violence at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.

Suzanne Bilyeu details how Jackie Robinson's gift for playing ball eventually united a team of 30 men and gave hope to hundreds of thousands of African Americans. These feats came at a great cost to Robinson physically, mentally and emotionally as he endured hate and hardships on and off the field

“The next day, the police car pulled up and they said, 'We're taking y'all to jail.'”