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On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and prompted the United States to enter World War II. While many Americans were concerned about the war abroad, they were also paranoid about the “threat” of Japanese Americans at home. As a result, many Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps on American soil.

Langston Hughes, a voice of the Harlem Renaissance, writes of a black man banished to the kitchen when company arrives. This same man looks to the future, for a day when he will sit at the table to eat with company, because he, too, is an American.

In this poem, the speaker explores the relationship between her Christian beliefs and her enslavement. She reminds her readers of the Christian belief that anyone, regardless of their race, can follow Christianity and be saved.

In this Facebook status update, Kaity Parson describes the construct of “polite society” and its effects on individuals who are not included in its ranks.

In 1942, “For My People” won the Yale Series of Younger Poets award, and Margaret Walker became one of the youngest black writers to have published poetry in the 20th century. Her poem makes tangible the African American struggle, yet also brings to the forefront a hope for all people to “rise and take control” during a dark period in American history.

Helen Tsuchiya, born a U.S. citizen, tells what it was like to move from her home to an internment camp surrounded by barbed wire after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

With this law, passed by the General Assembly in 2009, Vermont became the fourth state to recognize same-sex marriages.

Enacted in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act, formally titled “An Act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese,” was one of the first laws limiting immigration into the United States.

Margaret Batchelder writes to President Theodore Roosevelt to tell him how women inspectors welcome immigrants—with smiles and encouragement. Although not allowed to question the immigrants, the women make a difference in the immigrants' first experiences on shore.

Hussein, the narrator of My Name Was Hussein, lives in Bulgaria. His Muslim family takes great pride in their religion and traditions. But soldiers soon arrive in their village and force all of the Muslims to adopt Christian names, thereby inhibiting their freedom and identities.