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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 is the retelling of Robert Smalls' escape from slavery with his entire family in tow. With a plan "as dangerous as it was brilliant," Smalls commandeers a Confederate ship and successfully navigates it out of Charleston's blockaded port and into the hands of the Union army.

This true story happened after World War I, where a whole village had been destroyed by the fighting.

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.

In 1965, James Baldwin and William F. Buckley debated the American Dream’s effect on the America Negro. The debate took place at Cambridge University, and the spectating student body proclaimed Baldwin the winner by a landslide—164 to 44.

In this poem, Smith recounts her experience at a Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters’ show and the love she, and every other audience member, was shown.

The poem deals with the awesome and awful power of God in relation to the challenging lives of humans and animals.

Bayard Rustin believed deeply in the power of nonviolence during the era of segregation. In the following essay, he describes its use and effect on a bus ride from Louisville to Nashville.

This excerpt from Barracoon, which provides a first-person account from the last living man transported from Africa to America as an enslaved person. The excerpt shows Zora Neal Hurston arriving at Cudjo Lewis’ house to speak with him about his past in only the way he can.

“Nineteen-year-old Israel Moncado spent his childhood being shuffled from one foster care setting to the next. After years of untreated gender dysphoria, and the bouts of self-harm and social isolation that often result from stigma, Israel visits his first LGBT center and discovers he’s not alone. When he finds a safe space in a transgender community, Israel begins to embrace his identity.”