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This petition illustrates how enslaved people used the rhetoric of the American Revolution to point out the colonies’ hypocrisy of demanding freedom and liberty, while themselves having slavery.

A letter written by John Quincy Adams to the 12th Congressional District regarding the use of the "Gag Rule" to prevent him from reading petitions by enslaved people on the floor of the House of Representatives. Adams argues that the Gag Rule is a violation of petitioners' rights, and to ignore this violation would endanger the rights of all Americans.

“The desert-dwelling Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians were uprooted from their ancestral lands. For decades, they were cheated of the property rights deeded to them by the U.S. government, and then subject to restrictive deed provisions. Not until the 1980s were they able to develop their own land in Palm Springs, and only recently have they begun to restore the springs revered by their ancestors. Tribal council member Anthony J. Andreas III battles the severe mental health problems that afflict the traumatized tribe by reviving ancestral practices. Traditional Bird Songs and pottery help today’s youth draw strength from the tribe’s sources of spiritual resilience.”

This is an excerpt from a speech by Frederick Douglass.

Elijah McCoy overcame many obstacles to become a renowned inventor who paved the way for others.