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Written to celebrate President Abraham Lincoln's birthday, this hymn follows the journey of African Americans in this country, remembering the rough road traveled but thanking God for seeing them to a bright future.

This poem features two speakers, a person and God. The person questions why God made him/her black and lists the negative associations with the color. God answers by showing all the beautiful ways humans are created.

The first Black Southerner to have a book of poetry published, Horton's plea for freedom personifies liberty and beseeches her to stamp out oppression and break his chains.

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.

Journalist Christopher Solomon writes of his interview with Kevin Connolly, a writer, photographer and medal-winning skiier, who was born without legs.

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."

Linda Schubert recounts the fear that consumed her Jewish family living in Nazi-Germany in the late 1930s. Each family member endured individual stress and anxiety, but each also contributed to the family's greater good of the family.

Although her husband died in the September 11 attack, Arissa is targeted for being Muslim. In this excerpt, she is held up by a group of men who berate her and threaten to kill her until they realize she is pregnant.

“And I asked him everything that I ever wanted to ask. I asked him to tell me the real story.”

“Being in a wheelchair, you're always protected by this chair. There's armor between you and the opposite sex.”