These images are from The Negro Motorist Green Book 1940 edition. The Green Book, published from 1936 – 1964, served as a guide for African Americans traveling around the country during the Jim Crow segregation era. To explore the complete issues visit the New York Public Library Digital Collections at https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/the-green-book#/?tab=ab…

In his 1941 State of the Union Address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined four fundamental human freedoms—the freedom of speech, of worship, from want, and from fear—for the United States and the rest of the world.

Elizabeth MacQueen is the sculptor of Four Spirits, a monument built to memorialize the four girls killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. In her memoir, she discusses how the project revealed to her how sheltered she had been as a child growing up in Birmingham.

Richard L. Copley took this photograph in 1968 at the Memphis sanitation workers' strike -- the reason Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis on the day he was killed.

“I remember being in court every day...”

Cesar Chavez delivered this speech on November 9, 1984. Chavez was a high-profile leader of the United Farm Workers and remains an inspiring figure in the larger labor movement.

Sojourner Truth delivered this speech at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. Born into slavery, Truth is widely known for her abolition and women’s rights work. Two versions of this speech are included.