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.

Between December 1936 and February 1937, auto industry laborers in Flint, Mich., stopped working and occupied the GM factories that employed them until their right to unionize was recognized.

I.G. Blanchard's lyrics makes the case for the 8-hours day -- one of the main goals of labor unions in the late 1800s. Laborers desired a balance to their day—one that includes "eight hours" just for themselves. And they will band together to get it.

In this radio segment, Studs Terkel remembers the first time he saw a community in action accomplish something. This moment shaped his belief that the individual is strengthened by joining a group and we make progress as a society when we join together.

With the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln freed all enslaved people in “rebellious” states, forbid the military from repressing their freedom and sanctioned their military service for Union forces. This decree made emancipation a clear objective of the American Civil War.

Samuel Pisar, a survivor of Auschwitz, recounts his liberation at age 16 from the most notorious Nazi death camp.