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.

“The lights went up, the music went off, and you could hear a pin drop.”

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

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.

The Grand Council Fire of American Indians wrote this letter in response to the Chicago mayor's 1927 campaign against the use of British textbooks in public schools. The letter condemns the misrepresentation of Native American history in schools.

This essay expounds on the injustices and false perceptions faced by women in the welfare system. Tillmon contends that the system is overrun with sexism and that until American women are liberated by equal pay, the welfare system will continue to be a trap for them.

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.

This essay places side by side the historical oppression of African Americans in the South and the recent surge of African Americans moving back to the South of their own free will. In her discussion, Maya Angelou questions why such choices are considered remarkable.