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'Henry Brown left Richmond, Va. a slave and arrived in Philadelphia—in a freight box—a free man. Abolitionists who cheered Brown's 27-hour journey to freedom chose not to publicize it, fearing that others following in his path would be in danger.

In this article, Suzanne Bilyeu details how the sit-in by the "Greensboro Four" at Woolworth's store in North Carolina created a domino effect which led to sit-ins across the country and galvinized support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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

It may seem like an empty stomach is the worst thing about being poor, but for Junior it’s not being able to save his best friend.

McIntosh's article details the ways in which white people—male and female—are given unacknowledged advantages. She focuses on situations in which skin-color is the dominant priveleging factor (over class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location) but acknowledges that many of these attributes are interconnected.

Is it possible to be seen but not noticed? To be noticed but not understood? Ralph Ellison shows that invisibility is no accident.

Lewis Diuguid recounts how The Million Man March was an important moment for the African-American community, with black men marching together in Washington, D.C. and in other cities across the country.

Langston Hughes, a voice of the Harlem Renaissance, writes of a black man banished to the kitchen when company arrives. This same man looks to the future, for a day when he will sit at the table to eat with company, because he, too, is an American.

Through an extended metaphor, Maya Angelou—who has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States—uses a caged bird and a free bird to juxtapose the oppressed and the free.

"Hope, Despair and Memory" is an address given by Elie Wiesel on December 11, 1986, the date Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Wiesel is an author and humanitarian and is known for writing about his experience as a survivor of the Holocaust.