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In 1955, racial segregation was legal and common in the United States. Unjust laws and rules dictated where Black people could eat, swim, drink, and shop in public. And while Blacks and whites could ride the same buses, laws in many areas stated that Black people had to sit at the back of the bus. One day, a woman named Rosa Parks decided she had had enough. When told to give up her seat for a white passenger, she refused. Listen to hear what happened after Rosa Parks broke an unjust rule for a good reason.
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Democracy is a form of government in which citizens have input into the rules that govern them. In the United States, people elect representatives at the local, state, and national levels, and those elected representatives make laws. Listen to learn about how democracy works in the United States and how voting rights have changed since the nation began.
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Harriet Tubman was an abolitionist and activist who escaped from slavery, and then returned to the South to lead dozens of other enslaved people to freedom. As a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, a path leading from slave to free states, Tubman never lost a single passenger. She worked for antislavery causes in the North and during the Civil War, served as a nurse, scout, and spy for the Union army. Listen to learn more about the remarkable life and contributions of American icon Harriet Tubman.
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After the American Revolution, America was free from Great Britain and finally existed as its own country. However, America now lacked a set of laws to govern it. At the time, the states were not united, and each state had its own set of laws and ways of doing things. If America was going to survive it would need a set of laws to govern all of America. Listen to hear how the U.S. Constitution, and a strong central government, came to be.
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