social conditions

The author shares insight into his youth, growing up as the son of Hispanic immigrant parents. Celebrates the aspects of his Hispanic heritage he treasures most.

"Briefly chronicles the often-troubled history of ... seven countries [of Central America]-- Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama--and examines the experiences of those who have left to find a new life in North America"--Provided by publisher.

"Booker T. Washington was an educated black man who was very influential in the transition in the United States from the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery to the election of President Barack Obama. He believed education was key in helping lift African Americans out of poverty and built the Tuskegee Institute to provide that education"--Amazon.com.

African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass tells his life story, describing his years as a slave and his escape in 1838, and reflecting upon his experiences in the U.S. andGreat Britain as a free man. Includes explanatory notes, an introduction, extracts from speeches, and a letter Douglass wrote to his former master.

"Slaves replaced indentured servants as a source of cheap labor in all of the colonies early in the seventeenth century. Slavery was first legalized in Massachusetts. However, economics soon made slavery unnecessary in the North while increasing demand for it in the South"--Provided by publisher.

"Recounts the 1968 Sanitation Workers Strike in Memphis, Tennessee, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his final speech to strikers the night before his assassination, and details the perseverance of strikers before and after his death"--OCLC.

The slave narrative of Harriet A. Jacobs, published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, in which she describes the trials of her life as a Southern slave, and discusses her determination to win freedom for herself and her children.

"For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him--most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear. What were they afraid of? ... Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings--moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago's South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America's 'long war on black people,' or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police"--Provided by publisher.

Covers the shootings that set off passionate protests, the work of activists to bring about a more just legal system, and the tensions in US society that these events have brought to light.