Speech by Senator Charles Hays Reaffirming the Rights of African Americans (1874)
Republican congressman Charles Hays of Alabama, a former slaveholder, shares his views on a new civil rights bill that would end segregation of public transportation and public accommodations.
![Print shows a campaign banner for the 1876 Republican presidential ticket.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Hayes-Wheeler.jpg?h=2cf6f983&itok=MzMPM0qt)
What the Black Man Wants
Frederick Douglass demands voting rights and civil equality for Black Americans in an 1865 speech.
![A portrait of Frederick Douglass, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/3a18122v.jpg?h=28b1f63e&itok=LuMCd-Xt)
What the Black Man Wants (en español)
In Spanish, Frederick Douglass demands voting rights and civil equality for Black Americans in an 1865 speech.
![A portrait of Frederick Douglass, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/3a18122v.jpg?h=28b1f63e&itok=LuMCd-Xt)
Statistics From the Civil War
This reading features statistics on the number of deaths during the Civil War.
![Ruins of a building and carriages.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Charleston_sc_1865.jpg?h=02857a37&itok=Qup7m3tC)
Statistics from the War (en español)
In Spanish, this reading features statistics on the number of deaths during the Civil War.
![Ruins of a building and carriages.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Charleston_sc_1865.jpg?h=02857a37&itok=Qup7m3tC)
W. E. B. Du Bois Reflects on the Purpose of History
W. E. B. Du Bois questions the way that Reconstruction was studied and taught in an excerpt from his 1935 book Black Reconstruction in America.
![A portrait of W.E.B. Du Bois, head-and-shoulders, facing slightly right.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/3a53178u.jpg?h=87584735&itok=bgkKYE0Q)
The White Citizens Councils
Historian David Halberstam describes the White Citizens’ Councils and their efforts to actively oppose integration in the South in the 1950s.
![Man "White League" shaking hands with Ku Klux Klan member over shield illustrated with African American couple with dead(?) baby. In background, man hanging from tree.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/1874_WorseThanSlavery1874_FH140921.jpg?h=7fc8cdf2&itok=807BJ2Zj)
Being Well Born: New Civic Biology by George William Hunter
Read excerpts of George William Hunter’s book about the now-disproved idea that traits like intelligence and morality are handed down from generation to generation.
![Photograph of journal bindings in an anthropology library, showing the transition where Eugenics Quarterly was renamed to Social Biology in 1969.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/2006_EugenicsQuarterlytoSocialBiology_FH2169993.jpeg?h=73f03467&itok=V_UX5PAx)
“Payos for Cornrows” by Aaron Samuels
In this spoken-word poem, Aaron Samuels reflects on his experience with the identities of Black and Jewish.
![Student highlights paper](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-03/RooseveltHS-29.jpg?h=56d0ca2e&itok=SdqH9A8X)
The Birthday Party: Outside the Magic Circle by Virginia Foster Durr
In her autobiography, Outside the Magic Circle, white southerner Virginia Foster Durr recalls how the customs of the Jim Crow South affected her seventh birthday party.
![Eliza "Didy" Ridgely White, her extended family, and their servants are seen on the porch at the Bruen Villa on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/1864_FamilyGroupinNewport_FH147226.jpg?h=93ecfe0f&itok=DTLMZ_A3)
Peril and Promise (1980-2000)
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Part six of Latino Americans covers the years since 1980, when a second wave of Cubans arrived in Miami and hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, and Guatemalans fleeing civil wars, death squads, and unrest migrated to the US.
![](/sites/default/files/brightcove/videos/images/posters/image_1366.jpg)