Maya Angelou writes on her experience living in Southern rural then in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the book is a heartwarming yet tragic story of her life from birth to young adulthood. ... She was sexually molested by her mother's boyfriend at the age of eight that made her shut off from the world and spoke only to Bailey for years, until her teacher helped her come out of the silence after which she moved to California. She says, "If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat" (Angel...

• Word Count: 649
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In 1940, after graduating with honors from the 8th grade, Maya moved to Oakland California as a 14-year-old to live with her mother again where she attended George Washington High School. She studied drama and dance at night and was a scholar at the California Labor School. ... A few years later, at the request of Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou became the Northern Coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. ...

• Word Count: 884
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Jim Crow laws enforced segregation throughout the southern states of the United States. ... Mexico relinquished California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming to the United States after being defeated in the Mexican-American War. ... In 1968, Mexican American students in Los Angeles, California staged a walkout. ...

• Word Count: 1191
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

During the period between 1865 to 1898, the turn of the century was approaching the nation. The end of the Civil War marked this transition from a more agricultural nation to an industrialized one. Society in America was becoming significantly more urbanized and more diversity was introduced to larg...

• Word Count: 2011
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The "Whites Only" signs, as prevalent in Miami as they were in other southern cities, stood everywhere as reminders in case someone forgot. ... Since the city's birth, Miami had been strongly opposed to hiring blacks as police officers, as was generally true throughout the southern states. ... "Invited by NAACP," as the upper heading reads, the article informs the public of Representative James Roosevelt of California, a leading advocate of civil rights and the speech he"ll be making later that day. ...

• Word Count: 1986
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

David Adams, a Professor of Philosophy at California State Polytechnic University, defines a hate crime as "instances of ordinary crimes done hatefully or prejudicially...when the offender has targeted a victim "because of" or "by reason of" race, religion, sexual identity, or gender" (par 11). ... Hate crimes are often committed by hate groups which are, according to The Southern Poverty Law Center, "an organization having beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics" (qtd. in Mulholland par 12). ...

• Word Count: 1223
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate