Education was extremely important within her community. ... When all else failed she could always depend on the family she had within her community for support. Accomplishing the American Dream was a prominent issue throughout Angelou's life, although the American Dream was considered "Somewhere over the bridge in the white part of town" (Telgen). ... The best example of this is her dream in becoming the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco. ... The American Dream is achieved by wealth. ...

• Word Count: 673
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Her dream of being beautiful, understood, and accepted-all of which she has imagined in terms of being white-is shattered, and her mind is occupied with thoughts of persecution, impending death, and imperative self-restraint. ... She tells, for example, of bone-weary cotton pickers caught in economic enslavement within the general impoverishment of African Americans; a threat to Uncle Willie's life by the Ku Klux Klan; the complete segregation in Stamps, with its resulting ignorance and prejudice on the part of both whites and African Americans; a confrontation between Momma and some raci...

• Word Count: 1226
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

While Jacobs didn't consider herself to be a slave - "I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise"(Jacobs 3), Frederick Douglass had to re-learn to think of himself as a human being and a free man, rather than a property of someone or a slave. ... It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. ...

• Word Count: 1523
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

His speaking prowess inspired African American citizens to rise up and help achieve King's "dream" for America. ... Police opened fire on the protesters and within minutes, 56 people were killed and nearly 200 were injured. ...

• Word Count: 1517
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate