Books in We the People: Modern America series

The 1870 passage of the 17th Amendment to the Constitutionthat no man could be denied the right to votewas a big step forward in the civil rights movement. However, nearly 100 years later, most African-Americans in the South still could not vote. In March 1965, a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state Capitol in Montgomery was planned to demand voting rights. But the marchers only made it six blocks before they were stopped and brutally attacked by state troopers. March 7 became known as Bloody Sunday. The beatings outraged Americans who rallied to support the civil rights movement.

The horrors of the Holocaust, the mass killing of Jews and others by Nazi Germany during World War II, changed the world. Many survivors and political leaders felt it was important that the tragic events and the victims were never forgotten. In the late 1970s, U.S. government leaders began planning for a memorial to the millions of people who were murdered. Finally in 1993, their dream was realized, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum opened. Today, the museum serves as both an honor to those who were lost and an education center to people of all ages.

On a bright sunny morning on September 11, 2001, hijackers took control of four U.S. commercial airplanes. The terrorists crashed two planes into two World Trade Center Towers in New York City. Forty minutes later, hijackers crashed another plane into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Passengers on a fourth hijacked plane resisted, and the plane crashed in an empty Pennsylvania field. The tragic events of September 11 killed nearly 3,000 people, scarred Americans, and changed the world forever.

The crew of the USS Indianapolis had just delivered top secret cargo intended to end World War II. The ship was already moving into position for its next mission when it was hit by two enemy torpedoes and quickly sank into the Pacific Ocean. Survivors clung to each other, waiting to be rescued. For three days, they floated in ocean waters where they struggled against thirst, hunger, exhaustion, and sharks.

On a bright sunny morning on September 11, 2001, hijackers took control of four U.S. commercial airplanes. The terrorists crashed two planes into two World Trade Center Towers in New York City. Forty minutes later, hijackers crashed another plane into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Passengers on a fourth hijacked plane resisted, and the plane crashed in an empty Pennsylvania field. The tragic events of September 11 killed nearly 3,000 people, scarred Americans, and changed the world forever.