Fanny Jackson Coppin was born a slave. After attaining her freedom, she pursued an education and eventually attended Oberlin College, the only college in America at the time that would accept African American students. She took classes there, but she also taught them. After graduation, Coppin went on to become the first African American principal.
Mohandas Gandhi grew up in India under British rule. Despite all odds, he became a lawyer and moved to South Africa. Gandhi worked peacefully against British rule in South Africa and then in India, fasting, marching, and protesting against unfair treatment of the Indian people. Many unfair laws were changed because of Gandhi.
The book is a biography of Guion Bluford, an aerospace engineer and the first African American astronaut in space. It tells about his love of airplanes as a boy and highlights his years as a pilot in the Air Force and as an astronaut and a space shuttle mission specialist for NASA.
America meant 'freedom' to the immigrants of the early 1900s-but a freedom very different from what they expected. Cities were crowded and jobs were scare. Children had to work selling newspapers, delivering goods, and laboring sweatshops. In this touching book, Newberry Medalist Russell Freedman offers a rare glimpse of what it meant to be a young newcomer to America.
