Oberlin might be famous today as a college town, but in the 19th century it was a major center of abolitionist struggle and the site of a nationally‐covered rescue of a captured fugitive slave.
The American Founders saw themselves as engaged in a long English tradition of resistance to tyranny. They designed the Constitution to avoid tyrannies of both democratic and autocratic varieties.
Though the son of a freed slave and self‐educated, Daniel Murray became a highly‐regarded archivist at the Library of Congress and joined the ranks of a growing Black elite in Washington, DC.
Although black porters on Pullman train cars endured racial prejudice and tough working conditions, they used it as an opportunity to foment support for civil rights and to put their families on the next rung of the economic ladder.
Black migrants from the segregated South went to Harlem in New York City and sparked a creative renaissance that continues to shape American culture today.
White owned newspapers often ignored or downplayed racism. However, the Chicago Defender, a paper run by black people for black readers, turned the public spotlight on systemic discrimination against black workers and veterans.
The counter‐majoritarian and anti‐democratic nature of the federal court system was originally intended to act as a safeguard for the rights of minority groups.
