The Movements That Changed America

After WWII, veterans returned home with "combat fatigue," now known as PTSD. Psychiatrist Robert Felix lobbied to establish the National Institute of Mental Health and elevated mental health awareness in America.

In the summer of 1982, nearly 20,000 garment workers—mostly Asian American women—filled the streets of New York’s Chinatown in solidarity. Their strike won a decisive victory and challenged the “model minority” myth that still persists today.

The DSM once labeled homosexuality a mental disorder. In the 1960s, LGBTQ+ activists Barbara Gittings and Frank Kameny pushed to change that, helping spur its removal from the DSM in 1973.

Environmental issues have long faced our planet, but what did it finally take to set aside a day just for Earth?

The 504 Sit-in protest was a pivotal moment in the disability rights movement. The sit-in lasted 28 days and forced the signing of the 504 Regulations, which established protections against discrimination and paved the way for more inclusive workplaces.

In the last year of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. expanded his cause beyond Civil Rights and advocated to lift Americans out of poverty.

From a young age, Coretta Scott King was influenced by music. She spent her youth singing in church choirs and ended up studying at the New England Conservatory, where she met MLK. She earned a degree in voice and music education and studied the violin.

In 1854, Harriet Tubman helped her brothers and their families escape slavery on Christmas Day before they were sold.

At just 6, Ruby Bridges braved angry crowds to attend an all-white school—becoming the first Black student to integrate in Louisiana.

Years before Brown v. Board of Ed, the Mendezes fought their own battle against legalized school segregation.

Two years before the Triangle Fire, Clara Lemlich urged thousands at Cooper Union to strike for safer garment factory conditions.

Sometimes, it really does come down to one vote (and the voter's mother) to change history.

Bayard Rustin was one of Martin Luther King's key advisors who planned the March on Washington in 1963. Yet as a gay man, he forced to work in the shadows.

Freedom Summer 1964 was a massive voter registration campaign in Mississippi. The first interracial movement of its kind, the project was led by Black southern organizers and staffed by both Black and white volunteers.

Don't Ask Don't Tell. This controversial policy was repealed to allow LGBTQ people to openly serve in the US military. But well before this historic moment, one soldier fought for his right to serve.

Protestors gathered at the Capitol in March of 1990, abandoned their assistive devices and crawled up the steps. Known as the Capitol Crawl, it was a major catalyst for the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

Celebrating Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, but continuing that ritual wasn't always easy, especially for slaves in the New World.

In the 1950s, over 40,000 citizens of Montgomery, Alabama, boycotted the city's segregated bus service for 381 days—a massive undertaking that was funded and fed by a clandestine group of women.

On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, mandating the desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces and ending 170 years of officially sanctioned racial discrimination in the military. Although African Americans had served since the Revolutionary War, they were typically segregated from white troops and often assigned to menial roles. A landmark achievement of both the postwar civil rights movement and Truman’s presidency, the order marked one of the first times a U.S. president used executive authority to advance civil rights. It also helped pave the way for broader desegregation efforts across American society.