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BrainPOP - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology

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“Old Hickory” increased presidential powers and was the first self-made man to become president, but his Indian Removal Act and support for slavery make him a complicated figure.

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Get to know Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American President!

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BrainPOP - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology

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The famed inventor who was also a Founding Father, a scientist, and a diplomat. It takes a lot to get on the $100 bill--ask Tim and Moby!

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This First Lady was just as influential as her husband (Franklin) and her uncle (Theodore)! Learn how Eleanor Roosevelt went from Depression-era icon to the United Nations.

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Kids learn about the biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady to FDR and civil and human rights activist.

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Eleanor Roosevelt was married to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was president of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She was widely respected for her many activities as first lady. Later she worked at the United Nations helping people around the world.

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884, in New York City. She grew up in a wealthy family that valued community service. Eleanor was the niece of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th...

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Eleanor Roosevelt was married to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was president of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She was widely respected for her many activities as first lady. Later she worked at the United Nations helping people around the world.Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884, in New York City.

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Even though Eleanor Roosevelt was born into a well-to-do New York family on October 11, 1884, she did not have a happy childhood. By the time she was 10 years old, she had lost both her parents and a younger brother. Her grandmother, whose care she was under, was a stern woman and kept her away from almost everyone except a few family members.

But as she grew older, she realized that other people were much worse off, and she wanted to make their lives better. She helped new immigrants adjust to life in the United States, started investigating poor working conditions at factories, and visited soldiers during World War I. Then in 1929, the country entered the Great Depression, a time when a quarter of Americans did not have jobs and couldn't afford to eat. By the time her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt, became president in 1933, she was ready to do whatever she could to help her fellow Americans.

Because the president had contracted polio in 1921 and couldn't move without a wheelchair or crutches, Roosevelt became his "eyes, ears, and legs." She travelled the country to report on how Americans were living and who was being treated unfairly. She also gave speeches urging people to treat children, women, and racial minorities with respect and fairness.

But she didn't just talk-and many people didn't always approve of things she did. As first lady, she held press conferences just for female reporters. She created homes and jobs for African-American coal miners who had lost their jobs in West Virginia. And in 1939, she quit an organization called the Daughters of the American Revolution after they wouldn't allow African-American singer Marian Anderson to perform; Roosevelt then arranged for her to sing at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Roosevelt changed what it meant to be a first lady, using her influence to help other Americans. And even after her husband died in 1945, other presidents wanted her help as well. President Harry S. Truman, who became president after Roosevelt, sent her as a delegate to the United Nations. There she served as chairman of the Commission on Human Rights and helped write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which lists all the fundamental human rights that must be protected. Although she died on November 7, 1962, the declaration is just part of her legacy that continues to inspire people to look out for their fellow humans.

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Even though Eleanor Roosevelt was born into a well-to-do New York family on October 11, 1884, she did not have a happy childhood. By the time she was 10 years old, she had lost both her parents and a younger brother.

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NAME: Thomas Jefferson

NICKNAME: Father of the Declaration of Independence

BORN: April 13, 1743, in Shadwell, Virginia

DIED: July 4, 1826, in Charlottesville, Virginia

TIME IN OFFICE: March 4, 1801, to March 3, 1809

VICE PRESIDENTS: Aaron Burr (first term), George Clinton (second term)

POLITICAL PARTY: Democratic-Republican

EARLY LIFE

Thomas Jefferson was born near the Blue Ridge Mountains of the British-ruled colony of Virginia on April 13, 1743. From the age of nine, Jefferson studied away from home and lived with his tutor. His father-a landowner, surveyor, and government official-died when his son was 14. Later Jefferson enrolled at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. His education included science, mathematics, philosophy, law, English language and literature, Latin, Greek, French, and dancing.

"LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS"

After college, Jefferson became a lawyer. By age 26 he was a member of Virginia's colonial legislature, or government. Like George Washington, Jefferson spoke out against Great Britain's rule over the 13 North American colonies. When the colonists decided to demand their independence from Great Britain, Jefferson was chosen to write a document explaining why the colonies should be free. The document became known as the Declaration of Independence. It's still admired today for its call for freedom, equality, and its demand that all citizens deserve "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Before he became president, Jefferson was governor of Virginia before the Revolutionary War. After the war, he served as U.S. minister to France, secretary of state for President George Washington, and vice president for President John Adams, the country's second president.

GO WEST, YOUNG NATION

When Jefferson became the third president of the United States in 1801, the country basically ended at the Mississippi River; France controlled much of what was west. That included the Port of New Orleans, in what is now Louisiana. It's coastal location made it a key spot for trade-and Jefferson wanted it. In 1803, he made what's known as one of the greatest real estate deals in history: the Louisiana Purchase.

France agreed to sell the entire city of New Orleans, which included the port, to the United States for $10 million; they threw in the rest of the territory they owned for an additional $5 million. The agreement-which gave the United States about 828,000 square miles of land-almost doubled the size of the nearly 30-year-old nation. Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to join William Clark in leading an expedition to the West Coast to explore the country's new land. The Louisiana Purchase is thought by many to be Jefferson's greatest accomplishment as president.

LASTING LEGACY

Jefferson retired to Monticello, his home in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the end of his second term. He designed and founded the University of Virginia in Charlottesville during his retirement.

Jefferson left a complicated legacy: The man who wrote the Declaration of Independence-which states that "all men are created equal"-also enslaved more than 600 people during his lifetime. But according to his writings, Jefferson knew that future generations would have to end the enslavement of people, and that it would be a long, terrible process.

Like his friend John Adams, Jefferson died 50 years to the day after the approval of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1826.

From the Nat Geo Kids books Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt

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Learn about the life and achievements of the 3rd president of the United States.

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Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743–July 4, 1826) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He drafted the Declaration of Independence, served as the country’s first secretary of state, and was elected the third U.S. president. As president,…

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Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd president of the United States. Learn about his biography and life story.

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Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States and the chief author of the Declaration of Independence. Many people praise Jefferson as someone who believed strongly in the ideas of democracy, equality, and freedom. At the same time, however, he owned slaves, and that has caused some people to question his beliefs.

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NAME: John Adams

NICKNAME: Father of American Independence, Father of the American Navy

BORN: October 30, 1735, in Quincy, Massachusetts

DIED: July 4, 1826, in Quincy, Massachusetts

TIME IN OFFICE: March 4, 1797, to March 3, 1801

VICE PRESIDENT: Thomas Jefferson

POLITICAL PARTY: Federalist

EARLY LIFE

The man who became known as the "Father of American Independence" was born a British subject in the colony of Massachusetts on October 30, 1735. The son of an educated farmer and leather craftsman, Adams grew up enjoying toy boats, marbles, kites, hunting, and reading. He graduated from Harvard University in 1755 before becoming a lawyer.

Adams practiced law in Boston for 12 years and served briefly in the state legislature, or government, of Massachusetts before becoming a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses, a group of representatives from the 13 colonies that would eventually become the United States.

AN AMERICAN AMBASSADOR

Adams, like other members of the Second Continental Congress, helped Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, which proclaimed that the 13 colonies were now independent states and no longer under British rule. An army was formed to oppose the British, it was Adams suggested that George Washington lead it.

Adams was overseas during much of the Revolutionary War, the fight for independence from Great Britain. He represented his new country to governments in Europe, hoping they would help the United States. During his stay in the Netherlands, he arranged for important loans to help fund the war effort. Later he helped negotiate the peace treaty that ended the war in 1781.

After the war, Adams served as the first U.S. ambassador, or representative, to Great Britain. He lived in Great Britain and worked with officials there to improve the relationship between the two countries.

THE FIRST VICE PRESIDENT

Adams returned to the United States in 1788, just after the Constitution of the United States had been drafted. This document created a strong federal government in the new country: two chambers of legislators (also called lawmakers), a federal court system, and a president and vice president to oversee everything. The Constitution still serves as the foundation for the United States government today.

Based on the Constitution's directions, states chose representatives to elect a president. Washington won the vote, making him the first-ever president of the United States. Adams received the second most votes and became vice president. (Before presidents ran with a vice presidential partner like they do today, the Constitution originally called for all candidates to run separately and be considered for president. The runner-up, or second-place finisher, became vice president.)

Adams held the post for both of Washington's terms, but he found the job boring. He observed: "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."

THE SECOND PRESIDENT

After eight years as president, Washington retired in 1797. Adams ran for president again. In 1796 Adams became the second president of the United States by only a three-vote margin over Thomas Jefferson, who became his vice president. Though they'd been good friends during the Revolutionary War, the two men fought during their administration over how to run the country.

FIGHTING WITH FRANCE

Adams devoted much of his presidency to avoiding war with France after fighting broke out in Europe over the bloody French Revolution, which lasted from 1789 to 1799. During the revolution, the French overthrew their monarchy and established a republic, similar to what the United States did during their own Revolutionary War.

During the American Revolutionary War, France supported U.S. independence and loaned the colonies money to fight the British. But after a revolution overthrew the French royalty, the United States refused to pay the debt, saying that the government they owed money to no longer existed. This angered France. France was also upset that the United States traded goods with Great Britain while France was at war with them. The country began attacking U.S. merchant ships. For two years, France and the United States waged what was called a "quasi-war" at sea. Though some government officials wanted a full-blown war with France, Adams used diplomacy, or peaceful negotiations, to reach an end to the fighting.

ADAMS VERSUS JEFFERSON-AGAIN

Not all of Adams decisions as president were admired. Congress pressured him into signing laws known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. These laws allowed the government to arrest and imprison newspaper editors and writers who disagreed with the government's policies. These laws also made it possible to deport immigrants who spoke out against the government.

In 1800, Adams ran against Jefferson again for a second term as president. This time, Jefferson won. It was a mean campaign and added to the hard feelings between Adams and Jefferson. Adams did not attend Jefferson's inauguration.

LASTING LEGACY

In 1801 Adams retired to his home in Massachusetts with his wife, Abigail. After their presidencies were over, Adams and Jefferson restored the friendship of their Revolutionary War days through letter writing. The two men were the only signers of the Declaration of Independence to become presidents. Curiously, they both died on the same day-July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the approval of the Declaration of Independence. Adams's final words were reportedly: "Thomas Jefferson still survives." He did not know his friend had died only a short while earlier.

Adams-as the president who succeeded, or followed, George Washington-showed that the nation's most important office could survive a change of leadership, which countries ruled by kings and queens sometimes did not. He helped his new country avoid war with France during his single term in office and he's remembered today as the "Father of American Independence." Adams was also one of the few Founding Fathers who did not own enslaved people. He believed the Revolution would never be complete until enslaved people were free.

From the Nat Geo Kids books Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt

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Learn about the life and achievements of the 2nd president of the United States.

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As a lawyer in the American colonies, John Adams fought for independence from Great Britain. He went on to become the first vice president and the second president of the new...

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John Adams was the 2nd president of the United States. Learn about his biography and life story including his wife Abigail, the Revolutionary War, and his time as president.

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NAME: James Madison

NICKNAME: Father of the Constitution

BORN: March 16, 1751, in Port Conway, Virginia

DIED: June 28, 1836, in Montpelier, Virginia

TIME IN OFFICE: March 4, 1809, to March 3, 1817

VICE PRESIDENTS: George Clinton (first term), Elbridge Gerry (second term)

POLITICAL PARTY: Democratic-Republican

EARLY LIFE

James Madison was born on March 16, 1751, as a British subject in the colony of Virginia. When Madison was 18 years old, he left his family's plantation to study at what is now Princeton University in New Jersey. After he graduated from college, he became involved in the colonies' bid for independence from Great Britain. He would go on to devote most of his early adulthood to creating the government for a new nation: the United States.

FATHER OF THE CONSTITUTION

During and immediately after the Revolutionary War-when the colonies fought for their independence from Great Britain-Madison served in the Virginia legislature, or government. In 1787, four years after the war ended, Madison was sent to represent his state at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. There, he and other delegates spent 86 days creating the structure of the U.S. government, including its Congress, presidency, and court system. His detailed notes remain a valuable record of the entire event.

Madison and two other men, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, wrote a series of anonymous articles that explained the kind of government they were proposing. These articles have come to be known as the Federalist Papers, and they helped convince all of the states to ratify, or accept, the new Constitution. Madison also helped secure passage of the Bill of Rights. This companion document to the Constitution sets down the basic civil liberties, or rights, of the nation's citizens and states, including freedom of speech.

Because Madison played such a central role in these events, he became known as the "Father of the Constitution." Madison and George Washington are the only signers of the Constitution who later became presidents.

PATH TO THE PRESIDENCY

In 1801, Thomas Jefferson asked Madison to join his new presidential administration as secretary of state. At the end of his two terms as president, Jefferson supported Madison as the next president. Madison easily defeated his opponent, Charles Pinckney, and became the fourth president of the United States in 1809.

Madison's wife, Dolley-who he married in 1794-was so popular that she's credited with helping him win. Pinckney himself said he "might have had a better chance had I faced Mr. Madison alone."

THE WAR OF 1812

During Madison's first term as president, the United States went to war with Great Britain. Americans were frustrated because the British were stopping U.S. cargo ships bound for France, capturing their sailors and goods. If modern forms of communication had existed then, war might have been avoided. But unaware that the British had decided to stop these acts, the U.S. government declared war against Great Britain.

During the War of 1812-which actually lasted until 1815-American forces were beaten regularly on land and at sea. The greatest humiliation occurred late in the war when the British entered Washington, D.C., and set fire to the White House and the U.S. Capitol. (First Lady Dolley Madison gained lasting fame by rescuing government documents and a famous portrait of George Washington just hours before the British raided the capital.) The final contest of the war, the Battle of New Orleans, was fought in January 1815, after a peace treaty had been signed in Europe but before the news reached North America.

POST-WAR POPULARITY

Madison was elected to a second term as president before the War of 1812 ended. But during the war trade, between the United States and Europe had stopped, causing economic difficulties for the people of the young nation. Many blamed Madison for these problems. The New England states even threatened to withdraw from the new country. But once the Battle of New Orleans resulted in a victory for the United States, U.S. citizens were less upset by their country's involvement in the war.

Madison was eventually praised after the war for having allowed others to criticize his wartime policies without fear of trial or imprisonment. He insisted it was important for the United States to be able to fight a war without limiting the constitutional rights of its citizens, including the right of free speech.

LASTING LEGACY

After eight years in the White House, the Madisons settled in Montpelier, Virginia. Madison spent much of his time helping Jefferson create the University of Virginia. He also spoke with many of his peers about how to end slavery-even though he owned slaves himself.

When Madison was on his deathbed in late June of 1836, doctors offered to try to keep him alive long enough to die on the Fourth of July like fellow presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Madison refused, and passed away on June 28, 1836, six days shy of the nation's 60th Independence Day celebration.

From the Nat Geo Kids books Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt

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NAME: James Madison NICKNAME: Father of the Constitution BORN: March 16, 1751, in Port Conway, Virginia DIED: June 28, 1836, in Montpelier, Virginia TIME IN OFFICE: March 4, 1809, to March 3, 1817 VICE PRESIDENTS: George Clinton (first term), Elbridge Gerry (second term) POLITICAL PARTY: Democratic-Republican James Madison was born on March 16, 1751, as a British subject in the colony of Virginia.

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James Madison was the fourth president of the United States. He is known as the Father of the Constitution for his role in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He also led the country through the War of 1812.

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James Madison was the fourth president of the United States. He is known as the Father of the Constitution for his role in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He also led the country through the War of 1812.

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James Madison was the 4th president of the United States. Learn about his biography and life story.

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Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706-April 17, 1790) was a scientist, an inventor, a writer, and a statesman. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He learned to read at an early age. But his father, Josiah Franklin, pulled him out of school when he was 10 years old. He sent Ben to work in the family candle and soap shop. Ben grew restless with the work. When he turned 12, his father sent him to work in a printer's shop. It was owned by Ben's older brother, James.

Ben learned all about the newspaper business. At the time, printing was done by hand. The printer laid out the page letter by letter on a printing press. Ben learned how to build sentences with care. He also learned to write. He wrote political essays. He did not sign his name to the essays. Instead, he signed them Silence Dogood. This was so readers would think they were written by an ordinary person in the town. But his brother James did not want Ben to write. He often beat him. So at 16, Ben fled to Philadelphia. He would call the city home for the rest of his life.

Ambition and Invention

Franklin became known in Philadelphia as a hardworking young man. In 1728, he and a friend opened a print shop. Then in 1729, he bought the Pennsylvania Gazette. He turned it into the most widely read newspaper in the American colonies. At the time, newspapers were the best way to spread ideas. Newspapers spread the ideas that would eventually bring about the American Revolution.

Over the years, Franklin became even more well-known. In 1732, he began publishing the yearly Poor Richard's Almanack. He wrote in the voice of a farmer named Poor Richard. The almanac contained weather forecasts, information about astronomy, poetry, and other amusements. It became famous for its folksy proverbs. Two of the most famous proverbs are "No pains without gains" and "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

Benjamin Franklin and associates at Franklin's printing press.

Franklin became one of the richest men in Pennsylvania. In 1748, he retired from the print business. He wanted to devote his time to science. His famous kite-and-key experiment in 1752 demonstrated that lighting was electricity. He invented the lightning rod. Some of the terms he coined are still used today, such as battery, charge, and electrify. He also invented bifocal eyeglasses and maybe even the first rocking chair.

Founding Father

In 1751, Franklin was elected as a representative to the Pennsylvania Assembly. He was reelected every year until 1764.

In March 1765, the British government passed the Stamp Act. This made the North American colonists angry. The act required that the colonists pay a tax on printed materials. The colonists used a lot of printed material. They used print documents for business and legal matters. At the time, Franklin was living in London. He was Pennsylvania's agent in Britain. He went before the British Parliament to condemn the tax. The bill was repealed in 1766.

Franklin was elected to the Second Continental Congress in 1775. He believed the American colonies should separate from English rule. In 1776, he joined a committee to draft the Declaration of Independence. He then traveled to France. There, he negotiated a treaty. France agreed to lend the colonies money and soldiers to fight the war against Britain. After the war, Franklin went to Britain with John Adams and John Jay. They negotiated terms of peace with Britain. This led to the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

In 1787, Franklin represented the state of Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention. The purpose of the convention was to draft the U.S. Constitution. At 81, he was the oldest delegate. He went on to serve as president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Franklin once owned a slave. But in 1790, he urged Congress to abolish slavery in the U.S.

Franklin died on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His memoirs were published the following year. They are known today as The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

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Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706-April 17, 1790) was a scientist, an inventor, a writer, and a statesman. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He learned...

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Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706. He left school at age 10. At age 12 he went to work in his brother's printing shop.

In 1723 Franklin moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He worked there as a printer. His most popular publication was Poor Richard's Almanack. The almanac featured Franklin's witty sayings and verses. A famous one was "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

Franklin started many public services in Philadelphia. They included a fire department, a hospital, an insurance company, and a library. A school he founded became the University of Pennsylvania.

Franklin was a great scientific thinker and inventor. He invented the Franklin stove, which was used to heat rooms, and a type of eyeglasses called bifocals. His experiments with electricity led to the invention of the lightning rod. That metal rod is used to protect buildings from lightning.

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Benjamin Franklin won fame as a writer, a publisher, a scientist, and an inventor. He is best remembered, however, for his leadership in the American colonies and the early...

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Kids learn about Benjamin Franklin's biography. Inventor, scientist, statesman, and Founding Father of the United States.

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Kids learn about the biography of Cesar Chavez, civil rights leader who fought for the conditions of migrant farmers and Latinos.

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As a child Cesar Chavez was a migrant worker, moving from place to place to work on farms. As an adult he helped improve the lives of migrant farmworkers in the United States by organizing them into a labor union.

Cesar Estrada Chavez was born on March 31, 1927, near Yuma, Arizona. During the Great Depression of the 1930s his family became migrant farmworkers in California. By age 15 Cesar was working full-time in the fields. During World War II he served in the U.S. Navy.

In 1952 Chavez joined a group that helped Hispanic people in California and encouraged them to vote. In 1962 Chavez and Dolores Huerta founded a labor union called the National Farm Workers Association. In 1971 the union became known as the United Farm Workers of America (UFW).

Chavez led protests to call attention to the problems of migrant workers. In the mid-1960s he launched a strike by California grape pickers that lasted five years. During the strike Chavez got people across the country to stop buying California grapes. By 1970 most grape growers had signed contracts that improved wages and benefits for their workers. Chavez also led battles against lettuce growers and other farm businesses. Chavez served as president of the UFW until his death on April 23, 1993.

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As a child Cesar Chavez was a migrant worker, moving from place to place to work on farms. As an adult he helped improve the lives of migrant farmworkers in the United States...

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NAME: Barack Hussein Obama

NICKNAME: Barry

BORN: August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii

TIME IN OFFICE: January 20, 2009, to January 20, 2017

VICE PRESIDENT: Joseph R. Biden

POLITICAL PARTY: Democrat

EARLY LIFE

Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was raised by his mother and her parents. He was the first president born there and the first to be born after the country had 50 states.

Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, before transferring to New York's Columbia University. He took a break from school to volunteer in Chicago, Illinois, before earning a law degree from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After winning election to the Illinois State Senate in 1996, Obama won a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2004 and then the presidency in 2008.

MAKING HISTORY

A Democrat, Obama became the first African American to run for president on a major political party's ticket. He then went on to become the first African American to be elected president of the United States. (His white mother was from Kansas; his black father from Kenya, a country in Africa.) He took office during the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression during the 1930s, when one-fourth of all workers were unemployed and people traveled the country looking for food and work. Many called the new crisis the Great Recession.

With help from the Democrat-controlled Congress, Obama worked to improve the economy and ultimately added jobs for 75 straight months, the longest streak in American history. But some parts of the country still struggled with poverty, and the number of people who didn't make enough money to live comfortably reached an all-time high in 2010. Anger spread when people felt left behind. The Democrats soon lost control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and Obama struggled to pass legislation.

PRIORITIZING HEALTH CARE

Obama's biggest goal as president was to help all citizens afford health care. At the time, almost 50 million Americans didn't have health insurance, which meant that some families didn't have the money to go to the doctor. Obama wanted to change that.

Obama called his health care plan the Affordable Care Act (ACA); it later became nicknamed Obamacare. Although Republicans opposed the plan, saying it was too expensive for the government to fund, it was signed into law in 2010. But within seven minutes of the act's passage, 13 states sued the federal government for forcing individuals to buy insurance. (Under theACA, most people were required to have health insurance or they'd have to pay a penalty.) The states claimed the new act was unconstitutional, meaning Obama couldn't make the states put it into action.

The ACA took effect in 2014 after the Supreme Court had eventually declared it constitutional. The act guaranteed access to health care options for all Americans who didn't get it through their jobs. But Republicans, who wanted less government involvement in people's lives, still didn't agree with the act. And some people who had the insurance said it was just as expensive, or more expensive, than their previous plans which were no longer available to them. The Affordable Care Act remains controversial today, with many people fighting against it.

FIGHTING TERRORISM

Although the economy continued to improve in the United States, Obama faced challenges in other countries. The United States was fighting two wars in the Middle Eastern countries of Afghanistan and Iraq. President George W. Bush had sent troops to Afghanistan after the terror attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001. Bush hoped to capture those responsible for the 9/11 attacks, including al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. Bush also sent troops to Iraq in 2003, after rumors that the country was hiding dangerous weapons that the president wanted to find and destroy.

Bush's decision to attack these countries was met with general support at first, but by the time Obama became president, public opinion had changed. Some 7,000 American soldiers had died at this point, with an additional 50,000 more wounded. Many Americans wanted these wars to be over. Obama's administration experienced a victory on May 1, 2011, when a group of Navy SEALs (a special military group) acted on Obama's command to strike at a house where bin Laden was hiding. His death during the raid was a blow to al Qaeda and gave some U.S. citizens hope that progress was being made in the fight against terrorism.

By the end of 2011, Obama had withdrawn all combat troops from Iraq. But U.S. troops were still fighting in Afghanistan by the end of his two terms, something many people disagreed with. The rise of another terrorist group in the region, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), continued the war against terrorism throughout Obama's presidency.

OPENING DOORS

Despite wars overseas, Obama reached out to other nations in hopes of maintaining peace. In 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower cut ties with the island nation of Cuba because of its support for the communist Soviet Union (now Russia). Obama tried to ease those tensions by re-opening an embassy there in 2015. He also went to Hiroshima, Japan, where the United States dropped a nuclear bomb in 1945 during World War II. He was the first sitting president to visit the city since that event. For his peace efforts, in 2009 he became the fourth president to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

SUPREME COURT SHAKE-UP

During the first two years of Obama's presidency, he appointed two new justices to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States. Obama replaced the retiring male justices with women: Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, the first person of Latino heritage on the high court. For the first time, the court had three female justices. Obama's new additions to the Court were part of several historic decisions, including its marriage equality ruling on June 26, 2015. The decision legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, Obama's final year of office, gave him another opportunity to add a new justice. But his Republican opponents worried that he would appoint someone who would change how the court made decisions. They declined to consider Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, saying that it was an election year. (No Supreme Court nominee had been denied a hearing during an election year before this.) The seat remained empty through the end of Obama's presidency, the longest in Supreme Court history. The remaining eight justices continued to work, but important matters were left unresolved when they deadlocked with 4-4 votes.

LASTING LEGACY

Obama left office after two terms in January 2017 with a 60 percent approval rating, higher than most presidents at the end of their presidency. He remained in Washington, D.C., where he and his wife, Michelle, started the Obama Foundation to provide mentoring and education to kids, and to award scholarships to college students.

Obama made history by being the first African American to win the presidency. As a recent president, however, his legacy is still being determined. What future presidents do with Obama's policies and how involved Obama gets in world politics will help shape how his presidency is perceived in the future.

From the Nat Geo Kids books Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt

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Learn about the life and achievements of the 44th president of the United States.

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Barack H. Obama is the 44th president of the United States. Kids learn about his biography and life story.

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(born 1961). In only four years Barack Obama made an improbable rise from the state legislature of Illinois to the highest office of the United States. The first African American to win the presidency, he made history with his resounding victory over Republican John McCain in the election of 2008. His eloquent message of hope and change attracted voters across the country, even in states that had gone decades without supporting a Democratic presidential candidate. Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, were elected to a second term in 2012.

For most of his presidency Obama faced stubborn Republican opposition to almost all his proposals. Nevertheless, he helped pull the economy out of a historic crisis and oversaw passage of a landmark health care reform law. He also brought the unpopular Iraq War to a close and achieved diplomatic breakthroughs with Iran and Cuba.

Barack Hussein Obama II was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was from rural Kenya, where he grew up herding goats. He came to the United States to study on a scholarship. Obama's mother, S. Ann Dunham, came from Kansas. The two met while they were both students at the University of Hawaii. When young Barack was two years old, his parents divorced, and his father eventually returned to Kenya to work as an economist. His mother later married a student from Indonesia, and Barack lived in that country between the ages of six and 10. While there, Obama attended both a government-run school where he received some instruction in Islam and a Roman Catholic private school where he took part in Christian schooling. He returned to Hawaii in 1971, living sometimes with his grandparents and sometimes with his mother.

After high school in Honolulu, Obama attended Occidental College in suburban Los Angeles, California, for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he received a bachelor's degree in political science in 1983. Obama worked as a business writer and editor in New York before becoming a community organizer in Chicago, Illinois, in 1985. In this position he worked with churches to improve living conditions in impoverished neighborhoods on the city's South Side. Three years later he entered Harvard Law School, where he was the first African American to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated with honors in 1991.

While working at a Chicago law firm in the summer of 1989, Obama met Chicago native Michelle Robinson, a young lawyer at the firm. The two married in 1992 and had two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

After law school Obama returned to Chicago and became active in the Democratic Party. He organized Project Vote, a drive that registered tens of thousands of African Americans to vote. He also practiced civil rights law and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago. Obama's first book, the memoir Dreams from My Father, was released in 1995 to little fanfare, although it received generally positive reviews. The book traced Obama's personal challenge of coming to terms with his biracial heritage and described a journey he made to his father's village in Africa. After his parents divorced, Obama had seen his father only once more before the elder Obama died in an auto accident in 1982.

In 1996 Obama was elected as a Democrat to the Illinois Senate, where he would serve for eight years. As a state senator he helped pass legislation that tightened campaign finance regulations, expanded health care to poor families, and reformed criminal justice and welfare laws. He also served as chairman of the state's Health and Human Services Committee.

In 2004 Obama ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In the Democratic primary he emerged as the winner from a field of seven candidates. During the general election campaign Obama's Republican opponent was forced to withdraw after details of his divorce proceedings came to light. The state Republican Party then brought in Alan Keyes, a conservative radio talk-show host and former diplomat who moved to Illinois from Maryland for the contest. It was the first Senate race in which the two leading candidates were African Americans. Obama handily defeated Keyes in November, winning 70 percent of the vote. He was only the third African American to be elected to the Senate since the end of Reconstruction in 1877.

While campaigning for the Senate, Obama became one of the most talked-about young politicians in a generation. His keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004 brought conventioneers to their feet and instantly made him a political superstar. The rousing speech wove elements of Obama's biography with the theme that all Americans are connected in ways that transcend political, cultural, and geographical differences. Following the address, Obama's memoir climbed the best-seller lists.

After taking office as a senator in 2005, Obama quickly became a major figure in his party. He received several coveted committee assignments, including a post on the Foreign Relations Committee. He also served on the Environment and Public Works and the Veteran's Affairs committees. He supported ethics reform in government, championed alternative energy sources, and worked to secure or destroy deadly weapons in Russia and elsewhere.

Obama achieved a level of visibility that was rare for a first-term senator. A trip to his father's home in Kenya in August 2006 attracted international media attention. His second book, The Audacity of Hope, was published weeks later and instantly became a best seller.

In early 2007 Obama declared himself in the running for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. The overwhelming favorite to win the nomination was Senator Hillary Clinton of New York. However, Obama's personal charisma, stirring oratory, and campaign promise to bring change to the political system won him the support of many Democrats, especially young and minority voters.

On January 3, 2008, Obama won a surprise victory in the first major nominating contest, the Iowa caucus. Five days later, however, Clinton topped Obama in the New Hampshire primary. The primary race that followed was tightly contested, with no clear front-runner emerging as both Obama and Clinton claimed important victories. Not until June 3, following the final primaries in Montana and South Dakota, did the number of delegates pledged to Obama surpass the total needed to win the Democratic nomination. Obama officially accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in August, becoming the first African American to be nominated for the presidency by either major party.

Obama's Republican opponent for the presidency was Senator John McCain of Arizona. When McCain criticized Obama as being too inexperienced for the office, Obama countered by choosing Joe Biden, a longtime senator from Delaware, as his vice presidential running mate. A key issue in the hard-fought campaign was the Iraq War, with Obama calling for a swift withdrawal of most U.S. forces from Iraq while McCain insisted that the United States must wait for full victory before withdrawing. Other topics of debate were health care and taxation. Obama's campaign was bolstered by his significant advantage in fund-raising, as hundreds of millions of dollars poured in from a record number of donors.

In the weeks leading up to the election, the recent collapse of some of the largest U.S. banks and financial institutions made the economy the single most important issue. The economic meltdown propelled Obama's campaign, which called the crisis a result of the policies of outgoing Republican president George W. Bush. Many voters linked McCain with the unpopular Bush, and polls indicated that the majority believed Obama was better equipped to turn the economy around.

In November 2008 Obama decisively won the presidency, capturing 365 electoral votes and some 53 percent of the popular vote. He won all the states that the Democrat John Kerry had won in the 2004 election and also captured a number of states (including Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia) that the Republicans had carried in the previous two presidential elections. On election night tens of thousands gathered in Chicago's Grant Park to see Obama claim victory. In addition to being the first African American president, he was also the first sitting U.S. senator to win the office since John F. Kennedy in 1960. He was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009.

Obama came into office promising to bring an end to the partisan conflict that kept Democrats and Republicans from compromising on important legislation. Very soon, however, Obama found out how difficult it would be to achieve cooperation from his Republican opponents in Congress. According to Democrats, the Republicans sought to obstruct Democratic policies without offering real alternative proposals. Republicans, on the other hand, criticized Obama and his Democratic allies for governing without substantive Republican involvement. This partisan divide would become a lasting theme of Obama's presidency.

In his first months in office, Obama worked to restore the international image of the United States, which many believed had been tarnished by the policies of the Bush Administration. He ordered the closing of the controversial military detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within a year (a goal that was not met). He vowed to work toward the elimination of nuclear weapons and to improve strained relations with Russia. In June 2009 he traveled to the Middle East and gave a speech calling for a new relationship between the United States and the Muslim world. In recognition of such efforts, Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for peace, with the Nobel committee citing his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

Obama's top domestic priority was the ongoing economic recession. Aided by Democratic majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, Obama pushed through Congress a massive stimulus package that pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into the struggling economy. By late 2009 the stimulus had reversed the dramatic decline in the gross domestic product. Perhaps the most encouraging sign of recovery was the dramatic turnaround of General Motors (GM). In June 2009 the auto manufacturer had declared bankruptcy, prompting a $60 billion government rescue and takeover of about three-fifths of its stock. By May 2010 GM, under a new business plan, had shown its first profit in three years. Despite these gains, however, unemployment remained high, and Republicans complained that the stimulus had been too costly.

A sweeping financial reform bill passed in July 2010 was another response to the recession. Aimed at preventing the conditions that led to the economic crisis, the bill empowered the government to take over and shut down large troubled financial firms and created a council of federal regulators to monitor the financial system, among other provisions. The passage of the bill was a major legislative victory for the president.

Another early priority of Obama's presidency was reforming the country's health care system. During the election campaign, Obama had called for reforms that would make health insurance more affordable and extend coverage to tens of millions of Americans who lacked it. The issue provoked a prolonged and sometimes bitter debate, with Republicans complaining that Democratic proposals constituted a costly "government takeover" of health care. A new conservative populist movement, the Tea Party, loudly objected to the proposed health care reforms in a series of town hall meetings in summer 2009. More generally, Tea Party members opposed what they saw as excessive taxes and government involvement in the private sector.

In late 2009 the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and Senate each passed a version of the health care bill. Congressional leaders prepared to negotiate a compromise between the two versions. However, the triumph of a Republican in a special election held to fill the Senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy's death destroyed the Democrats' filibuster-proof majority. In March 2010, as the historic measure teetered on the brink of defeat, Obama and other Democratic leaders mounted a last-ditch campaign to pass it. The president became more forceful in promoting the bill, both to Congress and to the American people. Later that month Congress passed the bill with no Republican support. Officially called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, it also became commonly known as Obamacare.

Obama's key foreign-policy challenges were the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Throughout the presidential campaign he had argued that the focus of U.S. military efforts should be in Afghanistan rather than Iraq. In keeping with this philosophy, Obama set an 18-month timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq. The situation in Iraq continued to improve, and in August 2010, on schedule, the U.S. combat mission in Iraq ended. The withdrawal of some 50,000 U.S. troops who had remained in the country as a transitional force was completed in December 2011, ending the Iraq War. Meanwhile, as the Taliban experienced a resurgence in Afghanistan, Obama increased the number of U.S. troops there. On May 1, 2011, he announced that U.S. special forces had killed Osama bin Laden, leader of the terrorist group al-Qaeda, in a firefight in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, popular uprisings collectively known as the Arab Spring toppled longtime authoritarian governments in Tunisia and Egypt and led to widespread conflict in other countries. The Obama Administration voiced its support for the protesters' democratic goals while trying to avoid direct intervention in the affairs of other countries. In Libya, however, Obama felt U.S. intervention was necessary when dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi unleashed a brutal military crackdown on protests against his rule. In March 2011 U.S. and European forces launched air strikes against Libya in an effort to disable that country's air force and air defense systems. A week later the United States turned over command in Libya to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO attacks helped rebel forces oust Qaddafi, but Libya remained highly unstable.

Obama officially kicked off his bid for reelection in May 2012. His Republican opponent was Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts. As in 2008, the economy was the central issue of the race. Though economic conditions continued to improve, the recovery from the "Great Recession" of 2007-09 was slow and uneven. Profits were up again for many corporations, and the financial system had regained stability; however, the housing market continued to struggle, and the unemployment rate remained high. Romney spent much of his campaign criticizing Obama's handling of the economy, but the Republican effort fell short. On November 6, 2012, Obama was reelected for a second term as president, winning 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206.

Second Term
After the election, Obama entered into negotiations with Republican leaders regarding the federal budget. At issue were a series of economic measures set to expire at the start of 2013. Chief among them were the tax cuts introduced during Bush's presidency. Another critical issue was sequestration-automatic spending cuts to military and nonmilitary programs required by the Budget Control Act of 2011. A compromise bill signed in January 2013 preserved the Bush-era income tax cuts for most Americans but raised taxes on individuals earning $400,000 or more annually and couples earning $450,000 or more. The compromise delayed but did not prevent the cuts to military and social spending, which began in March.

Republicans tried to use the budget negotiations to aid their ongoing battle against Obamacare. With another deadline looming in October 2013, Republicans associated with the Tea Party movement led an attempt to include a one-year delay in the implementation of Obamacare in the new budget resolution. After Congress reached a stalemate over the resolution, the federal government partially shut down for the first time in 17 years, closing government offices and putting hundreds of thousands of employees temporarily out of work. The shutdown continued for 16 days before Congress passed a bill that funded the government through January 15, 2014. By the end of 2013 Congress passed a two-year budget agreement that replaced most of the automatic spending cuts required by sequestration with targeted cuts. The compromise also raised discretionary spending in military and nonmilitary programs.

With the temporary resolution of the budget battle, public attention shifted to the disastrous rollout of Obamacare in October 2013. The trouble centered on HealthCare.gov, the Web site set up as the place to apply for health insurance. The site was often slow or simply inoperable, preventing many users from enrolling in the program. As HealthCare.gov's performance improved, however, millions of Americans bought insurance plans through the site. At the beginning of April 2014, after the end of the first open enrollment period, the president announced that 7.1 million people had signed up for Obamacare, meeting the administration's goal.

Obama also raised the ire of Republicans with his use of executive orders-directives that do not require the approval of Congress. The president use his executive power to address issues that remained bogged down in Congress. In 2014 Obama signed executive orders that raised the minimum wage of federal contract workers, introduced new restrictions on the carbon emissions of power plants to combat global warming, and granted work permits and temporary legal status to millions of illegal immigrants. Although Republicans criticized Obama for misusing his executive powers, the president maintained that his actions were necessary to get anything done in the midst of Congressional gridlock.

For many Americans, Obama's election as the first African American president represented a historic step forward in the country's troubled history of race relations. In his second term, however, racial tensions once again came into the national spotlight. In August 2014 the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed African American teenager, by a white police officer resulted in days of protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Although President Obama carefully sought not to take sides, a series of high-profile incidents kept the issue of police violence against African Americans in the headlines and spawned a protest movement known by the slogan Black Lives Matter. The country was even more stunned and saddened when, in June 2015, nine African Americans were shot and killed by a young white man in a hate crime in a historic Black church in Charleston, South Carolina. Obama delivered a eulogy for one of the shooting's victims, addressing race relations and gun control.

The Charleston tragedy was just one of a number of mass shootings that continued the epidemic of gun violence in the United States. In June 2016 a gunman killed 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Less than a month later, a sniper shot and killed four police officers and a rapid transit officer in Dallas, Texas, at the close of a peaceful protest against the shootings earlier in the week of African American men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota. Called upon so often to comfort the grieving country in the wake of tragedy, Obama became known as the "consoler in chief."

Another controversial social issue that divided the country during Obama's presidency was same-sex marriage. In his first years in office Obama endorsed only civil unions for same-sex couples, but in 2012 he changed his stance and became the first sitting U.S. president to publicly support same-sex marriage. In June 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case Obergefell v. Hodges that state bans on same-sex marriage and on recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions were unconstitutional. The ruling thereby legalized same-sex marriage throughout the country.

In foreign affairs, the Middle East continued to be a major focus in Obama's second term. In mid-2014, nearly three years after the removal of the final U.S. troops from Iraq, Obama was again forced to respond to events there. For more than a year the country's U.S.-supported government had been fighting a militant Sunni group called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL; also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS]). In June 2014 Obama authorized the dispatch of up to 300 U.S. Special Operations troops to train and advise Iraqi security forces. In August and September the United States launched air strikes against ISIL in Iraq and Syria while Obama worked to build a coalition of some 20 countries to join the military campaign. U.S. and coalition air strikes continued past the end of Obama's presidency.

In Syria, the fight against ISIL was complicated by conflict between the authoritarian government and rebel forces. The conflict began when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ordered a violent crackdown against prodemocracy protesters. By mid-2012 the crisis had escalated into a civil war. After the government used chemical weapons in its attacks, the United States provided arms and other support to the rebels, but Obama chose not to intervene with the U.S. military. The war raged throughout the rest of Obama's presidency, with government forces gaining the upper hand against the rebels as hundreds of thousands of Syrians died. While some people blamed Obama's measured response for making the conflict worse, others supported his decision not to involve the United States in another complex Middle Eastern war.

Obama's strategy to combat terrorism involved a major expansion of the use of drone strikes. According to administration officials, Obama authorized more than 500 unmanned drone strikes against suspected terrorists in a number of countries, including Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya. This total was more than 10 times the number of strikes ordered by President George W. Bush. The Obama Administration stated that the strikes killed some 3,000 terrorists and as many as 117 civilians. Human rights groups, however, claimed that many more civilians-possibly as many as 800-died in the attacks.

Obama's second term saw some major diplomatic achievements. One was a landmark agreement in which Iran agreed to limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the reduction of economic sanctions against the country. Obama said that the agreement cut off "every pathway to a nuclear weapon" for Iran. Another foreign-policy success was a breakthrough in diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba. The United States had suspended relations with Cuba in 1961, during the Cold War. In 2015 the United States and Cuba officially opened their embassies in each other's capital, and in 2016 Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba in more than 80 years.

Obama left office in January 2017. Upon his departure his approval rating stood near 60 percent, considerably higher than that of the incoming president, Donald Trump.

Abramson, Jill. Obama: The Historic Journey (Callaway, 2009).Gormley, Beatrice. Barack Obama: Our Forty-fourth President (Aladdin, 2015).Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope (Crown, 2006).Robinson, Tom. Barack Obama: 44th U.S. President (ABDO, 2009).Schuman, Michael. Barack Obama: "We Are One People," rev. and exp. ed. (Enslow, 2009). Wagner, Heather Lehr. Barack Obama (Chelsea House, 2008).

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(born 1961). In only four years Barack Obama made an improbable rise from the state legislature of Illinois to the highest office of the United States. The first African American to win the presidency, he made history with his resounding victory over Republican John McCain in the election of 2008.

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Andrew Jackson served two terms as the seventh president of the United States. Jackson was the first president to have grown up poor and on the western frontier. He made the...

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Biography of President Andrew Jackson for Kids

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Andrew Jackson was the 7th president of the United States. Kids learn about his biography and life story.

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Learn about the life and achievements of this Founding Father of the United States.

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Learn about the biography of Alexander Hamilton, Founding Father of the United States and First Secretary of the Treasury.

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Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757-July 12, 1804) is one of America's most influential Founding Fathers. In his short life, he served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, was the first U.S. secretary of the treasury, and established the nation's first national bank. But Hamilton was not born into power. He worked his way to the top.

Alexander Hamilton was born on January 11, 1755 or 1757, on Nevis. It's an island in the British West Indies. His father, James, left his mother in 1765. As a result, Hamilton grew up poor. At 11, he had his first job. He worked as an accounting clerk. This taught him about business. His boss was impressed by his ability.

When Hamilton was 13, his mother became ill and died. His boss wanted to help him. So he raised money and sent young Hamilton to America.

At 15, Hamilton attended a private high school in Elizabeth, New Jersey. In the fall of 1773, he entered King's College (later renamed Columbia University). Hamilton took his studies seriously. But he left school before graduation to join protests against the British. The Revolutionary War started in 1775. The next year Hamilton was made a captain in the military. He rose through the ranks and became a trusted adviser to George Washington.

Building a United Nation

After his war service, Hamilton went on to became a lawyer. In 1784, he founded the Bank of New York. Three years later, Hamilton was invited to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to take part in the Constitutional Convention. The purpose of the meeting was to form a new national government.

After the Constitution was drafted, all 13 colonies had to agree to it. Hamilton worked with James Madison, a delegate from Virginia, and John Jay, secretary of foreign affairs, to get it approved. They wrote 85 essays to defend the constitution. Those writings would later be titled The Federalist Papers. The essays got people's attention. The Constitution passed on September 17, 1787. It wasn't until after Hamilton's death that people learned that he was one of the authors. In fact, Hamilton wrote more than half of the collected essays.

In 1789, George Washington became the first president of the United States. He asked Hamilton to serve as secretary of the treasury. One of Hamilton's most important tasks was to figure out a way to pay off the country's war debt. According to his plan, the first step would be for the government to take on debts owed by individual states.

At the same time, there was debate about where the new nation's capital should be. Some wanted Philadelphia. Others thought it should remain in New York City. Still others pushed for a capital in the South.

To come to a decision, Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison met in New York City. They made a secret deal. Madison would tell Southerners to support Hamilton's debt plan, and not the one Jefferson had proposed. In return, Hamilton would convince New Yorkers to support having in the U.S. capital in the South.

The deal worked. Washington, D.C., was selected as the nation's capital, and the federal government took on the states' war debts.

Problems in Politics

Although some people did not like or respect Hamilton, he continued to be involved in politics. When Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied in the presidential election of 1800, Hamilton supported Jefferson.

When Burr ran for governor of New York, in 1804, Hamilton again spoke out against him. Burr believed Hamilton had cost him another election and challenged him to a duel.

On July 11, Burr shot and killed Hamilton in Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton's wife, Elizabeth Schuyler, lived for 50 years after his death and worked to preserve his memory.

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Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757-July 12, 1804) is one of America's most influential Founding Fathers. In his short life, he served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, was the first U.S. secretary of the treasury, and established...

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Alexander Hamilton was one of the youngest and brightest of the founders of the United States. He was the first secretary of the treasury. He worked to create a strong U.S. government.

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Kids learn about the biography of Clara Barton, Civil War nurse who founded the American Red Cross.

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Clara Barton was called "the angel of the battlefield" for her work tending to wounded soldiers in the American Civil War. Later she organized the American Red Cross to aid the victims of all wars and disasters.

Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born on December 25, 1821, in Oxford, Massachusetts. She was educated at home. As a young woman she taught school in Massachusetts and New Jersey.

When the American Civil War began in 1861, Barton heard that Union (Northern) soldiers were suffering and dying because there were not enough bandages and other medical supplies. She organized a private agency to buy supplies. Starting in 1862 she herself worked as an unpaid nurse, aiding the wounded where they fell. After the war she led an effort to track down missing soldiers.

Some people in Europe also wanted to help soldiers wounded in battle. In 1863 these people founded the International Red Cross. In 1870, while Barton was staying in Europe, a war broke out between France and Germany. Barton tended the wounded under the Red Cross banner. In 1881, after returning to the United States, she organized the American Red Cross.

Barton was head of the American Red Cross for 23 years. She expanded the mission of the organization to include helping victims of disasters in peacetime as well as in war. In 1904 Barton retired. She died on April 12, 1912.

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Clara Barton was called "the angel of the battlefield" for her work tending to wounded soldiers in the American Civil War. Later she organized the American Red Cross to aid...

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NAME: Abraham Lincoln

NICKNAMES: Honest Abe, the Great Emancipator

BORN: February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky

DIED: April 15, 1865, in Washington, D.C.

TIME IN OFFICE: March 4, 1861, to April 15, 1865

VICE PRESIDENTS: Hannibal Hamlin (first term), Andrew Johnson (second term)

POLITICAL PARTY: Republican (formerly Whig)

EARLY LIFE

Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Kentucky on February 12, 1809, to parents who could neither read nor write. He went to school on and off for a total of about a year, but he educated himself by reading borrowed books. When Lincoln was nine years old, his mother died. His father-a carpenter and farmer-remarried and moved his family farther west, eventually settling in Illinois.

As a young adult, Lincoln worked as a flatboat navigator, storekeeper, soldier, surveyor, and postmaster. At age 25 he was elected to the local government in Springfield, Illinois. Once there, he taught himself law, opened a law practice, and earned the nickname "Honest Abe."

He served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives but lost two U.S. Senate races. But the debates he had about the enslavement of people with his 1858 senatorial opponent, Stephen Douglas, helped him win the presidential nomination two years later. (Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery in the United States.) In the four-way presidential race of 1860, Lincoln got more votes than any other candidate.

A NATION DIVIDED

When Lincoln first took office in 1861, the United States was not truly united. The nation had been arguing for more than a hundred years about enslaving people and each state's right to allow it. Now Northerners and Southerners were close to war. When he became president, Lincoln allowed the enslavement of people to continue in southern states but he outlawed its spread to other existing states and states that might later join the Union.

Southern leaders didn't agree with this plan and decided to secede, or withdraw, from the nation. Eventually, 11 southern states formed the Confederate States of America to oppose the 23 northern states that remained in the Union. The Civil War officially began on April 12, 1861, at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, when troops from the Confederacy attacked the U.S. fort.

WARTIME PRESIDENCY

Lincoln's primary goal as president was to hold the country together. For a long time, it didn't look as if he would succeed. During the early years, the South was winning the war. It wasn't until the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania during July 1863 that the war turned in favor of the Union.

Through speeches such as the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln encouraged Northerners to keep fighting. In this famous dedication of the battlefield cemetery, he urged citizens to ensure "that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Earlier that same year Lincoln called for the end of the enslavement of people in his Emancipation Proclamation speech.

When the war was nearly over, Lincoln was re-elected in 1864. Civil War victory came on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Some 750,000 soldiers had died during the four-year conflict.

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Seeing the Union successfully through the Civil War was Lincoln's greatest responsibility, but it wasn't his only triumph during his presidential years. Together with Congress, he established the Department of Agriculture; supported the development of a transcontinental railroad; enacted the Homestead Act, which opened up land to settlers; and crafted the 13th Amendment, which ended the enslavement of people.

TRAGIC FATE

Less than a week after people celebrated the end the Civil War, the country was mourning yet again. Lincoln became the first president to be assassinated when he was shot on April 14, 1865.

The night he was shot, he and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, were watching a play in Washington, D.C. The entrance to their box seats was poorly guarded, allowing actor John Wilkes Booth to enter. Booth hoped to revive the Confederate cause by killing Lincoln. He shot Lincoln in the back of the head, then fled the theater. He wasn't caught until two weeks later. He was shot during his eventual capture and died from his wounds.

The wounded and unconscious president was carried to a boardinghouse across the street, where he died the next morning, April 15, 1865. Lincoln's presidency was tragically cut short, but his contributions to the United States ensured that he would be remembered as one of its most influential presidents.
From the Nat Geo Kids books Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt

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Learn about the life and achievements of the 16th president of the United States.

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Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States. He led the country through the Civil War and worked to end slavery. His life was cut short early in his second term when he was assassinated.

Abraham Lincoln was born to uneducated farmers. They lived in a one-room log cabin in Hodgenville, Kentucky. The family later moved to southern Indiana. Throughout Lincoln's life, he demonstrated that anyone can achieve greatness. But it requires dedication and hard work. Lincoln attended school for no more than a year. He was an reader, however. He did not attend law school. Instead, he studied on his own. He became an attorney in 1836.

As a lawyer, Lincoln earned a reputation for being clever, fair, and honest. Five years after moving to Springfield, Illinois, he married Mary Todd. They eventually had four children: Robert, Eddie, Willie, and Tad.

In 1834, Lincoln won the first of four elections to the Illinois State Legislature. He then served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1847 to 1849. In 1858, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. During the race, he debated Stephen Douglas seven times. Lincoln gained national attention for his skills as an . Two years after losing the Senate race, he made a remarkable comeback. He was elected president.

Defender of the Union

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Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861. At the time, there were rising tensions in the U.S. The country was split over states' rights and slavery. President Lincoln opposed slavery. So did many lawmakers in the North. But Southern landowners depended on slave labor for their farms. They demanded that slavery remain legal. Within months of Lincoln's taking office, seven states broke away from the Union. They formed the Confederate States of America. Later, four more states joined the Confederacy. Lincoln was determined to keep the union . But he knew that it likely meant going to war with the states that had .

The North and South fought the Civil War. It lasted four years. It remains the deadliest conflict ever fought by Americans. An estimated 620,000 soldiers died in the fighting. That was about 2% of the country's population. The bloodiest battle of the war took place in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was fought from July 1 to 3, 1863. More than 50,000 Union and Confederate troops died.

Months after the battle, a cemetery was created to honor the Union soldiers who had died. The dedication was held on November 19, 1863. President Lincoln attended the ceremony. There, in front of 15,000 people, he delivered the Gettysburg Address. It is now considered a key moment in U.S. history. In the speech, Lincoln explained why it was important to preserve the union. He said that the U.S. represented the ideas of democracy and self-government. Lincoln promised that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

The Great Emancipator

As the Civil War raged on, the end of slavery became a key war aim for Lincoln. On January 1, 1863, he signed the Emancipation emancipation the act of setting someone free (noun) Your emancipation from your parents comes when you turn 18. Proclamation. The document freed the slaves in the states that had seceded from the Union. Lincoln later played a major role in the addition of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment formally slavery in the U.S. It was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865. The states the amendment on December 6, 1865. Lincoln did not live to see the ratification.

Lincoln was reelected in 1864. The Civil War was still being fought. But Lincoln called for the North and the South to forgive each other. "With malice toward none; with charity for all," he said in his second inaugural address. It was delivered on March 4, 1865. "Let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan." Lincoln urged all Americans "to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

The following month, on April 9, Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union general Ulysses S. Grant. The Civil War was coming to an end. The U.S. would remain intact as one nation. Lincoln had accomplished his goal. But on April 14, he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln was attending a play at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C. Upon his death, Lincoln's secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton, is believed to have said, "Now he belongs to the ages."

Today, Abraham Lincoln is widely revered as one of the greatest U.S. presidents. His face is on the penny, the $5 bill, and Mount Rushmore, in South Dakota. The Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C., is one of the most visited monuments in the capital. Across the U.S. and around the world, people continue to look to Lincoln as an inspiration.

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Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States. He led the country through the Civil War and worked to end slavery. His life was cut short early in his second term when he...

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Historians see Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, as one of the country's greatest leaders. During the American Civil War Lincoln promised to save the Union. Known as the Great Emancipator, he also ended slavery in the United States.

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Kids learn about the biography of Harriet Tubman, leader in the Underground Railroad who led many of the enslaved to freedom.

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Harriet Tubman cautiously watched the shore from one of three gunboats on the Combahee River. She and several hundred Union soldiers were preparing a raid to free hundreds of enslaved people from plantations in South Carolina, part of the Confederate states that were fighting against the Union during the Civil War of 1861 to 1865. Enemy soldiers were hiding nearby-success was far from guaranteed.

Harriet Tubman is well known for risking her life as a "conductor" in the Underground Railroad, which led escaped enslaved people to freedom in the North. But the former enslaved woman also served as a spy for the Union during the Civil War. Tubman decided to help the Union Army because she wanted freedom for all of the people who were forced into slavery, not just the few she could help on the Underground Railroad. And she convinced many other brave African Americans to join her as spies-even at the risk of being hanged if they were caught.

A SECRET MISSION

The Civil War was a time when women were usually restricted to traditional roles like cooking and nursing. Tubman did jobs like that, but as a spy she worked side-by-side with men, says Tom Allen, author of the Nat Geo book Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent.

In one of her most dramatic and dangerous roles, Tubman helped Colonel James Montgomery plan a raid to free enslaved people from plantations along the Combahee (pronounced "KUM-bee") River in South Carolina. Early on the morning of June 1, 1863, three gunboats carrying several hundred male soldiers along with Tubman set out on their mission.

Tubman had gathered key information from her scouts about the Confederate positions. She knew where they were hiding along the shore. She also found out where they had placed torpedoes, or barrels filled with gunpowder, in the water.

As the early morning fog lifted on some of the South's most important rice plantations, the Union expedition hit hard. The raiders set fire to buildings and destroyed bridges so they couldn't be used by the Confederate Army. They also freed about 750 enslaved people-men, women, children, and babies-and did not lose one soldier in the attack.

A WRITER'S QUEST

To gather the facts, Allen searched libraries and the internet, and even walked in Tubman's footsteps. "I went on the river just south of the area where the raid took place," he says. "You're in that kind of country she would have known, with plenty of mosquitoes and snakes, and dirt roads are still there today-so you get a feeling of what it was like."

Allen says his most exciting moment came when a librarian led him to written accounts by people who actually saw Tubman and the raiders in action.

"She was five feet two inches (157 centimeters) tall, born a slave, had a debilitating illness, and was unable to read or write. Yet here was this tough woman who could take charge and lead men," Allen says. "I got to like her pretty quickly because of her strength and her spirit."

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You might know her as a conductor for the Underground Railroad. She was also a spy.

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Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in the southern United States. She then helped lead many other enslaved people to freedom. She also served the Union during the American Civil War.

Harriet Tubman was born in about 1820 in Dorchester county, Maryland. She was one of nine children of a family of enslaved people. Her name at first was Araminta Ross. She later changed her first name to Harriet, which was her mother's name.

In about 1844 Harriet married a free African American named John Tubman. In 1849, after hearing that she was to be sold, she escaped to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, without her husband.

In Pennsylvania Tubman became a "conductor" for the Underground Railroad. The railroad was a secret network that helped enslaved people find their way to freedom. By 1857 she had freed dozens of enslaved people, including her own parents. She said that she "never lost a passenger," even though slaveholders offered large rewards for her capture.

During the American Civil War, Tubman went to South Carolina with the Union Army. She served as a nurse and a scout. She even led raids against the Confederates.

After the Civil War Tubman settled in Auburn, New York, with her parents. There she worked for racial justice and also for women's rights. She believed that the two struggles were closely linked. In 1908 she opened a home for aged and poor African Americans. Harriet Tubman died in Auburn on March 10, 1913.

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Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in the southern United States. She then helped lead many other enslaved people to freedom. She also served the Union during the American...

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Learn about the life and achievements of the first president of the United States.

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George Washington led the American colonists to victory in the American Revolution. After the war he helped produce the U.S. Constitution. Finally, he served for eight years...

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George Washington was the 1st president of the United States. Learn about his biography and life story.

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Rosa Parks stood up for African Americans-by sitting down.

Although Abraham Lincoln 's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation granted slaves their freedom, for many years Black people were discriminated against in much of the United States. In southern states, for instance, most Black children were forced to attend separate schools from white kids in classrooms that were often rundown, with outdated books. African Americans also couldn't eat at the same restaurants as white people and had to sit in the back seats of public buses. Segregation-the separation of races-was enforced by local laws.

Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913. On December 1, 1955, she boarded a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama and sat in the middle, where Black passengers in that city were allowed to sit unless a white person wanted the seat. As the bus filled with new riders, the driver told Parks to give up her seat to a white passenger. She refused. The driver called police, and Parks was arrested.

Her arrest sparked a major protest. For more than a year, most Black people in Montgomery stood together and refused to take city buses. (One of the leaders of the boycott was a young local pastor named Martin Luther King, Jr.) Public vehicles stood idle, and the city lost money. Still, the Montgomery Bus Boycott didn't end until a 1956 Supreme Court decision ended racial segregation on public transportation throughout the United States.

Parks died on October 24, 2005. But throughout her life, her refusal to give up her seat inspired many others to fight for African-American rights and helped advance the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s.

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Rosa Parks stood up for African Americans-by sitting down.

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Rosa McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1913. When she was 2, her parents separated. Rosa moved with her mother to Pine Level, Alabama, to live with her grandparents. Rosa's mother taught school in another town. She was able to come home to see her children only on weekends.

Rosa missed her mother, but she loved being with her grand-parents. From her grandfather, she learned how to plant corn and milk cows. Her grand-mother taught her how to cook and make quilts.

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Rosa's grandparents also taught her about racism. In the American South, laws kept Black people separate from white people. Black people had to use separate entrances, drink from separate fountains, and go to separate schools and hospitals. Sometimes, groups of white men attacked Black people. They set fire to Black homes, churches, and schools. Rosa's grandfather had to board up the family's windows so no one could break in. Rosa learned to be brave.

When Rosa was 6, she went to the elementary school for Black children in Pine Level. Rosa and her classmates had to walk to school, no matter how far away they lived. White children rode a school bus. Sometimes, white children threw things at Rosa and her friends from the bus.

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Pine Level had no junior high or high school for Black children, so Rosa's mother sent her to a school in Montgomery. All the girls there were Black. The teachers were white. Rosa had always obeyed the rules and took care to avoid trouble. But one day, she was walking along the street and a white boy threatened her. Rosa threatened him back. The boy's mother was upset and talked about having Rosa put in jail. Luckily, that didn't happen.

As Rosa grew up, she made the decision to not let racism make her act out in anger ever again. Still, she knew that things weren't fair, and it bothered her.

Rosa Refuses

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In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting on a bus. As in many cities in the South, the buses in Montgomery, Alabama, were segregated. Black people had to sit at the back. If a white person wanted to sit, a Black person had to give up his or her seat. On December 1, Rosa refused to get up. She was arrested. Many claimed Rosa was just tired. But she was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was a deliberate protest.

Her arrest caused a bus boycott in Montgomery. The boycott lasted for more than a year. A federal court and the Supreme Court ruled against segregated buses. Rosa's actions inspired many other battles against unfair laws.

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Fast Facts

Rosa married a man named Raymond Parks in 1932. He worked as a barber in Montgomery

At age 16, Rosa dropped out of high school to care for her sick grandmother and mother. A few years later, she returned and got her diploma.

In 1996, Rosa received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It's the highest award a civilian can get.

In 1999, TIME magazine called Rosa one of the most influential people of the 20th century.

There's a statue of Rosa in the United States Capitol, in Washington D.C.

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This is Rosa: Read the Story of Rosa Parks

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Rosa McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1913. When she was 2, her parents separated. Rosa moved with her mother to Pine Level, Alabama, to live with her grandparents. Rosa's mother taught school in another town. She was able...

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Kids learn about the biography of Rosa Parks, civil rights activist who refused to give up her seat on the bus.

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In 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus to a white person. Her action sparked the U.S. civil rights movement. Early Life Rosa Parks…

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A hero is born

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929. At the time in that part of the country, segregation-or the separation of races in places like schools, buses, and restaurants-was the law. He experienced racial predjudice from the time he was very young, which inspired him to dedicate his life to achieving equality and justice for Americans of all colors. King believed that peaceful refusal to obey unjust law was the best way to bring about social change.

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Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., never backed down in his stand against racism. Learn more about the life of this courageous hero who inspired millions of people to right a historical wrong.

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Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) is considered one of history's greatest speakers and social activists. His leadership in peaceful protests helped end segregation during the American civil rights movement.

When Martin Luther King Jr. was born, his parents, Michael and Alberta, gave him a different name from the one we know today. They called him Michael. But Michael Sr. later changed his name and his son's to Martin Luther, after the famous religious leader. The middle-class family was very religious. Both Martin's father and grandfather were pastors in Atlanta, Georgia. The King children grew up in a loving home but experienced racism from an early age.

Separate Is Never Equal

King attended segregated public schools in Georgia. He skipped the ninth and eleventh grades and graduated from high school at 15. It was around that time that he joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights organization. King's father led the NAACP's Atlanta chapter.

In 1948, King graduated from Morehouse College, in Atlanta. He went on to study religion at Crozer Theological Seminary, in Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1951, he graduated with honors and was class valedictorian. Soon after, he enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Boston University (B.U.), in Massachusetts. He met music student Coretta Scott in Boston. The couple married in 1953 and later had two sons and two daughters.

In 1954, while completing his degree, King moved to Montgomery, Alabama. He became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Soon after, on December 1, 1955, a woman named Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to give her seat to white passengers on a Montgomery city bus. In response, the NAACP chose King to lead a citywide bus boycott. For 381 days, members of the black community walked or carpooled to work. Many of them were attacked.

The NAACP filed a lawsuit against the city of Montgomery. They argued that segregation on city buses was unconstitutional. On November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such segregation was indeed illegal. The court based its decision, in part, on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. In that case, the court concluded that "separate is never equal."

One year later, King, along with 60 ministers and activists, founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

"I Have a Dream"

In the spring of 1963, King organized a protest in Birmingham, Alabama. The event drew nationwide attention. That's because city police officers blasted participants with fire hoses and let attack dogs loose. King and others were jailed.

After their release, King and other civil rights leaders laid plans for a demonstration in the nation's capital. The March on Washington attracted more than 200,000 people. On August 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. He spoke of a day when all men would be treated equally. King went on to win the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. He was 35 years old and the youngest person to have received the honor.

Reaching the Promised Land

The fight for equal rights, however, was far from over. On March 7, 1965, demonstrators set off on a 54-mile march, organized by King, from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The event became violent when police met marchers with nightsticks and tear gas on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in Selma. Seventeen people ended up in the hospital. King was not present, but he watched the scene unfold on TV. Soon after, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The law stated that all citizens had a right to vote, no matter the color of their skin.

On April 3, 1968, King traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of striking sanitation workers. In a speech there, he said, "I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land." The next day, he was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where he was staying. The assassination ended King's life. He was 39 years old. It sparked riots in more than 100 cities. The accused shooter, James Earl Ray, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

"I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the United States, King's birthday is observed as a national holiday on the third Monday in January. On that day, many Americans volunteer at shelters, schools, hospitals, and other community organizations to honor the civil rights leader's legacy of service and commitment.

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Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) is considered one of history's greatest speakers and social activists. His leadership in peaceful protests helped end segregation during the American civil rights movement. When Martin Luther King Jr. was born,...

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Kids learn about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s biography. A great civil rights leader.

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In 1954 King became pastor of a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1955 an African American woman named Rosa Parks refused to give her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white man. She was arrested for breaking a segregation law. Such laws were meant to keep Blacks and whites separate. To protest her arrest, King encouraged African Americans not to ride city buses. This was called the Montgomery bus boycott. The boycott was successful. In 1956 the U.S. Supreme Court banned racial segregation on public transportation.

In 1959 King visited India. There he met with the followers of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi had used peaceful protests to demand Indian independence. The trip strengthened King's belief in nonviolence.

King had organized a group called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. The SCLC led many nonviolent protests against segregation. In 1963 King joined a demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama. Police turned dogs and fire hoses on the protesters. King was put in prison. In the Birmingham jail, King wrote a letter explaining that he would continue to protest.

In August 1963 King and other civil rights leaders brought together about 250,000 people for a huge protest called the March on Washington. There King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

King's actions helped get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. The act outlawed several types of discrimination. In 1965 King led a march in Selma, Alabama, in support of African American voting rights. Soon the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., led the civil rights movement in the United States. He used nonviolent, or peaceful, protest to try to get equal rights for African Americans. He was...

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Susan B. Anthony was called terrible names, had things thrown at her, even had her picture dragged through the streets. But still she didn't back down. She thought fighting for women's rights-and the rights of everyone-was too important.

Born in Adams, Massachusetts, on February 15, 1820, she grew up as a Quaker, which is a religion that teaches that everyone is equal. She knew it wasn't fair that she didn't have a say in electing political leaders or couldn't own property just because she was a woman. She also thought that it wasn't right that male teachers made more money than she did. In the early 1850s, Anthony starting voicing her opinion to anyone who would listen, stopping people on the streets or giving speeches around the country. She'd stand for hours to get signatures on petitions asking for women's rights.

But Anthony wanted everyone to have equal rights, so in 1856 she joined the anti-slavery movement as an abolitionist, which were people who argued against slavery. She gave speeches, organized meetings, put up posters, and handed out leaflets, even though she faced angry crowds of people who disagreed with her-and thought that women shouldn't even be speaking in public.

But her fight for equal rights for women never stopped. Anthony had met fellow activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851, and after years of talking to people about women's rights, they started a newspaper, The Revolution, in 1868 to help spread ideas of rights for women. The next year, they cofounded the National Woman Suffrage Association to focus on women's right to vote. ( Suffrage means the right to vote; people who support that are called suffragists)

African-Americans were recognized as U.S. citizens in 1870, and black men were given the right to vote with the 15th amendment. But African-American women, like all women, still did not have the right to vote. This made Anthony angry, especially since she had fought so hard to help free the slaves. So she cast her ballot in the presidential election anyway. She was arrested for the crime and fined a hundred dollars. She never paid.

Though she worked for more than 50 years for women's rights, Anthony never got to legally vote. She died on March 13, 1906, 14 years before the 19th amendment gave all women the right to vote. But the representatives of Congress-almost all men-who approved the amendment understood who was responsible for this historic moment, and the legislation was known as the "Anthony Amendment." And in 1979, Anthony became the first woman to be on a U.S. coin, the silver dollar.

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The woman who helped fight for women's right to vote

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Kids learn about Susan B. Anthony's biography. Woman's rights activist for suffrage.

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Susan B. Anthony (February 15, 1820-March 13, 1906) was a pioneer × pioneer NASA a person who does something first (noun) Mae Jemison is considered to be a pioneer because she was the first African-American woman to travel in space. in the movement for women's voting rights in the United States. She paved the way for the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave American women the right to vote.

Susan B. Anthony was raised in a Quaker family that believed in equality. When she was 6 years old, her family moved from Massachusetts to a farm in New York. By age 19, she was teaching at a school in New Rochelle, New York. Six years later, she went to live with her parents and siblings at their family home in Rochester, New York, where they were active in the fight to end slavery. In 1851, Anthony went to an abolitionist × abolitionist SHIRONOSOV/GETTY IMAGES a person who wants to stop or abolish slavery (noun) Abolitionists hoped to convince people to oppose slavery. meeting in Seneca Falls, New York. There, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an advocate for equal rights. Anthony and Stanton formed an immediate bond. They began working together to abolish slavery. They also fought to extend rights to African Americans and women.

A Push for Equality

During the Civil War, Anthony and Stanton formed the Women's National Loyal League (WNLL). It was the first national women's political organization. The WNLL gathered 400,000 signatures to persuade Congress to ratify the 13th Amendment. This amendment outlawed slavery. It was finally ratified in December 1865. After the war, Anthony campaigned for the 14th and 15th Amendments. The 14th Amendment granted "equal protection of the laws" to all Americans. It also guaranteed citizenship to all people born in the United States. As a result, citizenship was extended to former slaves. The 15th Amendment gave African-American men the right to vote. Anthony was deeply disappointed, however, that neither amendment extended voting rights to women. Anthony and Stanton faced opposition in their fight for women's . But they still felt inspired to continue fighting for equality. In 1869, they formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). The organization was dedicated to passing a constitutional amendment that would guarantee voting rights for women.

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Challenging the Law

In November 1872, Anthony made national headlines. She was arrested for illegally voting in the presidential election. Anthony was found guilty. The judge imposed a $100 fine. While in the courtroom, Anthony told the judge that she would "never pay a dollar of [the] unjust penalty." She added, "And I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women" to follow a revolutionary idea, "that resistance to tyranny tyranny a government that treats people in a cruel and unfair way (noun) The refugees left their country to escape tyranny. is obedience to God." Anthony never paid the fine. After her arrest, Anthony continued to raise awareness awareness knowledge of a situation or fact (noun) The protesters tried to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking. about women's rights. On July 4, 1876, the NWSA adopted a Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States. It said, "We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States, be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever." Anthony also campaigned for women to be able to own property, earn equal pay, and hold public office.

The Fight Must Not Cease

Throughout her adulthood, Anthony was a passionate advocate for women's rights. In February 1906, she made her last speech. "I am here for a little time only, and then my place will be filled," she said. "The fight must not cease. You must see that it does not stop. Failure is impossible." Anthony died a month later. She was 86 years old. But her tireless efforts inspired others to carry on the struggle for women's rights. It would take another 14 years for Congress to ratify the 19th Amendment, which granted women voting rights. In 1979, Anthony's contributions to the equal-rights movement were honored. She became the first woman to appear on a circulating U.S. coin. Though the U.S. Treasury stopped producing the Susan B. Anthony $1 coin in 1991, it is still in use today.

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Susan B. Anthony (February 15, 1820-March 13, 1906) was a pioneer in the movement for women's voting rights in the United States. She paved the way for the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave American women the right...

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In the 1800s women in the United States fought to gain equal rights with men. One of the leaders of that movement was Susan B. Anthony.

Susan Brownell Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. When she was 6 years old her family moved to Battenville, New York. As a young woman she taught school.

In the 1850s Anthony became involved in both the temperance movement, which fought alcohol abuse, and the abolitionist movement, which sought to end slavery. She traveled widely, spoke at public meetings, and began to take an interest in women's issues.

At the time, women in the United States did not have the right to vote. To fight this injustice, Anthony and her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869. "Suffrage" means the right to vote.

To draw attention to the struggle, Anthony tried to vote in the 1872 presidential election. She was arrested, but she refused to pay her fine. In 1890 the NWSA merged with another group to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Anthony was president from 1892 to 1900.

Susan B. Anthony died on March 13, 1906, in Rochester, New York. In 1920 the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave voting rights to women in all states.

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In the 1800s women in the United States fought to gain equal rights with men. One of the leaders of that movement was Susan B. Anthony. Susan Brownell Anthony was born on...