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This page consists of kids answers to the question "What does it mean to be an American?"  Their Answers show that even kids understand that being an American is so much more than just being someone who lives in America. A common answer is that being an American means being free and being able to grow up to be whatever you want.

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What does it mean to be an American? | Scholastic.com

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This article explains how Abraham Lincoln is the foundation for leadership in America. Lincoln showed Americans that they must look past the hard times to see the good. This was especially made clear in his Gettysburg Address. Lincoln mad his mark on America and paved the way for future leaders to do the same.

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This song shows how being an American is a privilege that is protected by people who fight for our country. The first line "If tomorrow all the things were gone
I worked for all my life and I had to start again With just my children and my wife, I thank my lucky stars
To be living here today.." shows that even if you have nothing, being an American is still something to be proud of.

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This Image shows two symbols of the United States. The American flag is a representation of our nations history and the statue of liberty is a reminder of the people that came to our country.

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In this video people were asked what it means to be an American. Most of the people said that their idea of what if feels like and means to be an American changes. For some it changes depending on who they are with an for others it changed with the realization that ''American" is not just white skin.

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UCLA was among the first of colleges that recruited African American Athletes. With this the barrier between races began to fade in the college world. The leadership shown by UCLA put America one step closer to racial equality. Other colleges began to copy UCLA. If UCLA did not take the first step and recruit African Americans there is no telling how long it would of taken before someone else did.

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The arrival of five athletes, all African American, on the UCLA campus in the late 1930s would prove to be a moment of destiny, not just for college sports but for the United States itself.

These five men could have been called the original Fabulous Five. And that designation was no exaggeration, because they went on to change the cultures of professional athletics, entertainment, the civil rights movement, and politics.

The athletes who played together in the 1939 school year were:

* Jackie Robinson, who would break the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947 and become a prominent advocate of racial equality after his baseball years.

* Kenny Washington, who took down the color barrier of the National Football League when he played for the Los Angeles Rams in 1946.

* Woody Strode, who would join Washington with the Rams and later become an accomplished actor in movies such as Spartacus, Sergeant Rutledge, and The Professionals.

* Ray Bartlett, who would go on to serve on the Pasadena police department (at that time, only the second African American) and as a prominent Los Angeles area civic leader.

* And then there was the fifth, Tom Bradley, who would transform Los Angeles into a global city during his 20 years as mayor. He also would make history as L.A.'s first black mayor, and the first in a major city that had a white majority.

At UCLA, these athletes came to know each other, creating a bond of fellowship that lasted for their entire lives.

The decision to recruit a roster of African-American football players came after UCLA had experienced a 20-year drought on the gridiron. At the time, this recruiting decision represented a bid for competitive advantage, since most schools, including rival USC, were uninterested in recruiting black players in that era. Washington and Strode came first to UCLA in 1936, and were followed by Robinson, Bradley, and Bartlett, who would team up in 1939.

Their recruitment helped create an accepting atmosphere at UCLA for African Americans. That was a challenge. African Americans numbered only 50 of the university's 9,600 students that year. At the time, the campus was predominantly a commuter school. All five athletes lived at home, as no blacks were allowed to reside in Westwood, the neighborhood surrounding the campus where some students lived. For social activities, they would attend a club for African Americans called the Sphinx.

Nonetheless, the school was an oasis in a more hostile environment. "UCLA was the first school to really give the Negro athlete a break," Bartlett said. Strode later said: "Whatever racial pressure was coming down in the City of Los Angeles, the pressure was not on me in Westwood. We had the whole melting pot, and it was an education for all of us. [...] I was just like any other athlete. And I worked hard because there was always the overriding feeling [that] UCLA really wanted me."

Bradley was convinced that UCLA played a vital role in setting a standard of acceptance for black athletes, and ultimately for African Americans as students and leaders. "Some of the schools with which UCLA had an affiliation did not permit blacks to compete on the same teams," he said. "And UCLA administration made the decision that no school that would discriminate against its athletes could any longer compete in athletics with us."

But Jackie Robinson wasn't so sure that all was as cozy as Bartlett, Strode, and Bradley saw it. He remarked during his UCLA years that he was treated like a hero when playing in front of a huge crowd on the football field but as soon as the game was over he was simply Jackie Robinson, the Negro.

What is clear is that that recruitment of the athletes was news off campus as well. Nationally, by the late 1930s, no more than 38 African Americans suited up for major college football across the country-none in the South. "Three African-American players out of eleven in the starting lineup was highly unusual for the time," says Kent Stephens, curator and historian for the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana.

UCLA's roster of black players on the football team made it the most racially integrated squad in college football history. "We have yet to find another single coach in the history of football that has had the guts to play three of our race at one time and have [four] on the squad," a reporter for the Chicago Defender, a newspaper for black readers, wrote later in the year.

In contrast to the four football players, Tom Bradley, who had been an all-city football player at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School, received an academic scholarship. He eventually decided against playing for the football team, preferring to focus on competing in the 440-yard run, the 880 races, and the 1,600 relay in track. That race fit perfectly his tendency to be something of a loner. He later said: "The whole business of competition-in track, particularly, because you're kind of one-on-one in track-involves a kind of discipline you have to develop for yourself .... I think it really became part of my lifestyle."

But Bradley did have teammates on the track-and-field team, including the four star football players, who competed in track during the spring. There were three other black runners on the team-Tom Berkley, Bill Lacefield, and James LuValle, who ran at the so-called Nazi Olympics in 1936 and became a scientist and an administrator at Stanford. These athletes formed lifelong fellowships that included several reunions.

The best athlete of the group, Jackie Robinson, lettered in four sports at UCLA, the only Bruin to accomplish the feat. Robinson won the NCAA championship in the long jump (then called the broad jump) while also leading the Pacific Coast Conference in scoring one year for the basketball team. His worst sport was his future professional avocation: baseball, in which he batted .097 and committed 10 errors in his single season.

Many of the other athletes excelled in multiple sports. Bartlett also played four sports but didn't earn a letter in all like Robinson. Washington threw the shot put, and Strode the discus and shot put. Washington played baseball as well. Rod Dedeaux, who coached USC baseball for 45 years and scouted for the Dodgers, said he thought Washington had a better arm, more power, and more agility than Robinson. (Washington got a tryout with baseball's New York Giants in 1950, but by then he was past his prime.)

Each of the athletes had his own life, shaped by the fact that they lived at home and held down part-time jobs along with other personal responsibilities. Robinson tended to avoid social activities on the UCLA campus. Bradley and Strode joined different black fraternities, while Bartlett and Washington concentrated on academics, as did Bradley. None of the athletes graduated in four years. What held them together was their dedication to sports.

Of the five, Robinson was the one who most vigorously battled racial discrimination throughout his entire life. The other four, while acutely aware of the racial climate in their lives, adopted a more passive approach of "going along to get along," which was the safest mode of operation in those days.

Robinson devoted a great deal of his life after he broke the color barrier in baseball to working for civil rights. Strode had little to do with the civil rights movement. He believed that what he accomplished on the field and life was the best way to break down prejudice. Bradley fought discrimination in the Los Angeles Police Department and as mayor, while Washington and Bartlett worked within the political system to seek racial equality.

Some relationships among the five were closer than others. Robinson and Bartlett, who grew up together in Pasadena, were lifelong friends. (Bartlett represented Robinson, who died in 1972, as grand marshal of the 1999 Rose Parade.) Strode and Washington were like brothers; Washington was emphatic that the Rams sign Strode if they wanted him to play. And Bradley and Bartlett were in frequent touch as they became policemen and civic leaders in Los Angeles.

Their legacies remain strong today.

James W. Johnson is the author of The Black Bruins: The Remarkable Lives of UCLA's Jackie Robinson, Woody Strode, Tom Bradley, Kenny Washington, and Ray Bartlett.

Primary Editor: Joe Mathews | Secondary Editor: Lisa Margonelli

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How UCLA Helped Break the Color Barrier in College Athletics : What It Means to Be American

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The arrival of five athletes, all African American, on the UCLA campus in the late 1930s would prove to be a moment of destiny, not just for college sports but for the United States itself. These five men could have been called the original Fabulous Five.

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In this article the responses as to what it means to be an American are very different than the typical responses. Most of the responses deal with the idea of inequality and racism. The answers reference the
Constitution and Bill of Right as being written only for white men. The consequence of these documents is change to make the American dream equality.

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In 2014, New York Times reporter Damien Cave traveled the length of highway I-35, which runs south to north through the middle of the United States, for his "The Way North" project. Along the way, he asked 35 people, "What does it mean to be American?" These are some of their answers.

Becoming American means following the rules. It means respecting your neighbors, in your own neighborhood. -Francine Sharp, 73, retired teacher in Kansas (born in Kansas)

If you work hard, you get good things in life. -José, college student/roofer; immigrant without legal status in Tulsa, Oklahoma (born in Mexico)

Being American is making a change, and making good changes. Being American is being welcoming, being caring about other people, being proud of the country. And it's forgiveness. It's not holding grudges on anything-I mean, where's that going to get you? -Natalie Villafranca, 14, in Texas (born in Dallas)

Being American means protection by the law. Anyone can say whatever they want and, even if I don't agree with them, they're still protected by the law it's my job to enforce. That's their freedom. That's their right. -Sean Larkin, 40, sergeant with Tulsa Police Department's gang unit in Tulsa, Oklahoma (born in Virginia)

Being American is red, white and blue and being free. It doesn't matter what language you speak; if you're born in America, you're still American. No matter what you look like, no matter what. -Sebastien de la Cruz, 12, student who gained attention, and backlash, when he sang the national anthem during the 2013 NBA finals in a mariachi outfit (born and lives in San Antonio)

I want all girls, especially girls of color, to know that they can be a part of science. And more than that, they can be leaders in science. I want them to know that, because I know that I am America. That I am science. I'm just the part that people refuse to recognize. -Taylor R., 13, speaking about her ambitions at the March for Science in April 2017

The following excerpts are from other Americans discussing what they think it means to "be American." Among these voices are historians and writers who think about this topic a lot, as well as individuals from other walks of life who participated in a discussion for the documentary film A More Perfect Union.

Precisely because we are not a people held together by blood, no one knows who an American is except by what they believe. It's important that we do know our history, because our history is the source of our Americanness. -Historian Gordon Wood

When people wrote "All men are created equal," they really meant men; but they didn't mean any other men except white men who owned land. That's what they meant. But because the ideas are powerful, there's no way that they could get away with holding to that. It's not possible when you have an idea that's as powerful and as revolutionary as a country founded on the idea that just because you're in the world, just because you're here, you have a right to certain things that are common to all humanity. That's really what we say in those documents. The idea that we begin the Constitution with, "We, the People" . . . even though they didn't mean me! They had no idea I'd ever want to make a claim on that. And they'd have been horrified if they'd known that any of us would. But you can't let that powerful an idea out into the world without consequences. -Writer Rosemary Bray

The American Dream has no meaning for me. What it was founded on, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, in many ways I feel are used as billy clubs against minorities and cultural minorities, whether they be gay, or different in any way from the norm in this country. I, for example, don't think I'd like to go to California because of what I look like. I could be pulled over and carded, and I would have to prove my ancestry. And look how long my family has been in northern New Mexico. Ten to twelve generations! -Vicente Martinez

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In 2014, New York Times reporter Damien Cave traveled the length of highway I-35, which runs south to north through the middle of the United States, for his "The Way North" project. Along the way, he asked 35 people, "What does it mean to be American?" These are some of their answers.

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This song is about how being an American means that the sky is the limit when to comes to dreams. No matter what your background is, you have the right to dream and work hard.

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Brooks & Dunn - Only In America (Official Video)

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This image is a representation of culture in the United States. The foundation of the United States was built by immigrants. An American inst just someone who was born and raised in America, it can be someone who moved here from anywhere in the world and who calls America their home.

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Easel.ly is a simple web tool that empowers anyone to create and share powerful visuals (infographics, posters)... no design experience needed! We provide the canvas, you provide the creativity.