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American Experience
Failed Protests
In the Spring of 1854, fugitive slave Anthony Burns sat in Boston's city jail. Locals protesting for Burns' release turned violent before the U.S. President Franklin Pierce ordered hundreds of military troops to escort Burns to a ship waiting in the harbor. Though abolitionists were losing hope, they had shifted history.
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The Stonewall riots marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement.
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The man behind the atomic bomb is put on trial for suspected communist ties in 1954.
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Ronald Reagan left the White House one of the most popular presidents of the 20th century.
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A biography from American Experience's collection of presidential portraits.