Dred Scott was a fearless fighter. Scott's personal story is a significant example of how one person's fight for humanity can become part of a nation's history.

For more than a decade, Scott fought for not only his emancipation, but for his wife and children as well. And although he lost the case in Supreme Court, in the end Scott was victorious--within months his family was freed.

The 1850s were a turbulent decade in the United States--especially for African-Americans. For African-Americans--freed and enslaved-- it was marked by great achievements as well as setbacks. For instance, the first African-American published a novel in the United States and abroad. Several states established personal liberty laws to counter the negative impact of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. And to counter these personal liberty laws, southern states such as Virginia established slave codes that hindered the movement of enslaved African-Americans in urban environments.

Robert Morris Sr may not have been the first African-American attorney to be granted a license in the United States, but he was the very first to file a lawsuit on a behalf of a client.

Throughout Morris' career, he worked with earnest to provide civil rights for freed African-Americans. Trying the first civil rights cases to desegregate schools, Morris argued, "It is very hard to retain self-respect if we see ourselves set apart and avoided as a degraded race by others.. Do not say to our children that however well-behaved their very presence is in a public school, is contamination to your children."

In addition, Morris worked to aid fugitive slaves from returning to bondage. In 1850, he helped Shadrack Minkins and Anthony Burns remain free African-Americans.

For Morris' efforts, he will always be honored in not just African-American, but American history.

Macon Bolling Allen was the first African-American to be granted a license to practice law in the United States. He was also the first to hold a judicial post.

Yet, although he achieved greatness in a time when African-Americans were enslaved in the South and fighting for rights in the North, Allen's ability to work as a lawyer did not make things easy for him. Initially granted the right to practice in the state of Maine, Allen relocated to Boston after he could not find clients. Once in Boston, he became involved in the abolitionist movement and opened the first African-American law firm with Robert Morris Sr.

Following the Civil War, Allen moved again--this time to Charleston. He believed that through the fifteenth amendment he would be able to become actively involved in politics. And for a time he was an active member of local and state politics. However, following the Reconstruction period, his rights, like other African-American men were revoked through poll taxes, literacy tests and Grandfather clauses.

Although Allen was able to achieve greatness just by being "the first," it was not any easier for him. Allen's life, like so many other African-Americans of this time, proves the consistent need to fight oppression and overcome societal obstacles.