A documentary book called The Freedom Writers Diary compiles the diaries of 150 high school students in Long Beach, California, who experienced prejudice, violence, and poverty.
Erin Gruwell, their English teacher, encouraged them to write about their experiences and taught them about the Holocaust and the history of the civil rights movement.
After the Freedom Riders, a group of activists who battled for racial equality in the 1960s, the students gave themselves the moniker “Freedom Writers.”