American Lives

Dickie Scruggs (center right), his wife, Diane, and son, Zach, walk with his attorney to the courthouse where he would be sentenced to five years in prison. Bruce Newman/Oxford Eagle hide caption

Businessman A. G. Gaston played a key role in the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Ala. He died in 1996 at the age of 103. Courtesy of Birmingham Public Library hide caption

A Founding Father and signatory of the Declaration of Independence, Robert Morris helped bankroll the American Revolution. It arguably couldn't have been won without him. Ray Chokov hide caption

James Baldwin, an American novelist, essayist, playwright and poet, grew up in New York City but moved to France in 1948. AP hide caption

Henry Clay is perhaps best known as an architect of the Compromise of 1850, which upheld slavery, but also averted the splitting of the Union a decade before the Civil War. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division hide caption

In 1951, Sugar Ray Robinson defeated Jake LaMotta in their sixth and final bout in 13 grueling rounds. Click here for a gallery of more photos of Robinson in action. AP hide caption

Elizabeth Marvel as Louisa May Alcott, who loved to run. Liane Brandon hide caption