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African-Americans
by J D Wright
Introduction Few people have ever experienced such pain and gain as have African-Americans. In slightly more than one century, these descendants of slaves have become high governmental officials, business leaders, scientists, and international entertainers and sportspeople. In the 1990s, the top US military officer was General Colin Powell, the US secretary of Commerce and Labor was Ron Brown, Virginia's governor was Douglas Wilder, New York's mayor was David Dinkins, the highest-paid television performer was Oprah Winfrey, and the richest athlete was Michael Jordan. All are African-Americans. Yet one must admit that these impressive lives are exceptions within the US black population of 34 million (13% of the US population). African-Americans more often live in large city ghettos or 'the wrong side of town'. They find fewer jobs and receive less pay than white Americans, and they still confront isolated incidents of public intolerance and violence. This lack of opportunities pushes many young people into drugs and crime. But African-American progress continues on its steady advance from the nightmare of slavery to the dream of Martin Luther King that all Americans will be treated as equals. Slavery The institution of slavery was the true evil empire of American history. There were about half a million African-Americans at the time of the American Revolution and about 4.5 million during the American Civil War. The life of a slave was very poor but the basic needs were taken care of, because an African-American was a valuable 'property' whose health guaranteed the health of the plantation. Many house slaves were virtually treated as minor members of the family. The greatest tragedy for slaves would come when their owner sold off their children or even their spouses to other plantations. Cruelty, especially severe punishments, did exist, as was portrayed in Harriet Beecher Stowe's influencial 1852 novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. It helped increase the number of abolitionists in the North, and they helped elect Abraham Lincoln as president. Although he had been born in the southern (pro-slavery) state of Kentucky, Lincoln was determined to abolish slavery. Even before the Civil War ended, he proclaimed his Emancipation Proclamation that freed them. The first free century Many African-Americans found freedom more difficult than slavery in some regards, since they had no experience in taking care of the basics of life. They also soon realized that they were less free than Southern whites. The South was angry over losing the war and its slaves. Hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan frightened the former slaves into submission by wearing white hooded robes and by burning crosses in front of their homes. Worse, vigilante groups adopted lynching (killing, usually by

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hanging) for African-American 'crimes', which even included being cheeky to a white woman. This continued well into the 20th century in the South. African-Americans were kept from voting by state laws that charged a tax to vote, or requirements of literacy or even an exam. They were also put in social isolation by the segregation system that, like South Africa's apartheid, kept them in separate schools and would not allow them to use white restaurants, hotels, theatres, swimming pool, and parks. 'White' and 'Black' signs even separated railway waiting rooms, drinking fountains, and lifts. Real freedom All of this officially ended on 17 May 1954, when the US Supreme Court ruled that the South's traditional 'separate but equal' facilities were not legal. But nothing really changed until African-Americans and white supporters began actively demonstrating for equality, in the era of the Civil Rights Movement. Their leader was a Baptist preacher, Martin Luther King, who organized a victorious black boycott against the bus company in Montgomery, Alabama, because it made African-Americans sit in the back of the bus. King continued to organize peaceful demonstrations, including a march of 250,000 people on Washington, DC, where he made his famous 'I have a dream' speech. His work, supported by President Lyndon Johnson, led the US Congress to pass a Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act in 1965. King himself received the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. It was really not that simple. The first 'battlegrounds' were the Southern schools that banned African-Americans. The resistance was strong, but the federal government had the power. President Dwight Eisenhower had to send in federal troops in 1957 to integrate a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. When the first black student entered the University of Mississippi in 1962, 12,000 federal troops were needed to quell riots that left four people dead. When Alabama Governor George Wallace and his state national guard barred the door at the University of Alabama in 1963 to keep out the first black students, President John F Kennedy merely switched the guard to federal control. As the movement gained momentum, King was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, for his civil disobedience, and water cannons and vicious police dogs were turned on his supporters. African-American students holding 'sit-ins' to demand service in cafes were beaten and kicked, 'freedom riders' travelling south on integrated buses had stones thrown at the windows. Finally and tragically, civil-rights workers were murdered in Mississippi, and the Reverend King was assassinated on 4 April 1968 by a gunman as he stood on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. His birthday is now an official US holiday. African-American contributions The culture and achievements of the USA would be much less without AfricanAmerican contributions. It is difficult to imagine American music without jazz, the blues, spirituals, and even rock and roll, which grew out of African-American rhythm

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and blues, or international athletic success without black runners, basketball players, and boxers. Related Articles: black civil-rights movement Civil War, American King, Martin Luther, Jr slavery United States: history 17831861 United States: history 186177 United States: history 18771945 Copyright Helicon Publishing Ltd 2000. All rights reserved.

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