Slavery and Super Bowl Half Time Show Beyonce

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OCTOBER/ FEBRUARY 

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

African Americans

from slavery >> civil rights >> the present day

Slaves

The first Africans arrived in America in 1619. They were not slaves but servants contracted for a number of years to the English settlers and they worked in return for their board. The slave trade developed in the 18th century. Africans were brought against their will and transported to the American colonies under terrible conditions. There they were sold as slaves to work on the plantations mainly in the southern states. A white slave owner was free to do whatever he wanted with them as they were considered to be his property. He could sell the slaves, divide up their families, punish or kill them.

Emancipation and Segregation

The slave trade was made illegal in the North in 1808 and eventually during the Civil War (1861 – 65) the president, Abraham Lincoln, signed the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) making all slaves free. However, this was not the end of the problems for African Americans. They were discriminated against and suffered oppression for another hundred years. In the South, there were laws which said that they were not allowed to own land, to vote or to mix with whites. This is called segregation and the laws were called Jim Crow laws. Many African Americans migrated to the North in the early 20th century. This was called the Great Migration. But even in the North, blacks were generally worse off than whites. They had lower incomes, higher unemployment and poorer educational opportunities.

The Fight for Equality

The Civil Rights Movement 1955 – 1968 grew from the desire to abolish racial discrimination against African Americans. There were sit-ins, demonstrations and boycotts arranged in areas which were reserved for whites in buses, trains and restaurants. One of the leaders for the Civil Rights Movement was Martin Luther King. He fought against discrimination using peaceful and non-violent means.

The Fight for Equality

In August 1963, over 200,000 people took part in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

There Martin Luther King gave his famous speech, “I Have a Dream”. This and other protests led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The new law banned discrimination in public places. Blacks and whites could now go to the same schools and use the same public facilities, such as parks, buses, restaurants, etc.

(Sit-in: A form of protest where demonstrators seat themselves, often in public places, and do not move. Used often by African Americans to protest racial segregation. They would sit in the seats reserved for whites, for example in restaurants and on buses.)

Sam Cook wrote 'A Change is Gonna Come' as a reaction to 'Blowing in the Wind', because Bob Dylan was the first white famous sing and song writer, who wrote a protest song against the African American racial segregation in America.

NO ROOMS

By the time he was 32 years old, Sam Cooke was already wealthy and famous. He was

a singer and songwriter with five big hits.

In 1963, he traveled to Louisiana for a concert. Sam, his wife, and his brother had a

reservation at a hotel there. But when they tried to check into the hotel, the clerk at the front

desk told them, “I’m sorry—the hotel is full.”

“But we have a reservation,” Sam said.

“I’m sorry,” the clerk said again. “The hotel is full. We don’t have any rooms.”

Sam knew that wasn’t true. There were rooms at the hotel, but not for him and his family.

In 1963, hotels in the Southern United States were segregated–there were separate hotels for

whites and blacks. Sam and his family were African-American, and the hotel was for whites only.

They had to find a different hotel.

Two months after his experience in Louisiana, Sam wrote the song “A Change Is Gonna

Come.” It is a song about injustice, and a song about hope

Today

Around 1800 there were four million African Amercans, and the total population of the USA was more than five times this number. In 2009 the population of the USA was approximately 300 million , and 38.1 million of the population were African American. More than 50% of African Americans today have better economy , better education and better job opportunities . However, tough there are many African Americans who are important figures in politics, sport and entertainment, many others live in areas with a high rates of social problems such as; illiteracy, drug addiction, crime, violence and unemployment. 

Today

Many Afrcan Americans are leading figures in politics, bussiness and, of course, in the fields of entertainment and sports. They have come a long way from slavery to the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009, the first black President of the United States. Unfortunately the life standard of African Americans have decreased under the presidency of Donald Trump. Still every day many innocent African Americans throughout America are arrested, abused and murdered or imprisoned by the racist American police force.