Download African Americans

When the first blacks were brought to
America it was unclear as to whether they
were slaves or indentured servants.
White indentured servants eventually got land
of their own however blacks were
permanent workers. This trend was common
in the south but mostly in the Chesapeake
area.
Many states in the south passed the slave
codes which outlined the rights of slaves and
acceptable treatment and rules regarding
slaves. (One could not do business with a slave
without the prior consent of the owner. Slaves could be
awarded as prizes in raffles, wagered in gambling,
offered as security for loans, and transferred as gifts
from one person to another etc.)
In 1670, 7% of the southern population were slaves.
By 1750, black slaves made up almost half the population of Virginia.
Bacon's Rebellion 1676 (Largest Slave Uprising)
Blacks joined forces with the whites and revolted against the governor of
Virginia over high taxes, low prices for tobacco, and resenting special
privileges given to those close to the governor.
New York City Slave Revolt 1712
Slaves torched the houses of many white landowners and when they came out
of their houses the slaves shot them.
Stono Rebellion 1739
Slaves burned houses, chased and killed whites, between 20 and 25 whites
were killed.
Fugitive Slave Law 1793
Any state (slave of not) is to return any runaway slave to
their original owner. Labor is due where labor is due.
Slave Trade to the U.S. Outlawed by Law 1808
Prohibits the importation of slaves into any port or place
within the jurisdiction of the United States from any
foreign kingdom, place or country.
Missouri Compromise (1820)
Every state above the 36 30' was a free state and every
state below that imaginary line was a slave state
Slaves were denied the right to participate in wageearning trade or labor. This left slaves to be
dependant upon their masters for the basic
necessities of life including clothes food and shelter
leaving the master's powers the way they were. The
Slave owners said that slavery was a responsibility of
their to help the less evolved race.
Cotton was the "cash crop" of the south.
Before Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton
gin it was up to the slaves to pick the
cotton.
It was the first African Church established so
that Africans wouldn't have to go to a church
and be segregated while they were
worshipping. Founded by Richard Allen.
From Jamestown to the 1830's the slaves tried
to get what they felt was right for them by
rebelling however nothing worked for them.
The whites treated them awfully and there
was nothing the slaves could do to them
because of the slave codes. Life for black
slaves during this time period was horrid and
inhumane.
As the Us entered the 1830s, the tensions regarding slavery
were building...
o Nat Turner rebellion: the rebellion led by Nat Turner in
Va, after suppressed led to hundreds of alves killed by
white mobs
o William Lloyd Garrison published the Liberator which put
forth the very controversial views of the radical
abolitionists
o On transport ships slaves were
beginning to fight back, more
famous mutinies were aboard the
Amistad and the Creole
Texas enters the Union as a slave state
o This led to the Wilmont Proviso, which said
that in any territory gotten from gaining Texas
slavery should be banned
o It was shot down by Congress,
but would be the basis of the
Free-Soil Party, which would
be a strong antislavery party
Several different social areas were making people
more aware of the issue of slavery
o Abolitionist newspapers; e.g. The Liberator
o Harriet Tubman's escape and establishment of
the underground railroad sent great hope
through the black community
o Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was
an amazing eye opener to the injustices and
cruelty of slavery
There were several issues compiled into the
Compromise of 1850 after much debate in
Congress
These debated led to famous speeches, such as
Daniel Webster's 7th of March Speech, which
helped sway the North towards compromise
Other notables who contributed to the debate
were Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and William
H. Seward
Northern Demands
o CA admitted as a
Southern Demands
o stronger fugitive slave
free state
territory fought
over by Texas &
New Mexico given
to New Mexico
abolition of slave
trade in Washington
DC
law
Texas gets $10
million compensation
leftover acquired
Mexico territory to be
split into New Mexico
and Utah and slavery
would be determined
by inhabitants choice
o
o
o
o
The actual Compromise.....
o CA was added as a free state
o Slave trade was abolished in DC
o Texas gave to territory to New Mexico, but got
the compensation
o Mexico and Utah were left to decide on the
issue of slavery themselves
o A stronger fugitive slave law was put in place
where slaves couldn't testify for themselves and
the person handling the case for $5 if the slave
was let free and $10 if not
The fact that both sides were able to sit down and
compromise on a lot of their issues showed that
neither was prepared to fight over this issue yet,
despite differences in opinion.
The issue.....
o It was that it was desired that Kansas and
Nebraska would decide on the slavery issue based
on popular sovereignty
o Both territories were above the previously agreed
upon 36°30', so technically neither should have
been able to be slave states
o It was believed that Kansas would vote slave and
Nebraska would vote free
The act ended up doing what it was designed to
do, which was split the Nebraska Territory into
Kansas and Nebraska, and both were to decide
on the slavery issue based on popular
sovereignty
Civil War in Bleeding Kansas
o Anitslavery activists paid people to go to Kansas and sway
the vote
o Proslavery supports did the same thing by having voters
come over from Missouri to sway the legislature vote
o Both groups set up their own governments forcing the
people to take sides
o Slavery supporters burnt part of the antislavery town of
Lawrence
o The burning caused antislavery supporters to lead a raid
that would later become known as the Pottawatomie
Creek Massacre
After the massacre an all out Civil War broke
loose. These actions as well as the Act greatly
upset the Northern Abolitionist, who then
refused to enforce the fugitive slave law.
Sumner attacked by Brooks
o Sumner was an abolitionist that had criticized slavery
supporters, SC, and one of SC's Senators
o Brooks, a representative of SC, attack Sumner viciously
o It only added another political issue to the problem
Freeport Doctrine
o It was established in the Lincoln-Douglas debates
o Douglas said if the people didn't want slavery then they
would vote it down and pass laws according to their
opinion
o Without laws and will, slavery would die out
Crittenden Compromise
o Can't abolish slavery in DC while it was part of both MD and VA and the consent
of the people, those who opposed would have to be given compensation
o Congress couldn't interfere in interstate slave trade
o Congress couldn't abolish slavery in places under its jurisdiction
o Congress would give full compensation to an owner whose slave ran away, by
suing the county, who then sued the people actually guilty to pay back the
owners
o In territories north of the 36°30' slavery would be prohibited and below would
be able to decide and it would become part of their State Constitution
o No future amendments could be made to these and Congress couldn't interfere
with slavery in a slave state
This was the last chance at compromise, but was shot down by
Lincoln, killing any hope of compromise and preveting war.
o
o
o
He had been living in Illinois,
which was free soil and sued for
freedom
Supreme Court said he was a slave
and not a citizen, so he couldn't
sue
It was then determined that slaves
were property so under the 5th
Amendment slaves could be taken
anywhere free and still be a slave,
since they were property
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
o He went into Virginia thinking that he could call on
the slaves and that they would rise up, and he would
only have to supply them with arms
o He took the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, but the slaves
didn't know his plan and didn't rise up
o He was found guilty of murder and treason and was
sentenced to hang, only making him more popular and
admired by abolitionists
All the controversial
decisions, opposing
views, violent
opposition, and the lack
of willingness to
compromise, led to the
US splitting into the
Union and the
Confederacy, and a war
of the US versus itself.
Emancipation Proclamation
o It said that all slaves in the states
o
o
making up the Confederacy were free,
but those in the border states were not
Didn't actually free many slaves,
except those who could escape the
South because Lincoln had no
jurisdiction over the slaves in the
Confederacy
It did change the meaning of the war,
it was no longer just about preserving
the Union, but made slavery part of the
issue
The Freedmen's Bureau
o It was developed to help the newly freed slaves adjust to their new
free lives, which they didn't know how to handle
o Most were unskilled, uneducated, and had no money or property
o It was very successful at teaching freed slaves, especially reading
o The Bureau was supposed to be able
to give out 40 acre plots of land,but
little land was ever given out
o Many freed slaves were tricked into
signing contracts to work for their old
masters again
o The 2nd Freedmen's Bureau Act, to extend the Bureau's life would be
passed over Johnson's veto
13th Amendment
o This Amendment said that slavery and involuntary servitude
was illegal, unless it was a punishment for a crime
o This officially abolished slavery everywhere in the US, unlike
the Emancipation Proclamation
14th Amendment
o Gave citizenship to everyone born or naturalized in the US
and said a state couldn't deny anyone the right of "life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness or equal protection
15th Amendment
o It granted suffrage to previous slaves by saying that the right
to vote will not be denied due to race, color, or previous
conditions of servitude
Black Codes
o These codes were put in place all over the South and their
goal was to get the social order as close to what it was prior to
the Civil War
o Penalties for jumping unfair contract, couldn't serve on a jury,
and some said African Americans couldn't rent or lease land
Klu Klux Klan organizes
o Their goal was to undermine the attempts to empower African
Americans politically
o The would go out dressed in white sheets to the houses of who
they considered an upstart black and then would attempt to
scare the person mentally or physically
Civil Rights Act of 1866
o This said that all people born in the US were citizens and along
with that came all the rights of citizenship
o These were things like the right to make a contract, sue, inherit,
purchase, sell, lease, or hold property
Force Act
o The act was designed to end the terror of the KKK in the South
o The government had the right to use federal forces to enforce
the law and persecute Klansmen
Civil Rights Act of 1875
o Said everyone was to be given the same accommodations in
public places regardless of race, color, or previous condition
Plessy V. Fergusson: The court upheld the constitutionality of state
laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the
doctrine of "separate but equal"
Civil Rights Cases argued before the Supreme Court: These were a
group of five similar cases consolidated into one issue for the
Supreme Court to review. The Court held that Congress lacked the
constitutional authority under the Fourteenth Amendment to
outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals and
organizations, rather than state and local governments.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas: This case stated that
“separate but equal” was not actually equal and desgregated
schools.
Booker T. Washington founded Tuskegee Institute: The organizers of the new
all-black state school called Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in
Alabama found the energetic leader they sought in 25-year-old
Washington. He believed that with self-help, people could go from poverty
to success.
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington published: A 1901 autobiography of
Booker T. Washington detailing his work to rise from the position of a
slave child to the difficulties and obstacles he overcame to get an
education at the new Hampton University, and to help black people and
other disadvantaged minorities learn useful, marketable skills and work to
pull themselves, as a race, up by the bootstraps.
W.E.B. DuBois publishes The Souls of Black Folk: This collection of essays
explored black life, from the history of the Freedmen's Bureau and black
music to Du Bois' experiences teaching in rural Georgia and Tennessee.
"Birth of a Nation" is released by D.W. Griffith: A 1915 silent drama film directed by D.
W. Griffith. The film was a commercial success, but was highly controversial owing
to its portrayal of African-American men (played by white actors in blackface) as
unintelligent and sexually aggressive towards white women, and the Ku Klux Klan
as a heroic force.
Harlem Renaissance begins with the musical comedy "Shuffle Along“:The show was "the
first major production in more than a decade to be produced, written and
performed entirely by African Americans." According to the Harlem chronicler
James Weldon Johnson, Shuffle Along marked a breakthrough for the AfricanAmerican musical performer and legitimized the African-American musical, proving
to producers and managers that audiences would pay to see African-American
talent on Broadway.
Jackie Robinson enters MLB: He was an American baseball player who became the first
African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era. Robinson
broke the baseball color line when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base
on April 15, 1947. The Dodgers ended racial segregation that had relegated black
players to the Negro leagues for six decades.
Boley and other all black towns established in Oklahoma: This area
was settled by Creek Freedmen, whose ancestors had been held
as slaves of the Creek. After the American Civil War, the United
States negotiated new treaties with tribes that allied with the
Confederacy. It required them to emancipate their slaves and
give them membership in the tribes. Those former slaves were
called the Creek Freedmen.
Pap Singleton leads Black Exodusters to Kansas: Convinced that
freedmen must leave the South to achieve true economic
independence, in 1875 Singleton began to explore the idea of
planting black colonies in the American West.
Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement
Association: He founded the Universal Negro Improvement
Association (UNIA) in August 1914 as a means of uniting all of
Africa and its diaspora into "one grand racial hierarchy." After
traveling through the United States beginning in March 1916,
Garvey inaugurated the New York Division of the UNIA in 1917
with 13 members. After only three months, the organization's
dues-paying membership reached 3500.
Marcus Garvey begins "Back to Africa" movement: The Back-to-Africa
movement, was also known as the Colonization movement, originated in
the United States in the 19th century. It encouraged those of African
descent to return to the African homelands of their ancestors. This
movement would eventually inspire other movements ranging from the
Nation of Islam to the Rastafari movement.
Stokely Carmichael calls for Black Power: Black Power is a political slogan and
a name for ideologies aimed at achieving self-determination for African
Americans. The movement was prominent in the late 1960s and early
1970s, emphasizing racial pride and the creation of black political and
cultural institutions to nurture and promote black collective interests and
advance black values. "Black Power" expresses a range of political goals,
from defense against racial oppression, to the establishment of social
institutions and a self-sufficient economy.
Black Panther's Organization is founded: was a black revolutionary socialist
organization active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. The Black
Panther Party achieved national and international notoriety through its
involvement in the Black Power movement and U.S. politics of the 1960s
and 1970s.
T. Thomas Fortune founded the Afro-American League: In 1890 Fortune co-founded the
Afro-American League. It was one of the earliest equal rights organizations in
the United States and a precursor of the Niagara Falls Movement and The National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
First Niagara Conference: The Niagara Falls conference was a meeting of twenty-nine
men on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls from July 11 until 14 July 1905. It
was the first meeting of The Niagara Movement, a group of African-Americans, led by
W. E. B. Du Bois, John Hope, and William Monroe Trotter. Instrumental in forming the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
NAACP established: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States,
formed in 1909. Its mission is “to ensure the political, educational, social, and
economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial
discrimination”. Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the once
common term colored people.
National Urban League founded:The National Urban League (NUL), formerly known as
the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan
civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of African
Americans and against racial discrimination in the United States. It is the oldest and
largest community-based organization of its kind in the nation.
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters organized by A. Phillip Randolph:
The first labor organization led by blacks to receive a charter in the
American Federation of Labor (AFL). It merged in 1978 with the Brotherhood
of Railway and Airline Clerks (BRAC), now known as the Transportation
Communications International Union.
Civil rights Freedom Rights begin (CORE): Through sit-ins and picket lines,
CORE had success in integrating northern public facilities in the
1940s. With these successes it was decided that, to have a national impact, it
was necessary to strengthen the national organization. James Farmer became
the first National Director of CORE in 1953.
Students for a Democratic Society Port Huron statement: The Port Huron
Statement is the manifesto of the American student activist
movement Students for a Democratic Society. The statement determined that
race and alienation were the two major points of focus.
Ida B. Wells strikes out against lynching and is driven from Memphis: Between 1890 and
1940, millions of African Americans were disfranchised, killed, and brutalized in
human sacrifices called "lynchings." The journalist Ida B. Wells estimated that
lynchings not reported by the newspapers, plus similar executions under the veneer
of "due process", may have amounted to about 20,000 killings.
Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise Speech: The Atlanta compromise was an
agreement struck in 1895 between African-American leaders and Southern white
leaders. Southern blacks would work meekly and submit to white political rule,
while Southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic education and
due process in law. Blacks would not agitate for equality, integration, or justice,
and Northern whites would fund black educational charities.
Rosa Parks' action leads to Montgomery Bus Boycott: This was a seminal event in the
U.S. civil rights movement, was a political and social protest campaign against the
policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama.
Sit-ins begin with a sit in at the Woolworth Department Store in Greensboro, N.C.: Four
students sat down at the segregated lunch counter to protest Woolworth's policy of
excluding African Americans.
March on Washington; MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech: the 1963 march was a
collaborative effort of all of the major civil rights organizations, the more
progressive wing of the labor movement, and other liberal organizations. The
march had six official goals: meaningful civil rights laws, a massive federal works
program, full and fair employment, decent housing, the right to vote, and
adequate integrated education.
Mississippi Freedom Summer: In the summer of 1964, COFO brought nearly 1,000
activists to Mississippi—most of them white college students—to join with local
black activists to register voters, teach in "Freedom Schools," and organize the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP).
Civil rights March from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama: Hosea Williams of the SCLC
and John Lewis of SNCC led a march of 600 people to walk the 54 miles from Selma
to the state capital in Montgomery. Only six blocks into the march, state troopers
and local law enforcement, some mounted on horseback, attacked the peaceful
demonstrators with billy clubs, tear gas, rubber tubes wrapped in barbed wire, and
bull whips. They drove the marchers back into Selma.
James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi: He was the first African American
student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi, an event that was a
flashpoint in the American civil rights movement.
First Grandfather Clause (Louisiana): The grandfather clause was a provision that
allowed a man to vote if his grandfather or father had voted prior to January 1,
1867. As free people of color had been excluded from voting, virtually no black
American in the South could have voted then. The grandfather clause effectively
denied all freedmen their right to vote.
Truman appoints Presidential Commission on Equality of Opportunity in the Armed
Service: President Truman's decision to desegregate the armed forces was
politically risky as it came one hundred days before the 1948 presidential elections.
This controversial decision could have cost him a victory, but despite the risks, he
went through with it and became the 33rd president of the United States of
America. On July 26, 1948 Truman abolished the segregation laws.
Civil Rights Commission created by Civil Rights Act of 1957: The Civil Rights Act of
1957, primarily a voting rights bill, was the first civil rights legislation enacted by
Congress in the United States since Reconstruction following the American Civil
War.
Federal troops sent to Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas: The nine students sent to
desegregate the school had to carpool to school and be escorted by military
personnel in jeeps for their own protection.
Civil Rights Act of 1964: This was a landmark piece of civil
rights legislation in the United States that outlawed
major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic,
national and religious minorities, and women. It ended
unequal application of voter registration requirements
and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and
by facilities that served the general public.
24th Amendment: The Twenty-fourth Amendment
prohibits both Congress and the states from
conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on
payment of a poll tax or other types of tax.
Voting Rights Act: This piece of legislation outlawed
discriminatory voting practices that had been
responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of
African Americans in the U.S.
Scottsboro Affair: The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenage boys accused
of rape in Alabama in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this
incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. The case included a
frame-up, an all-white jury, rushed trials, an attempted lynching, an
angry mob, and is an example of an overall miscarriage of justice.
Race Riots in Detroit, Harlem, and 45 other cities: By the end of World War II,
more than half of the country's black population lived in Northern and
Western industrial cities rather than Southern rural areas. Migrating to
those cities for better job opportunities, education and to escape legal
segregation, African Americans often found segregation that existed in
fact rather than in law.
Watts Riot in LA: The Watts Riots took place in the Watts neighborhood of Los
Angeles from August 11 to 17, 1965. The six-day riot resulted in 34 deaths,
1,032 injuries, and 3,438 arrests. It was the most severe riot in the city's
history until the Los Angeles riots of 1992.
Bombing of Birmingham's 16th St. Baptist Church: The 16th Street
Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed as an act of
racially motivated terrorism. The explosion at the AfricanAmerican church, which killed four girls, marked a turning point in
the U.S. 1960s Civil Rights Movement and contributed to support
for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Malcolm X assassinated: In contrast with civil rights leaders such as
Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X advocated self-defense and the
liberation of African Americans "by any means necessary." A fiery
orator, Malcolm was admired by the African American community
in New York and around the country. Malcolm X was shot to death
by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his
organization in New York City.
MLK assassinated: For some, King's assassination meant the end of a
strategy of non-violence. Others simply reaffirmed the need to
carry on his work. Leaders within the SCLC confirmed that they
would carry on this Poor People's Campaign in his absence. Some
black leaders argued the need to continue King's tradition of
nonviolence.
Black Americans’ quest for official racial equality began the moment Reconstruction ended in the
late 1870s. Even though Radical Republicans had attempted to aid blacks by passing the Civil Rights
Act of 1866, the Ku Klux Klan Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, as well as the Fourteenth
Amendment and Fifteenth Amendment, racist whites in the South ensured that blacks remained “in
their place.” The black codes, for example, as well as literacy tests, poll taxes, and widespread
violence kept blacks away from voting booths, while conservative Supreme Court decisions ruined
any chances for social equality. The Compromise of 1877 effectively doomed southern blacks to a
life of sharecropping and second-class citizenship. Between World War I and World War II, more
than a million blacks traveled from the South to the North in search of jobs and the Harlem
neighborhood of New York City quickly became the nation’s black cultural capital. Even though
most of Harlem’s residents were poor, during the 1920s, a small middle class emerged, consisting of
poets, writers, and musicians. The flowering of black artistic and intellectual culture during this
period became known as the Harlem Renaissance. In 1955, the modern civil rights movement was
effectively launched with the arrest of young seamstress Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama. After
the arrest, blacks throughout the city joined together in a massive rally outside one of the city’s
Baptist churches to hear the young preacher Martin Luther King Jr. speak out against segregation,
Parks’s arrest, and the Jim Crow law she had violated. Blacks also organized the Montgomery bus
boycott, boycotting city transportation for nearly a year before the Supreme Court finally struck
down the city’s segregated bus seating as unconstitutional.
Although the SCLC failed to initiate mass protest, a new student group called the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) accomplished much. The SNCC was launched in 1960
after the highly successful student-led Greensboro sit-in in North Carolina and went on to
coordinate peaceful student protests against segregation throughout the South. The students also
helped the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organize Freedom Rides throughout the Deep South.
In 1961, groups of both black and white Freedom Riders boarded interstate buses, hoping to provoke
violence, get the attention of the federal government, and win the sympathy of more moderate
whites. The plan worked: angry white mobs attacked Freedom Riders in Alabama so many times
that several riders nearly died. Still, many of the students believed that the media attention they
had received had been worth the price. Finally, legislation was passed that effectively ended the
Civil Rights movement. Though the law is on the side of integration and equality, socially we are
still not completely unbiased by the color of people’s skin. Unfortunately, racism still exists,
making it difficult to fully solve the problem. Luckily, social unrest has lessened and we are
becoming a more equal and democratic nation with each passing year due to the work of activist
civil rights groups.