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An American Journey
By: Violette L. Meier
“The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade began around the mid-fifteenth century when Portuguese interests in Africa moved away from the fabled deposits of gold to a much more readily available commodity -- slaves. By the seventeenth century the trade was in full swing, reaching a peak towards the end of the eighteenth century. It was a trade which was especially fruitful, since every stage of the journey could be profitable for merchants -- the infamous triangular trade.”http://africanhistory.about.com/od/slavery/tp/TransAtlantic001.htm
“Expanding European empires in the New World lacked one major resource -- a work force. In most cases the indigenous peoples had proved unreliable (most of them were dying from diseases brought over from Europe), and Europeans were unsuited to the climate and suffered under tropical diseases. Africans, on the other hand, were excellent workers: they often had experience of agriculture and keeping cattle, they were used to a tropical climate, resistant to tropical diseases, and they could be "worked very hard" on plantations or in mines.”
http://africanhistory.about.com/od/slavery/tp/TransAtlantic001.htm
African Americans have journeyed from
slavery to freedom. Through
emancipation, reconstruction, Jim Crow
Laws, civil rights, and affirmative action to
success, education, entertainment moguls,
and even American presidency, Black
Americans have proved resilient and
divinely favored.
1619 – The first African slaves arrive in Virginia.1773 – Phillis Wheatley becomes the first published African American.1787- Slavery was made illegal in the NW territory but the US Constitution forbad congress to ban slavery until 1808.
1793- Eli Whitney’s cotton gin creates more desire for slave labor.1800 – Gabriel Prosser organizes a slave revolt in Virginia. They are eventually hanged and slave laws tightened.1808 – Congress bans the importation of slaves from Africa.1820 – The Missouri Compromise bans slavery north of Missouri.
1822-Demark Vasey, a free black, planed a slave revolt in South Carolina. He and 34 others were hanged.1831- Nat Turner leads the most successful slave revolt in American history. Him and his followers murdered 60 whites but were eventually caught and hanged.1846 – Frederick Douglass starts his abolitionist newspaper.
1849 – Harriet Tubman escapes slavery and rescues many others using the Underground Railroad.1857 – the Dred Scott case declares that slaves are not citizens and that Congress can’t ban slavery.1859 – John Brown and 21 others capture the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in an attempt to launch a slave revolt.1861- The Civil War begins
1863 – President Lincoln issues
the Emancipation Proclamation
abolishing slavery.
1865 - Freedmen's Bureau
formed to protect the rights of
freed slaves. The Civil War ends.
Lincoln is assassinated. The Ku
Klux Klan is formed. Slavery in
the US has truly ended
when 250,000 slaves in TX
finally receive the news that the
Civil War had ended 2 months
earlier (June 19). Thirteenth
Amendment to the Constitution is
ratified, prohibiting slavery.
1867 – 1877 Reconstruction.1886 – The 14th Amendment is ratified declaring former slaves citizens.1869 – Howard University becomes the 1st US black law school.1870 - 15th Amendment is ratified, giving blacks the right to vote. Hiram Revels of Mississippi is elected the country's first black senator. During Reconstruction, 16 blacks served in Congress and about 600 served in states legislatures.
1881 – Spelman College, the 1st black college for women in the US is formed. Booker T. Washington forms Tuskegee and George Washington Carver teaches there and reveals his agricultural advancements.1896 – Plessey –v-Ferguson declares segregation legal. Makes way for Jim Crow laws in the south.
1905 - W.E.B. DuBois founds the Niagara movement, a forerunner to the NAACP (1909). It is formed as a protest to Booker T. Washington's policy of accommodation to whites.1910 Madam CJ Walker becomes the 1st black millionaire.
1914 - Marcus Garvey
forms Universal Negro
Improvement
Association to promote
black pride.
1920s-1930s – The
Harlem Renaissance.
1947 – Jackie Robinson
breaks Major League
baseball color barrier.
1952 – Malcolm X becomes a
minister in the Nation of Islam.
Emmett Till, is brutally murdered
for allegedly whistling at a white
woman in MI. 2 white men are
acquitted by an all-white jury. They
later boast about committing the
murder. The public outrage helps
spur the civil rights movement.
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her
seat at the front of a bus to a white
passenger. A successful year-long
bus boycott begins. Montgomery's
buses are desegregated in 1956.
1957 – SCLC (Southern
Christian Leadership
Conference), a civil rights
organization, is formed.
1960 – SNCC (Student Non-
violent Coordinating
Committee) is formed.
1963 – Martin Luther King, Jr.
delivered the “I Have a
Dream” speech during the
March on Washington. In
1964 he gets the Nobel
Peace Prize.
1965 – Malcolm X assassinated. Congress pass Voting Rights Act1966 – Black Panthers started by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.1967 – Thurgood Marshall becomes the 1st black Supreme Court Justice.1968 – MLK, Jr Assassinated. Johnson signs Civil Rights Act.
1970s-1990s Drug epidemic ravish the black community.1970s – present Hip-hop permeates world culture.1983 – Guion Blufordbecomes the first black man in space.1992 – LA Riots sparked because of Rodney King beating.
1998 – Robert Johnson becomes the 1st black billionaire.2000s - present Oprah Winfrey becomes the 1st
black woman billionaire and the most influential woman in the world.2005 – Condoleezza Rice appointed 1st black woman Secretary of State.2009 – Barack Obama becomes the 44th
president of the USA.
Reviewing black
history so that the
beloved community
can study the dark
past in order to move
forward into a bright
future.
http://www.forbes.com/2007/01/17/richest-
women-entertainment-tech-media-
cz_lg_richwomen07_0118womenstars_lan
der.html
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimelin
e.html#AAH-1960
http://billionairepost.blogspot.com/2007/12/
who-was-first-black-billionaire.html