african americans kim searles, sam smith, and nichole humbrecht

African

AmericansKim Searles, Sam Smith, and Nichole Humbrecht

The Journey

When the first blacks were brought to America it was unclear as to whether they were slaves or indentured servants.

Switch White to Black 1600-1700

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.

Slave Codes 1700's

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.

Early Slave Revolts

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 1712Slaves torched the houses of many white landowners and when they

came out of their houses the slaves shot them.

Stono Rebellion 1739Slaves burned houses, chased and killed whites, between 20 and 25

whites were killed.

Legislation

Fugitive Slave Law 1793Any 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 1808Prohibits 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

Living Conditions

Slaves were denied the right to participate in wage-earning 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 Gin (1793)

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.

First African American Methodist

Church (1817)

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.

Analysis

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.

Rising Tensions

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

Slavery in Texas

Texas enters the Union as a slave stateo 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

Growing Awareness

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

Compromise of 1850

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

Compromise of 1850

o CA admitted as a free state

o territory fought over by Texas

& New Mexico

given to New Mexicoo abolition of slave

trade in Washington DC

o stronger fugitive slave law

o Texas gets $10 million compensation

o leftover acquired Mexico territory to be split into New Mexico and Utah and slavery would be determined by inhabitants choice

Northern Demands Southern Demands

Compromise of 1850

The actual Compromise.....o CA was added as a free stateo Slave trade was abolished in DCo Texas gave to territory to New Mexico, but got

the compensationo Mexico and Utah were left to decide on the

issue of slavery themselveso 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

Compromise of 1850

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.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

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

Kansas-Nebraska Act

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

Kansas-Nebraska Repercussions

Civil War in Bleeding Kansaso Anitslavery activists paid people to go to Kansas and

sway the voteo 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

Kansas-Nebraska Repercussions

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.

Boiling Point

Sumner attacked by Brookso Sumner was an abolitionist that had criticized slavery

supporters, SC, and one of SC's Senatorso Brooks, a representative of SC, attack Sumner viciouslyo It only added another political issue to the problemFreeport Doctrineo It was established in the Lincoln-Douglas debateso 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

Last try at Compromise

Crittenden Compromiseo 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 tradeo Congress couldn't abolish slavery in places under its jurisdictiono 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.

Dred Scott Decision

o He had been living in Illinois, which was free soil and sued for freedom

o Supreme Court said he was a slave and not a citizen, so he couldn't sue

o 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

John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferryo 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

Civil War Erupts

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.

During the WarEmancipation Proclamationo It said that all slaves in the states

making up the Confederacy were free, but those in the border states were not

o Didn't actually free many slaves, except those who could escape the South because Lincoln had no jurisdiction over the slaves in the Confederacy

o It did change the meaning of the war, it was no longer just about preserving the Union, but made slavery part of the issue

Post Civil War

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 propertyo It was very successful at teaching freed slaves, especially readingo The Bureau was supposed to be able

to give out 40 acre plots of land,but

little land was ever given outo Many freed slaves were tricked into

signing contracts to work for their old

masters againo The 2nd Freedmen's Bureau Act, to extend the Bureau's life would

be passed over Johnson's veto

The Amendments

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 Amendmento 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 Amendmento 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

Southern Resentment

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 organizeso Their goal was to undermine the attempts to empower

African Americans politicallyo 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

Reconstruction Legislation

Civil Rights Act of 1866o This said that all people born in the US were citizens and

along with that came all the rights of citizenshipo These were things like the right to make a contract, sue,

inherit, purchase, sell, lease, or hold property

Force Acto The act was designed to end the terror of the KKK in the

Southo The government had the right to use federal forces to

enforce the law and persecute Klansmen

Civil Rights Act of 1875o Said everyone was to be given the same accommodations

in public places regardless of race, color, or previous condition

Reconstruction-Civil Rights Movement

Court Cases

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.


Literature and Culture

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.


Literature and Culture

"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 African-American 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.


Black Seperation Movements

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.


Black Seperation Movements

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.


Established Civil Rights Organizations

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.


Established Civil Rights Organizations

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.


Independent Civil Rights Actions

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.


Independent Civil Rights Actions

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.


Post-Reconstruction-Present Government

Activity/Legislation

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.


Post-Reconstruction-Present Government

Activity/Legislation

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.


Resistance to Civil Rights

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.


Resistance to Civil Rights

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 African-American 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.


Analysis

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.


Analysis

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.

The End! Thanks for looking

and good luck on the AP Exam!