S T R U G G L E F O R E Q U A L I T Y

EARLY AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS

You will study the Civil Rights movement this week.

However, before you study the movement, we should review the history of African Americans in America.

This is a brief early history review of slavery and the abolition movement, followed by early struggles for rights.

This review is meant to provide a background so that the Civil Rights Movement can be placed into historical context.

HISTORY OF SLAVERY

• Africans from West Africa were captured and sold into slavery in the British colonies• Slaves were present throughout all colonies, but

were more prevalent in Southern Colonies where cash crops were grown

SLAVERY AND MIDDLE PASSAGE

SLAVE TRADE

5http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangular_trade

This shows the crowded and packed conditions of slave ships

Source: Library of Congress

SLAVE SHIP

ABOLITION

A MOVEMENT TO END SLAVERY

• Although slavery was quite common in the colonies, there were always people, such as Quakers, who opposed to slavery

• In 1775 the Pennsylvania Abolition Society was the first abolitionist group in what is now the USA

• In 1783, Massachusetts outlawed slavery• The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 outlawed slavery in

the territory• In the early 1800s, states like Ohio and New Jersey

began to outlaw slavery• By 1808, the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves took

effect

POLITICAL COMPROMISES• In the 1800s, the debate over slavery intensified. • Both abolitionists and those who were pro-slavery were

concerned with the issue of slavery in new states and territories

• Several political compromises were written to appease both sides

• The Missouri Compromise of 1820 prohibited slavery north of 36-30 line• The Missouri enters the United States as a slave state

and Maine s as a free state• Compromise of 1850 • California admitted as a free state• As a compromise, a Fugitive slave law requires runaway

slaves to be returned to their owners• The Kansas- Nebraska Act of 1854 proposed that slavery

would be left to popular vote in in the territory

COMPROMISE OF 1820 OR MISSOURI COMPROMISE

9http://wps.pearsoncustom.com/wps/media/objects/4098/4196508/DIVI181.jpg

COMPROMISE OF 1850

10http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compromise_of_1850

DRED SCOTT

• Dred Scot Decision - 1857• Dred Scott was a slave who

was taken to a free state by his owner

• He sued for his right to freedom based on the fact that he had lived in a free state.

• The Supreme Court that determined that Scot, a slave, was property and had no right to sue

• Although taken to a free state, he was property and would remain a slave.

• As a result, African American were denied citizenship by this ruling

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http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

• Issued during the Civil War by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863• It freed slaves in southern states still in rebellion• About 3 million slaves were declared free

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS

• After the Civil War, many whites, especially in the south, tried to deny rights to Former slaves and other African Americans • Congress passed a series of Constitutional amendments to

guarantee citizenship and the right to vote for African Americans• Thirteenth amendment - abolished slavery and involuntary

servitude• Fourteenth amendment - defined citizenship as people

born in the US are citizens, this amendment attempted to grant citizenship and the vote to African Americans• Fifteenth amendment - "The right of the citizens of the

United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." (1870) 13

SEGREGATION

• After Reconstruction, many whites resisted equal rights for African Americans• They practiced segregation• Plessy v Ferguson was a Supreme Court decision

in 1896 that upheld segregation of public places, as long as those facilities were equal • This became known as the principle of “Separate

but equal”• " Jim Crow" is the common name for the laws on

racial segregation in the South

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JIM CROW IN PRACTICE

15http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws

EARLY 20TH CENTURY

• 1909 – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded to promote equality for African Americans• 1920s – The Harlem Renaissance flourishes

promoting a musical, literary, artistic, and intellectual movement of African Americans• 1930s – NAACP leads an anti-lynching campaign

to help limit violence against African Americans