Background
·
African
American Experience
· African
American World
·
Africans
in America: America's Journey through Slavery
·
The
Amistad Revolt CD
·
Black
American Literature at Year 2000 CD
·
Brown
vs. Board of Education: The Supreme Court Decision that Changed
a Nation CD
·
Civil
Rights: An Overview of Civil Rights & Related Supreme Court
Decisions in the U.S. CD
·
Civil
Rights Movement and the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
CD
· Civil
Rights Timeline
·
The
History of Jim Crow
· Diversity
in the U.S.
·
The
Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change
·
Nation
Celebrates Anniversary Of Landmark Civil Rights Law
CD
·
Nation feiert 40. Jahrestag
des Bürgerrechtsgesetzes
CD
· National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
· National
Urban League
· New
York Times > Race
· Our
Shared History. African-American Heritage
· Outline
of American History CD
· Portrait
of America CD
· Racial
Justice. ACLU
Original
Documents
·
13th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865)
· 14th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868)
· 15th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights (1870)
·
African-American
Texts Online
·
Basic
Readings in U.S. Democracy: On the Road from Slavery to Freedom
CD
·
Brown
vs. Board of Education (1954)
·
Civil
Rights Act (1964)
· Emancipation
Proclamation (1863)
·
Famous Speeches CD
·
"I Have a Dream"
CD
·
"Ich
habe einen Traum"
CD
· Martin
Luther King, Jr. Speeches
· North
American Slave Narratives
· Official
Program for the March on Washington (1963)
· Say
it Plain. A century of African American Speeches
· Voting
Rights Act (1965)
· Voices
of Civil Rights
Multimedia
· Afircan
American History and Culture
· Being
a Black Man (Wash. Post)
· Ex-Slaves
Narratives
· History
Channel: King
· History
Channel: Voices of Civil Rights
· Malcolm
X Discusses challenges to African-American society
· Say
It Plain. A Century of Great African American Speeches
· Underground
Railroad
Statistics
·
Black
Population in the United States
·
The
Black Population 2000 CD
·
The
Black Population in the U.S.: March 2002 CD
·
Facts
for Features *Special Edition* Civil Rights Act of 1964: 40th
Anniversary CD
·
Facts
for Features: African American Heritage Month, February 2009
·
Facts
on the Black/African American Population
·
Historical
Census Statistics On Population By Race, 1790 to 1990, and By
Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990
·
We
the People: Black Population in the United States CD
Exhibits
- Digital Images
·
African-American
Mosaic: African-American Culture and History
·
Anacostia Museum
·
Exploring African
American Heritage
·
National
Civil Rights Museum
·
National Museum of African American
History and Culture
·
National Underground Railroad
Freedom Center
·
Powerful
Days in Black and White
· We
Shall Overcome: History Places of the Civil Rights Movement
For High School Students
· Civil Rights in America
· Equality Before the Law
· Martin L. King Jr.. Interactive Classroom
· Meet Amazing Americans: Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. du Bois, Duke Ellington, Harriet Tubman, Langston Hughes
·
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Among the flood of immigrants to North America, one group came unwillingly. These were Africans, 500,000 of whom were brought over as slaves between 1619 and 1808, when importing slaves into the United States became illegal. The practice of owning slaves and their descendants continued, however, particularly in the agrarian South, where many laborers were needed to work the fields.
The process of ending slavery began in April 1861 with the outbreak of the American Civil War between the free states of the North and the slave states of the South, 11 of which had left the Union. On January 1, 1863, midway through the war, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which abolished slavery in those states that had seceded. Slavery was abolished throughout the United States with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the country's Constitution in 1865.
Even after the end of slavery, however, American blacks were hampered by segregation and inferior education. In search of opportunity, African Americans formed an internal wave of immigration, moving from the rural South to the urban North. But many urban blacks were unable to find work; by law and custom they had to live apart from whites, in run-down neighborhoods called ghettos.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, African Americans, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., used boycotts, marches, and other forms of nonviolent protest to demand equal treatment under the law and an end to racial prejudice.
A high point of this civil rights movement came on August 28, 1963, when more than 200,000 people of all races gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to hear King say: "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-holders will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood....I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Not long afterwards the U.S. Congress passed laws prohibiting discrimination in voting, education, employment, housing, and public accommodations.
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| Photo by Lloyd Wolf for the U.S. Census Bureau |
Today,
African Americans constitute about
13.5 percent of the total U.S. population. In recent decades blacks
have made great strides, and the black middle class has grown substantially.
In 2002, 50,8
percent of employed blacks held "white-collar" jobs --
managerial, professional, and administrative positions rather than service
jobs or those requiring manual labor. In 2003, 58.3 percent of all black
high school graduates enrolled in college within one year (compared
to 35.8. % in 1982). For whites, the college participation rate in 2003
was 66.1 percent. Thus, the racial gap was less than 8 percentage points.
The average income of blacks is still lower than that of whites, however,
and unemployment of blacks -- particularly of young men -- remains higher
than that of whites. And many black Americans are still trapped by poverty
in urban neighborhoods plagued by drug use and crime.
In recent years the focus of the civil rights debate has shifted. With antidiscrimination laws in effect and blacks moving steadily into the middle class, the question has become whether or not the effects of past discrimination require the government to take certain remedial steps. Called "affirmative action," these steps may include hiring a certain number of blacks (or members of other minorities) in the workplace, admitting a certain number of minority students to a school, or drawing the boundaries of a congressional district so as to make the election of a minority representative more likely. The public debate over the need, effectiveness, and fairness of such programs became more intense in the 1990s.
In any case, perhaps the greatest change in the past few decades has been in the attitudes of America's white citizens. More than a generation has come of age since King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Younger Americans in particular exhibit a new respect for all races, and there is an increasing acceptance of blacks by whites in all walks of life and social situations.
See also:
About the USA > U.S. History > Decades of Change
About the USA > Holidays > Martin Luther King Day
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U.S. Minority Population Continues to Grow. By David Minckler
Slightly more than one-third of the population of the United States -- 34 percent -- claims “minority” racial or ethnic heritage, a jump of 11 percent from 2000.
The May 1, 2008 Census Bureau report, covering estimates for the year 2007, confirms that the U.S. population is becoming increasingly diverse. Hispanics and Asians continue to be the two fastest-growing minorities. Blacks comprise the second-largest minority group, with 40.7 million (13.5 percent), followed by Asians, with 15.2 million (5 percent). (America.gov, May 14, 2008.)
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