Transcript Black Power

Slavery in the United States began soon after
English colonists first settled in Virginia in
1607 and lasted as a legal institution until the
passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
United States Constitution in 1865.
In part because of the success of tobacco in the
Southern colonies, its labour-intensive
character caused planters to import more slaves
for labour by the end of the 17th century than
did the northern colonies. The South had a
significantly higher number and proportion of
slaves in the population.
Peter, a slave from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1863. The scars are
a result of a whipping by his overseer, who was subsequently
fired by the master. It took two months to recover from the
beating.
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Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as a punishment for crime whereof the party
shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the
United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation
From 1654 until 1865, slavery for life was legal within
the boundaries of much of the present United States.
Most slaves were black and were held by whites,
although some Native Americans and free blacks also
held slaves; there were a small number of white
slaves as well. The majority of slaveholding was in
the southern United States where most slaves were
engaged in an efficient machine-like gang system of
agriculture, with farms of fifteen or more slaves
featuring a higher factor of productivity compared to
those farms without slaves.
Ninety-five percent of black people lived in the South,
comprising one-third of the population there, as
opposed to 2% of the population of the North. Despite
being an efficient economic system, slavery did not
spread northward due to the nature of the soil in the
region and the types of crops typically produced there.
At the time, principal importers of slaves were sugar
and cotton growing regions. Both of these crops were
more suitably farmed on plantations and in the soil of
the southern regions.
The wealth of the United States in the first half of
the 19th century was greatly enhanced by the labour
of African Americans.
But with the Union victory in
the American Civil War, the
slave-labour system was
abolished in the South. This
contributed to the decline of the
post-bellum Southern economy,
but it was most affected by the
continuing decline in the price
of cotton through the end of the
century.
Simon Legree and Uncle Tom: A scene from Uncle
Tom's Cabin, history's most famous abolitionist novel.
During Reconstruction, it was a
serious question whether slavery
had been permanently abolished
or whether some form of semislavery would appear after the
Union armies left.
A large civil rights movement
arose to bring full civil rights and
equality under the law to all
Americans.
The Civil Rights Movement in the United States
has been a long, primarily non-violent struggle to
bring full civil rights and equality under the law to
all Americans.
The movement has had a lasting impact on United
States society, in its tactics, the increased social and
legal acceptance of civil rights, and in its exposure of
the prevalence and cost of racism.
The American Civil Rights movement has been
made up of many movements. The term usually
refers to the political struggles and reform
movements between 1945 and 1970 to end
discrimination against African Americans and to
end legal racial segregation, especially in the U.S.
South.
The Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson
(1896) upheld state-mandated discrimination in
public transportation under the "separate but equal"
doctrine.
While in the 20th century, the Supreme Court began
to overturn state statutes that disfranchised African
Americans, it upheld segregation that Southern
states enforced in nearly every other sphere of public
and private life.
In many cities and towns, African-Americans were not
allowed to share a taxi with whites or enter a building
through the same entrance. They had to drink from
separate water fountains, use separate restrooms, attend
separate schools, be buried in separate cemeteries and
even swear on separate Bibles. They were excluded from
restaurants and public libraries. Many parks barred them
with signs that read "Negroes and dogs not allowed."
One municipal zoo went so far as to list separate visiting
hours.
The etiquette of racial segregation was even harsher,
particularly in the South. African Americans were
expected to step aside to let a white person pass,
and black men dared not look any white woman in the
eye. Black men and women were addressed as "Tom"
or "Jane", but rarely as "Mr." or "Miss" or "Mrs."
Whites referred to black men of any age as "boy" and
a black woman as "girl"; both often were called by
labels such as "nigger" or "coloured."
Jackie Robinson stepped into the spotlight before many of
the most notable people in the Civil Rights Movement
history. He was a sports pioneer of the Civil Rights
Movement, best known for becoming the first African
American to play professional sports in the major leagues.
Although he is not often recognized as a figure in the Civil
Rights Movement, his influence cannot be doubted.
Robinson debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers of Major
League Baseball on April 15, 1947. His first major league
game came one year before the U.S. Army was integrated,
eight years before Rosa Parks, and before Martin Luther
King Jr. was leading the Civil Rights Movement.
During the last decade of the 19th century and the first
decades of the 20th century, white vigilantes lynched
thousands of black males, sometimes with the overt
assistance of state officials, mostly within the South.
No whites were charged with crimes in any of these
killings.
Whites were, in fact, so confident of their immunity
from prosecution for lynching that they not only
photographed the victims, but made postcards
out of the pictures.
The Ku Klux Klan, which had largely disappeared
after a brief violent career in the early years of
Reconstruction, reappeared in 1915. It grew mostly
in industrializing cities of the South and Midwest
that underwent the most rapid growth from 19101930. Social instability contributed to racial tensions
from severe competition for jobs and housing.
People joined KKK groups who were anxious about
their place in American society, as cities were
rapidly changed by a combination of
industrialization, migration of blacks and whites
from the rural South, and waves of increased
immigration from mostly rural southern and eastern
Europe.
The KKK's revival was inspired in part by the movie Birth of a
Nation, which glorified the earlier Klan and dramatized the racist
stereotypes concerning blacks of that era. The Klan focused on
political mobilization, on a platform that combined racism with
anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic and anti-union rhetoric,
but also supported lynching. It reached its peak of membership and
influence about 1925, declining rapidly afterward as opponents
mobilized.
The experience of fighting as part of World War I,
along with exposure to the different racial mores of
Europe, made a tremendous impact on the black men
who returned from the army, creating a widespread
demand for equality they had fought for abroad.
Those veterans found conditions at home as bad as
ever; some were assaulted for having the
impertinence of wearing their uniforms.
This generation responded with a far more militant
spirit than the generation before, urging blacks
to fight back when whites attacked them.
A. Philip Randolph introduced
the term the "New Negro" in
1917; it became the
catchphrase to describe the
new spirit of militancy and
impatience of the post-war era.
During the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of
African-Americans moved to northern industrial cities
starting before World War I and through 1940. They
were both fleeing violence and segregation and seeking
jobs, as manpower shortages in war industries promised
steady work. Continued depressed conditions in the
farm economy of the South in the 1920s made the north
look more appealing.
Those expanding northern communities confronted
familiar problems—racism, poverty, police abuse and
official hostility— but these were in a new setting,
where the men could vote
(and women, too, after 1920),
and possibilities for political
action were far broader than in
the South.
After World War I, returning African-American
veterans were spurred by their experiences to
demand equality.
One serviceman reportedly said that
"I spent four years in the Army
to free a bunch of Dutchmen
and Frenchmen, and I'm hanged
if I'm going to let the Alabama
version of the Germans kick me
around when I get home. No
sirree-bob! I went into the Army
a nigger; I'm comin' out a man."
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955–
1956
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her
seat on a public bus to make room for a white passenger.
Parks was arrested, tried, and convicted for disorderly
conduct and violating a local ordinance.
After word of this incident reached the black community,
50 African-American leaders gathered and organized the
Montgomery Bus Boycott to demand a more humane bus
transportation system. With the support of most of
Montgomery's 50,000 African Americans, the boycott
lasted for 381 days until the local ordinance
segregating African-Americans and whites on public
buses was lifted. Ninety percent of African
Americans in Montgomery took part in the boycotts,
which reduced bus revenue by 80%. A federal court
ordered Montgomery's buses desegregated in
November 1956, and the boycott ended in triumph.
A young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King,
Jr., was president of the organization that directed the
boycott. The protest made King a national figure. His
eloquent appeals to Christian brotherhood and
American idealism created a positive impression on
people both inside and outside the South.
The Civil Rights Movement received an infusion of
energy with a student sit-in at a Woolworth's store
in Greensboro, North Carolina. On February 1,
1960, four students sat down at the segregated
lunch counter to protest Woolworth's policy of
excluding African Americans.
These protesters were encouraged to
dress professionally, to sit quietly, and
to occupy every other stool so that
potential white sympathizers
could join in.
During the first and subsequent Freedom Rides,
activists travelled through the Deep South to
integrate seating patterns and desegregate bus
terminals, including restrooms and water fountains.
That proved to be a dangerous mission.
In Anniston, Alabama, one bus was firebombed,
forcing its passengers to flee for their lives. In
Birmingham, Alabama, an FBI informant reported
that Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull"
Connor gave Ku Klux Klan or KKK members 15
minutes to attack an incoming group of freedom
riders before having police "protect" them. The riders
were severely beaten "until it looked like a bulldog
had got a hold of them."
The 1963 “March on Washington” was a
collaborative effort of all of the major civil rights
organizations, the more progressive wing of the labour
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."
National media attention also greatly contributed to the
march's national exposure and probable impact.
By carrying the organizers'
speeches and offering their own
commentary, television
stations literally framed the way
their local audiences saw and
understood the event.
The march was a success, although not without
controversy. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000
demonstrators gathered in front of the Lincoln
Memorial, where King delivered his famous "I Have a
Dream" speech.
Stokely Carmichael became one of the earliest
and most articulate spokespersons for what
later became known as the "Black Power"
movement after he used that slogan in
Greenwood, Mississippi on June 17, 1966.
Several people engaging in the Black Power
movement started to gain more of a sense in black
pride and identity as well. In gaining more of a sense
of a cultural identity, several blacks demanded that
whites no longer refer to them as "Negroes" but as
"Afro-Americans."
Up until the mid-1960s, blacks had dressed similarly
to whites and combed their hair straight. As a part of
gaining a unique identity, blacks started to wear
loosely fit dashikis and had started to grow their hair
out as a natural afro. The afro, sometimes nicknamed
the "'fro," remained a popular black hairstyle until the
late 1970s.
Black Power was made most public however by the
Black Panther Party which was founded in Oakland,
California, in 1966. This group followed ideology
stated by Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam using a
"by-any-means necessary" approach to stopping
inequality.
They sought to rid African American neighbourhoods
of police brutality and had a ten-point plan amongst
other things. Their dress code consisted
of leather jackets, berets, light blue
shirts, and an afro hairstyle.
They are best remembered for
setting up free breakfast
programs, referring to police
officers as "pigs", displaying
shotguns and a black power
fist, and often using the
statement of "Power to the
people.”
Black Power was taken to another level of public
attention when, in 1968, Tommie Smith and John
Carlos, while being awarded the gold and bronze
medals, respectively, at the 1968 Summer Olympics,
donned human rights badges and each raised a blackgloved Black Power salute during their podium
ceremony.
Smith and Carlos were immediately ejected from the
games by the USOC, and later the IOC issued a
permanent lifetime ban for the two. However, the
Black Power movement had been given a stage on live,
international television.
1963
August 28 - March on Washington. Dr. Martin Luther
King gives his “I have a dream” speech.
November 22 - President Kennedy is assassinated.
1965
Malcolm X is shot to death in Manhattan, New York.
Bill Cosby co-stars in “I Spy”, a first for a black person
on American television.
1967
The movie In the “Heat of the Night” is released,
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starring Sidney Poitier.
The movie “Guess Who's Coming to Dinner” is
released, also with Sidney Poitier.
1968
April 4 - Dr. Martin Luther King is shot and killed in
Memphis, Tennessee.
Diahann Carroll starred in the title role in “Julia”, as
the first African American actress to star in her own
television series where she did not play a domestic
worker.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists
to symbolize black power and unity after winning
the gold and bronze medals, respectively, at the
1968 Summer Olympic Games.
First interracial kiss on American television,
between Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner in
“Star Trek”.
1975
April 30 - In the pilot episode of “Starsky and
Hutch”, Richard Ward played an AfricanAmerican boss of White Americans for the first
time on TV.
1976
The novel “Roots: The Saga of an American Family”
by Alex Haley is published.
1982
Michael Jackson releases “Thriller”, which has
become the best-selling album of all time.
1983
Alice Walker receives the Pulitzer Prize for her
novel “The Color Purple”.
1984
“The Cosby Show” begins, and is regarded as one
of the defining television shows of the decade.
2001
Colin Powell becomes Secretary of State
2008
June 3 - Barack Obama receives enough delegates by
the end of state primaries to be the presumptive
Democratic Party of the United States nominee.
August 28 - At the 2008 Democratic National
Convention, in a stadium filled with supporters, Barack
Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for
President of the United States.
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November 4 - Barack Obama elected 44th President
of the United States of America, opening his victory
speech with, "If there is anyone out there who still
doubts that America is a place where all things are
possible; who still wonders if the dream of our
founders is alive in our time; who still questions the
power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.“
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2009
January 20 - Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th
President of the United States.
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KEY POINTS
After the Civil War it was a serious question
whether slavery had been permanently abolished
or whether some form of semi-slavery would
appear after the Union armies left.
A large civil rights movement arose to bring full
civil rights and equality under the law to all
Americans.
The Civil Rights Movement in the United
States has been a long, primarily non-violent
struggle to bring full civil rights and equality
under the law to all Americans.
The movement has had a lasting impact on United
States society, in its tactics, the increased social
and legal acceptance of civil rights, and in its
exposure of the prevalence and cost
of racism.
The term usually refers to the political struggles and
reform movements between 1945 and 1970 to end
discrimination against African Americans and to end
legal racial segregation, especially in the U.S. South.
Segregation: in many cities and towns in the South,
African-Americans were not allowed to share a taxi
with whites or enter a building through the same
entrance. They had to drink from separate water
fountains, use separate restrooms, attend separate
schools, and be buried in separate cemeteries. They
were excluded from restaurants and public libraries.
Many parks barred them with signs that read
"Negroes and dogs not allowed.”
On December 1, 1955, a black lady named Rosa
Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus to
make room for a white passenger. Parks was
arrested, tried, and convicted for disorderly conduct
and violating a local ordinance.
This event triggered a massive protest, and one of
the key organisers was Martin Luther King.
The March on Washington in 1963 drew an
estimated 200,000 to 300,000 demonstrators
gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial,
where King delivered his famous "I Have a
Dream" speech.