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