https://www.bbc.co.
uk/newsround/52963325
Black history in the United States: Key moments from slavery to George Floyd
9 Jun 20209 June 2020
Slavery comes to the United
States of America
People, who gathered in protest of the
death of George Floyd, peacefully march to This engraving shows slaves being loaded
the White House in Washington DC, USA on to a ship
Huge protests have taken place across the Most black people in America are the
US, and around the world, in recent weeks distant relatives of slaves - people taken
after the death of George Floyd. from Africa hundreds of years ago, and
forced to work in the US for free.
The 46-year-old died after being arrested,
and pinned to the ground, by police At least 12 million Africans were taken to
officers in the US city of Minneapolis. the Americas as slaves between 1532 and
1832, and at least a third of them in
Demonstrators claim Mr Floyd's death British ships.
shows that black people in America still
aren't treated as fairly as white people in Many slaves died on the journey to
society. America, and those who survived were
treated terribly.
Newsround looks back at some of the key
moments from the USA's long and difficult They were forced to work for nothing on
history of race relations. big farm lands called plantations growing
things like tobacco and cotton.
Most slaves would work really hard for up
to 18 hours a day in very bad conditions.
They had a poor diet and no healthcare -
often walking for miles in the hot sun,
living in rough huts and sleeping on a dirt
floor.
Many masters would control their slaves by Segregation
using violence.
An 1865 engraving of US President
Abraham Lincoln (centre with tall black
hat) in Virginia surrounded by slaves who
African slaves being forced to work on a
had just been freed
plantation
Slavery was eventually banned in the USA
As time went by, calls began to grow to end
in 1865 but things still weren't equal.
the slave trade in America but not
everyone was happy about it. Racist groups including the Ku Klux Klan
(KKK) began to grow in the south of the
In 1860, a group of states in the south of
country with white members intimidating,
the USA broke away from the rest of the
attacking and killing black people.
country because they wanted to keep
slavery going. Most southern states soon began
introducing new rules - known as 'Jim
The Confederate States, as they became
Crow' laws - which stopped black
known, eventually lost to the northern
Americans from being able to vote and
United States - led by President Abraham
forced them to use separate shops,
Lincoln - in the American Civil War.
restaurants, parks and schools. This was
What is racism? called segregation.
Racism is when words or actions are used
to discriminate or disadvantage people
because of their colour, culture or ethnic
origin.
A man stands in the doorway of a store
marked 'White Only' in the United States
around 1950
The Fourteenth Amendment to the US
Constitution was supposed to give newly
freed slaves equal citizenship with white their own history and beginning to connect
people. to their African roots.
However, in 1896, the US Supreme Court -
the highest court in the country - ruled
in Plessy v Ferguson that segregated
facilities for black and white people had to
be "separate but equal".
American jazz pianist composer and
bandleader Duke Ellington (pictured centre
with his orchestra in 1929) rose to fame
during the Harlem Renaissance and helped
lay the foundation for future generations
Photo taken at a bus station in the state of of black musicians
North Carolina in May 1940 showing a
"colored waiting room" board - a sign of Black writers such as Langston Hughes and
racial segregation Zora Neale Hurston wrote books and
poetry that explored and celebrated black
But in reality, black people's facilities were culture.
almost always worse than white people's.
And in 1942, James Farmer founded the
Poverty was also a major problem. Black Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to
people often had lower paid jobs in society, challenge racial segregation by using non-
and many black women worked as servants violent actions such as protesting.
to white people.
However, it was in the 1950s and 1960s
Gradually, black Americans began to that the civil rights movement in the
challenge their unequal status. United States really began to pick up pace
to give black Americans legal equality.
The rise of the US Civil Rights
Movement
There had been successful attempts to
improve the status of black people. The
National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was set up in
1909, which helped to provide lawyers for
black people who were treated very badly Nathaniel Steward (pictured standing) and
by the courts. other black students join the Saint-
Dominique school in Washington DC in May
The Harlem Renaissance, in the 1920s and 1954 after the US Supreme Court banned
1930s, led to black Americans looking into segregation in state schools.
In 1954, Brown v Board of Education was a
historic case that reached the highest
courts in America.
With the help of the NAACP, Reverend
Brown, a black man, won the right in the
Supreme Court to send his children to a
white school in the state of Kansas.
In a huge decision, the Supreme Court Elizabeth Eckford (pictured centre with
finally ruled that segregation could not glasses) ignores the angry screams and
ever be equal. stares of fellow white students on her
first day of school at Little Rock's Central
High School
In 1957, nine black students carried out
their right to go to a white school in Little
Rock, Arkansas.
Mobs threatened the students, and even
the governor of Arkansas tried to stop
them by sending in the state National
Rosa Parks sits in the front of a bus in Guard.
Montgomery, Alabama, after the Supreme
Court ruled segregation illegal on the city President Eisenhower eventually took
bus system in 1956. charge and ordered the soldiers to protect
the students as they went to school.
A year later, 42-year-old black woman Rosa
Parks politely refused to give up her seat
on a bus to a white man, an act which was
against the law in the state of Alabama. 'I Have A Dream'
Her protest sparked black people to stop
using buses for 381 days, led by a Baptist
minister called Rev Martin Luther King.
Mrs Parks was fined $14 at court but the
bus boycott led to the end of different
treatment for black people on public
transport. On 28 August 1963, US civil rights leader
Martin Luther King marched to Washington
People always say that I didn't give up my DC, the capital city of the USA.
seat because I was tired, but that isn't
true. I was not tired physically ... No, the He delivered a ground-breaking speech in
only tired I was, was tired of giving in. front of a crowd of 250,000 people from
Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist all backgrounds.
His 17-minute long speech was called 'I Islam. Members of the Nation of Islam
have a Dream', and talked about living in a believed that black people were superior to
future where all people are equal, white people.
regardless of the colour of their skin.
A lot of people found this controversial
His speech went down in history, inspired because they believed it was going against
millions of people, and helped to bring the idea of equality, and against the wider
about the 1964 Civil Rights Act. civil rights movement.
I have a dream that my four children will Malcolm X disagreed with Martin Luther
one day live in a nation where they will not King's non-violent approach and accused
be judged by the colour of their skin but him of letting down African Americans by
by the content of their character. urging them not to fight back.
Martin Luther King, 28 August 1963
You can't separate peace from freedom
This Act ended the separation of people by because no one can be at peace unless he
race in public places, and banned companies has his freedom.
from not giving people a job on the basis of Malcolm X, 1965
race, gender, religion or national origin.
In 1964, Martin Luther King was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaigning
but four years later in 1968 he was shot
and killed.
To remember his achievements, people in
the US celebrate his memory every year
on Martin Luther King Day by holding Malcolm X ended up working with Martin
parades and giving people a day off work or Luther King - but that didn't happen for a
school. while
Malcolm said that black people should
protect themselves "by any means
Malcolm X necessary".
He also disagreed with Martin Luther
King's ambition of an America where black
and white people lived together. Malcolm
didn't believe in that vision and wanted a
separate nation just for black people.
However, following a pilgrimage to Mecca,
Malcolm X was a really important figure in Malcolm X changed his beliefs and began to
the civil rights movement. work with other civil rights leaders to
achieve equal rights peacefully. He also
During the 1950s and early 1960s, he was left the Nation of Islam.
the principle speaker for the Nation of
On 21 February 1965, Malcolm X was
Black power
assassinated while speaking at a rally in
New York.
African Americans achieve
legal equality
American athletes Tommie Smith and John
Carlos protest with their raised- fist
salute, a symbol of black power and the
human rights movement at large, at the
1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico
Even with these huge changes, civil rights
US President Lyndon B. Johnson (pictured did not give black Americans economic
sitting at the table) signing the Civil Rights equality, and they still remained a socially
Act in July 1964 as Martin Luther King disadvantaged group.
looks on behind him
They were less likely to succeed at school,
White violence, such as that seen when more likely to be poor, and more likely to
peaceful black protestors were attacked go to prison than white people.
by police dogs in Birmingham, Alabama
forced the US government to step in to The total black population in America's
give black people their rights. urban areas increased from 6.1 million in
1950 to 15.3 million in 1980.
In 1964, the Civil Rights Act banned
segregation in schools, public places or
jobs.
A year later, the Voting Rights Act gave all
black people the vote. It also made it
illegal for US states to do anything that
might limit the number of people able to
vote.
Finally, the Fair Housing Act in 1968 Members of the Black Panthers group
banned discrimination in housing. march down the street
At the same time, wealthy white Americans
moved out of the cities into the suburbs,
there were not many job opportunities for
black people.
Groups such as the Black Panthers grew as
a result. They wanted African American
communities across the country to start The Los Angeles riots erupted on 29 April
looking after themselves by setting up 1992 after four white police officers were
businesses, housing and education schemes. let off over the beating of black motorist
Rodney King - even though it was caught on
The Black Panthers also created patrol camera.
groups to protect their own communities,
which led them to clash with local police. The black and white footage of King's
beating offered proof of what the black
In 1969, 27 Black Panthers were shot dead community had been complaining about for
by the police in several gunfights, and over decades - police brutality.
700 Panthers were arrested for various
offences. By the middle of the 1970s, the Anger led to days of looting and burning,
Black Panthers had all but disappeared. 54 deaths and £610m of damage to the
city.
Affirmative action
It was the first time the black
In 1972, the United States Congress community's complaints couldn't be denied
passed two laws: The Equal Employment and swept under the rug.
Opportunity Act and the Equal Opportunity Connie Rice, Civil rights lawyer
Act.
Together these laws were known as
'affirmative action'. Affirmative action
made it necessary for the government
agencies, state governments, local
governments and public organisations to
hire more African Americans.
Many African Americans also went on to
own their own businesses - there were over
Military troops were sent in to Los
300,000 African American owned
Angeles, California, to help restore order
businesses in the USA by 1982.
after rioting occurred
Riots in Los Angeles An independent investigation looking into
the King beating highlighted a culture of
racism and abuse within the LA Police
Department (LAPD), where excessive force
was not only tolerated but often covered
up by fellow officers in a code of silence.
The report eventually called for the LAPD
to focus on boosting multiculturalism in the
police force, so that the officers would
Los Angeles suffered days of riots after better reflect the communities they
four police officers were found not guilty patrol.
of beating Rodney King
However, there are some Americans who
The 44th president of the disagree and say the police are just doing
their job and protecting people from
United States dangerous situations.
Some police officers have been targeted
during protests and even killed.
Since then there have been other high
profile cases of black men and women being
killed in incidents with the police.
Eric Garner was killed by officers in New
Barack Obama and his wife Michelle stand York in the summer of 2014 after being
on stage during their election night victory choked during his arrest. The police
rally on 4 November 2008 in Chicago officer involved was fired but not
prosecuted.
In 2008, Americans, both black and white,
voted for their first black president -
Barack Obama.
"It's been a long time coming, but tonight...
change has come to America," Mr Obama
told a crowd at a victory rally in Chicago
after winning the election.
Twenty-five-year-old Ahmaud Arbery was
Obama also said: "If there is anyone out killed while out jogging
there who still doubts that America is a
place where all things are possible, who More recently, Ahmaud Arbery was shot
still wonders if the dream of our founders and killed while jogging in the state of
is alive in our time, who still questions the Georgia. A father and his adult son, who
power of our democracy, tonight is your are white, and one other man have been
answer." arrested.
Arbery's death gained widespread
#BlackLivesMatter attention in the national media and
Movement provoked anger.
In 2014, a black teenager called Michael
Brown was shot dead by a white policeman
in the town of Ferguson.
The officer who did it was not punished
and that decision sparked huge protests by
people, who thought it showed that black
people's lives still mattered less than white The death of 26-year-old emergency
people's in the USA. health worker Breonna Taylor triggered a
fresh wave of anger in the United States On 25 May 2020, George Floyd, an
over officers shooting black civilians. African-American man, died after being
held in police custody in Minneapolis.
Earlier this year, Breonna Taylor was
allegedly shot and killed by police at her Despite saying he couldn't breathe, Mr
home in the US state of Kentucky after Floyd was kept pinned to the ground and he
they raided the wrong address. died soon afterwards.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Four police officers have been sacked. One
which is in charge of intelligence inside the of them, Derek Chauvin, has been charged
US and has the power to enforce the law, with second-degree murder.
is investigating.
His death led to large protests in
Minneapolis, which then spread to many of
George Floyd - 2020 America's biggest cities and other
countries.
While many of the demonstrations were
peaceful, some places did see rioting,
looting and violence break out on the
streets.
What happened to Mr Floyd has again
raised the issue of racism in American
society and the unfair treatment that
many African-American communities feel
George Floyd, who died while being they face in the US, particularly when it
arrested by police in May 2020 comes to the police.
