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Black history is the story of African Americans in the United States and elsewhere. Learn about Black History Month, Black leaders, the Great Migration, the civil rights movement and more.
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in...
- 13th Amendment
By 1861, when the Civil War broke out, more than 4 million...
- Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of people, African...
- Black History Facts
Black History Month honors the contributions of African...
- Mlk's I Have a Dream Speech Video & Text
The “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered by Martin Luther...
- Abolitionist Movement
The abolitionist movement was the effort to end slavery, led...
- Montgomery Bus Boycott
For 382 days, almost the entire African American population...
- Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks (1913—2005) helped initiate the civil rights...
- Loving V. Virginia
Loving v. Virginia was a 1967 Supreme Court case in which...
- Brown v. Board of Education: Summary, Ruling & Impact
- Little Rock Nine - Definition, Names & Facts
- March on Washington - Date, Facts & Significance
- Civil Rights Movement Timeline - Timeline & Events
- Black Codes - Definition, Dates & Jim Crow Laws
- Black Panthers - History, Definition & Timeline
- Segregation in the United States - Meaning, Facts. & Legacy
- Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination - Facts, Reaction & Impact
- Black History Milestones: Timeline
- Emmett Till: Body, Death, Funeral & Face - HISTORY
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Overview
- Names and labels
- The early history of Blacks in the Americas
African Americans, one of the largest of the many ethnic groups in the United States. African Americans are mainly of African ancestry, but many have non-Black ancestors as well.
African Americans are largely the descendants of enslaved people who were brought from their African homelands by force to work in the New World. Their rights were severely limited, and they were long denied a rightful share in the economic, social, and political progress of the United States. Nevertheless, African Americans have made basic and lasting contributions to American history and culture.
As Americans of African descent reached each new plateau in their struggle for equality, they reevaluated their identity. The slaveholder labels of black and negro (Spanish for “black”) were offensive, so they chose the euphemism coloured when they were freed. Capitalized, Negro became acceptable during the migration to the North for factory jobs. Afro-American was adopted by civil rights activists to underline pride in their ancestral homeland, but Black—the symbol of power and revolution—proved more popular. All these terms are still reflected in the names of dozens of organizations. To reestablish “cultural integrity” in the late 1980s, Jesse Jackson proposed African American, which—unlike some “baseless” colour label—proclaims kinship with a historical land base. In the 21st century the terms Black and African American both were widely used.
Britannica Quiz
Africans assisted the Spanish and the Portuguese during their early exploration of the Americas. In the 16th century some Black explorers settled in the Mississippi valley and in the areas that became South Carolina and New Mexico. The most celebrated Black explorer of the Americas was Estéban, who traveled through the Southwest in the 1530s.
The uninterrupted history of Blacks in the United States began in 1619, when 20 Africans were landed in the English colony of Virginia. These individuals were not enslaved people but indentured servants—persons bound to an employer for a limited number of years—as were many of the settlers of European descent (whites). By the 1660s large numbers of Africans were being brought to the English colonies. In 1790 Blacks numbered almost 760,000 and made up nearly one-fifth of the population of the United States.
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Attempts to hold Black servants beyond the normal term of indenture culminated in the legal establishment of Black chattel slavery in Virginia in 1661 and in all the English colonies by 1750. Black people were easily distinguished by their skin colour (the result of evolutionary pressures favouring the presence in the skin of a dark pigment called melanin in populations in equatorial climates) from the rest of the populace, making them highly visible targets for enslavement. Moreover, the development of the belief that they were an “inferior” race with a “heathen” culture made it easier for whites to rationalize Black slavery. Enslaved Blacks were put to work clearing and cultivating the farmlands of the New World.
Of an estimated 10 million Africans brought to the Americas by the trade of enslaved peoples, about 430,000 came to the territory of what is now the United States. The overwhelming majority were taken from the area of western Africa stretching from present-day Senegal to Angola, where political and social organization as well as art, music, and dance were highly advanced. On or near the African coast had emerged the major kingdoms of Oyo, Ashanti, Benin, Dahomey, and the Congo. In the Sudanese interior had arisen the empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai; the Hausa states; and the states of Kanem-Bornu. Such African cities as Djenné and Timbuktu, both now in Mali, were at one time major commercial and educational centres.
- Hollis Lynch
African-American history started with the arrival of Africans to North America in the 16th and 17th centuries. Former Spanish slaves who had been freed by Francis Drake arrived aboard the Golden Hind at New Albion in California in 1579. [1]
Oct 14, 2009 · After the Civil War, the racist legacy of slavery persisted, spurring movements of resistance. Learn important dates and facts about the African American experience.
- 4 min
Black History Month 2024. Explore the digital resources on this page to learn more about African American history at the National Museum of American History.
Jan 30, 2024 · By Nicquel Terry Ellis, Nicole Chavez, Chandelis Duster and Faith Karimi, CNN Published February 1, 2023Updated January 30, 2024. They stood up against racism and inequality – some risking their ...
