in 1619 the first black slaves are brought to America from Angola.They are sold in a special slave auction in Jamestown,Virginia.Most slaves work on the large tabacco,sugar and cotton plantations.40 million Africans are shipped as slaves to America.Many die on the journey
Anthony Johnson becomes the first free African-American.He buys his freedom and creates the first free black community
the Pennsysilvanian Society for the abolition of Slavery is the first American organisation to fight against slavery.Its president is Benjamin Franklin
Vermont is the first state to abolish slavery
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is the first anti-slavery novel.Its tells the story of a slave who is killed his master.The book also describes the Underground Railway.
the Underground Railway is an anti-slavery organisation that helps slaves who have escaped to croos the border into Canada.It saves thousands of lives between 1830 and 1860
Civil War breacks out between the Confederate Southern states(that support slavery) and the Union (that opposes slavery).In 1865 the Union wins and slavery is abolished
Many amendments (changes)are made to the constitution to give civil rights to African-Americans
Segregations laws are introduced in Southern states in a series of "Jim Crow" laws.Blacks are segregated from whites on public transport and in public places
The African-American cultural movement called the Harlem renaissance is at its height in the 1920s.Jazz and blues become popular and musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington are famous
Billie Holliday,the great Jazz and blues singer,recordsStrange Fruit,about blacks being lynched by the Ku Klux Klan in the Southern states.Southern trees bear strange fruit Blood on the leaves ,blood at the root Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Rosa Parks is arrested for violating segregation laws when she refuses to give her bus seat to a white man in Mongomery,Alabama.Black civil rights activists,led by Martin Luter King,boycott all city buses in protest.After one year the laws are abolished
Martin Luter King leads a march of more than 250.000 people in Washington and delivers his famous speech;"I have a dream that one day hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood".In 1964 King is awarded the Nobel Prize for peace.In 1968 riots breack out all over the US when he is assasinated by Earl Ray
The controversial black activist Malcom X is assasinated."X" represents the unknown African name of his ancestors
Champion boxer Muhammad Ali refuses to fight in the Vietnam war saying:"I ain't got no quarrel wiyh the Vietcong".His passport is taken away and he is banned from boxing.Ali wins the legal battle to return to boxing in 1971 and becomes World Champion
Toni Morrison becomes the first African-American to win the Nobel Prize for literature.Her books include Beloved and The Bluest Eye.
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