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(in chronological order)
Of all America's immigrants, Blacks were the only to come in chains!!
1619: first Blacks arrive at Virginia to work as slaves on rice, corn , indigo and cotton
plantations (Jefferson Davis: "No man will labor for himself who can make
another labor for him.")
1783: The cotton gin is invented by and thus the demand for more workers increases.
1830: more than 2000000 slaves in the USA
1831: Nat Turner, a black preacher, tries to start a rebellion and is hanged for his
trouble.
1860: Abraham Lincoln takes office as US President.
1861-65: CIVIL WAR; at the end all Blacks are given the right of US citizens
1866: White racists reform the Ku Klux Clan, a secret institution which terrorizes
black people.
1870: The right to vote is given to the black population and a law is passes which
forbids the Ku Klux Clan.
1873: foundation of the Southern Historical Society, a patriotic association which
works for the revival of past southern ideals
1896: The Supreme Court of the USA establishes racial segregation into the American
society what is directly carried out in colleges and universities all over the country. (statement: "SEPARATE BUT EQUAL")
1954: Racial segregation is abolished in public schools as a consequence of a
campaign which was started by the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in 1915.
1955: When Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat in a public bus of the city
Montgomery for a white person she is arrested. A bus boycott organized by the black priest Martin Luther King Jr. follows and ends after 13 months with the abolishment of segregation in public transport.
Since the foundation of the NAACP in 1910, black Americans are fighting for equality and against the apartheid in the south states. Martin Luther King, head of the so called Civil Rights Movement, tries to lead a peaceful campaign. He appeals for civil disobedience, like Mahatma Gandhi did years before, and wants all blacks to ignore the Jim-Crow-Laws, which make them to second class citizens.
1957: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is founded and works to
improve the education of the blacks and their registration as voters. This has a great influence on the election of John F. Kennedy as US President in 1961, though there are only 50% of the black population registered at this time.
In Little Rock (Ar) nine black teenagers are admitted to attend high school, although military forces have to be used to "persuade" the governor and his guards to this decision.
1962: Thousands of soldiers are required to oppress massive race riots incited by
violent white gangs. Consequently James Meredith becomes the first black student attending university (University of Mississippi in Oxford).
1963: After an aggressive but peaceful rebellion against the "Separate-but-Equal"-
statement in Birmingham in August 1963, 200 000 people march to Washington D.C. and demonstrate there. The demonstration contains King's famous speech
"I have a dream".
One year later the Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson passes the
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT, which prohibits all sorts of discrimination of black people; nevertheless economic inequality is still present.
Three members of the Ku Klux Clan are killed in Mississippi by radical black gangs.
Martin Luther King receives the Nobel Peace Prize, although he is not successful in stopping the Black Power movement.
After the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 in Memphis (Tn) race riots burst out again in more than 100 cities. The Civil Rights movement breaks apart
and never recovers again.
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