The history of African Americans in the United States is a complex narrative of struggle, resilience, and the pursuit of equality. It began with the forced transportation of Sub-Saharan Africans to North America in the 16th and 17th centuries. Of the roughly 10-12 million Africans who were sold in the Atlantic slave trade, approximately 388,000 were sent to North America. After arriving in various European colonies in North America, the enslaved Africans were sold to European colonists, primarily to work on cash crop plantations.
Transatlantic Slave Trade Routes
African Americans are known to have participated in labor actions before the Civil War. At the end of the Civil War, ex-slaves had to adjust to freedom and a new labor system. The National Archives contains millions of documents concerning this transition.
Early Labor Movements and Challenges
The formation of American trade unions increased during the early Reconstruction period. Black and white workers shared a heightened interest in trade union organization, but because trade unions organized by white workers generally excluded blacks, black workers began to organize on their own.
In December 1869, 214 delegates attended the Colored National Labor Union convention in Washington, D.C. This union was a counterpart to the white National Labor Union. Congress evidently showed little interest in either petition. Five years later the disputed presidential election of 1876 led to the Compromise of 1877 and the selection of Rutherford B. Hayes as President of the United States, the end of Reconstruction, and the beginnings of "Redeemer Rule" and "Jim Crow."
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The decline in the relative position of African Americans vis à vis organized labor can also be seen in the railroad industry. During the Great Strike of 1877, for instance, rallies and marches in St. Louis, Louisville, and other cities brought together white and black workers in support of the common rights of workingmen. By 1894 Eugene Debs, leader of the American Railway Union in a strike against the Pullman Company, was unable to convince members of his union to accept black railroaders.
In 1909 white employees of the Georgia Railroad, represented by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, walked off their jobs, demanding that lower-paid black firemen be replaced by higher-paid whites. A Federal Board of Arbitration, appointed under the provisions of the Erdman Act of 1898, ruled two to one against the Brotherhood, stating that blacks had to be paid equal pay for equal work, thereby eliminating the financial advantage of hiring blacks.
The Great Migration and World War I
During the Great Migration of 1916-1930, over one million blacks moved from the south to the north in search of better lives. It is conservatively estimated that 400,000 left the South during the two-year period of 1916-1918 to take advantage of a labor shortage created in the wake of the First World War. African Americans made significant gains in industrial employment, particularly in the steel, automobile, shipbuilding, and meatpacking industries. Between 1910 and 1920 the number of blacks employed in industry nearly doubled from 500,000 to 901,000.
The Great Migration: Movement of African Americans from the South to Northern and Western Cities
Government, under pressure from African American leaders who demanded representation in the policymaking and administrative councils of government, established special offices concentrating on the mobilization of the black community. One such office, set up by Labor Secretary Wilson in 1918, was the Office of the Director of Negro Economics. The office, originally designed to help mobilize the black work force for the war effort, developed into a rudimentary economic employment opportunity agency. Except for the postbellum Freedmen's Bureau, the division was the first agency of its kind in the nation.
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The New Deal Era
The Roaring Twenties came to a crashing halt with the Great Depression. Seeking ways to alleviate the massive unemployment, President Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal advisers sought ways to put people back to work and to increase purchasing power. Among the alphabet soup of federal agencies created during the New Deal were the Civilian Conservation Corps (RG 35), the Work Projects Administration (RG 69), the National Youth Administration (RG 119), and the National Recovery Administration (RG 9). The Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration was headed by the noted educator and African American leader Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune.
New Dealers sought to institute the collective bargaining process by guaranteeing labor the right to organize and to designate representatives for collective bargaining purposes under the auspices of the National Labor Relations Board. African American leaders were disappointed that the Wagner Act of 1935 did not contain prohibitions against union race discrimination. In 1930 no more than 50,000 out of 1,500,000 black workers engaged in transportation, extraction of minerals, or manufacturing were members of any trade union.
Furthermore, the AFL remained a conservative organization. The organization in 1935 of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which sought to organize industrial workers regardless of race or ethnic background, contributed to an alleviation of the historic conflict between African Americans and trade unions. Protective labor legislation of the 1930s, such as the Social Security Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act, did not extend to agricultural workers, although 31.8 percent of the African American population in 1940 was employed in agriculture (40.4 percent in the South).
The STFU, ostensibly inspired by Socialist Norman Thomas and founded by Henry L. Mitchell and Henry Clay East in Tyronza, Arkansas, was an interracial union from its very beginning. With the assistance and support of individuals such as Secretary of the NAACP Walter White, Norman Thomas, and A. Phillip Randolph, and through the strategic use of strikes and public demonstrations under the leadership of Harry L. Mitchell, the STFU was able to directly alleviate some of the oppressive living and working conditions of its members. Perhaps more important, however, was the attention it focused on the living and working conditions of tenant farmers and sharecroppers.
Due to the efforts of the STFU, Franklin Roosevelt established the President's Committee on Farm Tenancy soon after his 1936 reelection. By World War II, however, the STFU's day had passed. Mechanism within the cotton industry continued to increase, decreasing the need for tenant farmers.
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World War II and the Fight for Fair Employment
The improvement in the status of African American workers in American society on the eve of World War II should not be overstated. The advance of African Americans in American industry during World War II was the result of the nation's wartime emergency need for workers and soldiers. In 1943 the National War Labor Board issued an order abolishing pay differentials based on race, pointing out, "America needs the Negro . . ."
Early in 1941, A. Philip Randolph announced the creation of a March on Washington Committee, promising that unless President Roosevelt issued an executive order ending racial discrimination in hiring by unions and employers and eliminating segregation in the armed forces, ten thousand Americans would march through Washington demanding an end to segregation. The number of threatened marchers grew from 10,000 to 50,000, and then to 100,000. Despite the entreaties of Roosevelt and his intermediaries, Randolph made it clear that nothing less than a presidential executive order would stop the march.
Executive Order 8802 was Roosevelt's compromise with Randolph, and as such it had some inherent weaknesses. For instance, the executive order did not mention military segregation. Nor could the FEPC require compliance with its decisions and directives. Despite its weaknesses, the FEPC had some notable successes. Its own investigations and directives against discriminating corporations, unions, and government agencies helped to increase the African American presence in the nation's defense industry from 3 to 8 percent.
The National War Labor Board for World War II was established in the Office for Emergency Management by an executive order of January 12, 1942. The board was to act as the final arbiter of wartime labor disputes and to pass on adjustment.
Black Power and Self-Determination
Black power emphasized black self-reliance and self-determination more than integration. They insisted that African Americans should have power over their own schools, businesses, community services and local government. They focused on combating centuries of humiliation by demonstrating self-respect and racial pride as well as celebrating the cultural accomplishments of black people around the world.
The inspiration behind much of the black power movement, Malcolm X’s intellect, historical analysis, and powerful speeches impressed friend and foe alike. The primary spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, he traveled to Mecca that year and returned more optimistic about social change. He saw the African American freedom movement as part of an international struggle for human rights and anti-colonialism. Malcolm X’s expression of black pride and self-determination continued to resonate with and engage many African Americans long after his death in February 1965.
Stokely Carmichael set a new tone for the black freedom movement when he demanded “black power” in 1966. Drawing on long traditions of racial pride and black nationalism, black power advocates enlarged and enhanced the accomplishments and tactics of the civil rights movement.
Revolutions in other nations inspired advocates of black power. The African revolutions against European colonialism in the 1950s and 1960s were exciting examples of success. Wars of national liberation in Southeast Asia and Northern Africa offered still more encouragement. Critics vilified black power organizations as separatist groups or street gangs. These critics ignored the movement’s political activism, cultural innovations and social programs.
Between 1956 and 1971, the FBI and other government agencies waged a war against dissidents, especially African Americans and anti-war advocates. The FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) targeted Martin Luther King Jr., the Black Panthers, Us and other black groups. Activities included spying, wiretapping phones, making criminal charges on flimsy evidence, spreading rumors and even assassinating prominent individuals, like Black Panther Fred Hampton.
Members of the Black Panther Party
The African American Cultural Alliance (AACA)
The AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL ALLIANCE (AACA) was founded in May of 1983 by several concerned African American community members in Nashville who wanted to promote the positive aspects of African culture. The primary concern of the African American Cultural Alliance is to enhance the awareness of the cultural and historical background of people of African descent, while providing various outlets in which we ourselves can take part in demonstrating our culture to others. The African Cultural Alliance embraces the definition of culture as all material and immaterial things that a people manifests in order to survive, adapt, control and flourish in their environment.
The AACA’s vision is:
- Promote positive values in culture and education of the African Diaspora
- Promote dignity and creativity in the world affairs of the African Diaspora
- Develop and sustain a vehicle for cultures of the African Diaspora and others to develop the abilities of its people to advance their holistic well-being through positive motivation and intercultural relationships.
The African Street Festival is held every September at Hadley Park in North Nashville. Organized by the African American Cultural Alliance, this festival features dance, music, drama, shopping and other events. Juneteenth615, is the official historical Juneteenth celebration for the city of Nashville. The Juneteenth615 platform is powered by the African American Cultural Alliance in collaboration with FELLAVISION and various other community allies.
Black-Indian Alliances
Alliances are not permanent. They change with time and evolve with political circumstance and social need. This is what happened to the Black-Indian alliance of the early- and mid-twentieth centuries. It is, largely, a forgotten story in American and world history: an inspiring story of Black civil rights leaders in the United States and Indian independence leaders corresponding, strategizing, and supporting one another in their freedom struggles.
United by this common struggle, figures like W.E.B. But the alliance has withered since the 1960s. By that time both Black and Indian leaders had, apparently, won their freedom battles: Jim Crow and British colonialism had been defeated. After those victories came new struggles, ones less easily defined, and subsequently the alliance, once rich and transformative, faded.
The Black Panther Party: Crash Course Black American History #39
Key Events and Legislation
| Event/Legislation | Description |
|---|---|
| Civil Rights Act of 1964 | Landmark legislation outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. |
| Voting Rights Act of 1965 | Prohibits racial discrimination in voting, especially in the Southern states. |
| Fair Housing Act of 1968 | Prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. |
