* Beginning in 1526, African Americans were captured, forced into slavery and involuntarily transported to the U.S. By 1860, there were over 3 million slaves in the United States as a result of the Atlantic slave trade. However, there were nearly 500,000 free African Americans that lived all across the country. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 declaring all slaves that had left the Union free. They quickly begin to set up churches, schools and communities to set themselves apart from the Whites that once controlled them. Jim Crow laws were put into effect in the late 1890’s to administer racial segregation. African Americans followed these laws to avoid becoming victims of violent crimes caused by racial hate. The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968 was enacted to expunge racial discrimination against Blacks mainly in the South. Discrimination in public accommodations, employment and labor unions were banned after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which was fully supported by Lyndon B. Johnson. This racial group has made substantial strides since slavery. Douglas Wilder became the first African American governor in history in 1989, and Carol Moseley-Braun, in 1992, became the first black woman elected to the senate. By 2000, there were nearly 9,000 African American officeholders in the U.S. The biggest win thus far, was on November 4, 2008, when former Senator Barack Obama defeated Senator John McCain and became the first African American President of the United States. Today, African Americans are enforcing team work and urgently taking immediate actions to pave the way for a better future. They realize that their voice matters and together they can effectively see the results and changes their commitments and impacts can make to help the entire processes politically.
It has been a trying time for African American to feel socially accepted, for the fear that all the odds are still against them. Therefore, it...
