African Americans From 1865 To Present Day

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In the 150 years since the Civil War, African Americans have had to overcome many hurdles and challenges. Slavery was a major cause of the Civil War which nearly divided the United States in half in the mid-1800s. From slavery to Reconstruction to Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Era, blacks have long been a marginalized people in this country. Although African Americans have come a long way in the struggle for civil rights, there is still a long way to go. This paper will review African American History from 1865 to present day. In 1863 President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United…show more content…
The debates among participants and historians continue to swirl around the events in Montgomery, which began, peacefully enough, on December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks, a seamstress, a Methodist, and an active member of the NAACP, declined to vacate her seat on a crowded bus to make way for a standing white passenger. The bus driver summoned a policeman, who arrested Parks. African American religious and community leaders in Alabama had been looking for a legal case as a wedge against the whole structure of segregation. Parks agreed to fight the case, and at once a furious networking through the African American community began (Retrieved from:…show more content…
The descendants of slaves are now government officials, business leaders, scientists, entertainers, and sportspeople. They include President Barack Obama, top military officer and former Secretary of State, General Colin Powell, Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Ron Brown, Virginia governor Douglas Wilder, and so on. Oprah Winfrey is the highest-paid television performer and the first female African-American billionaire, and Michael Jordan is the richest athlete. Sydney Poitier won an Oscar in 1963, and in 2002, Halle Berry was the first African-American woman to win an Oscar. Early in the new millennium, Condoleezza Rice became the first African-American national security adviser to a US president (Retrieved from:
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