Black Americans
Black Americans are those persons in the
United States who trace their
ancestry to members of the Negroid race in
Africa. They have at various times in
United States history been referred
to as African, coloured, Negro,
Afro-American, and African-American, as
well as black. The black population of
the United States has grown from
three-quarters of a million in 1790 to nearly
30 million in 1990. As a
percentage of the total population, blacks declined
from 19.3 in 1790 to 9.7
in 1930. A modest percentage increase has occurred
since that time. Over the
past 300 and more years in the United States,
considerable racial mixture has
taken place between persons of African descent
and those with other racial
backgrounds, mainly of white European or American
Indian ancestry. Shades
of skin colour range from dark brown to ivory. In body
type black Americans
range from short and stocky to tall and lean. Nose shapes
vary from aquiline
to extremely broad and flat; hair colour from medium brown to
brown black;
and hair texture from tightly curled to limp and straight.
Historically,
the predominant attitude toward racial group membership in the
United
States has been that persons having any black African ancestry are
considered
to be black. In some parts of the United States, especially in the
antebellum
South, laws were written to define racial group membership in this
way,
generally to the detriment of those who were not Caucasian. It is
important
to note, however, that ancestry and physical characteristics are
only part of
what has set black Americans apart as a distinct group. The
concept of race, as
it applies to the black minority in the United States, is
as much a social and
political concept as a biological one. Blacks Under
Slavery: 1600-1865 The first
Africans in the New World arrived with
Spanish and Portuguese explorers and
settlers. By 1600 an estimated 275,000
Africans, both free and slave, were in
Central and South America and the
Caribbean area. Africans first arrived in the
area that became the United
States in 1619, when a handful of captives were sold
by the captain of a
Dutch man-of-war to settlers at JAMESTOWN. Others were
brought in increasing
numbers to fill the desire for labour in a country where
land was plentiful
and labour scarce. By the end of the 17th century,
approximately 1,300,000
Africans had landed in the New World. From 1701 to 1810
the number reached
6,000,000, with another 1,800,000 arriving after 1810. Some
Africans were
brought directly to the English colonies in North America. Others
landed as
slaves in the West Indies and were later resold and shipped to the
mainland.
Slavery in America The earliest African arrivals were viewed in the
same way
as indentured servants from Europe. This similarity did not long
continue. By
the latter half of the 17th century, clear differences existed in
the
treatment of black and white servants. A 1662 Virginia law assumed
Africans
would remain servants for life, and a 1667 act declared that
"Baptism do
not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or
freedom." By
1740 the SLAVERY system in colonial America was fully
developed. A Virginia law
in that year declared slaves to be "chattel
personal in the hands of their
owners and possessors . . . for all intents,
construction, and purpose
whatsoever." In spite of numerous ideological
conflicts, however, the
slavery system was maintained in the United States
until 1865, and widespread
antiblack attitudes nurtured by slavery continued
thereafter. Prior to the
American Revolution, slavery existed in all the
colonies. The ideals of the
Revolution and the limited profitability of
slavery in the North resulted in its
abandonment in northern states during
the last quarter of the 18th century. At
the same time the strength of
slavery increased in the South, with the
continuing demand for cheap labour
by the tobacco growers and cotton farmers of
the Southern states. By 1850, 92
percent of all American blacks were
concentrated in the South, and of this
group approximately 95 percent were
slaves. Under the plantation system gang
labour was the typical form of
employment. Overseers were harsh as a matter
of general practice, and brutality
was common. Slaves could own no property
unless sanctioned by a slave master,
and rape of a female slave was not
considered a crime except as it represented
trespassing on another's
property. Slaves could not present evidence in court
against whites. In most
of the South it was illegal to teach a black to read or
write. Opposition by
Blacks Blacks were forbidden to carry arms or to gather in
numbers except in
the presence of a white person. Free blacks, whether living in
the North or
South, were confronted with attitudes and actions that differed
little from
those facing Southern black slaves. Discrimination existed in most
social and
economic activities as well as in voting and education. In 1857 the
DRED
SCOTT V. SANDFORD case of the U.S. Supreme Court placed the authority of
the
Constitution behind decisions made by states in the treatment of blacks.
The
Dred Scott decision was that black Americans, even if they were free,
were not
intended to be included under the word citizen as defined in the
Declaration of
Independence and could claim none of the rights and
privileges provided for in
that document. Blacks responded to their treatment
under slavery in a variety of
ways. In addition to such persons as Prosser,
Vesey, and Turner, who openly
opposed the slave system, thousands of blacks
escaped from slavery and moved to
the northern United States or to Canada.
Still others accepted the images of
themselves that white America sought to
project onto them. The result in some
cases was the "Uncle Tom" or "Sambo"
personality, the black
who accepted his or her lowly position as evidence
that whites were superior to
blacks. Much religious activity among slaves
reflected the influences of African
religious practices and served as a means
by which slaves could develop and
promote views of themselves different from
those held by the slave owner. The
Civil Rights Movement Many things
influenced the changes in U.S. race relations
after World War II. The
anti-Nazi propaganda generated during the war increased
the realisation by
many Americans of the conflict between ideals and the reality
of racism in
their own country. The concentration of large numbers of blacks in
cities of
the North and West increased their potential for political influence.
It
also projected the problems related to race as national rather than
regional.
The establishment of the United Nations headquarters in the
United States made
American racial inequality more visible to a world in
which the United States
sought to give leadership during the Cold War with
the USSR. The growth of a
white minority willing to speak out against racism
provided allies for blacks.
Most important in altering race relations in
the United States, however, were
the actions of blacks themselves. Legal
Action Against Racism The first major
attack by blacks on racism was through
the courts. In a series of cases
involving professional and graduate
education, the Supreme Court required
admission of blacks to formerly
all-white institutions when separate facilities
for blacks were clearly not
equal. The major legal breakthrough came in 1954. In
the case of BROWN V.
BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOPEKA, KANSAS, the Supreme Court
held that separate
facilities are, by their very nature, unequal. In spite of
this decision,
more than a decade passed before significant school integration
took place in
the South. In the North, where segregated schools resulted from
segregated
housing patterns and from manipulation of school attendance
boundaries,
separation of races in public schools increased after 1954. A second
major
breakthrough in the fight against segregation grew out of the
Montgomery,
Ala., bus boycott in 1955. The boycott began when Rosa Parks,
a black woman,
refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. Her
arrest resulted in
a series of meetings of blacks in Montgomery and a boycott
of buses on which
racial segregation was practiced. The boycott, which lasted
for more than a
year, was almost 100 percent effective. Before the courts
declared
unconstitutional Montgomery's law requiring segregation on buses,
Martin Luther
KING, Jr., a Baptist minister, had risen to national
prominence and had
articulated a strategy of non-violent direct action in the
movement for CIVIL
RIGHTS. Culture Today Blacks in the United States
today are mainly an urban
people. Their shift from the rural South to cities
of the North and West during
the 20th century constitutes one of the major
migrations of people in U.S.
history. This enormous shift of population has
put severe strains on the fabric
and social structure within both the old and
new communities of migrating
blacks. If one adds to this the problems of low
income, high unemployment, poor
education, and other problems related to
racial discrimination, it could be said
that the black community in the 20th
century has existed in a perpetual state of
crisis. The black community,
however, has developed a number of distinctive
cultural features that black
Americans increasingly look upon with pride. Many
of these features reflect
the influence of cultural traditions that originated
in Africa; others
reflect the uniqueness of the black American in the United
States. The
unique features of black American culture are most noticeable in
music, art
and literature, and religion. They may also exist in speech, extended
family
arrangements, dress, and other features of life-style. Whether
African
ancestry or survival in the hostile environment of slavery and Jim
Crow was more
important in shaping existing cultural patterns of black
American life is a
question that requires further study. Music and the Arts
Black American
traditions in music reflect the mingling of African roots with
the American
experience. BLUES and can be traced back to the African
call-and-response chant,
in which a solo verse line is alternated with a
choral response of a short
phrase or word. They also reflect the personal
experiences of blacks and the
difficult adjustments demanded in the American
environment. Bessie SMITH and W.
C. HANDY stand out as major figures in
the development of this form of music.
JAZZ, a direct descendant of
blues, developed among blacks in New Orleans and
spread with their migration.
By 1920 it was popular throughout the country. The
enduring popularity of
Louis ARMSTRONG and Duke ELLINGTON over several decades
attests to its
continuing attraction. The influence of jazz on other forms of
popular music
in America is clearly recognized. After World War II such popular
performers
as Nat King COLE and Lena HORNE gained international acclaim.
Later
international audiences were won by Johnny MATHIS, Diana ROSS, and
Michael
JACKSON. BLACK AMERICAN LITERATURE and art were slower to develop
than was black
music. Early artists and writers who were black dealt with
themes that, in
selection and approach, were indistinguishable from the works
of whites. By the
1920s centers of artistic activity had developed, the
best known being in New
York. The HARLEM RENAISSANCE, as this artistic
outpouring was known, produced
outstanding figures. Among them were poets
Langston HUGHES, Countee CULLEN, and
James Weldon JOHNSON; writers Claude
MCKAY and Jean TOOMER. The work of the
Harlem Renaissance and writers
such as Richard WRIGHT reflected the growing race
consciousness among blacks
and their opposition to the segregation encountered
in all forms of life.
These themes continue to be important in the work of such
writers as James
BALDWIN, Amiri BARAKA, Gwendolyn BROOKS, Ralph ELLISON, Douglas
Turner
WARD, and John A. WILLIAMS. Religion Religion has traditionally
been
important to black American life. The first major denomination among
blacks, the
African Methodist Episcopal Church, grew from the church
established by Richard
Allen in Philadelphia in 1787. With Emancipation,
most former slaves joined
Baptist or Methodist churches. These remain
today as the church groups with the
largest black memberships. Smaller
numbers belong to other denominations and to
independent churches of varying
sizes. Among non-Christian religious groups that
have attracted sizeable
followings are the Peace Mission of Father DIVINE and
the Nation of Islam,
often referred to as the Black MuslimsThe Peace Mission is
strongly
integrationist in teachings, a concept opposed by the Nation of Islam
during
most of its history. In recent years the racial character of leadership
and
members of the Peace Mission have become increasingly white. In 1985 the
main
Black Muslim group was unified with the Muslim community world-wide.
Black
ministers who have figured prominently in politics during the
post-World War II
period include Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Adam
Clayton Powell, Jr.,
Leon Sullivan, and Andrew YOUNG. The Family The
black family through much of
U.S. history has borne the strain of slavery
and Jim Crow. These institutions
limited the opportunity for the black male
to fulfill his traditional role of
head of household and protector of and
provider for his family. Because women
were often able to find domestic
employment when no jobs were available to black
men, women often provided
more dependable and regular incomes. Statistically,
black women are more
frequently the head of families than is the case in
nonblack families. In
addition to problems of unemployment, urbanisation
produced strains of
overcrowding, weakening of the extended family concept, and
alienation.
Nevertheless, relations among family members have traditionally been
close.
Many first-and second-generation city-dwelling blacks continue to think
of
home as the Southern place from which the family came. Education Until
the
post-World War II period, most blacks seeking higher education attended
private
BLACK COLLEGES located mainly in the South. Most of these had
been started in
the years immediately following the Civil War as a joint
effort of blacks,
Northern church groups, and the Freedmen's Bureau.
Among these were Fisk
University, Atlanta University, Talladega College,
Morehouse College, and
Spelman College. Late in the 19th century Tuskegee
Institute was founded by
Booker T. Washington, and a number of colleges
were established by black church
groups. Almost all blacks who received a
college education before 1940 attended
these institutions. In the 1940s some
improvement was made in publicly supported
institutions of higher education
for blacks, and for the first time black
students began to appear in colleges
that had previously been all white. In the
1970s the percentage of blacks
attending college increased markedly, but in the
1980s blacks lost
ground. Although desegregation of the public schools in the
South
proceeded slowly for the first decade after the Brown v. Board
of
Education decision, by 1969 school districts in every state were at
least in
token compliance with the 1954 ruling. By that time all forms of de
jure
segregation had been struck down by the courts. De facto school
segregation
continued, however, in large part because the communities the
schools served
were segregated in their residential patterns. This was
particularly true in
large urban areas and more prevalent in the North than
in the South. One method
adopted to overcome such segregation was to bus
children across school district
lines in order to achieve racial balance in
the schools. This caused major
controversy and led to instances of violent
opposition . The overwhelming
majority of black children now attend formally
integrated schools, although they
may have little contact with white pupils
even within the schools.