Slavery In African American History

1049 Words5 Pages

Slavery

Slavery has proved itself to be one of the most gruesome and unnerving events in the history of the planet, on par with the Holocaust. Due to this issue, many men, women, and children have fought and are still fighting for their basic human rights and yearn to be equal due to this incident in our history. With this in mind, slavery, a horrific event which started in the early 1600’s, was perpetrated against African natives and both its influence and importance has spread into the current day. Although slavery is banned today in America, it still goes on today.
Slavery, of course, has been around since BC/AD times but it wasn't until “1619 in Jamestown, Virginia that 20 captive African natives were sold into slavery in the Americas”(http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/timeline/1619.html). …show more content…

“In 1926 Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History announced the second week of February to be “Negro History Week” (Daryl Michael Scott, "The Origins of Black History Month,"). This week in February was chosen because it occurred on Abraham Lincoln's birthday on February 12 and Frederick Douglass on February 14. The initial plan for “Negro History Week” was to encourage teaching the history of African Americans in public schools. The first ever “Negro History Week” was not very well received, it gained the cooperation of the Departments of Education from only North Carolina, Delaware, and West Virginia as well as the school administration of Baltimore and Washington D.C. Despite the first “Negro History Week” not being super popular it was one of the biggest steps for the Association and a step closer for the invention of Black History Month in 1976. A major event that would propel the equality for all is the desegregation of schools, public places and the desegregation of the United States Armed Forces. The desegregation of the United States Armed forces occurred on “July 26, 1948, when President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrating the segregated military (https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=84) this executive order was known as Executive Order 9981. Many public places like restaurants, swimming pools, restrooms, drinking fountains, and stores were segregated, meaning that the white folk was treated better, for example, swimming pools that were better managed than the colored people's pools and other public places. The Brown v. Board of

Open Document