Afro-Americans

With the the United States, the Afro-Américains are the people in which the ancestors were originating in Black Africa. The great majority of the Afro-Americans are downward slaves off-set between the 16th century and the 19th century. Popularized by Malcolm X in the Years 1960, the expression African American became of a use common to the United States at the end of the Années 1980. Its goal was to define the Americans of black skin color by their origins, like are the citizens of Italian or Irish origin, and either only by their color. This category is retained by the office of the census to work out the official forms intended to prepare statistics or to accompany by the policies of Positive discrimination.

History

See also: History of the Afro-Americans

Colonial time

The first African slaves unload at the beginning of the XVIIe century in the English colonies of North America. As of this time, one can observe Métissage S with the White. During the War of American independence, African soldiers, that they are slaves or free, took part in the conflict in the two camps, loyal supporter and rises. It is estimated that: 5000 Africans fought at the sides of the Americans and several of them were freed.

The American Révolution placed in the middle of the political debates the place and the statute of the Africans in the company. The continental Congrès discussed slavery intensely. Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of American independence, preferred to be unaware of the subject, in order not to dissatisfy the areas of the South which lived saving in Plantation. If the American Constitution founded the democratic bases new Republic, it excluded the Blacks from the right to vote, just as the Amerindian women, and the poor.

See also: Thomas Jefferson and slavery

The abolition of slavery

See also: Abolition of slavery

As of 1770, the companies Quakers of New England are prohibited very practical slave. Only some States of North take the route quickly of abolition of slavery: the Vermont the interdict as of 1777. In 1807, the Traite blacks is officially abolished in the United States. In the years 1820, the Female Anti-slavery Society denounces slavery. In 1865 is promulgated the 13th amendment prohibiting slavery, after the American Civil War.

The segregation

See also: Racial segregation in the United States, Movement of the civic rights to the United States of 1896 to 1954

After 1865, a great number of former slaves are found without work and of many growers go bankrupt. Then begin a massive exodus of the Afro-Americans towards the industrial towns of the North of the country. The American Civil War left rancours in the States of the South: after the end of the military occupation is installation the segregation by fear of the interbreeding and the psychosis of the rape of the white women by the African men. The Lois Jim Crow found the development separate but equal , i.e. the segregation in the public places. The Blacks are also victims of violence, of Lynchage S and the hatred of the Ku Klux Klan.

Civil laws and walk towards the equality

The first measurements against the segregation are taken in the States of North after the Second world war, taking into account the effort of war supported by the Afro-Americans in the army of the country. In 1949, the army enters a phase of total desegregation.

Thanks to the efforts of the lawyer Afro-American Thurgood Marshall and NAACP, the school segregation is declared unconstitutional by the Supreme court of the United States in 1954 (stop Brown v. Board off Education ). The others Lois Jim Crow were abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act .

Years 1960 are remembered by the figure of Martin Luther King (1929-1968) which organized and directed steps for the right of Vote, use of the minorities, and other civic rights elementary for the Afro-Americans. It is especially known for its speech “ I cuts has dream ” ( I have a dream ), marked the August 28th 1963 in front of the Lincoln Memorial with Washington during walk for employment and freedom. It meets John F. Kennedy which gives to him a great support for the fight against racial discrimination. Desegregation takes a violent turning with many assassinations, riots in certain cities and the Ghetto S: between 1965 and 1968, violences make 250 dead and 8  000 wounded in all the country. In 1968, a report/ratio of the Commission Kerner is interested in the causes of these violences and represents the starting point of the policy of Positive discrimination.

Positive discrimination ( affirmative action )

See also: Positive discrimination

The first to use the expression Affirmative action is the US president John Fitzgerald Kennedy; it was then taken again by its successor with the White House Lyndon Johnson. Their idea was that, in spite of the laws in favor of the equality, the Blacks would remain late compared to the remainder of the American population. The goal was to make so that the Blacks are more represented in the qualified jobs, the universities, the media, etc As of the years 1960, of preferential employment are set up. But it is not a question of in no case of a policy of quotas: in 2003, the Supreme court condemned the principle of the quotas as being contrary to the equality in front of the law and the free competition. The results are considered to be convincing in the United States: in 1960,13% of the Afro-Americans belonged to the middle-classes, they are 66% in 2000. The ethnic disparities are d´ailleurs much stronger in Latin America which however has a reputation of interbreeding. Nevertheless the Blacks and the Amerindians (native) occupy jusqu´à well today the bottom of l´échelle social. They still remain of many ghettos, where 50% of the children grow without father. Often still the Afro-Americans remain misunderstood, scorned or isolated. Discriminations judicaires are numerous (12% of the population and 44% of the population in prison) and the rare mixed marriages.

Demography

The Recensement is not obligatory in the United States. The mention of the Race is optional on the forms: each one is free of notching or not the boxes concerning the membership Ethnique or Linguistique (for example for the Hispanic group). Moreover, the Race is indicated on no document of identity (driving license, chart of social security or passport). It is also possible to choose several ethnic origins to represent its interbreeding since the census 2000.

Those whose ancestors were transported in the capacity as slaves of Africa to the the Caribbean or in Latin America, but which came to the the United States as free people, are classified themselves in the category Afro-américains or another category which can be Latino-américain , haitiano-American or caraibéen-American .

According to the official estimate of 2005, approximately 39,9 million Afro-Americans lives in the United States is 12,9% of the total population. 54,8% resident in the States of the South, 17,6% in the North-East, 18,7% in the Midwest and only 8,9% in the States of the West. 88% live in urban surfaces. With more than two , black resident million New York City with the most important urban black population of the United States. Among the cities of more than 100  000 inhabitants, Gary in the Indiana has the strongest percentage of black inhabitants (84%), followed little by Détroit in the Michigan (82%). The New-Orleans in Louisiana (67%), Baltimore in the Maryland (64%), Atlanta in Georgia (61%) and Washington, D.C (60%) are also important centers of black population. Today the United States is the fourth country where there are the most Blacks (by including the mongrels) after the Nigeria, the democratic Congo and the Brésil.

Source: US censuses. The estimate is of 12,9% per 2005

Culture

The term “Afro-American” is also used to indicate the American black culture, as in music, which is in fact a whole of cultures, mixes African, European and American influences, developed by this population of African origin. The Jazz is a music Afro-American, just like of other musics of Latin America, in particular those of Cuba and Brésil, where the descendants of the imported slaves of Africa invented Folklore S originals, steps of Danse and popular melody S.

Literature

See also: American black Literature

Phyllis Wheatley, (1753-1784) lived with Boston; she is regarded as the first poetess Afro-American of the United States. In 1770, she wrote a poetic homage to the calvinist George Whitefield, who had a broad audience in Boston. Benjamin Banneker, a mathematician and inventive black freed, writes several treaties and letters.

  • During the New Deal, the federal government seeks to reconstitute the collective memory of the black slaves within the framework of the WPA ( Writers' Project Administration ).

  • Richard Wright the author of " Black Boy" (1944): a young black boy who wants to become writer in the Thirties, his history.

  • Alex Halley author of the famous " Racines" adapted on TV.
  • Ralph Bunche Nobel Prize in 1950.
  • John Howard Griffin the author of " In the skin of a noir" . Griffin (white) explains the life of a black in the USA.
  • Oprah Winfrey thanks to its tele show, any book presented by it will be a success the following day.

See too

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