This is a thread of American black history, from the first slave trade all the way to the present. I really hope you guys learn something new from this because in my opinion it needs to be taught to all students in our education system.

-beginning in 1619, the original African slave trade started which brought over 10 million slaves to the Americas
-these slaves had very few legal rights, like it being illegal to kill them

-the slave population rapidly increased towards the end of the 17th century because there was a huge demand for them

-the most notable early slave rebellion was the Stono Uprising in South Carolina, where 20 white people were murdered before the slaves escaped and ran to Florida (they were soon intercepted)

-petitions to end slavery within the Declaration of Independence were ignored
-thousands of black people fought in the American Revolution for BOTH sides, and were actually treated better by the British who promised them freedom if they won

-thousands of former slaves were freed by the British after the war even though the colonies won
-Northern states at the beginning of the 19th century formed emancipation policies, while southern states continued to rely on their slaves for plantation business

-black icons like Benjamin Banneker helped survey the boundaries for District of Columbia
-after the slave trade got banned, this increased demand for individual slaves
-Missouri Compromise required new states to be admitted in duos, with one free state and one slave state

-Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published which showed how brutal slaves were treated
-as some free blacks looked for jobs like in the textile mills, they were denied employment because white people were seen as more qualified

-black people were forced into unskilled labor like construction workers and servants for white families
-Dred Scott decision: ruled that black people weren’t citizens and would never become citizens

-although Emancipation Proclamation took effect less than a decade later, it was hardly enforced as black people were still brutally oppressed
-plantation owners moved their slaves as far as possible from the Union army during the Civil War so that they wouldn’t be taken away

-various laws were put into place to try and help out black people (like 14th and 15th Amendments), but these were also hard to enforce
-this period was when the first black US representatives came into office, marking a landmark achievement within government

-Jim Crow laws were put into effect in the South after Union troops were removed, making oppression much more apparent
-“separate but equal” treatment supported by Plessy v. Ferguson
-from 1890-1908, 10 southern states adopted new constitutions which disenfranchised black people

-grandfather clause was also enacted which exempted illiterate white people from a literacy test (making them free to vote still)
-court decisions at the state and national level went against black people, including Williams v. Mississippi

-people like Booker T. Washington greatly helped to raise money and represent black people in various cases
-between 1890 and 1940, millions of black people were either killed, disenfranchised, or brutalized

-one of the leading causes was terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, which had multiple branches
-lynchings not reported by newspapers amounted to an estimated 20,000 of these killings
-only FOUR white people were ever sentenced for these hate crimes

-the Niagara Movement was formed by W.E.B. Dubois and 28 other black Americans, its purpose was to permanently end racial discrimination and give full civil liberties to black people

-after a 1908 Springfield race riot, some white people joined the Niagara Movement and together they made the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

-Booker T. Washington was once again a very helpful advocate, forming organizations that served needs of black communities

-Ray Stannard Baker became the first major journalist to look at America’s true racial divide after a 1906 Atlanta race riot

-starting around 1910, about 5 million black people took the chance to move from the south to northern and western cities to escape racial discrimination and find better jobs (among other reasons)

-in the 1920s, a cultural movement led by black people called the Harlem Renaissance formed
-the south side of Chicago became another “black capital” in the country alongside Harlem

-NAACP membership drastically increased during this time period as hate crimes and other violence against black people really became apparent

-to help out growing black businesses, the National Negro Business League was formed, and it assisted hopeful businessmen to work in larger cities and send their children to HBCUs such as Howard, Spelman, and Morehouse

-black women in the south became beauticians, and innovated cosmetics while rural white women avoided them
-Madame C.J. Walker invented the first successful hair straightening process, which made her one of the first famous black entrepreneurs

-for WWI, more than two million black Americans volunteered to fight in the war
-by the end of the war, about 350,000 of them had fought on the western front
-four African American regiments were merged with French units because they had suffered through three years of struggle

-the Harlem Hellfighters (an African American regiment) was on the front lines for six months which marked the longest of ANY unit in the war; they were all awarded the Legion of Merit

-the Great Depression hit black Americans particularly hard, because life expectancy for black people was 15 years less than their white counterparts and the black infant mortality rate at 12 percent was double that of whites

-southern black people had worked as sharecroppers which was a lifestyle very similar to slavery
-the New Deal sought to incorporate black people into the new relief programs, such as the Works Progress Association where workers of all races had the same wage rates

-in the Department of Agriculture from 1933-35, there was a bureaucratic struggle between those who favored farmers and those who wanted to assist sharecroppers

-Senator Ellison D. Smith was very racist and prevented the sharecroppers from getting paid, calling them n words (this proved the most effective choice for the sharecroppers was to move to other regions)

-the response to this was a voting shift between the two major political parties, so the North now voted Democrat
-President FDR appointed the first federal black judge, and his wife Eleanor Roosevelt was particularly kind to black people in the country (urging him to help out)

-in the 1936 election, FDR won the majority of the black vote which marked the first time a Democratic candidate had done so

-the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 ensured a national minimum wage of 40 cents per hour and a 40-hour work week, which benefited poor black Americans greatly

-as WW2 broke out, the Double V campaign started which inspired black Americans to join the war effort (victory over enemies at home and victory over enemies on battlefield abroad)

-over 1.9 million black people served in the US armed forces during the war, in segregated units
-the draft exposed the lifestyle black people were subjected to, such as a third of potential black candidates being illiterate

-84 percent of black men from the South were put in the two lowest categories of the Army General Classification Test
-by 1945, about 150,000 black men had learned how to read and write while serving in the Army

-in the training camps within the United States, racial outbreaks between white and black soldiers were very common as many lynchings occurred
-although the Army was hesitant to send black units to fight, some such as the Tuskegee Airmen proved their value tremendously

-708 black Americans were killed in combat during WW2 as they bravely fought for the country
-after the war ended, president Harry S. Truman ended discrimination within the armed forces in 1948 by signing Executive Order 9981

-the Second Great Migration took place from 1941 to 1970, where 5 million more black people moved to the other regions of the country in search of better opportunity

-in contrast to the rural migrants of the first Migration, these workers had urban skills and were able to get well paying jobs right off the bat
-after this period ended, more than 80 percent of black Americans were located in urban areas

-Brown v. Board of Education: racial segregation in public schools was now unconstitutional
-this decision applied to all public facilities now, and directly overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine established by Plessy v. Ferguson

-it brought new momentum to the Civil Rights Movement, especially with bus boycotts like the notable one in Montgomery, Alabama

-some civil rights groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were formed, and they encouraged nonviolent moves like boycotts and voter registration campaigns

-law enforcement responded to these protests with fire hoses, attack dogs, and tons of arrests among other methods

-the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the highest point of the movement, where more than 250,000 people came to Washington DC to support reforms against southern racial violence

-the “Big Six” of the civil rights movement organized this march, which were Martin Luther King Jr, James Farmer, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young

-here, Martin Luther King Jr delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech which was truly a defining moment in the civil rights movement
-this event was the primary factor in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 getting passed, which banned discrimination in public areas and employment

-the next year, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 got passed which completely prohibited racial discrimination for voters

-some black people at this time questioned the right ways to fight back against oppression, such as Malcolm X who called for black people to use violence if necessary

-the Black Power movement was formed to convince black people to emphasize solidarity rather than integration
-after the civil rights era, it became much easier for black people to make strides

-Jesse Jackson, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, brought plenty of support to black people in politics
-in 1989, Douglas Wilder of Virginia became the first black governor in American history

-in 1992, Carol Moseley-Braun became the first ever black woman in the US Senate
-in 2008, Barack Obama became the first ever black president, which was by far the most dramatic political breakthrough, and he won re-election in 2012

to anyone that’s made it this far: thank you so much for reading! I really hope this thread helped you guys learn new info about everything black people had to go through in the United States of America

black history cannot be completely condensed into a single thread, so I strongly recommend you guys do further research into some of these topics because it’s very eye opening. once again I appreciate you all for reading! #BlackLivesMatter