FREE ESSAY ON BLACK AMERICANS

BLACK AMERICANS

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.
By Linn