African Americans

people

WRITTEN BY

Hollis Lynch

Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia University. of Edward Wilmot Blyden: Pan-Negro Patriot, 1832-1912.

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Alternative Titles: Afro-American, Black American

African Americans, one of the largest of the many ethnic groups in the Barack Obama: 2008 election night rally

Barack Obama: 2008 election night rally

President-elect Barack Obama waving to the crowd at a massive election night rally in Chicago's Grant Park on November 4, 2008. With him are (from left) his daughters, Sasha and Malia, and his wife, Michelle.

George E.C. Hayes, left, Thurgood Marshall, center, and James M. Nabrit join hands as they pose outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., May 17, 1954. The three lawyers led the fight for abolition of segregation in public schools before the....

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African Americans are largely the descendants of enslaved people who were brought from their African 数字货币杠杆交易_数字货币周homelands by force to work in the New World. Their rights were severely limited, and they were long denied a rightful share in the economic, social, and political progress of the United States. Nevertheless, African Americans have made basic and lasting contributions to American history and culture.

Learn about the DuSable Museum of African American History
A discussion of the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, from the documentary *Riches, Rivals & Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America*.
Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)euphemism *coloured* when they were freed. Capitalized, *Negro* became acceptable during the migration to the North for factory jobs. *Afro-American* was adopted by civil rights activists to underline pride in their ancestral 数字货币杠杆交易_数字货币周homeland, but *Black*—the symbol of power and revolution—proved more popular. All these terms are still reflected in the names of dozens of organizations. To reestablish “cultural integrity” in the late 1980s, Jesse Jackson proposed *African American*, which—unlike some “baseless” colour label—proclaims kinship with a historical land base. In the 21st century the terms *Black* and *African American* both were widely used.
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The early history of Blacks in the Americas

Africans assisted the Spanish and the Portuguese during their early exploration of the Americas. In the 16th century some Black explorers settled in the Mississippi valley and in the areas that became chattel cultivating the farmlands of the New World.

Of an estimated 10 million Africans brought to the Americas by the trade of enslaved peoples, about 430,000 came to the territory of what is now the United States. The overwhelming majority were taken from the area of discipline of plantation life.

African Americans

The early history of Blacks in the Americas