Africans at the Crossroads

African-Americans have been and are still continuing to be affected disproportionately by poverty, mortality rates for treatable diseases and employment discrimination, as recent studies show. A study last month resolved that black patients die from cancer at higher rates than whites, and still another study found that employers still practice a form of racial profiling that prevents many African-Americans from entering or moving up in the job market. While these and other finding point to the continued existence of institutional racism, conservatives have conducted efforts in the last years to dismantle affirmative action programs, arguing that they are no longer needed. Many say that the U.S. is unable to recognize and deal with contemporary racism because it has also been unable to deal with its past history of slavery, and with slavery's legacy.

One of the most influential and monumental leaders for the freedom of Blacks was one Malcolm Little 'X'. In 1952 he discarded his "slave name," Little, and was assigned the new name "X." Malcolm X joined the Nation of Islam under the guidance of Elijah Muhammad and eventually was made a minister and top administrator of the Muslim movement and was a great advocate of Black freedom in the United States of America. His campaign got more and more followers and his popularity grew but unfortunately on February 21, as Malcolm addressed a filled house at the Audubon Ballroom, multiple assassins shot him. The reason for his assassination was never known but he could not complete his movement.

Another great leader was Martin Luther King, Jr. As a pastor of a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama, King lead a Black bus boycott. In 1963 he led a massive march on Washington DC where he delivered his now famous, "I Have a Dream" speech. King's tactics of active nonviolence (sit-ins, protest marches) had put civil-rights squarely on the national agenda. King was turning his attention to a nationwide campaign to help the poor at the time of his assassination. He was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. King was only 39 at the time of his death

Described as "one of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced," John Lewis has dedicated his life to protecting human rights, securing personal dignity and building what he calls "The Beloved Community." He has displayed a sense of ethics and morality that has won him the admiration of many of his colleagues in the United States Congress. Despite his youth, John Lewis became a recognizedPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=John Lewis" leader in the Civil Rights Movement. By 1963, he was recognized as one of the "Big Six" leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. Lewis, at the age of 23, was one of the planners and a keynote speaker at the historic "March on Washington" in August 1963.

Philip Randolph stepped into the limelight and became a very visible national spokesperson for African-American rights in the 1940s and 1950s. He focused his attention on the rising number of blacks on relief and the number of defense industry jobs that were increasing with the war effort heating up. These jobs traditionally excluded blacks. Randolph proposed the March on Washington - a mass action protest to demand change. He was also a great leader and helped the Blacks get their freedom.