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,"...
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…
