U.S. Since the Civil War Has Reinvented Itself

¶ … Civil War

From Slavery to African-American

By the beginning of the Civil War, there were some four million African-Americans living in the United States, 3.5 million slaves lived in the South, while another 500,000 lived free across the country (African pp). The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 granted freedom to all slaves in the Confederacy, and the 13th Amendment of 1865 freed the remaining slaves throughout the nation (African pp). During the Reconstruction Era, African-Americans in the South gained a number of civil rights, including the right to vote and to hold office, however, when Reconstruction ended in 1877, white landowners initiated racial segregation that resulted in vigilante violence, including lynchings (African pp).

This resulted in the Great Migration of African-Americans from the South to the North during the beginning of the twentieth century (African pp).

From this Great Migration came an intellectual and cultural elite group of African-Americans that grew into a strong movement that fought violence and discrimination against blacks throughout the country (African pp). Perhaps the most prominent of these groups was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, which became involved in a series of legal battles during the 1950's in an effort to overturn Jim Crow segregation and culminated in the landmark United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (African pp).

The Civil Rights Movement reached a peak during the 1960's with leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And Roy Wilkins emerging into the national spotlight (African pp). Malcolm X and such leaders raised the consciousness of African-Americans by encouraging them to embrace black nationalism and self-empowerment, and expressing ideas of black solidarity (African pp). The following decades has seen a rise of black middle class across the country, yet the medium income of blacks is still roughly sixty percent compared to whites, and they are disproportionately incarcerated in the nation's prison system (African pp).

During the past century, African-Americans have more than any other people, reinvented their culture by rediscovering their roots (African pp). From a totally oppressed segment of America's population, they have risen to the top in numerous academic, political and legal fields, as well as music, literature, sports, film, entertainment and the arts (African pp). Condoleezza Rice replaced General Colin Powell as Secretary of State, Clarence Thomas sits on the Supreme Court, in fact there is no federal or state office that does not include an African-American (African pp).

African-American music has had an incredible influence on the industry (African pp). From the spirituals sung by slaves, evolved blues, jazz and gospel, which in turn evolved hip hop, rock, R& B, funk, and other contemporary music forms (African pp).