Black American History For Dummies

Go deeper than the Black History you may think you know! Black American History For Dummies reveals the terrors and struggles and celebrates the triumphs of Black Americans. This handy book goes way beyond what you may have studied in school, digging into the complexities and the intrigues that make up Black America. From slavery and the Civil Rights movement to Black Wall Street, Juneteenth, redlining, and Black Lives Matter, this book offers an accessible resource for understanding the facts and events critical to Black history in America. The history of Black Americans is the history of Americans; Americans dance to Black music, read Black literature, watch Black movies, and whether they know it or not reap the benefits of the vibrant political, athletic, and sociological contributions of Black Americans. With this book, you can dive into history, culture, and beyond. See how far there’s yet to go in the approach to studying Black American culture and ending racism. Get the authoritative story on the growth and evolution of Black America from slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights era through to today Discover the Black artists, musicians, athletes, and leaders who have made the United States what it is Develop a fuller understanding of concerns about police brutality and other front-and-center race issues Find out how every aspect of American life connects to Black history Black American History For Dummies is for anyone who needs to learn or re-learn the true history about Black Americans.

Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 Icons Used in This Book 4 Where to Go from Here 5 Part 1: Coming to America 7 Chapter 1: The Soul of America 9 A Peek at the Past 10 Life before slavery 11 Life before emancipation 11 Life before civil rights 12 Being Black in America Today 14 Contributions to history and culture 15 Challenges 19 Black Pride Goes Mainstream 22 Celebrating Black heritage 23 Black cultural tourism booms 24 Reconciling the Past to Create the Future 26 Slavery as an American (not Southern) institution 28 Flagging the issue 28 A question of reparations 30 Chapter 2: From Empires to Bondage: Bringing Africans to the Americas 33 Touring African Empires 34 Ghana Empire 35 Mali 35 Songhai 36 Interaction with the rest of the world 37 Origins of the Transatlantic Slave Trade 38 Slavery on the African continent 38 Launching the European slave trade 39 Enslaving Africans in Latin America and the Caribbean 41 Sanctioning and opposing slavery 42 Dealing with life enslaved 44 Seeking freedom 45 Chapter 3: The Founding of Black America 49 From Servitude to Slavery 49 Inching toward slavery 50 Why Africans? 51 The Triangular Trade 51 The Middle Passage 52 The capture 52 The voyage 54 Safe arrival 55 Black Americans and the Revolution 57 A bit of background 58 Fighting for freedom 58 Hope and disappointment 60 The Free African Society and the Birth of Black America 61 Part 2: Long Road to Freedom 63 Chapter 4: American Slavery, American Freedom 65 American Bondage 66 Northern slavery 66 Enslaved life in the South 69 Before I’d Be a Slave: Fighting the System 73 The Slave Codes 74 Rebellions 75 Running away 79 “Free” Black People 81 Different paths to freedom 82 Perhaps free, but not equal 82 Chapter 5: Bringing Down the House: Marching toward Civil War and Freedom 85 Picking Fights 86 Arguing against slavery 87 Arguing for slavery 88 Leading the Antislavery Assault: Key Abolitionists 89 Anthony Benezet 89 David Walker 90 William Lloyd Garrison 90 Frederick Douglass 91 Fighting with Words 92 Slave narratives 92 Origins of the Black press 93 Colonization (or Emigration) Movement 94 Early resettlement efforts 95 Cuffe: Man on a mission 95 Questioning motives 96 The Effects of Proslavery Politics 96 The Fugitive Slave Clause 96 Stronger fugitive slave measures: Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 97 Battling over the slave status of new land 97 The Missouri Compromise 98 The Underground Railroad 98 Operation Freedom 99 Key people along the line 99 Message in the music 103 The Breaking Point 103 Straining North-South relations 104 The Compromise of 1850 104 The Kansas-Nebraska Act 105 Slavery continues 105 Dred Scott: A strike against freedom 106 Defining events at Harpers Ferry 106 Facing the Moment of Truth 107 Chapter 6: Up from Slavery: Civil War and Reconstruction 109 The Question: To End Slavery or Not? 110 Teetering on a tightrope 110 The first Confiscation Act, 1861 111 Black People in the Early Days of the Civil War 111 Serving the Union 112 Surviving in the South 112 Moving toward the Emancipation Proclamation 113 Shutting down the illegal slave trade 113 Passing the Second Confiscation Act 114 Courting England’s support 114 Free at Last (Well, Sort of): The Emancipation Proclamation 114 What the Proclamation did 115 Reaction to the order 115 Finally in the Fight 116 As Union soldiers 116 As Confederate soldiers 118 The War’s End and the Thirteenth Amendment 119 (Re)constructing Democracy 121 Undermining Lincoln’s plan 121 Taking back the power: Reconstruction Act of 1867 123 A Mixed Bag of Hope and Despair 123 The Freedmen’s Bureau 123 Where’s my 40 acres and a mule? 124 Back to the land 127 Finding a new way 128 Banking on wealth 128 Taking office 129 The Fifteenth Amendment 130 A Turn for the Worse: The End of Reconstruction 131 The Redeemers 131 The Mississippi Plan 132 Civil Rights Act of 1875 132 Pulling the plug 132 Part 3: Pillars of Change: The Civil Rights Movement 135 Chapter 7: Living Jim Crow 137 Post-Reconstruction Blues 137 The Exoduster Movement 138 Black Town, U.S.A. 139 Lynchings and riots/massacres 140 Instituting Jim Crow: Plessy v. Ferguson 146 Court cases before Plessy 146 The actual case: Plessy v. Ferguson 147 Strategies for Achieving Equality 147 Booker T. Washington: The Accommodationist 148 W.E.B. Du Bois: The Integrationist 148 Organizing for Freedom 150 National Afro-American Council 150 The National Negro Business League 150 The Niagara Movement 152 The NAACP 153 The National Urban League 154 Keep on Moving: The Great Migration 154 Leaving the South 154 Life up North 156 Marcus Garvey: Man with a Plan 156 Advocating racial pride 157 Going “Back to Africa” 157 Powerful enemies 158 Can’t Catch a Break: The Depression Years and FDR 158 FDR: Friend or foe? 159 Striking a new deal 159 Can’t Fool Us Twice: Black Americans and WWII 161 Chapter 8: I, Too, Sing America: The Civil Rights Movement, 1954–1963 163 The Tide Turns: Brown v. Board of Education (1954) 163 The 1954 ruling and the reaction 164 Desegregating Central High School 167 Massive resistance follows in Virginia 169 Putting a Face to Racial Violence: Emmett Till 169 Emmett Till’s murder 170 The outrage of the nation 170 A New Twist in Leadership: Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 171 Adopting the philosophy of nonviolence 172 Founding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) 173 Sit-ins, Boycotts, and Marches: The King Era of the Civil Rights Movement Begins 173 The Montgomery Bus Boycott and Rosa Parks 174 Sitting in for justice 177 Founding SNCC 179 Riding for freedom 179 The Albany Movement: A chink in the armor 180 Integrating Ole Miss and Increasing Federal Involvement 181 1963: A Bloody Year 182 Not-so-sweet home Alabama: Birmingham 182 Murder in Mississippi: Medgar Evers 184 March of All Marches: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963) 185 Chapter 9: Turning Up the Heat (1963–1968) 187 Suffering Two Tragic Blows 187 Four innocent victims 188 JFK dies 189 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 189 Targeting Mississippi for Voter Registration: Freedom Summer 190 Getting ready 190 Getting out the Black vote 191 Mississippi burning 192 The success of Freedom Summer 192 Oh Lord Selma: Back in Alabama 193 Getting arrested again 194 Marching from Selma to Montgomery 194 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 195 Black Power Rising 196 The Nation of Islam 196 Malcolm X 197 The Black Panther Party 199 The transformation of SNCC 200 Race Relations in the North 201 Rioting in Watts 201 The Chicago Freedom Movement 202 The Poor People’s March 203 Death of a King 203 The night of his death and the mourning after 204 Continuing his work 204 Chapter 10: Where Do We Go from Here? Post–Civil Rights 207 The Panthers Stumble 208 Huey Newton: A symbol of Black Power 208 The BPP encounters challenges 208 Changing focus: Embracing nonviolence and women’s leadership 213 Fighting Vietnam 214 An unfair fight 214 Reacting to the war 215 Coming home 215 Black Women Taking a Stand 217 A Race to Political Office 219 Getting a foot in the door in the 1960s 220 Making political strides in the 1970s 220 Eyeing a bigger prize in the 1980s 221 Still thriving in the 1990s and early 2000s 222 Money, Money, Money 222 Looking at homeownership 222 Facing barriers in business 223 Successful Black-owned businesses 224 Unforeseen Enemies 226 Crack cocaine 226 HIV/AIDS 228 The Racial Divide 229 L.A. riots 230 The O.J. Simpson verdict 230 A modern-day lynching 231 Hurricane Katrina 232 Chapter 11: The New Civil Rights — Obama, Black Lives Matter, and Beyond 233 Gaining the Presidency 234 Obama’s 2008 campaign 234 The Age of Obama, 2008–2016 235 Black community gains 236 Black Lives Matter Emerges 238 I am Trayvon 239 Ferguson explodes: Michael Brown and the impact of Eric Garner’s death 242 Police killings continue: Tamir Rice and Laquan McDonald 243 Baltimore Rising: Freddie Gray 243 The Charleston Church Massacre 244 Say her name: Sandra Bland 244 Colin Kaepernick Kneels and Donald Trump Reacts 245 Trump responds 246 Kaepernick opts out of his contract 247 Change Gone Come: Trump, COVID-19, and George Floyd 247 Trump’s attacks continue 248 Stacey Abrams runs for governor in Georgia 249 COVID-19 exposes racial disparities 249 “Stop killing us”: George Floyd and Breonna Taylor 251 The 2020 Election 253 Voting in the era of COVID-19 253 Trump and the U.S. Capitol riot 256 Part 4: Cultural Foundations 259 Chapter 12: Somebody Say “Amen”: The Black Church 261 Converting to Christianity 262 Early objections, early conversions 262 The Great Awakenings: Called to convert 263 Christianity, Black American style 264 Building and Sustaining the Black Church 266 Black churches in the North 267 The Black church in the antebellum South 268 Post–Civil War and Reconstruction 270 Worship in the early 20th century 271 The modern era: Megachurches 273 The changing role of women 274 Politics and the Church 275 Getting more political 276 Minister-politicians: Pulling double duty 276 Fighting for civil rights: Minister-activists 277 Continuing the struggle 278 Worshiping Outside the Black Christian Mainstream 279 Muslims and the Nation of Islam 279 Black Catholics 281 Jehovah’s Witnesses 282 Seventh-day Adventists 283 Black demagogues 283 Chapter 13: More Than Reading and Writing: Education 285 A Brief History of Early Black American Education 286 Revolting education 286 Reconstructing: Education post–Civil War 289 20th-Century Educational Milestones 290 Mixing it up with the Brown case 290 Turning back the clock? 292 Vouchers and school choice 292 Leaving no child behind? Maybe 293 Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal 294 Obama and Trump on education 294 Higher Learning 295 Launching higher ed for the Black masses 296 The Morrill Acts: Making it stick 298 Determining the goal of higher education 299 Desegregating higher education 303 School Daze: The Black Greek system 304 Chapter 14: Writing Down the Bones: Black Literature 307 Troubled Beginnings 308 Early poets 308 Slave narratives 310 A novel journey 311 Writers’ Party: The Harlem Renaissance 314 Why Harlem? 315 Key Renaissance artists and themes 316 Post–World War II, Civil Rights–era Literature 319 Richard Wright 320 Ralph Ellison 320 James Baldwin 321 Frank Yerby 321 The Breakthrough: The Black Arts Movement 322 The beginning of the movement 322 Welcoming new voices 322 The Black Arts Movement legacy 323 Anthologies from the Black Arts Movement 323 Black Women’s Words 324 Alice Walker 324 Toni Morrison 325 Black Books from the 1990s On 327 Chapter 15: The Great Black Way: Theater and Dance 331 Making an Early Statement 332 Minstrelsy: Performing in Blackface 333 White minstrels 333 Black minstrels 334 Moving toward Broadway: Black Musical Theater 335 More than minstrels 336 Williams and Walker on Broadway 336 The rumblings of serious Black theater 337 Shuffling ahead 340 Black Theater Comes of Age 342 The Federal Theater Project and Black drama 342 The American Negro Theater (ANT) 343 A place to call home 344 Black musicals, 1940s and beyond 345 Two Visionaries 346 August Wilson 346 George C. Wolfe 347 Black Theater in the 21st Century 348 Kenny Leon 348 Suzan-Lori Parks, Lynn Nottage, Tarell Alvin McCraney, and beyond 349 Black Dance in America 351 Early dances 351 Tap dance 352 Breakdancing 353 Classical dance forms 354 Part 5: A Touch of Genius: Music, Film, TV, and Sports 357 Chapter 16: Give Me a Beat: Black Music 359 African Roots 359 Black Music Fundamentals 360 Feeling the Spirit: The Spirituals 361 Ragtime 362 Singing the Blues 363 Blues basics 363 Blues genres 364 Famous blues musicians 365 Let the Good Times Roll: Jazz 367 The evolution of jazz styles 367 Jazz singers 371 Great jazz instrumentalists 372 Keeping the tradition alive 374 Spreading the Gospel 375 Kirk Franklin and the new gospel sound 377 Mainstreaming Black Music 378 R&B 378 Rocking and rolling 379 Motown 381 Giving America soul 383 Post-soul Black music 384 Getting funky and popping off 384 The hip-hop age of R&B 385 Taking the Rap 388 Hip hop matures 388 The West Coast opens up rap 389 Women take the mic 390 Trap music emerges 391 Lyrical emcees return 392 Chapter 17: Black Hollywood: Film and Comedy 393 Making Movies Black 394 Race movies: Introducing all-Black casts 395 Early Black roles in major studio films 398 1940s–1960s: Exploring new themes 401 1960s–1970s: Blaxploitation films 402 Spike Lee and a Black film renaissance 403 Hood films 404 Stepping out of the hood genre 405 The Rise of Black Directors 406 Spike Lee: Getting personal 406 1990s and early 2000s: The music video launch 407 The 2010s: Drama, horror, heroes, and more 408 2020: A stream of Black women directors 411 Black Film Stars: From Song to Celluloid 412 Singers-turned-actors 413 Rappers-turned-actors/producers 413 Kings and Queens of Comedy 415 Richard Pryor 415 Eddie Murphy 415 Male comedians who followed Pryor and Murphy 416 Whoopi Goldberg 419 Other comediennes 419 Enter Stage Left: Serious Actors 421 Sidney Poitier 421 Cicely Tyson 422 Denzel Washington 422 Morgan Freeman 423 Wesley Snipes 423 Samuel L. Jackson 424 Halle Berry 424 Viola Davis 425 And the Award Goes to? 426 Chapter 18: Black Hollywood: TV 427 Early Black TV Comedies 428 Opening the doors wider 428 Getting an edge 429 Kid comedies 429 Cue the Huxtables and A Different World 430 Targeting the Black Hip-Hop Audience 432 Cable TV Opens the Door to More 432 Black Women Comedians Contribute on TV 434 No More Drama with Dramas 435 The Rhimes effect 435 Made-for-TV movies 436 Black actors in cable TV series 437 Network dramas 440 Highlighting Black LGBTQ stories 440 Black women TV executives 442 The Next Level: Building Black Television and Film Empires 443 The billion-dollar BET 443 The big "O" 444 Tyler Perry builds his own table 445 Chapter 19: Winning Ain’t Easy: Race and Sports 449 Baseball 449 The Negro Leagues 450 Jackie Robinson: Integrating baseball 454 The modern era 455 Basketball 456 College ball 457 Pro ball 458 Women’s basketball 462 Boxing 464 Football 467 Pro football 467 College football 469 Track and Field 470 Tennis 474 Arthur Ashe 474 Venus and Serena Williams 475 Golf 475 Other Sports 476 Part 6: The Part of Tens 479 Chapter 20: Ten Black American Firsts 481 Medicine (1837) 481 Law (1845) 482 Kentucky Derby (1875) 482 Congressional Medal of Honor (1900) 483 Rhodes Scholar (1907) 483 Exploration (1909) 483 Television (1939) 484 Nobel Peace Prize (1950) 484 Pulitzer Prize (1950) 484 Fashion (1988) 485 Chapter 21: Ten Black Literary Classics 487 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave Written by Himself (1845) 488 Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington (1901) 488 The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois (1903) 489 The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson (1933) 489 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937) 490 Native Son by Richard Wright (1940) 490 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952) 491 The Autobiography of Malcolm X (As Told to Alex Haley) by Alex Haley and Malcolm X (1965) 491 The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1982) 492 Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987) 492 Chapter 22: Ten (Plus One) Influential Black American Visual Artists 493 Joshua Johnson (c. 1763–1832) 494 Edmonia Lewis (c. 1844–1907) 494 Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937) 495 Aaron Douglas (1899–1979) 495 Horace Pippin (1888–1946) 496 Loïs Mailou Jones (1905–1998) 497 Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000) 498 Romare Bearden (1911–1988) 498 John Biggers (1924–2001) 499 Samella Lewis, Ph.D. (1924–) 499 Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) 500 Index 501