Difference between revisions of "African Americans"

Revision as of 13:17, April 4, 2016

We wuz kangz n shiet.

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-[[image:Freddouglas.jpg|225px|thumb|[[Frederick Douglass]], historic [[Abolitionism|abolitionist]] activist, historic member of the [[Republican Party]] of the United States.]]
+We wuz kangz n shiet.
-'''African American''' is a [[politically correct]] term some use to describe the ethnic background of Americans with [[Africa]]n ancestry. The  great majority of African Americans are descended from Africans brought to North America as [[slavery|slaves]] beginning four centuries ago.  Others (like [[Colin Powell]]) were twentieth century immigrants from the [[West Indies]] or Africa. Many American [[conservative]]s believe that the use of terms such as "African-American" or "Mexican-American," collectively referred to as "[[hyphenated American|hyphenated Americanism]]," make the mistake of "putting America second" and emphasize racial differences over common national identity <ref>http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/on_becoming_an_unhyphenated_am.html</ref>
-==Terms==
-The preferred terminology changes constantly. Currently "black" and "African American" are in favor, and "Afro-American" and "Negro" are out of favor. The situation before 1960 was just the reverse. "Colored" was popular until the 1950s, but now is generally out of favor except among some [[leftist]] groups.
-==History==
-see [[Black history]]
-Blacks were originally brought to America to serve as slaves in southeastern states on large-scale plantations. During the [[Civil War]], all slaves were freed by [[Abraham Lincoln]] though the [[Emancipation Proclamation]], the [[Thirteenth Amendment]], and some state actions. During [[Reconstruction]] the Freedmen (freed slaves) gained citizenship and civil and political rights, including the right to marry, move about, and keep their wages.
-The system of [[Sharecropper|sharecropping]] instituted after the end of the war left most Freedmen poor, while the [[Jim Crow]] policies of racial [[segregation]] that were implemented after the end of [[Reconstruction]] limited their civic and political rights.
-Blacks left the rural south in two waves, the first around 1915-20, the second coming after [[World War II]] when machinery ended the need for large numbers of people to pick cotton by hand. The migrants headed to the large cities of the North and West, and also in the South, moving from very poorly paid farm work to wage labor.
-==Politics==
-Blacks tended to support the [[Republican Party]] from the 1860s to the 1960s, but few who lived in the South voted--some states even stopped people of African ancestry voting by the use of literacy tests, poll taxes and other measures. The [[New Deal]] provided large-scale relief for blacks during the [[Great Depression]]. Some black Republican organizations, as in Chicago, switched overnight to the [[Democrat]]s. This sudden change is often attributed to the leftist sentiments that were growing in the late twentieth century. The [[15th Amendment]] allowed blacks to vote, but despite vigorous enforcement in the South prior to the [[Voting Rights Act]], minority voter registration was still much lower than white voter registration.<ref>Issacharoff, Samuel; Karlan, Pamela S.; Pildes, Richard H. (2012). ''The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process'' (4th ed.). New York, NY: Foundation Press. ISBN 1-59941-935-1, p. 514</ref><ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20040806055436/http://www.justice.gov/crt/voting/intro/intro_a.htm</ref> After the Voting Rights Act, black turnout increased substantially.  Since 1964, blacks have voted 85% to 95% for Democrat presidential candidates, with an occasional black Republican elected to state office.
-==Religion==
-[[Image:President Barack Obama.jpg|thumb|150px|Barack Obama, the first President with black ancestry]]
-Among African-Americans, religiosity is very high, and the standard practice since [[Reconstruction]] is for black ministers to be community spokespersons, and political power brokers; they often run for office. The great majority of African Americans are [[Protestant]]s, with their own [[Baptist]], [[Pentecostal]], and [[Methodist]] churches.  A few are [[Muslim]]s.<ref>The Pluralism Project at Harvard University[http://www.pluralism.org/resources/statistics/tradition.php#Islam]  Twenty-four percent of American Muslims are black, according to American Muslim Council's Zogby poll of August 2000.</ref>
-==Racial registration and anti-miscegenation laws==
-In the early 20th century some states, not only in the South, adopted racial registration policies and implemented laws against the mixing of black and white people. These "anti-miscegenation" laws were only finally ended in the federal case [[Loving v. Virginia]], when a mixed race couple successfully challenged all laws against mixed marriage in the states.
-[[File:RosaParks.jpg|thumb|left|[[Rosa Parks]].]]
-{{Clear}}
-==References==
-<references/>
-* [http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html National Survey of Religious Identification (NSRI)]
-==See also==
-[[File:Richmond Garrick, Hope.jpg|thumb|Richmond Garrick, Hope, 2008.]]
-* [[Black History]]
-* [[Civil Rights]]
-* [[Jim Crow]]
-* [[Race]]
-* [[Black Republican]]
-* [[Black unemployment]]
-* [[Kwanzaa]]
-[[category:Ethnicities]]
-[[category:The South]]
-[[category:Civil Rights]]
-[[category:Black History]]

Difference between revisions of "African Americans"

Revision as of 13:17, April 4, 2016

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