African Americans History from 1619 – 2021
Twelve Peak Events of Black History, 1530 – 2021
Part II: From 1865 to 2021

                Black History is often not commemorated in American history, depriving citizens of the contribution of people of the African Diaspora.  What was portrayed was often distorted and unflattering of Black people—an image that some find impossible to change. Dr. Carter G. Woodson created Black History Week, and later Month, to promote and cultivate a more accurate and honest portrayal of Black people. Dr. Woodson created the impetus for others historians in the telling of stories of Black people, in their own way in America.  
                Part II: 1865-2021, like Part I, is a summary of the research of African Americans history from competent sources.  For a more extensive study of African American History, these resources are recommended.

• Before the Mayflower, A History of the Negro in American, 1619-1962, Lerone Bennett, Jr., Copywrite by BF Publishing, 2017.

• Ebony Magazine and Lerone Bennett Jr, Popular Black History in Postwar American, E. James West, University of Illinois Press 1973.

• The History of Black Catholics in the United States, Cyprian Davis, O.S.B., Crossroad, 1990.

• Black History 16-2019, An Illustrated and Documented African-American History, Sandra K. Yocum and Frances P. Rice, Paragon House, 2021.

• The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander, The New Press, New York, 2010.

• Caste, The Origin of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson, Random House, New York, 2020.

Twelve Peak Events of Black History, 1530 – 2021
Part II: 1865 – 2021

7. 1863-1877: The Period of the Reconstruction

In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln ran for a second term and was reelected. President Lincoln chose Andrew Johnson, a Tennessee Senate Democrat and supporter of slavery, as his Vice President to help unify and heal the country. Although he was the senator from a state in the Confederacy, Johnson did not support the secession of southern states from the Union.
After the election, President Lincoln was committed to rebuilding the South and treating the insurrectionists fairly by offering pardons to those who swore their allegiance to the United States. He signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, but it only offered freedom to those enslaved in the rebellious Confederate States and did not apply to all states.
On January 31, 1865, Congress adopted the 13^th Amendment abolishing slavery, and the Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865. Slavery now no longer existed as a legal institution supported by the U.S. Constitution.
The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865 and President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, on April 14, 1865. Immediately, Johnson became President. President Johnson implemented his own version of a reconstruction without any authorization from Congress. His plan relied on the slavers to rebuild at their own pace, leaving the process of freeing the enslaved to the very persons who held them as slaves.
Although Johnson was against granting citizenship to Blacks, the ratification of the 14^th Amendment occurred on July 9, 1868. The Amendment granted full citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former enslaved persons, and provided all citizens with equal protection under the laws, extending the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states. The amendment authorized the government to punish states that abridged citizens’ right to vote by proportionally reducing their representation in Congress.
President Johnson was not reelected for a second term and Ulysses S. Grant was elected President in 1868. The 15th Amendment was ratified on February 3, 1870, prohibiting states from disenfranchising voters “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The amendment left open the possibility, however, that states could institute voter qualifications equally to all races, which many former confederate states took advantage of by instituting poll taxes, and literacy tests. This provision was used to disenfranchise Blacks and other minorities until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
During Reconstruction up to 1877, over 2,000 Black politicians were elected or appointed to federal, state and local offices, such as Senator Blanche Bruce, Senator Hiram Revels, and Frederick Douglass.
In 1875, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act granting equal treatment to all citizens regardless of race, color, political or religious affiliation, though it was later declared unconstitutional. Other achievements include the establishment of the Freeman Bureau, whose was to assist the South in working with the newly freed enslaved. Hospitals and school were opened to serve Blacks and poor Whites.  In education, General Oliver Otis Howard established Howard University and Wilberforce University was chartered in 1867, two of the first Historically Black University. Freeman Hospital, now Howard, was opened to provide Black students to prepare for opportunities in medical careers.
The Hayes-Tilden controversy in 1877, effectively ended Reconstruction.

8. The Ascendancy of White Power and the Ku Klux Klan: 1867

After the end of the Civil War and beginning of Reconstruction, an increasing number of southern Whites responded with violence, murder and other repressive measures. The seeds of systemic racism, already evident during slavery, became more embedded in the structures and cultures of both the South and the North.
Southern Whites enacted the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws governing the conduct of newly freed African Americans. These codes restricted the movements of Blacks and controlled where and how they should live. They segregated Blacks from Whites and denied equal political rights, including the right to vote, the right to attend public schools, and the right to equal treatment under the law to Blacks.
The Klan was a vigilante group founded in 1965 in Pulaski, Tennessee by a former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forest. Its main goal and emphasis were to intimidate Blacks and other ethnic minorities, Jews, and Catholics to enforce the Black Codes, and other repressive laws of hate and discrimination. Assassination, violence, murder by lynching were their tools of enforcement. It was also founded to curtail the policies and political influence of the Republican Party.
Congress, with the support of President Grant, enacted the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871 aimed primarily at the South to deter the infringement of civil rights against Blacks. The law imposed penalties and fines against violators. Rigid enforcements severely weakened the Klan, although the Klan was not needed much after the Democrats took control of the South due to Jim Crow laws and the politicians who enforced them.
The Klan resurfaced during Woodrow Wilson’s administration in 1915. The movie “The Birth of a Nation,” was released in 1915 and helped recruit a million members for the Klan. A third revival emerged during the civil era of the 1950s and 1960s. KKK remains an entity today as a White supremacy group.

9. White Supremacy and Jim Crow: 1877-1922

After the Hayes-Tilden compromise, the Democrats promised to protect the civil rights of the previously enslaved; however, they returned the running the governments to the previous slave-owners and planters. In violation of the compromise, they re-established white supremacy. With white supremacy firmly in place throughout the South, no civil rights legislation was enacted until the 1950s.
Because of the large African American population in the South, the political leaders needed to suppress the Black vote. According to the 1860 Census, the southern Black population consisted of 3,953,760 enslaved persons and 487,970 free Blacks. Southerners passed laws and amended their constitutions, allowing literacy tests, poll taxes, violence and payment from Blacks to suppress the votes.  The races were segregated in public accommodation and transportation.
Prison, lynching, and mob rule were used to enforce racism and discrimination. Lynching was used against Whites and Blacks. Most of the lynching in the South was against Blacks, in particular in Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida and Kentucky. These atrocities were not published in most of major newspapers; however, Black owned newspapers, such as The Chicago Defender, did report them. Black activist, Ida B. Wells, whose father helped to start Shaw University, became a strong anti-lynching advocate.
 African Americans were not docile but fought against these methods of suppression. Homer Plessy, who was a light-skinned Black person, attempted to ride in a “white-only” car of a train in Louisiana. He was denied but he sued. In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 7-1 decision ruled against him in Plessy v. Ferguson, upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality. This doctrine came to be known as "separate but equal." Plessy stood as law until it was overturned in 1954 with Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, which held that the "separate but equal" doctrine is unconstitutional in the context of public schools and educational facilities.
Other African American leaders and organizations surfaced to fight racism, discrimination and bigotry, legal and de facto, including Booker T. Washington and Tuskegee Institute, W.E.B DuBois, the Niagara Movement and NAACP, James Weldon Johnson and Sojourner Truth.
This period was indelibly marked by extreme racial strife and race riots, such as the Rosewood Florida Massacre and the Black Wall Street Massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Black soldier performed exceptionally in the Spanish American and World War I, only to return home to racism and discrimination. This was compounded by the fact that President Woodrow Wilson resegregated the federal government in Washington, D.C.

10. The Struggle for Civil Rights: 1923-1949

Blacks returned from World War I and believed that they had earned the right to full citizenship only to be disappointed. After the war to many Americans, the most important issues were prohibition and women’s suffrage. Yet, prohibition began with the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on January 16, 1919. The following year on August 26, 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified giving women the right to vote, but not Black women.
The “Roaring 20s” was a period of enormous economic growth and prosperity in and ended with the country’s biggest economic downturn in October 1929: The Great Depression
During this time, there was tremendous number of lynching. The Tuskegee Institute recorded 3,446 Black men and women and 1,297 Whites were lynched. Between 1920 and 1940, both the Republican and Democratic Parties had renounced lynching and placed the elimination into the party platforms.
With the election of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932, notable and influential Blacks began to put more pressure the new administration, which was slow in advancing the cause of civil rights in the beginning. Black leaders gained an all-important ally in their struggle, with Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the President. She put her stamp of approval on federal anti-lynching legislation.
To escape the South and its repressive racist system, a considerable number of Blacks began a great migration to the North, West and East in cities, like New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle. In New York, Harlem became one of the most celebrated with what is known as the “Harlem Renaissance.” Musicians, artists, writers, and intellectuals gathered to promote their trades. This included Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Robeson, and Louis Armstrong.
With the introduction of Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” employment opportunities, passage of strong labor law protecting employees, many African Americans moved from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. Roosevelt did not introduce anti-lynching legislation, but his educational and farm programs also helped many Blacks. Through the encouragement of Mrs. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt finally appointed a Black Cabinet to advise him on civil rights. He appointed Mary McCloud Bethune, a Black educator to the National Youth Administration Advisory Board.
President Roosevelt did not have a strong record on civil rights but there were no setbacks. It is noted that his wife, Eleanor had a strong record on support for civil rights until her death. When the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow Marian Anderson to perform in Constitution Hall, she was instrumental in having the concert moved to the Lincoln Memorial. She joined the NAACP. She also put her weight behind the Tuskegee Airmen in the desire to receive formal recognition.
The New Deal was interrupted by the United States’ entry into World War II on December 7, 1941. Blacks served in the segregated military units with honors, especially in the war against Hitler.
Roosevelt died in April 12, 1945, a few months after beginning his fourth term as President. Vice President Harry Truman, succeeded to the Presidency. He also began to focus on civil rights, proposing a 10-point Civil Rights legislation, which his own party did not support. He proposed the Civil Rights Commission. With support from A. Phillip Randolph, he integrated the military in 1948. At the Democratic National Convention, Truman pushed for a civil rights plank, and was successful. Southern democrats revolted, held their own convention and formed the “Dixiecrats” party with their own candidate, Strom Thurmond, for president. Truman was reelected defeating Thomas Dewey. On January 5, 1949, Truman introduced his “Fair Deal.”

11. The Rise of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: 1949-1968

Under President Truman’s Fair Deal, many excellent programs were enacted, which benefited both Whites and Blacks. President Truman was succeeded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953.
President Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme in 1953. Before the court was the landmark case, Brown v. Topeka Board of Education. Warren realized the importance and social implications of this case and succeeded in keeping decisions concerning segregation unanimous. In 1954, the ruled unanimously declaring the separation of public-school children according to race unconstitutional, rejecting the “separate but equal” doctrine that had prevailed since Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. Warren, speaking for the court, stated that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” and the court subsequently called for the desegregation of public schools with “all deliberate speed.”
Southern leaders resisted immediately and southern states signed a Manifesto in the defiance of the ruling and avowed to keep the school segregated. African American claimants with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed suits in federal courts to uphold the Supreme Court’s decision.
President Eisenhower proposed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to increase voting rights and other protections for African Americans. He established the Civil Rights Division in Justice Department with purpose of ensuring voting rights and protections.
Southern leaders went above and beyond human capacity and capability to maintain Jim Crow in the South. One of the most tragic events was the murder of Emmett Till in 1955. He was a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, who was visiting his relatives in Mississippi. He allegedly whistled at a White woman in a grocery store. The incident was reported to White men. A group seized him, took him from his own and brutally beat and killed him. Emmett was beaten so badly that he was disfigured. At his funeral, his mother kept the casket opened so that all could see the brutality of the act. Two men were arrested but not convicted. The eyewitnesses were intimidated and refused to testify. Six decades later the female confessed that she lied.
Mrs. Rosa Parks worked as a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama. She also volunteered in the local NAACP office. She was a perfect candidate to challenge segregation policies of the busing company that required Black riders to give up their seats to White riders if no seats were available. Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat and was arrested, igniting the drive for civil rights and the formal introduction of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who led the Montgomery bus boycott. Mrs. Parks was not alone in suing the bus company. A fifteen-year-old young lady, Claudette Colvin, an active member of the NAACP youth group, filed a suit earlier. The Supreme Court decided favorably for both Claudette and Mrs. Parks in 1956.
President Eisenhower continued to face challenges. He signed the second civil rights bill on May 6, 1960, allowing federal inspector to observe election and impose penalties for violators. He used National Guard to desegregate Little Rock High School in Little Rock Arkansas after the Governor, Orville Faubus refused to allow 4 Black students to enter the school.
One of the last events of Eisenhower’s administration, was the North Carolina A.T.T. student sit-in at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. Subsequently, Woolworth and other white-only restaurants were desegrated.
In November 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected President over Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Sit-ins, school integration suits and the Freedom Rides through the South in 1961 began to desegregate interstate public transportation.
The integration of schools still remained a challenge for the new administration. Black people who tried to attend integrated universities, such as James Meredith, James Hood, and Vivian Malone, had to be escorted by US Marshalls and troops because racist governors tried to prevent them from attending.
Under the leadership of Dr. King, along with Southern Christians Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, they were determined to desegregate the city of Birmingham. The leaders organized the Children’s Crusade.  From May 2-5, thousand of children demonstrated in street. The Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connors turned police dogs on the children and firefighters hosed them to repel them. Even with this traumatizing experience, the children continued to volunteer day after day. The images of the children being bitten by dogs and hosed by firemen were published in major national newspaper and magazines. The public outcry was enormous. As a result, President Kennedy sent a comprehensive civil rights bill to congress.
To garner support and put pressure on politicians and congressional leaders, Dr. King organized the largest civil rights gathering at that time, with over 200,000 persons on the Washington Mall. Dr. King gave his “I have a dream” speech. On that hot August 28, 1963 day, many religious, civic and government leaders spoke about the needs for civil rights, jobs, and assistance for the poor. The political leaders got the message.
A few weeks later, on September 15^th, members of the KKK planted bombs at the 16^th Street Baptist Church. The explosion killed 4 children—Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, Denise McNair and Addie Mae Collins. Adding to this tragic event was the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald. Vice President Lyndon Johnson became President.
With his familiarity with Congress, President Johnson maneuvered to pass his key legislations, in particular Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1966. The Voting Rights Act came after pressure from marchers led by John Lewis and later Dr. King crossing over Edmund Pettus Bridge.
After the passage of voting rights, Dr. King’s attention turned to the war in Vietnam and the poor. Dr. King went to Memphis to demonstrate with the sanitation workers for better pay and benefits where he gave his last speech that evening on April 3, 1968.
Black leaders of SNCC, Stokely Carmichael, and the Black Panthers Party, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, signaled a different approach toward civil rights. Much of this change was aligned with the approaches of Malcolm X, of the Black Muslim. Carmichael referred to his approach as “Black Power.”
The 1960s closed out on a tragic note. First, there was the assassination of Dr. King on April 4, 1968 by James Earl Ray in Memphis. Second, on June 6, 1968, Senator and Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated Los Angeles, adding another Kennedy to the family tragedy.

12. The Climax: 1968-2021

Although his decisions on the Vietnam War weighed on him, President Johnson had done a lot in support of the poor, African Americans, and other minorities. He appointed Robert C. Weaver as the secretary of the newly created Department of Housing and Urban Development, making him the first African-American member of the U.S. federal Cabinet. He appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Thurgood Marshall making him the first Black Supreme Court Justice. U.S. Representative Shirley Chisholm of New York became a national symbol as the first major party African American candidate and the first female candidate for president of the United States.
From President Johnson to the newly elected and inaugurated President Joseph Biden, the following represents some of the accomplishment of Presidents:

• President Richard Nixon instituted the first affirmative action program in 1969. He campaigned for the presidency on a Southern Strategy based on race backlash and resentment. Southern states moved from Democrats to Republicans.
• President James Carter appointed many African Americans to position of authority, including U.N. Ambassador.
• President Ronald W. Reagan signed the bill establishing the 3^rd Monday in January as the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
• President George H.W. Bush signed the American with Disability Act and the 1991 Civil Rights Act.
• President William J. Clinton created a good economy, appointed many African Americans to his cabinet but he also signed the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and welfare reformed. This law led to the imprisonment of many African Americans and other minorities later condemned by many legal authorities.
• President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 and 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. He appointed Colin Powell as first Black Secretary of State.
• President Barack H. Obama, a graduate of Harvard Law practicing constitutional law in Chicago. He improved the economy by taking it out of the worst recession and meltdown since The Great Depression. He introduced and Congress passed the Affordable Care Act giving health insurance to millions of Americans.
• President Donald J. Trump inherited a booming economy that helped African American and other minorities, but went into a recession as a result of his failure to control the Coronavirus which caused the death of over 400,000 persons. He appointed Ben Carson as Secretary of HUD. He was impeached twice by Congress.
• President Joseph Biden was elected with the charge for the people of controlling the Coronavirus. He nominated Kamala Harris and she was elected as Vice President of the United States. Vice President Kamala Harris became the first woman and first woman of color to become vice president of the United States. Harris, whose mother immigrated to the United States from India and whose father immigrated from Jamaica, was the first person of African or Asian descent to become a major party’s Vice Presidential candidate—and the first to win the office. In her victory speech in November 2020, Vice President-Elect Harris said that she was thinking "about the generations of women, Black women, Asian, white, Latina, Native American women—who throughout our nation’s history have paved the way for this moment tonight—women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality and liberty and justice for all.”

To conclude this unfinished story, a quote from Lerone Bennett used at the end Before the Mayflower is fitting: “There have been losses but there have also been gains. The people have suffered but the people have also endured.”