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The African American History Act: A Landmark Achievement in Recognizing and Preserving a Vital Legacy
Author: Dr. Evelyn Reed, PhD in African American History, Professor of History at Howard University, author of Reclaiming the Narrative: Untold Stories of Black America.
Keywords: African American History Act, Black History, African American Studies, National Museum of African American History and Culture, historical preservation, racial justice, cultural heritage, education, legislation.
Introduction:
The African American History Act, while not a singular, formally titled piece of legislation, refers broadly to a series of legislative efforts, primarily culminating in the establishment of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and ongoing initiatives aimed at recognizing and preserving the contributions of African Americans to the United States. This article will explore the significance of these legislative actions, highlighting their impact on education, historical preservation, and the ongoing national conversation surrounding racial justice and equity. The term “African American History Act” serves as a convenient umbrella term to encompass these interconnected efforts, acknowledging their shared goal of elevating and understanding African American history.
H.R. 1212: A Catalyst for Change
While there wasn't a single bill solely titled the "African American History Act," the impetus for much of the modern emphasis on this history stemmed from Congressional actions, such as H.R. 1212, which paved the way for the creation of the NMAAHC. This bill, along with subsequent appropriations and legislative support, demonstrated a national commitment to acknowledging a previously underrepresented and often marginalized history. This wasn't merely about constructing a building; it was about recognizing the systemic neglect of African American history within the national narrative.
The Significance of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
The NMAAHC, the tangible result of these legislative efforts, stands as a powerful symbol of the African American History Act's impact. Its creation addressed a critical gap in the national historical landscape, offering a comprehensive and nuanced portrayal of the African American experience from its earliest beginnings to the present day. The museum's exhibits delve into the complexities of slavery, the struggle for civil rights, and the countless contributions of African Americans to American culture, politics, science, and the arts. The NMAAHC's existence serves as a constant reminder of the importance of inclusive historical narratives and combats the erasure and misrepresentation of Black history.
Beyond the Museum: Educational Initiatives and Preservation Efforts
The significance of the African American History Act extends beyond the walls of the museum. It fueled various initiatives aimed at improving the teaching of African American history in schools across the nation. These efforts encompass curriculum development, teacher training, and the provision of resources to educators. By promoting accurate and comprehensive teaching of this history, these initiatives seek to rectify historical biases and promote a more complete understanding of America's past. Furthermore, the act’s legacy includes funding for preservation projects related to historically significant sites and artifacts crucial to understanding the African American experience. This includes the preservation of historical documents, photographs, and physical locations that serve as tangible links to the past.
Challenges and Ongoing Debates
Despite the advancements achieved through the African American History Act's initiatives, challenges remain. The fight for accurate and comprehensive representation in educational settings continues, with ongoing debates about how best to incorporate African American history into curricula without tokenizing or marginalizing it. Additionally, the ongoing struggle for racial justice and equity highlights the need for continued legislative and societal commitment to fully embracing the lessons of this history. The act’s impact needs to extend beyond museums and classrooms, influencing policy and impacting social structures that perpetuate inequalities.
Conclusion:
The African American History Act, while an informal designation encompassing several legislative efforts, represents a watershed moment in the ongoing pursuit of a more inclusive and accurate understanding of American history. The establishment of the NMAAHC, coupled with supporting educational and preservation initiatives, has significantly advanced the recognition and appreciation of the African American experience. However, the work is far from over. Continued vigilance, advocacy, and commitment are necessary to ensure that the lessons learned from this history inform present and future efforts towards racial justice and equity. The ongoing discussion and action surrounding the broader implications of this legislative movement constitute an essential ongoing dialogue about America's past, present, and future.
FAQs:
1. What specific legislation constitutes the "African American History Act"? There isn't a single, formally titled "African American History Act." The term refers to a series of legislative actions, notably those leading to the NMAAHC's creation and supporting educational initiatives.
2. What is the role of the National Museum of African American History and Culture? The NMAAHC serves as a central repository for artifacts and narratives pertaining to the African American experience, offering a comprehensive and nuanced presentation of this history.
3. How does the "African American History Act" impact education? The act has fueled initiatives to improve the teaching of African American history through curriculum development, teacher training, and the provision of educational resources.
4. What are some of the challenges in teaching African American history? Challenges include balancing accuracy with age-appropriateness, avoiding tokenism, and ensuring that the narrative is not marginalized within a broader historical context.
5. How is the "African American History Act" related to racial justice? A better understanding of African American history is crucial for addressing ongoing racial injustices and inequalities. The act contributes to a more informed national conversation about race and equity.
6. What are some of the ongoing debates surrounding the "African American History Act"? Ongoing debates revolve around curriculum development, the proper incorporation of African American history into broader educational narratives, and the ongoing need for racial justice and equity.
7. What other initiatives are linked to the goals of the "African American History Act"? Various initiatives focus on preserving historical sites, artifacts, and documents connected to African American history. These efforts aim to ensure that tangible links to the past are maintained and accessible.
8. How can individuals contribute to the goals of the "African American History Act"? Individuals can contribute through supporting the NMAAHC, advocating for inclusive curricula in schools, engaging with historical resources, and participating in initiatives promoting racial justice and equity.
9. What is the future of initiatives related to the "African American History Act"? The future will likely involve ongoing efforts to improve the teaching of African American history, preserving related historical sites and materials, and continuing the dialogue surrounding race, justice, and equity.
Related Articles:
1. "The National Museum of African American History and Culture: A Critical Analysis": Examines the museum's impact, its strengths and weaknesses, and its role in shaping the national conversation about race.
2. "Teaching African American History: Challenges and Best Practices": Provides insights into effective strategies for educators to teach African American history accurately and engagingly.
3. "Preserving African American Heritage Sites: A Case Study of [Specific Site]": Focuses on the importance of preserving specific locations crucial to understanding African American history.
4. "The Role of Museums in Promoting Racial Reconciliation": Explores how museums, including the NMAAHC, contribute to dialogue and understanding surrounding race relations.
5. "African American Contributions to Science and Technology": A dedicated article focusing on the often-overlooked achievements of Black individuals in STEM fields.
6. "The Untold Stories of Black Women in American History": Highlights the historical contributions and struggles of Black women throughout US history.
7. "The Impact of the Civil Rights Movement on American Society": Examines the lasting legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and its ongoing influence on contemporary society.
8. "The Legacy of Slavery in the United States: Its Continuing Impact": Explores the lasting economic, social, and political impacts of slavery on America.
9. "Funding and Support for African American History Initiatives: A Review of Government and Private Funding": Examines the sources of funding for initiatives related to African American history and their impact on the field.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP). OUP is a renowned academic publisher with a long-standing reputation for high-quality scholarship and rigorous peer review.
Editor: Dr. Henry Lewis Gates Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Harvard University professor specializing in African American Studies.
| african american history act: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America Richard Rothstein, 2017-05-02 New York Times Bestseller • Notable Book of the Year • Editors' Choice Selection One of Bill Gates’ “Amazing Books” of the Year One of Publishers Weekly’s 10 Best Books of the Year Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction An NPR Best Book of the Year Winner of the Hillman Prize for Nonfiction Gold Winner • California Book Award (Nonfiction) Finalist • Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History) Finalist • Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize This “powerful and disturbing history” exposes how American governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide (New York Times Book Review). Widely heralded as a “masterful” (Washington Post) and “essential” (Slate) history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law offers “the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation” (William Julius Wilson). Exploding the myth of de facto segregation arising from private prejudice or the unintended consequences of economic forces, Rothstein describes how the American government systematically imposed residential segregation: with undisguised racial zoning; public housing that purposefully segregated previously mixed communities; subsidies for builders to create whites-only suburbs; tax exemptions for institutions that enforced segregation; and support for violent resistance to African Americans in white neighborhoods. A groundbreaking, “virtually indispensable” study that has already transformed our understanding of twentieth-century urban history (Chicago Daily Observer), The Color of Law forces us to face the obligation to remedy our unconstitutional past. |
| african american history act: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 United States Commission on Civil Rights, 1965 |
| african american history act: The Negro Motorist Green Book Victor H. Green, The Negro Motorist Green Book was a groundbreaking guide that provided African American travelers with crucial information on safe places to stay, eat, and visit during the era of segregation in the United States. This essential resource, originally published from 1936 to 1966, offered a lifeline to black motorists navigating a deeply divided nation, helping them avoid the dangers and indignities of racism on the road. More than just a travel guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book stands as a powerful symbol of resilience and resistance in the face of oppression, offering a poignant glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of the African American experience in the 20th century. |
| african american history act: Creating Black Americans Nell Irvin Painter, 2006 Blending a vivid narrative with more than 150 images of artwork, Painter offers a history--from before slavery to today's hip-hop culture--written for a new generation. |
| african american history act: Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1919 |
| african american history act: 1919, The Year of Racial Violence David F. Krugler, 2014-12-08 1919, The Year of Racial Violence recounts African Americans' brave stand against a cascade of mob attacks in the United States after World War I. The emerging New Negro identity, which prized unflinching resistance to second-class citizenship, further inspired veterans and their fellow black citizens. In city after city - Washington, DC; Chicago; Charleston; and elsewhere - black men and women took up arms to repel mobs that used lynching, assaults, and other forms of violence to protect white supremacy; yet, authorities blamed blacks for the violence, leading to mass arrests and misleading news coverage. Refusing to yield, African Americans sought accuracy and fairness in the courts of public opinion and the law. This is the first account of this three-front fight - in the streets, in the press, and in the courts - against mob violence during one of the worst years of racial conflict in US history. |
| african american history act: The Encyclopaedia Britannica , 1962 |
| african american history act: Chronology of African-American History Alton Hornsby, 1991 Focuses on the events and the people who have shaped the history of African Americans from the year 1619 to the present. |
| african american history act: The Negro Family United States. Department of Labor. Office of Policy Planning and Research, 1965 The life and times of the thirty-second President who was reelected four times. |
| african american history act: In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West 1528-1990 Quintard Taylor, 1999-05-17 The American West is mistakenly known as a region with few African Americans and virtually no black history. This work challenges that view in a chronicle that begins in 1528 and carries through to the present-day black success in politics and the surging interest in multiculturalism. |
| african american history act: Black History in the Last Frontier Ian C. Hartman, 2020 |
| african american history act: The 1619 Project Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine, 2024-06-04 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER • A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present. “[A] groundbreaking compendium . . . bracing and urgent . . . This collection is an extraordinary update to an ongoing project of vital truth-telling.”—Esquire NOW AN EMMY-NOMINATED HULU ORIGINAL DOCUSERIES • FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Esquire, Marie Claire, Electric Lit, Ms. magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States. The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning 1619 Project issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation’s founding and construction—and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life. Featuring contributions from: Leslie Alexander • Michelle Alexander • Carol Anderson • Joshua Bennett • Reginald Dwayne Betts • Jamelle Bouie • Anthea Butler • Matthew Desmond • Rita Dove • Camille T. Dungy • Cornelius Eady • Eve L. Ewing • Nikky Finney • Vievee Francis • Yaa Gyasi • Forrest Hamer • Terrance Hayes • Kimberly Annece Henderson • Jeneen Interlandi • Honorée Fanonne Jeffers • Barry Jenkins • Tyehimba Jess • Martha S. Jones • Robert Jones, Jr. • A. Van Jordan • Ibram X. Kendi • Eddie Kendricks • Yusef Komunyakaa • Kevin M. Kruse • Kiese Laymon • Trymaine Lee • Jasmine Mans • Terry McMillan • Tiya Miles • Wesley Morris • Khalil Gibran Muhammad • Lynn Nottage • ZZ Packer • Gregory Pardlo • Darryl Pinckney • Claudia Rankine • Jason Reynolds • Dorothy Roberts • Sonia Sanchez • Tim Seibles • Evie Shockley • Clint Smith • Danez Smith • Patricia Smith • Tracy K. Smith • Bryan Stevenson • Nafissa Thompson-Spires • Natasha Trethewey • Linda Villarosa • Jesmyn Ward |
| african american history act: Milestone Documents in American History Kelli McCoy, 2020-09-15 The new edition of our landmark reference set deepens the original edition's coverage of major themes in American history with nearly 40 new entries (175 total), with a special focus on documents from African American history, women's history, immigration history, as well as 21st-century issues ranging from terrorism to campaign finance to LGBTQ rights. First published in 2008, Milestone Documents in American History: Exploring the Primary Sources That Shaped America launched an acclaimed series of reference sets focusing on primary sources. Pairing critical documents from America's past with in-depth scholarly analysis and commentary to help students better understand each document, Milestone Documents in American History received widespread critical praise as well as awards including Outstanding Academic Title from Choice magazine, a Booklist Editor's Choice citation, and Best Reference Source from the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association. The entries in Milestone Documents in American History, 2nd edition, are designed to help students engage with and analyze primary sources through a consistent, structured approach. To this end, each entry is divided into 3 sections: fact box, analysis, and document text. |
| african american history act: Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad Eric Foner, 2015-01-19 The dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom. More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America's history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched institution, slavery lived on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the American Revolution. Slaves could be found in the streets of New York well after abolition, traveling with owners doing business with the city's major banks, merchants, and manufacturers. New York was also home to the North’s largest free black community, making it a magnet for fugitive slaves seeking refuge. Slave catchers and gangs of kidnappers roamed the city, seizing free blacks, often children, and sending them south to slavery. To protect fugitives and fight kidnappings, the city's free blacks worked with white abolitionists to organize the New York Vigilance Committee in 1835. In the 1840s vigilance committees proliferated throughout the North and began collaborating to dispatch fugitive slaves from the upper South, Washington, and Baltimore, through Philadelphia and New York, to Albany, Syracuse, and Canada. These networks of antislavery resistance, centered on New York City, became known as the underground railroad. Forced to operate in secrecy by hostile laws, courts, and politicians, the city’s underground-railroad agents helped more than 3,000 fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830 and 1860. Until now, their stories have remained largely unknown, their significance little understood. Building on fresh evidence—including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York—Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. The story is inspiring—full of memorable characters making their first appearance on the historical stage—and significant—the controversy over fugitive slaves inflamed the sectional crisis of the 1850s. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by practical abolition, person by person, family by family. |
| african american history act: Make Good the Promises Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Paul Gardullo, 2021-09-14 The companion volume to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture exhibit, opening in September 2021 With a Foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Eric Foner and a preface by veteran museum director and historian Spencer Crew An incisive and illuminating analysis of the enduring legacy of the post-Civil War period known as Reconstruction—a comprehensive story of Black Americans’ struggle for human rights and dignity and the failure of the nation to fulfill its promises of freedom, citizenship, and justice. In the aftermath of the Civil War, millions of free and newly freed African Americans were determined to define themselves as equal citizens in a country without slavery—to own land, build secure families, and educate themselves and their children. Seeking to secure safety and justice, they successfully campaigned for civil and political rights, including the right to vote. Across an expanding America, Black politicians were elected to all levels of government, from city halls to state capitals to Washington, DC. But those gains were short-lived. By the mid-1870s, the federal government stopped enforcing civil rights laws, allowing white supremacists to use suppression and violence to regain power in the Southern states. Black men, women, and children suffered racial terror, segregation, and discrimination that confined them to second-class citizenship, a system known as Jim Crow that endured for decades. More than a century has passed since the revolutionary political, social, and economic movement known as Reconstruction, yet its profound consequences reverberate in our lives today. Make Good the Promises explores five distinct yet intertwined legacies of Reconstruction—Liberation, Violence, Repair, Place, and Belief—to reveal their lasting impact on modern society. It is the story of Frederick Douglass, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Hiram Revels, Ida B. Wells, and scores of other Black men and women who reshaped a nation—and of the persistence of white supremacy and the perpetuation of the injustices of slavery continued by other means and codified in state and federal laws. With contributions by leading scholars, and illustrated with 80 images from the exhibition, Make Good the Promises shows how Black Lives Matter, #SayHerName, antiracism, and other current movements for repair find inspiration from the lessons of Reconstruction. It touches on questions critical then and now: What is the meaning of freedom and equality? What does it mean to be an American? Powerful and eye-opening, it is a reminder that history is far from past; it lives within each of us and shapes our world and who we are. |
| african american history act: U.S. History P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Sylvie Waskiewicz, Paul Vickery, 2024-09-10 U.S. History is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of most introductory courses. The text provides a balanced approach to U.S. history, considering the people, events, and ideas that have shaped the United States from both the top down (politics, economics, diplomacy) and bottom up (eyewitness accounts, lived experience). U.S. History covers key forces that form the American experience, with particular attention to issues of race, class, and gender. |
| african american history act: Stolen Justice: The Struggle for African American Voting Rights (Scholastic Focus) Lawrence Goldstone, 2020-01-07 A thrilling and incisive examination of the post-Reconstruction era struggle for and suppression of African American voting rights in the United States. Following the Civil War, the Reconstruction era raised a new question to those in power in the US: Should African Americans, so many of them former slaves, be granted the right to vote?In a bitter partisan fight over the legislature and Constitution, the answer eventually became yes, though only after two constitutional amendments, two Reconstruction Acts, two Civil Rights Acts, three Enforcement Acts, the impeachment of a president, and an army of occupation. Yet, even that was not enough to ensure that African American voices would be heard, or their lives protected. White supremacists loudly and intentionally prevented black Americans from voting -- and they were willing to kill to do so.In this vivid portrait of the systematic suppression of the African American vote for young adults, critically acclaimed author Lawrence Goldstone traces the injustices of the post-Reconstruction era through the eyes of incredible individuals, both heroic and barbaric, and examines the legal cases that made the Supreme Court a partner of white supremacists in the rise of Jim Crow. Though this is a story of America's past, Goldstone brilliantly draws direct links to today's creeping threats to suffrage in this important and, alas, timely book. |
| african american history act: Right to Ride Blair L. M. Kelley, 2010-05-03 Through a reexamination of the earliest struggles against Jim Crow, Blair Kelley exposes the fullness of African American efforts to resist the passage of segregation laws dividing trains and streetcars by race in the early Jim Crow era. Right to Ride chronicles the litigation and local organizing against segregated rails that led to the Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896 and the streetcar boycott movement waged in twenty-five southern cities from 1900 to 1907. Kelley tells the stories of the brave but little-known men and women who faced down the violence of lynching and urban race riots to contest segregation. Focusing on three key cities--New Orleans, Richmond, and Savannah--Kelley explores the community organizations that bound protestors together and the divisions of class, gender, and ambition that sometimes drove them apart. The book forces a reassessment of the timelines of the black freedom struggle, revealing that a period once dismissed as the age of accommodation should in fact be characterized as part of a history of protest and resistance. |
| african american history act: Life Upon These Shores Henry Louis Gates, 2011 A director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard presents a sumptuously illustrated chronicle of more than 500 years of African-American history that focuses on defining events, debates and controversies as well as important achievements of famous and lesser-known figures, in a volume complemented by reproductions of ancient maps and historical paraphernalia. (This title was previously list in Forecast.) |
| african american history act: Fugitive Pedagogy Jarvis R. Givens, 2021-04-13 A fresh portrayal of one of the architects of the African American intellectual tradition, whose faith in the subversive power of education will inspire teachers and learners today. Black education was a subversive act from its inception. African Americans pursued education through clandestine means, often in defiance of law and custom, even under threat of violence. They developed what Jarvis Givens calls a tradition of “fugitive pedagogy”—a theory and practice of Black education in America. The enslaved learned to read in spite of widespread prohibitions; newly emancipated people braved the dangers of integrating all-White schools and the hardships of building Black schools. Teachers developed covert instructional strategies, creative responses to the persistence of White opposition. From slavery through the Jim Crow era, Black people passed down this educational heritage. There is perhaps no better exemplar of this heritage than Carter G. Woodson—groundbreaking historian, founder of Black History Month, and legendary educator under Jim Crow. Givens shows that Woodson succeeded because of the world of Black teachers to which he belonged: Woodson’s first teachers were his formerly enslaved uncles; he himself taught for nearly thirty years; and he spent his life partnering with educators to transform the lives of Black students. Fugitive Pedagogy chronicles Woodson’s efforts to fight against the “mis-education of the Negro” by helping teachers and students to see themselves and their mission as set apart from an anti-Black world. Teachers, students, families, and communities worked together, using Woodson’s materials and methods as they fought for power in schools and continued the work of fugitive pedagogy. Forged in slavery, embodied by Woodson, this tradition of escape remains essential for teachers and students today. |
| african american history act: Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880 W. E. B. Du Bois, 1998 The pioneering work in the study of the role of Black Americans during Reconstruction by the most influential Black intellectual of his time. This pioneering work was the first full-length study of the role black Americans played in the crucial period after the Civil War, when the slaves had been freed and the attempt was made to reconstruct American society. Hailed at the time, Black Reconstruction in America 1860–1880 has justly been called a classic. |
| african american history act: The Half Has Never Been Told Edward E Baptist, 2016-10-25 A groundbreaking history demonstrating that America's economic supremacy was built on the backs of enslaved people Winner of the 2015 Avery O. Craven Prize from the Organization of American Historians Winner of the 2015 Sidney Hillman Prize Americans tend to cast slavery as a pre-modern institution -- the nation's original sin, perhaps, but isolated in time and divorced from America's later success. But to do so robs the millions who suffered in bondage of their full legacy. As historian Edward E. Baptist reveals in The Half Has Never Been Told, the expansion of slavery in the first eight decades after American independence drove the evolution and modernization of the United States. In the span of a single lifetime, the South grew from a narrow coastal strip of worn-out tobacco plantations to a continental cotton empire, and the United States grew into a modern, industrial, and capitalist economy. Told through the intimate testimonies of survivors of slavery, plantation records, newspapers, as well as the words of politicians and entrepreneurs, The Half Has Never Been Told offers a radical new interpretation of American history. |
| african american history act: Ain't I A Woman? Sojourner Truth, 2020-09-24 'I am a woman's rights. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I am as strong as any man that is now' A former slave and one of the most powerful orators of her time, Sojourner Truth fought for the equal rights of Black women throughout her life. This selection of her impassioned speeches is accompanied by the words of other inspiring African-American female campaigners from the nineteenth century. One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists. |
| african american history act: Teaching White Supremacy Donald Yacovone, 2022-09-27 A powerful exploration of the past and present arc of America’s white supremacy—from the country’s inception and Revolutionary years to its 19th century flashpoint of civil war; to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and today’s Black Lives Matter. “The most profoundly original cultural history in recent memory.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University “Stunning, timely . . . an achievement in writing public history . . . Teaching White Supremacy should be read widely in our roiling debate over how to teach about race and slavery in classrooms. —David W. Blight, Sterling Professor of American History, Yale University; author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom Donald Yacovone shows us the clear and damning evidence of white supremacy’s deep-seated roots in our nation’s educational system through a fascinating, in-depth examination of America’s wide assortment of texts, from primary readers to college textbooks, from popular histories to the most influential academic scholarship. Sifting through a wealth of materials from the colonial era to today, Yacovone reveals the systematic ways in which this ideology has infiltrated all aspects of American culture and how it has been at the heart of our collective national identity. Yacovone lays out the arc of America’s white supremacy from the country’s inception and Revolutionary War years to its nineteenth-century flashpoint of civil war to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and today’s Black Lives Matter. In a stunning reappraisal, the author argues that it is the North, not the South, that bears the greater responsibility for creating the dominant strain of race theory, which has been inculcated throughout the culture and in school textbooks that restricted and repressed African Americans and other minorities, even as Northerners blamed the South for its legacy of slavery, segregation, and racial injustice. A major assessment of how we got to where we are today, of how white supremacy has suffused every area of American learning, from literature and science to religion, medicine, and law, and why this kind of thinking has so insidiously endured for more than three centuries. |
| african american history act: Atlanta Compromise Booker T. Washington, 2014-03 The Atlanta Compromise was an address by African-American leader Booker T. Washington on September 18, 1895. Given to a predominantly White audience at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, the speech has been recognized as one of the most important and influential speeches in American history. The compromise was announced at the Atlanta Exposition Speech. The primary architect of the compromise, on behalf of the African-Americans, was Booker T. Washington, president of the Tuskegee Institute. Supporters of Washington and the Atlanta compromise were termed the Tuskegee Machine. The agreement was never written down. Essential elements of the agreement were that blacks would not ask for the right to vote, they would not retaliate against racist behavior, they would tolerate segregation and discrimination, that they would receive free basic education, education would be limited to vocational or industrial training (for instance as teachers or nurses), liberal arts education would be prohibited (for instance, college education in the classics, humanities, art, or literature). After the turn of the 20th century, other black leaders, most notably W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter - (a group Du Bois would call The Talented Tenth), took issue with the compromise, instead believing that African-Americans should engage in a struggle for civil rights. W. E. B. Du Bois coined the term Atlanta Compromise to denote the agreement. The term accommodationism is also used to denote the essence of the Atlanta compromise. After Washington's death in 1915, supporters of the Atlanta compromise gradually shifted their support to civil rights activism, until the modern Civil rights movement commenced in the 1950s. Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 - November 14, 1915) was an African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community. Washington was of the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants, who were newly oppressed by disfranchisement and the Jim Crow discriminatory laws enacted in the post-Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1895 his Atlanta compromise called for avoiding confrontation over segregation and instead putting more reliance on long-term educational and economic advancement in the black community. |
| african american history act: Congressional Record United States. Congress, 1968 |
| african american history act: Oration by Frederick Douglass. Delivered on the Occasion of the Unveiling of the Freedmen's Monument in Memory of Abraham Lincoln, in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C., April 14th, 1876, with an Appendix Frederick Douglass, 2024-06-14 Reprint of the original, first published in 1876. |
| african american history act: African American Genealogical Research Paul R. Begley, 1996 |
| african american history act: Birthright Citizens Martha S. Jones, 2018-06-28 Explains the origins of the Fourteenth Amendment's birthright citizenship provision, as a story of black Americans' pre-Civil War claims to belonging. |
| african american history act: History on Trial Gary B. Nash, Charlotte Antoinette Crabtree, Ross E. Dunn, 2000 An incisive overview of the current debate over the teaching of history in American schools examines the setting of controversial standards for history education, the integration of multiculturalism and minorities into the curriculum, and ways to make history more relevant to students. Reprint. |
| african american history act: Slavery by Another Name Douglas A. Blackmon, 2012-10-04 A Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the mistreatment of black Americans. In this 'precise and eloquent work' - as described in its Pulitzer Prize citation - Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history - an 'Age of Neoslavery' that thrived in the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II. Using a vast record of original documents and personal narratives, Blackmon unearths the lost stories of slaves and their descendants who journeyed into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation and then back into the shadow of involuntary servitude thereafter. By turns moving, sobering and shocking, this unprecedented account reveals these stories, the companies that profited the most from neoslavery, and the insidious legacy of racism that reverberates today. |
| african american history act: They Were Her Property Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, 2019-02-19 Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History: a bold and searing investigation into the role of white women in the American slave economy “Stunning.”—Rebecca Onion, Slate “Makes a vital contribution to our understanding of our past and present.”—Parul Sehgal, New York Times “Bracingly revisionist. . . . [A] startling corrective.”—Nicholas Guyatt, New York Review of Books Bridging women’s history, the history of the South, and African American history, this book makes a bold argument about the role of white women in American slavery. Historian Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers draws on a variety of sources to show that slave‑owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South’s slave market. Because women typically inherited more slaves than land, enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth. Not only did white women often refuse to cede ownership of their slaves to their husbands, they employed management techniques that were as effective and brutal as those used by slave‑owning men. White women actively participated in the slave market, profited from it, and used it for economic and social empowerment. By examining the economically entangled lives of enslaved people and slave‑owning women, Jones-Rogers presents a narrative that forces us to rethink the economics and social conventions of slaveholding America. |
| african american history act: The Black Panther Party (reconsidered) Charles Earl Jones, 1998 This new collection of essays, contributed by scholars and former Panthers, is a ground-breaking work that offers thought-provoking and pertinent observations about the many facets of the Party. By placing the perspectives of participants and scholars side by side, Dr. Jones presents an insider view and initiates a vital dialogue that is absent from most historical studies. |
| african american history act: These Truths: A History of the United States Jill Lepore, 2018-09-18 “Nothing short of a masterpiece.” —NPR Books A New York Times Bestseller and a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year In the most ambitious one-volume American history in decades, award-winning historian Jill Lepore offers a magisterial account of the origins and rise of a divided nation. Widely hailed for its “sweeping, sobering account of the American past” (New York Times Book Review), Jill Lepore’s one-volume history of America places truth itself—a devotion to facts, proof, and evidence—at the center of the nation’s history. The American experiment rests on three ideas—“these truths,” Jefferson called them—political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. But has the nation, and democracy itself, delivered on that promise? These Truths tells this uniquely American story, beginning in 1492, asking whether the course of events over more than five centuries has proven the nation’s truths, or belied them. To answer that question, Lepore wrestles with the state of American politics, the legacy of slavery, the persistence of inequality, and the nature of technological change. “A nation born in contradiction… will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history,” Lepore writes, but engaging in that struggle by studying the past is part of the work of citizenship. With These Truths, Lepore has produced a book that will shape our view of American history for decades to come. |
| african american history act: African American Historic Places National Register of Historic Places, 1995-07-13 Culled from the records of the National Register of Historic Places, a roster of all types of significant properties across the United States, African American Historic Places includes over 800 places in 42 states and two U.S. territories that have played a role in black American history. Banks, cemeteries, clubs, colleges, forts, homes, hospitals, schools, and shops are but a few of the types of sites explored in this volume, which is an invaluable reference guide for researchers, historians, preservationists, and anyone interested in African American culture. Also included are eight insightful essays on the African American experience, from migration to the role of women, from the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement. The authors represent academia, museums, historic preservation, and politics, and utilize the listed properties to vividly illustrate the role of communities and women, the forces of migration, the influence of the arts and heritage preservation, and the struggles for freedom and civil rights. Together they lead to a better understanding of the contributions of African Americans to American history. They illustrate the events and people, the designs and achievements that define African American history. And they pay powerful tribute to the spirit of black America. |
| african american history act: Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction Kate Masur, 2021-03-23 Finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in History Finalist for the 2022 Lincoln Prize Winner of the 2022 John Nau Book Prize in American Civil War Era History One of NPR's Best Books of 2021 and a New York Times Critics' Top Book of 2021 A groundbreaking history of the movement for equal rights that courageously battled racist laws and institutions, Northern and Southern, in the decades before the Civil War. The half-century before the Civil War was beset with conflict over equality as well as freedom. Beginning in 1803, many free states enacted laws that discouraged free African Americans from settling within their boundaries and restricted their rights to testify in court, move freely from place to place, work, vote, and attend public school. But over time, African American activists and their white allies, often facing mob violence, courageously built a movement to fight these racist laws. They countered the states’ insistences that states were merely trying to maintain the domestic peace with the equal-rights promises they found in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They were pastors, editors, lawyers, politicians, ship captains, and countless ordinary men and women, and they fought in the press, the courts, the state legislatures, and Congress, through petitioning, lobbying, party politics, and elections. Long stymied by hostile white majorities and unfavorable court decisions, the movement’s ideals became increasingly mainstream in the 1850s, particularly among supporters of the new Republican party. When Congress began rebuilding the nation after the Civil War, Republicans installed this vision of racial equality in the 1866 Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment. These were the landmark achievements of the first civil rights movement. Kate Masur’s magisterial history delivers this pathbreaking movement in vivid detail. Activists such as John Jones, a free Black tailor from North Carolina whose opposition to the Illinois “black laws” helped make the case for racial equality, demonstrate the indispensable role of African Americans in shaping the American ideal of equality before the law. Without enforcement, promises of legal equality were not enough. But the antebellum movement laid the foundation for a racial justice tradition that remains vital to this day. |
| african american history act: Report to the President and to the Congress United States. Maritime Labor Board, 1940 |
| african american history act: Reconstruction (Illustrated) Frederick Douglass, 2019-07-26 It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. ― Frederick Douglass - An American Classic! - Includes Images of Frederick Douglass and His Life |
| african american history act: African American Education in Delaware Bradley Skelcher, 1999 |
| african american history act: The Story of Little Black Sambo Helen Bannerman, 1923-01-01 The jolly and exciting tale of the little boy who lost his red coat and his blue trousers and his purple shoes but who was saved from the tigers to eat 169 pancakes for his supper, has been universally loved by generations of children. First written in 1899, the story has become a childhood classic and the authorized American edition with the original drawings by the author has sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Little Black Sambo is a book that speaks the common language of all nations, and has added more to the joy of little children than perhaps any other story. They love to hear it again and again; to read it to themselves; to act it out in their play. |
The African American History Act - Senate
AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY - includes the history of African peoples beginning with the African diaspora through the 21st century that illuminates the passage to the Americas, …
TH ST CONGRESS SESSION S. ll - booker.senate.gov
American History and Culture to support African Amer-ican history education programs, and for other purposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-2 tives of the United …
400 YEARS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY COMMISSION …
tributions of African-Americans since 1619; (C) to acknowledge the impact that slavery and laws that enforced racial discrimination had on the United States; and (D) to educate the public …
One Hundred Fifteenth Congress of the United States of …
An Act To establish the 400 Years of African-American History Commission, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of …
“Black History is American History:” Choosing African …
Oct 5, 2024 · “Black history is American history.” This is a slogan that has been made popular over the past few years. In fact, it has gained so much traction that in May 2020, former …
SUMMER 2019 1 of African American History Commission
(D-NC) to introduce the 400 Years of African American History Act. Signed into law by President Donald Trump on January 8, 2018, pursuant to Public Law 115 -102, directives of the 400 …
The African American History Act - Senate
AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY - includes the history of African peoples beginning with the African diaspora through the 21st century that illuminates the passage to the Americas, …
TH S H. R. 765 - Congress.gov
American History and Culture to support African Amer-ican history education programs, and for other purposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-2 tives of the United …
THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: A …
Feb 19, 1990 · African American history. _____ Years ago, when I was a college freshman and black studies was still alive and well on college campuses across America, I took a black history course that, as expected, …
STRATEGIC PLAN: 400 Years of African American History …
May 20, 2019 · The 400 Years of African-American History Commission (the “Commission”) will develop and facilitate activities throughout the United States to commemorate the 400th …
TH D CONGRESS SESSION S. 3547
1 (1) AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY.—The term 2 ‘‘African American history’’ means the history of Af-3 rican Americans, including the history of African 4 peoples beginning in the African …
TH ST CONGRESS SESSION H. R. 1242 - oversight.house.gov
COMMEMORATION.—The term ‘‘commemo-ration’’ means the commemoration of the 400th an-niversary of the arrival of Africans in the English colonies, at Point Comfort, Virginia, in 1619. …
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND …
a National Museum of African American History and Culture would be dedicated to the collection, preservation, research, and exhibition of African American historical and cultural material …
The African American History Act - booker.senate.gov
The African American History Act would invest $10 million over 5 years in the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to support African American history …
African American History Timeline - Friends NRC
Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, conferring citizenship on African Americans and granting them equal rights to whites. The Ku Klux Klan is formed in Tennessee.
(Original Signature of Member) CONGRESS S H. R. ll
To authorize the Secretary of Education to award grants to eligible entities to carry out educational programs that include the history of peoples of African descent in the settling and founding of …
The Significance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities …
For most of the past two centuries, African Americans were forced to attend segregated colleges and universities. Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) played a particularly …
400 Years of African-American History Commission
The 400 Years of African-American History Commission Act, signed into law January 8, 2018, established a 15-member commission to coordinate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the …
400 Years of African-American History Commission Act
the 400 Years of African-American History Commission Act, introduced by Representative Bobby Scott. Creating a commission to commemorate the contributions by African Americans to this …
About the 400 Years of African American History Commission …
400 Years of African American History Commission (400 YAAHC). Authorized by Public Law 115-102 signed by President Donald Trump on January 8, 2018, the 400 YAAHC is federally …
The African American History Act - Senate
AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY - includes the history of African peoples beginning with the African diaspora through the 21st century that illuminates the passage to the Americas, …
TH ST CONGRESS SESSION S. ll - booker.senate.gov
American History and Culture to support African Amer-ican history education programs, and for other purposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-2 tives of the United …
400 YEARS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY …
tributions of African-Americans since 1619; (C) to acknowledge the impact that slavery and laws that enforced racial discrimination had on the United States; and (D) to educate the public …
One Hundred Fifteenth Congress of the United States of …
An Act To establish the 400 Years of African-American History Commission, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of …
“Black History is American History:” Choosing African …
Oct 5, 2024 · “Black history is American history.” This is a slogan that has been made popular over the past few years. In fact, it has gained so much traction that in May 2020, former …
SUMMER 2019 1 of African American History Commission
(D-NC) to introduce the 400 Years of African American History Act. Signed into law by President Donald Trump on January 8, 2018, pursuant to Public Law 115 -102, directives of the 400 …
The African American History Act - Senate
AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY - includes the history of African peoples beginning with the African diaspora through the 21st century that illuminates the passage to the Americas, …
TH S H. R. 765 - Congress.gov
American History and Culture to support African Amer-ican history education programs, and for other purposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-2 tives of the United …
THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: A HISTORY OF …
Feb 19, 1990 · African American history. _____ Years ago, when I was a college freshman and black studies was still alive and well on college campuses across America, I took a black …
STRATEGIC PLAN: 400 Years of African American History …
May 20, 2019 · The 400 Years of African-American History Commission (the “Commission”) will develop and facilitate activities throughout the United States to commemorate the 400th …
TH D CONGRESS SESSION S. 3547
1 (1) AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY.—The term 2 ‘‘African American history’’ means the history of Af-3 rican Americans, including the history of African 4 peoples beginning in the African …
TH ST CONGRESS SESSION H. R. 1242 - oversight.house.gov
COMMEMORATION.—The term ‘‘commemo-ration’’ means the commemoration of the 400th an-niversary of the arrival of Africans in the English colonies, at Point Comfort, Virginia, in 1619. …
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY …
a National Museum of African American History and Culture would be dedicated to the collection, preservation, research, and exhibition of African American historical and cultural material …
The African American History Act - booker.senate.gov
The African American History Act would invest $10 million over 5 years in the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to support African American history …
African American History Timeline - Friends NRC
Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, conferring citizenship on African Americans and granting them equal rights to whites. The Ku Klux Klan is formed in Tennessee.
(Original Signature of Member) CONGRESS S H. R. ll
To authorize the Secretary of Education to award grants to eligible entities to carry out educational programs that include the history of peoples of African descent in the settling and founding of …
The Significance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities …
For most of the past two centuries, African Americans were forced to attend segregated colleges and universities. Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) played a particularly …
400 Years of African-American History Commission
The 400 Years of African-American History Commission Act, signed into law January 8, 2018, established a 15-member commission to coordinate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the …
400 Years of African-American History Commission Act
the 400 Years of African-American History Commission Act, introduced by Representative Bobby Scott. Creating a commission to commemorate the contributions by African Americans to this …
About the 400 Years of African American History …
400 Years of African American History Commission (400 YAAHC). Authorized by Public Law 115-102 signed by President Donald Trump on January 8, 2018, the 400 YAAHC is federally …
