L'histoire des afro-américains aux États-Unis

            The rights of African-Americans in the                         United States since the 16th century

1619 – Beginning of Slavery: 

First mention of Africans slaves in the British colony of Virginia.

The slaves were working in sugar cane, tobacco and cotton plantation. By 1690, every colony of the U.S. has slaves.

April 14th 1775 – Pennsylvania Abolition Society:

It is the first anti-slavery society in the world and in North America. It was founded by the Quakers’ family in Philadelphia, a year before the declaration of independence of the United States, with the aim of abolishing slavery in the US.

1775-1783 – The American War of Independence:

During the American War of Independence, black soldiers, whether slaves or free, participated in the conflict on both sides, loyalists and insurgents. An estimated 5 000 black people fought in the American army and many of them were freed.

1808 – Abolition of slave's trade:

The ban of the Atlantic slave trade adopted by the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Congress had already decided to abolish it in 1794. However, slave smuggling would continue for several years.

1860 – Southern States secede:

The eleven slave states in the southern United States secede because of the obligation to abolish slavery that the northern states have decided to impose on them, an obligation that is more tied to economic interests than to moral principles. There were 4 million Black slaves in the United States at this time.

1861-1865 – American Civil War:

Civil War between the Northern States (led by Abraham Lincoln), almost all abolitionists, and the Confederate States of America bringing together the Southern States (led by Jefferson Davis). The war killed 60 000 people. More than 186 000 Blacks served in the Nordic army, 38 000 of them were killed.

December 18th 1865 – The Abolition of Slavery:

 One of the issues in the Civil War was the abolition of slavery. In the middle of the war, President Abraham Lincoln decided to emancipate slaves. The North won, and the 13th amendment to the Constitution was passed in January 1865. It states that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude will exist in the United States nor in any of the places under their jurisdiction". The text was promulgated on December 18th 1865 after the assassination of the president in April.

1866 – The Black Codes:

Black codes are many laws adopted in the states of the former Confederacy  after the American Civil War and intended to assure the continuance of white supremacy. Enacted in 1865 and 1866, the laws were designed to replace the social controls of slavery. This result in banning interracial marriages, separation of black and white people in transportation, public places, schools or hospitals.

July 9th 1868 – 14th Amendment to the Constitution:

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on July 9, 1868, and granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed.

1869 – 15th Amendment to the Constitution: 

 The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted African Americans men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century.

 March 1st 1875 – (fake) Civil Right Act:

U.S. legislation which guaranteed African Americans equal treatment in public transportation and public accommodations and service on juries. The U.S. Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional in the Civil Rights Cases (1883).

1876 – Jim Crow Laws:

Jim Crow laws were a collection of laws that legalized racial segregation in some states. The laws were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education or other opportunities. Those who attempted to defy Jim Crow laws often faced arrest, fines, jail sentences, violence and death.

1877 – Beginning of racial Segregation:

Racial segregation is a legal framework of separation of people according to racial standards, established mainly in the Southern States. This segregation was created to counter the effectiveness of equal civil rights for African Americans guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States with the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. Born after the Civil War and especially after the Reconstruction period, the segregationist system gradually fits in the law of the southern American states. It is based on the so-called “separate but equal” doctrine.

This imposed a clear separation between black and white people in public places, schools, libraries, churches, etc. Black people were constantly persecuted or even killed and lynched by white people. 

1879 – Exodusters:

Exodusters is the name given to African-Americans who migrated from states along the Mississippi to Kansas as part of the Exoduster or Exodus Movement of 1879. It was the first general migration of blacks following the Civil War.
Nearly forty thousand Exodusters left the southern United States to settle in Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado. The main reason of this migration was to escape racial violence caused by white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the White Man’s League.

 May 18th 1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson case:

Plessy v. Ferguson, legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, on May 18, 1896, by a seven-to-one majority (one judge did not participate), advanced the controversial “separate but equal” doctrine in order to accept racial segregation laws.

1909 – NAACP:

 It was formed in New York City by white and black activists in 1909 in response to the ongoing violence against Black people in the U.S., the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the largest and most pre-eminent civil rights organization in the nation.

 May 17th 1954 - Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka judgment:

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a Supreme Court case in which the justices judge unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not, equal at all. 

In the case, a plaintiff named Oliver Brown filed a class-action suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in 1951, after his daughter, Linda Brown, was denied entrance to Topeka’s all-white elementary schools. In his lawsuit, Brown claimed that schools for black children were not equal to the white schools, and that segregation violated the 14th Amendment.