In 1807, the slave trade in America was declared illegal for the first time. At the same time, tensions between anti-slavery and pro-slavery states began to rise, which were also triggered by the Missouri Compromise.
The Missouri Compromise (1820) regulated the political status of newly founded states and preserved the balance between the so-called “free states” and the “slave states” in the US Senate. The conflict between Northern anti-slavery and Southern slave states about the newly founded states bears significance in context of the Civil War. Abolitionism, the movement trying to abolish slavery, gained more importance. Noteable abolitionists include Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, the three of them African American people born into slavery who managed to escape.
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) managed to run away from her master and traveled the country preaching against slavery and in favor of women’s suffrage [dt.: Stimmrecht]. In 1850, she published The Narrative of Sojourner Truth and in 1852 gave her most celebrated address, ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’. Harriet Tubman (1821-1913) was a former slave who became a leading activist on behalf of abolition. She joined the underground railroad and became known as ‘Moses’ for her success in leading fugitives north. Her 19 trips to Maryland brought freedom to 300 slaves. Frederick Douglas (1817-95) was an ex-slave who became a leading campaigner for abolition, and later served as a government official.
In the 1840s, Douglass electrified abolitionist meetings by recounting his escape from slavery. Douglass drifted into the abolitionist circle centered around William Lloyd Garrison, the editor of the abolitionist newspaper “The Liberator“, and in 1841 gave his fist address to the Massachusetts Antislavery Society. An immediate success, he was hired to conduct a regional speaking tour. He published a best-selling Narrative of his life: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845). Defenders of slavery asserted that Douglass could not possibly have written so moving a tract.
Separatist movements mainly caused the Civil War (1861-1865), whereby the conflict between Northern anti-slavery states and Southern slave states came to the forefront.
Preserving the Union (Northern and Southern states) [dt.: die Union bewahren] and not losing the Southern slavery states was President Abraham Lincoln’s main goal. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) declared that if the Northern states won the war, slaves would be able to live in freedom, consequently the Emancipation Proclamation was published. As the North won the war, from then on black people were decreed equal and free citizens and were legally supposed be treated as such. Although Lincoln was against slavery, it was not his primary aim to abolish slavery but to save the union. Finally, it was the 13th Amendment that banned slavery with a two-thirds majority [dt.: Zweidrittel-Mehrheit] on 31st January 1865.
Nevertheless, a part of the white population did not want to accept the new conditions, so especially in the Southern states, racist and violent groups like the KuKluxKlan (KKK or the Klan) were founded in the wake of the American Civil War. The members were mainly native-born Caucasian protestants who were in competition with African Americans for housing and jobs. The main purpose of the KKK was to oppress, to intimidate, to scare and to terrorise black people, immigrants and any white people who would protect the oppressed. African American people were left vulnerable against violent attacks such as lynching or rape and rarely received any kind of protection or legal justice. In addition, the KKK was against Jews, Chinese people and homosexuals.
In 1896 ‘segregation’ - racial segregation and separation by law between people of different races – was declared legal through the Jim Crow laws. The laws are a consequence of the 13th Amendment from 1865 and they prevented black people from gaining the same social status as white people, especially in Southern States. Jim Crow was a stage figurine [dt.: Bühnenfigur] by Thomas Dartmouth Rice and represents the stereotype of a dancing and singing black man by a white man wearing a blackface.
The definition of segregation became common and included racial separation in public areas, restaurants, busses, schools, and extended to housing, jobs, politics and prosperity as well. Black people were not allowed to overstep their status through marriage, and even a white person could be punished for marrying an African American person. This can be seen as legalised racism because segregation was declared legal through the Supreme Court (“separate-but-equal rule” in the court case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896). Violence against people with different coloured skin was at its peak again and the numbers of violations in the form of lynching started to escalate.
Later on, the KKK lost importance and due to scandals in the leadership position, the support for the organisation declined [dt.: geringer werden]. However, the racist organization exists to its day, its current grand wizard being XYS, a fervent Trump supporter.
The most decisive [dt.: ausschlaggebend] and effective time for the improvement of African American rights began with the Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968), which fought for black people’s rights and social justice.
The murder of Emmett Till (1955) was one of the first incidents that highlighted the cruel nature of the Jim Crow laws. Emmet Till was a 14-year-old African American boy from the North (Chicago, Illinois) who was lynched while visiting his relatives in the South (Money, Mississippi). He was accused for allegedly flirting with a white woman and was brutally murdered by her husband. Most likely, Emmett wasn’t even flirting with the white woman but simply whistled as a coping mechanism for his stutter, a trick his mother had taught him. Emmett was brutally tortured and murdered. His eyes were gouged out, he was shot in the head and his naked and mangled body was thrown into a river.
Till’s mother wanted the body of her dead son to be sent back to Chicago, where she decided on an open-casket [dt.: offener Sarg] funeral. (Mamie Till: “I wanted to world to see what they did to my baby”). In 1955, the murderers were acquitted [dt.: freigesprochen] of their atrocious crime by an all-white jury. The racist attack shocked the nation and provided a catalyst for the emerging civil rights movement.
One famous movement was the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP – 1909), which was founded by African Americans. One significant figure of the Civil Rights Movement was Rosa Parks. In Alabama, Parks, an African American woman, refused to get up from a bus seat for a white person. She is quoted as saying: “I thought about Emmett Till, and I could not go back. My legs and feet were not hurting, that is a stereotype. I paid the same fare as the others, and I felt violated. I was not going back.” As an insurgent [dt.: aufständisch; rebellisch] person, she motivated African American society to boycott busses; hence, she can be considered to be the “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement”.
Martin Luther King (1929-1968) was an American Christian minister and activist. He is well known by the vast majority of people since he became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. MLK is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience (bus boycotts, sit-ins, and marches). He led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and later became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He also helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he gave his famous “I Have a Dream“ speech. In his speech, he talked about dreaming of a time when everyone is equal, free and not judged by the colour of their skin.
Compared to King’s nonviolent action, Malcolm X (1925-1965) is known as a more violent political and human rights activist. He was born as Malcolm Little but later changed his name to Malcolm X in order to represent his repudiation [dt.: Ablehnung, Nichtanerkennung] of his “slave name” (Malcolm Little). As a muslim minister and a spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, Malcom X was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the Black community.
While MLK focused on nonviolent protests, Malcom X believed in attaining equal rights by any means necessary. Malcom X’ speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” (1964) is about African American’s fight for civil rights and about Black nationalism. In his speech, he tried to motivate his audience to take action, either by legislation (the ballot) or violence (the bullet). The following quote is an excerpt from his 1964 speech: “If we don't do something real soon, I think you'll have to agree that we're going to be forced either to use the ballot or the bullet. It's one or the other in 1964. It isn't that time is running out -- time has run out!”. The Civil Rights Movement gained influence when segregation was declared illegal in public schools (cf. “Brown v. Board of Education”) and the process of “desegregation” began.
Regarding African American activists, 1965 is famous for the Selma to Montgomery (Alabama) marches and the so called ‘Bloody Sunday’. The marches were a series of civil rights protests led by African American activists. During a peaceful demonstration on Sunday, 7th March 1965, many African Americans were horribly beaten and hospitalised. This became known as the ‘Bloody Sunday’. In 1964, the government passed laws to stop discrimination and segregation, but it did not end immediately. Although legal segregation (segregation de jure) does not officially exist in most states, segregation de facto as well as racism is still very prevalent in people’s minds.
In 2012, a 17-year-old unarmed boy named Trayvon Martin was shot by a neighbourhood crime watch volunteer who followed Martin from a shop. However, the murderer sued Martin‘s parents because he claimed that a witness gave a false testimony in court. The murderer did not deny shooting Trayvon Martin but he stated that it was out of self-defense. In the end, the murderer, George Zimmerman, was declared not guilty. It has been said that through protest and the support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Martin’s parents have given birth to a new Civil Rights Movement.
A recent tragedy is the murder of George Floyd, an African American man who was arrested by police and killed by a white police man named Derek Chauvin. The police man kneeled on Floyd’s neck until he couldn’t breathe. The police was called when Floyd was suspected of using a fake bill to pay for goods but the situation escalated and Floyd was pulled to the ground. He was begging for his life and bystanders pleaded for the officer to check his pulse, even as Officer Chauvin was still kneeling on the unconscious victim.
One hour later, George Floyd died in a hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Floyd’s death caused continuous protests and resistance against systemic racism and violence towards black people. A global network, collectively known as “Black Lives Matter” wants to bring justice, freedom and liberation to black people all over the world. Chauvin was convicted and sentenced to 22 ½ years in prison for the murder of George Floyd. This is one of the longest prison sentences ever imposed on a US police officer for killing a black person.
It’s important to be aware of the long lasting idea of white supremacy in American history and the privilege that comes with being a white person. Regarding the complexity [dt. (hier): Vielschichtigkeit] of immigrants, white people (Caucasians) have always had an advantage compared to minorities (African Americans, Asian immigrants, Hispanics and more).
Bezieht sich ein Abiturvorschlag auf unterdrückte Minderheiten, Diskriminierung, Rassismus, Bürgerkrieg oder Sklaverei in den USA, so wird sich inhaltlich meistens auf die afroamerikanische Geschichte bezogen. Dabei werden häufig geschichtliche Aspekte sowie das Zusammenleben der Unterdrücker und der Unterdrückten verlangt. Zudem sollte auf Lebensumstände in Ghettos, Bildung, Leben in der Öffentlichkeit und politische Rechte Bezug genommen werden. Um das heutige Zusammenleben von Schwarzen und Weißen zu erklären, ist die Geschichte nicht außer Acht zu lassen, auch die Thematik Zusammenleben („living together“) in der amerikanischen Gesellschaft sollte miteingebracht werden. Als Transfer-/ Diskussionsaufgabe können 35-40 BEs vergeben werden.
In dem geschichtlichen Teil Amerikas stellt vor allem die afroamerikanische Geschichte einen entscheidenden Teil dar; diese wird häufig im Abitur abgefragt. Nichtsdestotrotz ist zum allgemeinen Verständnis ein Überblick über die gesamte amerikanische Geschichte sinnvoll. Um den Lernfluss zu erleichtern, sind die amerikanische und die afroamerikanische Geschichte weitestgehend getrennt dargestellt.