African Americans (2174)

Americans are well aware that although most of their ancestors came to America by choice, a great many came in chains. The first slaves were brought to Virginia on board a Dutch ship in 1619. On the eve of the American Revolution slavery was already firmly established in the country. In 1776, probably about one fifth of all inhabitants in the British colonies in America were Negro slaves. 500,000 of Africans were brought over as slaves between 1619 and 1808. The practice of owning slaves and their descendants continued, particularly in the agrarian South, where many slaves were needed to work the fields.

The process of ending slavery began in April 1861 with the outbreak of the American Civil War between the free states of the North and the slave states of the South. Slavery was abolished throughout the United States with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the country's Constitution in 1865.

Even after the end of slavery, however, American blacks were hampered by segregation and inferior education. In search of opportunity, African Americans formed an internal wave of im­migration, moving from the rural South to the urban North. But many urban blacks were unable to find work; by law and custom they had to live apart from whites, in run-down neighbourhoods called ghettos.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, African Americans, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, used boycotts, marches, and other forms of nonviolent protest to demand equal treatment under the law and an end to racial prejudice.

At last the U.S. Congress passed laws prohibiting discrimination in voting, education, employment, housing and public accommodations. Today African Americans constitute 12.7 % of the total U.S. population. In recent decades blacks have made great success, and the black middle class has grown substantially. In 1996, 44 % of employed blacks held "white-collar" jobs – managerial, professional, and administrative positions rather than service jobs or those requiring manual labour. The average income of blacks is lower than that of whites, however, and unemployment of blacks, particularly of young men, remains higher than that of whites. Many black Americans are still trapped by poverty in urban neighbourhoods plagued by drug use and crime.

The greatest change in the past few decades has been in the attitudes of America's white citizens. More than a generation has come since M. King's protests. Younger Americans in particular exhibit a new respect for all races, and there is an increasing acceptance of blacks by whites in all spheres of life and social situations.

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