At the same time, there were many free African Americans in the north. Unlike slaves, they were allowed to start churches, write newspapers, and sometimes own property. Frederick Douglass was an important abolitionist (fighter against slavery). Harriet Tubman helped to create the Underground Railroad, which helped African Americans to sneak away from their masters and become free. During the American Civil War from 1861-1865, the south broke away from the United States to form the Confederate States of America, or Confederacy. The United States won the war, and in 1865, it freed all slaves (about 4 million) by the 13th amendment.
African Americans were not slaves anymore, but white southerners passed laws called Black Codes that took away their freedom. Some African Americans served in government, but after 1877, the white southerners mostly kept them out of government. Whites founded the Ku Klux Klan to scare African Americans and stop them from voting. Most southern African Americans became sharecroppers. Sharecropping was a system in which the farmers rented the land from the landowner and had to pay the landowner part of their crops. Jim Crow laws segregated white and black people. Black people had to go to different schools and usually live in different neighborhoods than white people. Many businesses were for whites only. The Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson said that black and white facilities could be separate but equal, but facilities for black people were usually worse. Lynching was often practiced against African Americans.
In the early 1900s, African American culture grew with the Harlem Renaissance, an artistic and literary movement in New York City. The NAACP was founded to improve the lives of African Americans. Leaders had different ideas about what was best for African Americans. Booker T. Washington thought they should go to vocational schools to get better jobs. W. E. B. Du Bois thought university education was more important. Marcus Garvey believed that African Americans should move to Africa to have a country of their own. During the Great Migration, from the 1910s to the 1960s, African Americans moved from the south to cities in the north and west. At the beginning, only 10% of African Americans lived outside the south, but by the end, 47% lived in the north and west. Segregation also existed in the north. Redlining stopped people who lived in African American neighborhoods from buying homes.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement called for equality between African Americans and whites. The 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education banned racial segregation in schools. Many Southern schools still stopped black students from attending, until 1957, when federal troops forced a school in Little Rock, Arkansas to allow black students (called the Little Rock Nine). In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus. This started the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which involved Martin Luther King. King and Malcolm X were two leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, but they were both killed in the 1960s. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act banned discrimination based on race.
Racism against African Americans is still prevalent in 2020. In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, George Floyd was killed by a white police officer. Black Lives Matter is a movement which started in 2013.
With their American born children came the first generation of English speaking African Americans. But this development was not the same all over the country. For example; even today the Gullah of the Sea Islands off the Carolina and Georgia coasts still speak a language that is a blend of several African languages. They are the descendants of slaves from different countries in Africa.
In the United States when Americans say African-American or Black, they are referring to the same people. Both terms describe an ethnic group that came to exist in the United States. The Africans who were brought to America as slaves were from different nationalities and did not all speak the same language. They became a new blended ethnic group with a new language that was not their own: English.
Blacks used to be segregated in schools but since the 1960s were able to join major schools, colleges and universities. In the second half of the 20th century, reading-ability rates for blacks increased.
African Americans have influenced various forms of music, including Hip hop, R&B, funk, rock and roll, soul, blues, and other contemporary American musical forms while older black forms of music included blues, doo-wop, barbershop, ragtime, bluegrass, jazz, and gospel music. Michael Jackson, an African-American pop singer, released an album called "Thriller" in 1982 which is the best-selling album of all time. In the nineties Beyonce Knowles became famous as the lead singer of the R&B girl band Destiny's Child. In the 2000s she started releasing music on her own. Her first album "Dangerously in Love" sold 11 million copies and won five Grammy Awards.
Black culture has been the subject of documentaries. For example, the award-winning "Black Is, Black Ain't" explores black identity. "Good Hair" discusses the significance of having 'good hair' for black women in American culture.
There is a National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C.
Protestant Christianity is the most practised religion by African Americans.
Soul food is a cuisine eaten by African Americans in the South. Fried chicken, mac and cheese, cornbread, collard greens and candied yams is typical soul food.
Kwanzaa and Juneteenth are popular African American holidays.
African Americans are more likely to experience racism. African American males are more likely to be killed by police, which resulted in the Black Lives Matter movement. African Americans are more likely to die from diseases like COVID-19, HIV, obesity and diabetes. African Americans still suffer from poverty and unemployment. African Americans are more likely to drugs like marijuana. African Americans are more likely to eat fast food. Heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and homicide is the main causes of death for African Americans. The suicide rate for African Americans increased due to racism, police brutality and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pol Pot
Saloth Sar (better known as Pol Pot; January 25, 1925 – April 15, 1998) was the leader of Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. He was the leader of a group called the Khmer Rouge, a group of peasant revolutionaries who turned Cambodia into a military dictatorship officially called Democratic Kampuchea. Between 1.7 and 2.2 million Cambodians were killed by his regime. Pol Pot was thrown out of power in January, 1979, when the Vietnamese Communists liberated Kampuchea.
Pol Pot's family was a good family, and really connected with the royal family. His brother, Loth Suong, was a palace clerk, and his cousin was a wife to Prince Sisowat Monivong and had a son named Kossarak. His connection helped him get a scholarship to France.
His father's name was Pen Saloth and his mother's name was Sok Nem. Pol Pot had eight siblings. His family was thriving, but alone.
Pol Pot's childhood was fairly normal. Pol Pot's real name is Saloth Sar. His birthday is either 1925 or May 25, 1928. He grew up in a nice place, and his village was about two miles from Kompong Thom's capital. Kompong Thom was a province of Cambodia. Back then, that part of Cambodia was part of France.
In 1949, he went to France and studied about radio electronics, but got distracted and led astray because of Marxism, which is a form of communism. He didn't study, and his scholarship was taken away. In 1953, he went back to Cambodia and became a communist. The following year, Cambodia became free from France.
In 1962, he became the leader of the Communist party in Cambodia. This party was hidden, as the prince, Prince Sihanouk, did not like Pol Pot nor the Communists.