Describe how the African American experience in the United States ...

[ap345]

Describe how the African American experience in the United States has been unique when compared with other groups.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Authoritarian governments________ _______________.
 
  a. are never monarchies
 b. are usually pure dictatorships
 c. can occur when military officers seize power from the government
 d. can embrace the power of free media

[chinwesucks]

Answer to Question 1

The African American (black) experience has been one uniquely marked

by slavery, segregation, and persistent discrimination. By the 1660s,

indentured servanthood had turned into full-fledged slavery with the

enactment of laws in states such as Virginia that sanctioned the

enslavement of African Americans. Between 1619 and the 1860s, about

500,000 African Americans were forcibly brought to North America,

primarily to work on southern plantations, and these actions were justified

by the devaluation and stereotyping of African Americans. Some analysts

believe that the central factor associated with the development of slavery

in this country was the plantation system, which was heavily dependent on

cheap and dependable manual labor. Slavery continued in the South until

1863, when it was abolished by the Emancipation Proclamation. Gaining

freedom did not give African Americans equality with whites. African

Americans were subjected to many indignities because of race. Through

informal practices in the North and Jim Crow laws in the South. African

Americans experienced segregation in housing, employment, education,

and all public accommodations. African Americans who did not stay in

their place were often the victims of violent attacks and lynch mobs.

Lynching is a killing carried out by a group of vigilantes seeking revenge

for an actual or imagined crime by the victim. In the twentieth century, the

lives of many African Americans were changed by industrialization and

two world wars.

When factories were built in the northern United States, many African American families left

the rural South in hopes of finding jobs and a better life. During World Wars I and II, African

Americans were a vital source of labor in war production industries. In World War II, many

African Americans fought for their country in segregated units in the military. African

Americans began to demand sweeping societal changes in the 1950s.

Initially, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement used civil

disobediencenonviol ent actions seeking to change a policy or law by refusing to comply

with itto call attention to racial inequality and to demand greater inclusions of African

Americans in all areas of public life. Gradually, racial segregation was outlawed by the

courts and the federal government. For example, the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965

sought to do away with discrimination in education, housing, employment, and health care.

Affirmative action programs were instituted in both public-sector and private-sector

organizations in an effort to bring about greater opportunities for African Americans. African

Americans today make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population. Since the 1960s, many

African Americans have made significant gains in politics, education, employment, and

income.

Answer to Question 2

c

[ap345]

Excellent

[gcook]

TYSM