Discrimation of the black communities in the USA

The discrimination and opression of black communities in the United States of America is still a very big problem, despite many well knwon icons and celebreties from the USA are black for example one of the most popular presidents of the United States Barack Obama.

Portrait of Barack Obama (2012), President of the USA from 2009 - 2017. His presidancy was seen as the dream of Luther King coming true.

The racism in the USA has a long history, it traces back to the 17^th century, but after many famous human right activists for the rights of black people for example Martin Luther King there still are news about racist attacs on black and the KKK is still very popular and according to a poll by the National Public Radio 92% of the blacks still think racism is a problem in the US.

History

The racism and discrimination of blacks in the USA basically began with the first african slaves and the domination of beliefs of "White supremacy".

African-American children in South Carolina picking cotton, ca. 1870

In 1492 Christopher Columbus landed with Africans in Puerto Rico and not much later in 1508 Ponce de Leon enslaved the indigenous Taínos in an area of the present USA. Africans were enslaved in a colony in an area of the contemporary South Carolina in 1526 at first. They mostly had to work at plantations. Soon many more black African came to America, in 1619 the first slaves came to Virginia. In 1641 Massachusetts were they legalized slavery for the first time. Several laws were adopted in the next years for instance laws arranging inheritance of slave status when a slave gets a child 1662 in Virginia or about the punishment of slaves in South Carolina in 1690.

Jim Crow, the archetypal slave character as created by Rice.

In the end of the 17^th century the number of slave importations increased rapidly because of rice plantations were created in Carolina. In the next several years many riots, especially by slaves took place and more states adopted slavery laws. But in the last half of the 18^th century many of the northern states declared that slavery is abolished - officially. In 1787 the Northwest Ordiance, the Northwest Territory, forbided the slavery. Still many people, especially blacks lived in slavery. For example in Pennsylvania there were no slaves in 1860 first. During the northern states abolished slavery for now, in the southern states the slavery was still legal and in 1822 in Mississippi a law was adopted that regulated the slavery and says that a master of slaves can treat them as animals. Only a few states forbade it as well. But when Abraham Lincoln were elected in 1860 he declared the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, freeing all slaves and in 1865 the slavery was abolished completly in the constitution of the USA. But still the most African-American had to work as servant or slaves at plantations. When the Union Army of the Northern States promised freed slaves an amount of 40 acre of land when they would fight the southern states but that was annuled and many fell back into slavery again. The blacks got even poorer because of sharecroping, they had to pay rental o their masters and did not get much back from them. In total there were more than 10 million Africans which came to the English colonies as slaves. Even after the abolishment of slavery they were not equal to whites at all, not in the society and legally as well, for instance through the black code which made the blacks even more dependent to their former master. The government extended the right to vote and black men were allowed to vote, despite in the southern states. Still the majority were not able to do so, the blacks had to compete in a test, to see if they are able to read for example. When they were, they got asked questions about laws, which several whites were not able to answer as well.

Sign for "colored" waiting room at a Greyhound bus terminal in Rome, Georgia, 1943.

The racial segregation got legalised in the end of the 19^th century by the most southern states. It was called "seperate but eqaul services". The blacks had their own sinks and toilets, own places in busses or own places in restaurants. Also there were only blacks and only whites schools. Later this ideology of racial inequality was established in the Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow was a figure to turn the blacks into ridicule. Soon this racism still was "embedded" in the socity especially by the church and government.

A group of white men pose for a 1919 photograph as they stand over the black victim Will Brown who had been lynched and had his body mutilated and burned during the Omaha race riot of 1919 in Omaha, Nebraska

This system led to more violence against black people and they even could be lynched for looking at a white woman. At torturings of blacks and their families many crowds were amused. Between 1890 and 1920 over 3,000 black men were lynched. This violence developed to a buiseness all about selling photographies of violence against blacks. But stereotypes by the public culture also aided to maintain racial hierarchy: African-Americans were for the most whites uncivilised and inferior beings. Black actors painted themselves with black colours to exhibit black americans as childish "buffoons" to internalize the sense of white superiority and show the black population even not as humans but as "stupid", incompetent, uncivilized savages who had to be trained. Vaudeville shows, called "minstrel show" were made to entertain the whites and popular "blackfaces" just as Jim Crow were created. Many other common and steretypical images were born, for example the naive "Uncle Tom" or the "Sambo". In the northern states the image of a black violent, women-raping offender, the "black perpetrator" was more common. During the first World War many blacks migrated into the North to get better livingconditions than in the south. Because white families did not want blacks in their neighborhood black communities were formed and more civil rights organisations as well. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 were one of the first. In 1925 in New York a cultural movement, the Harlem Renaissance were formed and got with arts, musics and theater a lot attention of whithes. When the Eisenhowe-Governemtn tried to abolish the racial segregation there were many fights between black human rights activists and white southerners and the white police. The president Lyndon B. Johnson abolished the segregation and promised the blacks the right to vote in the Civil Rights Act 1964 and the Voting Rights Act 1965. But the segregation still existed, only more subtle and hidden. That led to more riots and great dissappointment of the black population. And still this racism is alive, but not legally and the most blacks live in their own middle-class.

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King (born 15^th January 1929 in Atlanta as Michael King Jr., died 4^th of April 1968 in Memphis) was a Baptist minister and one of the most important black human rights activists of the 20^th century. He is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and fought against the racism in the US, he promoted a nonviolent way to fight for more civil rights and against the whites supremacy. He was killed at a protest march by a previously convicted white racist. Still he was one of the most influential activists.

Ku-Klux-Klan

Emblem of the KKK, since the late 1960s

The Ku-Klux-Klan (short KKK) is a Protestant rascist and violent association from the USA. It was founded on the 24^th of December in 1865 in Tennessee by six officers from the southern states, therefore it is the first terrorist group of America. These officers fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War 1860/61. When they started with night rides with masks they began with their anti-black policy. Soon they gained many members from all over the southern states, their maximum number of members was even at 6,000,000. Nowadays it is at about 5,000 - 12,000. Against common stereotypes their main targets are not only blacks, they attacked Jews, immigrants and Catholics as well but they are also anti-LGBT. Common procedures and ceremonies is lynching, torture e.g. whipping or Cross burnings (since Grand Wizard William Joseph Simmons), also the well known white robes are their traditional wear to hide their identity.

History of KKK

The Ku Klux Klan emerged in aftermath of the Civil War 1860/61 and was founded in the Reconstruction in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee by six military veterans from the southern states.

KKK night rally in Chicago, c. 1920

As the defeated of the Civil War one of their first goals was the sabotage of Reconstruction but soon they started with masked horserides at night and realized that blacks were afraid of them and the blacks became their main target, they wanted to maintain the "white supremacy". After the Emancipation Proclamation 1862 the Ku Klux Klan wanted to restore the "racial order" how it was before the Civil War . They attacked many freed black slaves and gained more popularity after riots in the 1860s when white societies were formed to stand up against the abolishment of slavery. Later in 1867 they tried to create a hierarchy in Nashville but local KKK organisations were mostly independent. George Gordon, one of the first members and a former Confederate General wrote the KKK's first Prescript, in which he supported and highlighted their conviction in the "white supremacy". Their organisation was really chaotic at first, not structured, many local brands basically did their own things and did not follow the Prescript. According to historain Eric Foner the Ku Klux Klan was the military force for the Democratic Party, the planter class and the people who wanted to restore the white supremacy . They started early with killing and supress blacks which voted for example. Some anti-KKK movements were formed and in 1871 Benjamin Franklin Butler wrote the Civil Right Act or the first "Ku Klux Klan Act" which were signed by the President Grant and when the Klan refused to dissolve their Klan severeal Clansman were arrested and reluctantly the Klan with about 550,000 members was abolished. Nevertheless many groups of white racists were formed until 1915 the second Klan was founded by William Joseph Simmons. The first Klan was gloryfied and romanticised, especially by the movie "The Birth of a Nation" by D. W. Griffith based on a book by Thomas Dixon Jr, who opposed eqaul right for blacks.

Movie poster for The Birth of a Nation. It has been widely noted for inspiring the revival of the Ku Klux Klan.

The second clan was primarily from the midwest to west and their biggest enemy were the Catholics and Jews, the blacks only their third biggest were the blacks. Later they got anti-Communist as well. From 1920 the clan grew rapidley to a number of more than 4 million, the Klan's values and christian moral appealed to many people in the US. Some historians think that the public discusions about the KKK was a help for its rise. The second Klan even influenced statre governments, for instance Oregon and Indiana, the 1922 leader's aim of the KKK Hiram W. Evans 1922 was to turn the Klan into an influencial and powerful political group. Despite their big influence racist terror was spread rather in smaller towns and rural areas. For example they lynched people to suppress black involvement in politics. Later in the 20^th century they got attention in the publicity for shootings, massacres and more lynchings. Very popular is the Greensboro massacre 1979 where 5 communist protesters were killed by the KKK and american Nazis (Full Wikipedia-article: Greensboro massacre) or the Michael Donald lynching 1980, where one of the offender was executed. The KKK even got in relation with Neo-Nazism under the lead of the Grand Wizard David Duke.

KKK today and elsewhere

Today the KKK is not only one organisation but several groups in the US and even worldwide and in Germany and other european countries as well. It has estimatedly 5,000 to 12,000 members in the US. Their hate groups are on the rise in the last few years again. In Germany, the KKK exists since the begining of the 1920s in Germany, they are often related to right-wing extremist groups from modern Neo-Nazi groups, for example the NSU. There were about 4 Klans in 2012. Even some police officers should have been members of the german KKK

Further Reading and Web links

History of black people

• Article on the history of black america by the bpb (german): http://www.bpb.de/apuz/266269/zur-geschichte-von-black-america?p=all
• BBC documentary series about racism (three episodes): ep. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Ofa_GMKJU&t=2942s / ep. 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hNiuzX2u3E / ep. 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSKQTu0ZV4k
• BBC videos on black people in America and their lives on plantations: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00fcqv9/clips

Luther King

• Article about 50^th anniversary of the speech "I have a dream" and the civil rights movement (bpb, german): http://www.bpb.de/politik/hintergrund-aktuell/167685/50-jahre-i-have-a-dream-27-08-2013
• Institue Web site about King by the Stanford University: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/
• Short video by "3Sat" on the death of Martin Luther King (german): https://www.zdf.de/kultur/kulturzeit/martin-luther-king-114.html

KKK

• KKK FBI-Files: https://archive.org/details/KKK-FBI
• "Die Arier", 2014: german documentary about right-wing extremism in Germany and other countries, http://www.bpb.de/mediathek/198266/die-arier (about USA and KKK from 00:46:20, Interview with a KKK-Member 1:13:10)
• Article on the KKK and list of KKK hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC): https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan
• Article on right-wing extremism in the USA by the BPB (german): http://www.bpb.de/politik/extremismus/rechtsextremismus/253409/rechtsextreme-us-szene

Racism today

• Hate Crimes data 2017 by the FBI: https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2017/topic-pages/tables/table-1.xls
• The Counted by the Guardian, data about people killed by the police: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database#

Sources

• Article on the history of black america by the bpb (german): http://www.bpb.de/apuz/266269/zur-geschichte-von-black-america?p=all
• Timeline South- and Centralamerica: https://amhistory.si.edu/vidal/timeline/
• Slavery Timeline by thirteen.org: https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/slavery/timeline/index.html
• Slave laws and slvaery in Sout Carolina: https://web.archive.org/web/20120302150227/http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/geography/slave_laws_SC.htm
• https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Runaway_Slaves_and_Servants_in_Colonial_Virginia
• BBC Documentaries about racism
• Article on right-wing extremism in the USA by the BPB: http://www.bpb.de/politik/extremismus/rechtsextremismus/253409/rechtsextreme-us-szene
• http://thekingcenter.org/about-dr-king/
• http://www.martin-luther-king-zentrum.de/mlkz/lebenslauf
• https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/summary/
• https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/chronology?page=1
• Brandenburgische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung, Article on the KKK (german): https://www.politische-bildung-brandenburg.de/node/8755
• Roland G. Fryer, Jr., Steven D. Levitt: Hatred and Profits: Under the Hood of the Ku Klux Klan
• Ku Klux Klan: A History of Racism and Violence, 1997, by the SPLC via Google Books: https://books.google.de/books?id=To3kkDqNQdQC&pg=PA32&dq=ku+klux+klan+how+many+members&redir_esc=y&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=true
• Article on the KKK in the twentieth century: https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/ku-klux-klan-twentieth-century
• "The Crisis", October 1940, page 324: https://books.google.de/books?id=7FoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA324&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
• Article by the ADL (Anti-Defamation League): https://web.archive.org/web/20121003050902/http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/kkk/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20120825005249/http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/ku-klux-klan-brief-biography
• Article on the KKK and list of KKK hate groups by SPLC: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan
• Article: "Life goes inside todays KKK": https://web.archive.org/web/20090427093003/http://www.life.com/image/85939265/in-gallery/25151/life-goes-inside-todays-kkk