The blacks in Africa lived together in tribes and with the families staying together in the village and leading a life based on strong morals. Each tribe had developed a culture and their native language. According to most Europeans, the Africans were ignorant, pagan savages who needed to be introduced to Christianity and Western civilization. And when America was discovered in 1492, Europeans soon realized that Africans were able to work hard in the hot sun than the Native Americans (because of the color of their skin and their natural built).
[...] But there were also new laws made in the South - the Black Codes were introduced, which limited the movement and rights of the freed men and tried to establish the old master- and slave relationship. To keep blacks from registering to vote, poll taxes were raised, comprehension tests were held and the grandfather-clause was put into practice. The ‘Separate but equal' decision of 1896 confirmed the segregation in the South and soon everything was being segregated - the churches, schools, even the toilets. [...]
[...] Malcolm's childhood was characterized by the teachings of his father, who stressed black nationalism and black pride at the UNIA meetings, and also by the violence committed against the black minority. Earl Little, who was able to build up his own house and an own business, often had trouble with the Ku Klux Klan, who burned down his house in 1929. When Malcolm was six years old, his father was murdered by the Black Legion, a group of white racists belonging to the KKK. [...]
[...] Malcolm emerged from the black underclass in the northern ghettos to a spokesman for the poor blacks, following the teachings of Islam and holding on to black nationalism. Martin Luther King Jr., who had been raised in a middle-class family of the South, had gone to college, and became active in the civil rights movement like his father. As a Baptist minister, his major emphasis was on love and non-violence. To gain full rights, he advocated non-violent direct action and was an upholder of passive resistance, but not of self-defense like Malcolm. [...]
[...] Since 1995 the Klan fights against the black church, in arson-attacks against churches took place. Conclusion Today, nearly 30 years after the end of the Civil Rights Movement, some things have changed. A strong black middle-class has emerged, and some African-Americans have been able to get into leading positions in economics and politics. In several big cities with a majority of black citizens, black mayors are in office. Martin Luther King Junior and Malcolm X have become American heroes - King is a national hero, and Malcolm is a hero of the non-white people, and especially of the African-Americans, whose search for their own identity is still their key problem. [...]
[...] Life mostly in the ghettos of the big industrialized cities - was characterized by social discrimination segregation again. The only institutions where African-Americans could develop some power were mostly religious organizations. Many of these were founded in the 1920s and 1930s, like the ‘Nation of Islam', or Marcus Garvey's ‘UNIA' (‘United Negro Improvement Association'). These organizations refused everything which had to do with ‘white society', and therefore often rejected Christianity. Great efforts were made by African-Americans to improve their situation in America, and many protest-marches (e.g. [...]
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