Slavery in America began in 1619 when the first African slaves were bought to the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. They were bought to give aid in the production of lucrative crops such as tobacco, rice, indigo and cotton. African American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the country and the invention of the cotton gin helped solidify the importance of slavery to the South’s economy. However, Slaves were exposed to cruel treatment. They endured sexual assault, abuse with and without instruments of torture, being shackled, lynched, burned, castrated, mutilated, and branded. By the mid 19th century, a great debate sparked over the westward expansion and the growing abolition movement and led to the Civil War. The war divided he country.
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There were many successful efforts that took place to end racial segregation and inequality. President Truman signed an executive order than declared that there should be equality among the armed services in 1948. The cases known as Brown v. Board of Education was the name given to five separate cases with the same concern: segregation in public schools. The name of the cases were Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Howard County, Boiling v.Sharpe and Gebhart v. Ethel. Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP legal defense and Education fund handled these cases. Although the concerns were heard, the U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the school board. The cases were bought to the U.S Supreme Court when the plaintiffs appealed the decision. The Supreme Court eventually ruled out segregation in schools. The causes of celebre were the murder of Emmitt Till and the Rosa Parks bus boycott in 1955. Emmett Till was a fourteen year old boy who was visiting Mississippi when he was kidnapped, beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River by two white men name J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The two men were arrested, acquitted by an all white jury, and later boast about the murder in a magazine interview. Later that year, A woman by the name of Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus to a white man and was arrested because it defied a southern custom at the time. In response to Ms. Parks arrest, the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, lead by Reverend Martin Luther King, which lasted for more than a year. The buses were desegregated on December
There were many successful efforts that took place to end racial segregation and inequality. President Truman signed an executive order than declared that there should be equality among the armed services in 1948. The cases known as Brown v. Board of Education was the name given to five separate cases with the same concern: segregation in public schools. The name of the cases were Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Howard County, Boiling v.Sharpe and Gebhart v. Ethel. Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP legal defense and Education fund handled these cases. Although the concerns were heard, the U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the school board. The cases were bought to the U.S Supreme Court when the plaintiffs appealed the decision. The Supreme Court eventually ruled out segregation in schools. The causes of celebre were the murder of Emmitt Till and the Rosa Parks bus boycott in 1955. Emmett Till was a fourteen year old boy who was visiting Mississippi when he was kidnapped, beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River by two white men name J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The two men were arrested, acquitted by an all white jury, and later boast about the murder in a magazine interview. Later that year, A woman by the name of Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus to a white man and was arrested because it defied a southern custom at the time. In response to Ms. Parks arrest, the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, lead by Reverend Martin Luther King, which lasted for more than a year. The buses were desegregated on December