Why Did People Study African American West

Although African Americans are often overlooked when students are learning about the American West, African Americans are a significant component of the history of the American West. Bradford Luckingham claims in his book, Minorities in Phoenix: A Profile of Mexican American, Chinese American, and African American Communities, 1860-1992, that African Americans have lived in the West since the beginning of Spanish settlement and were among the founders of Los Angeles. However, the impact that African Americans have had in the West is not well known. Quintard Taylor states that slavery played a significant role in the European and American domination of the American West, as in the South and Mexico. Black freedmen, as well as slaves, had accompanied Spanish conquistadors during their first centuries of …show more content…
African Americans have been a part of the American West before the migration of white settlers in search of gold and other fortunes. While there are numerous accounts of anti-black attitudes and actions as well as black resistance on the urban frontier, it is rarely touched on when people study the American West because it has not been seen as a crucial element of the history of the American West. Typically when people study African Americans, people study the American South. The majority of Americans are aware of the deep-rooted history that African Americans have in the South dating back to colonization and slavery. Furthermore, most people are aware of how the Jim Crow laws, segregation, and discrimination led to the Civil Rights movements, and the impact these had on African Americans in the East and South. African American history is associated with the East and South; however, similar to non-black Americans, African Americans also traveled West in search of better