The Afro-American Struggle for Freedom






 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Years_a_Slave_(film)

1948 December 10: The General Assembly of the United Nations adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in New York, NY. 
http://www.un.org/en/rights/


1955 December 1: Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. A well planned boycott of city buses continues for over a year and resulted in desegregation on city buses and the hiring of black bus drivers. Martin Luther King, Jr. utilizes the Gandhian philosophy of nonviolent direct action to inspire the disciplined boycott. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1fGdGjitNY

1957 September 4: Nine students volunteer to integrate Little Rock Central High School, but are kept from entering the school by armed Arkansas national guardsmen. International press coverage and outrage directed at US embassies abroad contribute to Eisenhower’s decision to order the 101st Airborne to protect students. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles warns government officials, “This situation was ruining our foreign policy.”

1960: During the “Year of Africa” numerous African nations gain independence. African Americans pay close attention to this historic transformation. James Baldwin quoted one African American as saying, “At the rate things are going here, …all of Africa will be free before we can get a lousy cup of coffee.”

1963 August 28: More than 250,000 people gather at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. John Lewis represents the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in his speech demanding protecting voting rights of African Americans, “One man, one vote is Africa’s cry and it is our cry.” The March is an international event, spawning sympathy marches around the world. On the eve of the march, pioneering civil rights leader W. E. B. Bu Bois dies at his home in Ghana. 



1964: Martin Luther King, Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize and accepts his award in Norway. The honor reflects the global awareness and support for his commitment to human rights in the United States.




1964 July 2: President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing discrimination in public places, federal programs, and employment.

1965 July 9: Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act prohibited the states from using literacy tests and other methods of excluding African Americans from voting.

1966: Muhammad Ali, world heavyweight champion, refuses to be inducted into the US army in protest against the war in Vietnam.

1966: The Black Panther Party (BPP) is formed in Oakland, California. As part of their 10 point program they demand, “We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.” 

1967 April 4: King speaks out against the war in Vietnam addressing a crowd of 3,000 people in Riverside Church in New York City. In his speech entitled “Beyond Vietnam” King argued that the war effort was "taking the young black men who have been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem." Two weeks later, he and other activists lead thousands of demonstrators on an anti-war march to the United Nations.


[...]

2008 Barack Obama wins General Elections



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Orral Task:


  • Give a short interpretation of this song? How does it reflect the situation of the poor - especially of the African Americans - in the USA in those days? Why did they become more self-confident?
  • Imagine, as a young black man and you are living in the USA today. Which huge problems Barack Obama was confronted with? What is the reason that he didn´t reach the high expectations? What do you think about the new Trump administration! 
  •  In your opinion, how is the situation of the African Americans today? Are they still discriminated against? Analyse the  situation of human rights in the US/ the EU and worldwide today. Will the new US administration will bring a change after Donald Trump?

 


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