African American
Overview
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...

 and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States. Most African Americans are of West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

n descent. However, some immigrants
African immigration to the United States
African immigration to the United States refers to the group of recent immigrants to the United States who are nationals of Africa. The term African in the scope of this article refers to geographical or national origins rather than racial affiliation....

 from African, Caribbean, Central American or South American nations, or their descendants, may also self-identify with the term.

African Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States.

African-American history starts in the 16th century with African slaves who quickly rose up against the Spanish explorer
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...

 Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón
Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón
Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón was a Spanish explorer who in 1526 established the short-lived San Miguel de Gualdape colony, the first European attempt at a settlement in what is now the continental United States...

 and progresses to the present day, when Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

 has been elected as the 44th and current President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

.
Timeline

1820    The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society started a settlement in present-day Liberia.

1863    American Civil War: The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first African American regiment, leaves Boston, Massachusetts, to fight for the Union.

1864    American Civil War: The Fort Pillow massacre: Confederate forces kill most of the African American soldiers that surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.

1865    American Civil War: The Confederate States of America agree to the use of African American troops.

1867    African American men are granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C.

1868    The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.

1870    Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress.

1877    Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.

1892    The New Orleans general strike begins, uniting black and white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time.

1900    American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney becomes the first African American to be awarded the Medal of Honor, for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863.

Quotations

I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.

Muhammad Ali|Muhammad Ali, The Greatest

The common goal of 22 million Afro-Americans is respect as human beings, the God-given right to be a human being. Our common goal is to obtain the human rights that America has been denying us. We can never get civil rights in America until our human rights are first restored. We will never be recognized as citizens there until we are first recognized as humans.

Malcolm X|Malcom X, "Racism: the Cancer that is Destroying America", in Egyptian Gazette

If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves and allow those responsible to salve their conscience by believing that they have our acceptance and concurrence. We should, therefore, protest openly everything . . . that smacks of discrimination or slander.

Mary McLeod Bethune|Mary McLeod Bethune, "Certain Unalienable Rights", What the Negro Wants, edited by Rayford W. Logan

My father was a slave and my people died to build this country, and I'm going to stay right here and have a part of it, just like you. And no fascist-minded people like you will drive me from it. Is that clear?

Paul Robeson|Paul Robeson, testimony on June 12. 1956 before the House Un-American Activities Committee

The workings of the human heart are the profoundest mystery of the universe. One moment they make us despair of our kind, and the next we see in them the reflection of the divine image.

Charles W. Chesnutt|Charles W. Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others. . . . One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warrings ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

W.E.B. Du Bois|W.E.B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.

James Weldon Johnson|James Weldon Johnson, "Lift Every Voice and Sing"

Freedom is never given; it is won.

A. Philip Randolph|A. Phillip Randolph, Keynote speech given in 1937 at the Second National Negro Congress

 
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