Atlas of African-American History

257 Pages·2007·13.95 MB·English

by  James Ciment

ATLAS OF
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
HISTORY
Revised Edition
James Ciment
Atlas of African-American History, Revised Edition
Copyright © 2007 by Media Projects Inc.
Media Projects Inc. Staff
Project Editor: Carter Smith
Principal Writer: James Ciment
Production Editor: Laura Smyth
Indexer: Diane Brenner
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by
any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the
publisher. For information contact:
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New York NY 10001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ciment, James.
Atlas of African-American history / [principal writer, James Ciment]. — Rev. ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8160-6713-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8160-6714-5
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. African Americans—History. 2. African Americans—History—Maps. 3. African
Americans—History—Pictorial works. I. Title.
E185.C55 2007
973’.0496073—dc22 2007015796
Facts On File, Inc. books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk
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Text design by Laura Smyth
Cover design by Takeshi Takahashi
Maps and graphics by Dale Williams
Printed in China.
TOPPAN 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
(pbk) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iv
Note on Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iv
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v
CHAPTER 1
The African Heritage: A Short History of a Continent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
CHAPTER 2
Slavery in Early America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
CHAPTER 3
The Divided Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
CHAPTER 4
Up from Slavery: African Americans in the Late 19th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
CHAPTER 5
The “New Negro”: African Americans from the Early to Mid-20th Century . . . .121
CHAPTER 6
The Civil Rights Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
CHAPTER 7
Backlash and Retrenchment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189
CHAPTER 8
Black America Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215
Selected Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .241
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .246
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors and editors wish to thank the many people who have contributed
greatly to both the first edition of the book as well as this revised and
expanded second edition. Many thanks to Facts On File’s Eleanora von
Dehsen, Nicole Bowen, Terence Maikels and Gene Springs for their work on the
first edition. Special thanks goes to Dorothy Cummings, editor of this revised and
expanded edition. Throughout this project, Dorothy has exhibited not only an
unerring editorial sense of what the project demands, but also perseverance,
patience, and expertise. It was a pleasure working with her.
Thanks also to Facts On File’s master cartographer Dale Williams for pro-
ducing such richly detailed and informative maps and graphs.
On the editorial side, an enormous amount of research went into this project,
and we are grateful for all the hard work on that front performed by Melissa Hale,
Karen Covington, Kenneth West, and Kimberly Horstman.
NOTE ON PHOTOS
Some of the illustrations and photographs used in this book are old, historical
images. The quality of the prints is not always up to modern standards, as in many
cases the originals are from old negatives or the originals are damaged. The content
of the illustrations, however, made their inclusion important despite problems in
reproduction.
INTRODUCTION
We hold these truths to be self- hand and separation from that communi-
evident...That all men are ty on the other. Whether the figures or
created equal.” So wrote organizations involved are the African
Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Colonization Society in the early 19th
Independence, in 1776. This founding century, Marcus Garvey’s United Negro
principle outlined what was at the time a Improvement Association in the early 20th
quite radical idea, but that idea has century, or Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of
remained one of the cornerstones upon Islam in the late 20th century, the impulse
which the United States has been built. toward separatism has been a consistent
Of course, when the U.S. Constitut- response to the scourge of racism.
ion was ratified 13 years later, the excep- By the same token, those calling for
tions to that principle were made clear. an equitable integration have held their
Voting rights, one of the preeminent position with an equal fervor, and that
badges of individual equality, were denied struggle is well documented in these
to women outright. What is more, while pages, from the quiet nobility of
the Declaration of Independence pro- Benjamin Banneker, who lobbied
nounced the equality of “all men,” only Jefferson to recognize that achievement
landowning white men were deemed fit was less a matter of race than of opportu-
to vote by the drafters of the nity, to the commanding stature of for-
Constitution. Enslaved Africans, in fact, mer general Colin Powell, who proved
were not even acknowledged as fully through his actions and character that he
human. In deciding how to allot state-by- was fit for any office in the land, if he
state representation in the U.S. Congress, chose to pursue it.
each slave was declared equal to three- The struggle for African-American
fifths of a man. equality, then, should not be defined by a
This conflict between the lofty series of government laws passed over
promise of Jefferson’s Declaration of time granting increased rights to black
Independence and the U.S. Constitution’s citizens. Instead, it is the story of African
limitations on that promise are at the Americans and their allies forcing these
heart of what may well be the central changes through concerted action. It is
dilemma of U.S. history. Jefferson himself the story of well-known heroes such as
was a slaveowner, who unlike other Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass,
founding fathers never freed the majori- of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B.
ty of his slaves, even upon his death. DuBois, and of Martin Luther King Jr.
In many ways, this book depicts the and Malcolm X. However, it is equally
struggle that the United States has under- the story of those unknown, everyday
gone to live up to the promise spelled out heroes who face the enormous obstacles
by the Declaration of Independence. of personalized and institutionalized
While it is expressly concerned with the racism, have not only maintained their
African-American experience, the history dignity and strength but have moved
of African Americans cannot be separated mountains in the process.
from the story of all Americans, any more In many ways, movement itself is yet
than the story of the nation’s presidents or another crucial theme of this book. In one
military conflicts can. sense, the struggle for civil rights is
In addition to the national struggle to referred to as a movement. On a more
fulfill the promise of “life, liberty and the basic level, the migration of people from
pursuit of happiness” for all Americans, place to place is another form of move-
readers will find other themes running ment. This form of movement, as much as
throughout this story. any other theme stated above, is at the
One such theme has been the conflict heart of the African-American experience.
between the goal of integration into the Beginning with the epoch of the African
larger American community on the one enslavement and diaspora, movement has
vi ATLAS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY
defined African-American history. As of this book—an atlas—is especially
enslaved Africans from diverse regions of appropriate. It is our hope that the maps
Africa arrived in first in the Caribbean included in these pages will help give
and Latin America, and then in the North concrete life to the story of how geo-
American colonies, they carried old tradi- graphic as well as cultural and political
tions—and formed new ones—that borders have been crossed over the cen-
reshaped their new world. With emanci- turies. Likewise, we hope readers come
pation came new eras of movement, as away with an understanding of the conse-
freedpersons traded shackles for life in quences of these crossings, and the barri-
the North, in the West, and elsewhere, ers that remain in the road to fulfilling the
once again transforming their new promise of Thomas Jefferson’s revolu-
homes. It is for this reason that the form tionary vision of equality for all.
THE AFRICAN HERITAGE
CHAPTER
1
A Short History of a Continent
Mother Africa, the land has been evolved through a series of Australo-
called, for it is in East Africa’s pithecusspecies, including A. africanusand
Rift valley that scientists be- A. robustus, each somewhat larger and
lieve that humans first evolved. These bigger-brained than its predecessors.
human ancestors emerged as a distinctive Then, about 2 million years ago, human-
genus, or grouping of species, within the ity’s first direct ancestors arrived on the
primate order (apes, monkeys, lemurs, scene, the genus Homos.
etc.) of mammals approximately 5 million It was the great archaeologist Richard
years ago. There is little resemblance, of Leakey who discovered the first of the
course, between these ancient hominids, Homospecies, habilis, at Olduvai Gorge in
roughly defined as primates who walked Kenya in the early 1960s. The name Homo
on two legs, and people today. It would habilis means “handy man,” and it comes
take millions of years of evolution to from the fact that H. habilis is the first
transform these small-statured and human ancestor whose remains have been
-brained primates into modern human found accompanied by evidence of tool-
beings. Nonetheless, archeologists say making. About half a million years later
that fossil evidence confirms that human- came H. ergaster, “upright man,” which
ity first emerged in East Africa. lived beside A. robustus.
The African heritage, then, is the Homo sapiens, or “thinking man,”
heritage of humankind. appears in the East African fossil record
about 500,000 years ago. Here was a
human ancestor with our physical size, a
brain almost equal to our own, and the
THE BIRTHPLACE OF ability to make tools and harness fire. H.
HUMANKIND sapiens, like some of the earlier Homo
species, made its way out to southern
Evidence of the very first hominids is Africa and out of the continent to Asia
scant: an arm bone at Kanapoi, part of a and Europe.
jaw at Lothagam, a molar at Lukeino—all Finally, about 100,000 years ago, how-
archaeological digs in the modern-day ever, Homo sapiens sapiensor “wise thinking
nation of Kenya. The earliest substantial man”—a being biologically identical to
fossil find was made at a place called ourselves—appeared in East Africa. H.
Laetoli, in neighboring Ethiopia, in 1974. sapiens sapiens would migrate even farther
It was so complete a skeleton that the than earlier Australopithecus and Homo
archaeologists who discovered it gave it a species, settling not just in Asia and
name—Lucy. About 3.5 million years old, Europe, but in Australia (about 40,000
Lucy was an Australopithecine, part of a years ago) and the Americas (about 15,000
genus of the hominid family about four to years ago) as well. And wherever it went it
five feet tall and with a brain about one- displaced—through competition or mat-
third the size of the modern human brain. ing—more primitive forms of human
More precisely, she was labeled an beings. Halfway between the emergence of
Australopithecus afarensis. (Archaeologists H. sapiens sapiens and today comes evi-
are always careful to note that the precise dence of multipiece weapons, tools, and
line of descent from Lucy to modern even jewelry. And, again, it shows up in
humans is not always direct. This fact eastern and southern Africa first.
should be kept in mind in the following For the next 40,000 years or so—until
discussion. Some of the different species the end of the last ice age 10,000 years
listed below lived side by side, and some ago—human beings in Africa and else-
died out rather than evolving into more where largely lived as bands of hunters and
modern human form.) gatherers. Groups remained small—prob-
For the next 1.5 million years—or ably no more than 150 or so persons—and
about 75,000 generations—A. afarensis ranged widely, requiring up to 300 square
2 ATLAS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY
The Origins of Human Beings
miles to support each group. The entire clay, mixed perhaps with blood, animal fat,
continent of Africa supported perhaps a or urine to make the colors bind to the
million people. rock. These paintings also depict people
hunting and herding. Archaeologists the-
orize that this new emphasis on human
A Mastery of Nature beings in control of the animal world
reflects a new mastery of nature, as the
Drawings on rocks and cave walls reveal a people of Africa had begun to domesticate
fascinating story. Etchings from 12,000 animals such as cattle, sheep, and goats.
years ago depict the wild beasts—giraffes, But even during its wetter and green-
elephants, and rhinoceroses—hunted by er eras of long ago, the Saharan climate—
these Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age, peo- punctuated by long periods of
ple. In art from approximately 7,000 years drought—made life difficult and uncer-
ago, both the subject and the style begin tain for its inhabitants. As historian John
to change. Etchings are replaced by paint- Reader has written, “the Sahara acted as a
ings made from oxidized minerals and pump, drawing people from surrounding
TTHHEE AAFFRRIICCAANN HHEERRIITTAAGGEE 33
regions into its watered environments unified state with a common culture. It
during the good times, and driving them was ruled by a king, or pharaoh, and
out again as conditions deteriorated administered by an army of literate
(though not necessarily returning them to bureaucrats. It developed an indigenous
their point of origin).” Among the places form of writing, art, and religion and built
of refuge in dry times was a green and massive monuments and engineering
narrow valley near the eastern end of the projects, many of which have weathered
desert, watered by a meandering river the millennia and are visited today by mil-
that would come to be called the Nile. lions of tourists.
Modern human beings probably
lived in the Nile valley for tens of thou-
sands of years, but the best picture of Ancient Egypt
what their life was like comes from
19,000-year-old remains at an archaeo- It is no accident that civilization first
logical dig at Wadi Kubbaniya, in mod- arose in the Nile valley. Archaeologists
ern-day Egypt. Hunting was rarer in the and historians have long noted that most
valley than in the surrounding territories. of the early civilizations on Earth arose in
There were just too many people in too river valleys. River valleys, such as the
small an area. Fishing, however, was crit- Nile, have rich soils and access to stable
ical, as was the gathering of seeds, fruit, supplies of water. Thus, they can support
and root crops such as nut-grass tubers. larger numbers of people and agricultur-
The lives of the people followed the al surpluses. These surpluses relieve some
rhythms of the river. Indeed, the veg- members of society from raising food,
etable and fish stocks gathered after the
river crested in late summer and early fall
Ancient Egypt
were stored away against the lean times.
The incredible richness of the valley and
the need to protect agricultural surpluses
led to settlement in villages of 500 per-
sons or more by about 7000 B.C., 4,000
years before the first pyramids were built.
The development of agriculture
marked the great leap between the
Paleolithic times, or Old Stone Age, and
the Neolithic times, or New Stone Age.
Most archaeologists agree that it first
occurred in the Fertile Crescent of the
Middle East, a particularly fertile region
stretching from modern-day Iraq to
Israel. But the legumes and grains first
domesticated there soon found a home in
the Nile valley, along with a locally
domesticated grain from North Africa
called sorghum. The seeds of a future civ-
ilization, both literally and figuratively,
had now been planted.
ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
The Nile valley of Egypt—along with
Mesopotamia, China, the Indus valley,
and Meso-America—is often referred to
as one of the “cradles of civilization.” The
civilization that arose along the lower
reaches of the Nile—between the
cataracts at Aswan in the south and the
Mediterranean Sea in the north—was a