The Impact of African American History

Speech to the American People

Fellow Americans,

African American history cannot be omitted from the history of our nation. Since the Atlantic Slave Trade and through Reconstruction, African Americans experienced deep pain striving to define the political, cultural, and economic basis of the United States. However, today's movements are aiming at eliminating slavery and segregation in the very schooling of our children. Efforts to eradicate this past come at the expense of not just the African Americans, but also every American, to learn the lessons of our united struggles.

Millions of Africans were brought into the American slave trade through the Atlantic Slave Trade. The American Yawp talks about the cruelty of the Middle Passage, in which disease, starvation, and violence killed millions of men, women, and children (Locke and Wright, 2019, p. 38). The survivors were the backbone of the colonial economy and were involved in cultivating sugar, tobacco, and cotton. Their domestic servitude produced huge fortunes that constructed the colonies' ports, banks, and industries (p. 42). This history is perverted in that non-belief in it undermines the roots of American prosperity and how slavery was central to national development.

The African Americans resisted even in slavery. The American Yawp emphasizes some of the most common rebellions, sabotage, and cultural keeping as a survival mechanism. Testimony could make leaders such as Frederick Douglass, who once ran away and became an anti-slavery figure, influential in molding popular opinion. The texts by Douglass made Americans think about the irony of slavery in a country that proclaimed freedom (p. 302). By teaching his story, students view African Americans as agents of transformation in the nation, not merely victims.

The Civil War and Reconstruction transformed the meaning of freedom in the US. Emancipation was driven by enslaved people themselves, as they were able to escape plantations by making contact with the Union forces. By 1865, the Union Army and Navy had almost 200,000 Black men (p. 31). With the triumph of the Union, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments supported the cessation of slavery, citizenship, and enlargement of voting rights (p. 431). African Americans also served in political office during Reconstruction, with personalities such as Hiram Revels coming to Congress, marking the ability of the formerly enslaved groups to be leaders (p. 378). These achievements testify that African Americans were at the center of redefining democracy.

Reconstruction promises were, however, truncated. The American Yawp outlines the emergence of white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan that utilized terror to discourage black political authority (p. 389). Black Codes and subsequent Jim Crow practices, which weakened emancipation and kept African Americans in loops of poverty and disenfranchisement, were introduced in southern states (p. 432). These betrayals demonstrate how racism was deeply institutionalized and why African American communities still experience historical trauma.

Every American should be familiar with this history since it is African American and American history. Entrapments during Reconstruction, the struggle against slavery, and the demand for citizenship highlight the limitations and potential of democracy. Understanding this history fosters empathy, prevents ignorance from growing, and helps the next generation understand how freedom has been defended and expanded.

Any attempt to eradicate African American history from our educational system is equivalent to erasing American history. Honoring those who built this country and exposing our kids to a more real and equitable world are two goals of teaching its whole meaning.