Black Americans
· first Africans were brought to America in 1619 as servants and soon some colonies strongly supported the idea of slavery; in the 18th century the slavery reached its peak and most of the slaves were forced to work hard on large plantantions
· the abolishment of slavery was a result of several actions and negotiations which took place during the North and South war and finally in 1865 the slavery ended and the president Lincoln was assasinated
· even later, the blacks were discriminated by white people and it sometimes led to segregation – separate schools, churches, swiming pools, bus stations … for blacks
· in the first half of 20th century many Afro-Americans gained high positions in cultural life, it is called Harlem rennaissance (Armstrong, Elington …)
· thanks to Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King in 1960’s the blacks gained equal positions with the white; they live side by side now but there are still many of them who are on the bottom of social scale
affirmative action program (positive discrimination) – universities and some employers are given certain number of Afro-Americans to be admited
