The expanded edition...
The journey from the valley of darkness by African slaves in 1619, to the mountain top in 2008 with the election of African American Barack Obama, President of the United States
By 1619 the first African indentured servants arrived in the American colonies. The indentured servant was not a slave; they were under contract to provide service, over some time, after which they were set free. This explained free Blacks in the northern states while slavery existed in the south at the same time.
The first slaves were brought into New Amsterdam (later, New York City). By 1690, every colony had slaves. What's in a name? Initially, African slaves were identified as (NEGROES Spanish for black). After the (Emancipation Proclamation, newly freed slaves were called (nigger) by KKK and others. Until the early twentieth century, freed slaves were referred to as( COLOREDS or NEGROES). During the twentieth-century struggle for identity, they referred to themselves as (BLACK AMERICANS). Currently, descendants of ex-slaves from Africa identify themselves as (AFRICAN AMERICAN). What's in a name.......
True black history has been benchmarked by a series of social engineering events designed to diminish or destroy African American society. We are today, the product of adverse political, social, and legal events at every turn.
Life under slavery was awful; Emancipation was supposed to eliminate those conditions. Emancipation gifted newly freed slaves with the rebirth of white supremacy in the South, which was accompanied by Black Codes, Chain Gangs, Peonage, Convict Leasing, and finally, the Ku Klux Klan.
Out-migration from slavery should have been the beginning of a dream based on the initial success of Black Wall Street. Black Wall Street should have been used as the shining example going forward because it represented what Black community-building success should look like. The road to freedom has been filled with destructive social engineering challenges on our journey to that shining city on the hill.