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Taylar Harris

African African History

Mrs. Broome Parker

17 May 2019

We Shall Overcome

After watching the series of Many Rivers to Cross by Henry Louis Gates Jr., I have

learned that African Americans have encountered and faced many obstacles and challenges that

have affected their opportunities to reach growth for success. Each episode in the documentary

series has proven how significant figures and events that have influenced and impacted history

for the past few centuries and decades. Slavery has impacted African Americans by capitalizing

racism and colorism. During reconstruction in the United States, several amendments were

passed to institutionalize new laws and broadcast equality for African Americans. African

Americans faced discrimination and hate due to their race. Many influential African Americans

have proven over the course of time that we still have control over our own happiness and our

rights as legal U.S. Citizens.

In episode 1 of Many Rivers to Cross “The Black Atlantic (1500-1800)” the episode

summarized the history of the first British colony Jamestown Virginia that was known for being

the ultimate frontier town. There was an opportunist that was forced to bond named Anthony

Johnson “Antonio the Negro”. He owned his own African American slave. The institution of

slavery was based on race, religion, and social status. Slavery was brought into by the

Declaration of Independence. The ideals of the American Revolution was reverted by slavery.
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Slaves were referred to by their first name and not by their last names. Slaves built roads,

bridges, factories, farms, and they advanced African American culture.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade was the biggest deportation in history. It involved the

transportation of 300,000 enslaved African people being transported to the New World. African

Americans were torn from their homes and shipped to other parts of the African continent by

boats and ships and sold as slaves. Slave trades were a very popular business an easy way for

slave owners to make money. Slave traders were typically strong white men, chiefs, and

businessmen. In exchange for slaves, they were given money, jewelry, and fine clothing. The

Middle Passage was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of Africans were forcibly

transported to the New World as part of the Atlantic Slave Trade. The captive slaves laid beneath

the deck into the bowels of the ships. They did not have any room to move or breathe. Their

elbows and wrists were scrapped due to the motion of the rough seas. The slave trade brought

slaves from West Africa to the West Indies.

Priscilla was a ten-year-old girl that was purchased at a slave auction by a South Carolina

rice planter Elias Ball in 1756. The rice field that Priscilla was on made fortunes and was a secret

death trap for slaves. Priscilla survived the harsh cruelties that were brought about during

slavery. If the slaves ran away once, it would result in them getting their toes cut off, if they ran

away twice, they would get their ears cut off, if they ran away three times, it would lead to a

more harsh and brutal consequence. Harry Washington was the first slave to immigrate and make

it back safely to Africa. He was referred to as the father of the country. He was banished for

insubordination and took chances with the British. He joined the black pioneers on his journey.

He was barred from voting and exploited by the whites. He disappeared as a rebel.
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In episode 2 of Many Rivers To Cross “The Age of Slavery (1780-1860)”, it discussed

the American Revolution and how it was an inspiration to black people. Elizabeth Freeman also

known as “Mumbett” was one of the African American women to win her way out of slavery in

Massachusetts and successfully sue for her freedom and encourage the state to abolish slavery.

She was born a slave and remained a slave for thirty years. She served meals and challenged

slavery. She believed that everyone was equal. Mumbett was successful when she ran away from

her owner. The Great Awakening, Evangelical Revival spread across the country. The story of

Exodus influenced enslaved people. All slaves were equal in the eyes of God. The Evangelical

Movement offered opportunities. Richard Allen was an African American religious leader,

founder, and bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). He was a young slave

that had control and power over his master. He made his master listen. He plotted to escape and

gain freedom. Richard Allen staged the first sit in. Richard Allen also founded the Free African

Society which was a non-denominational religious mutual aid society that was dedicated to the

black community.

In the year 1781, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. The cotton gin was a machine that

separated the cotton fibers from the seeds. It was one of the key inventions of the Industrial

Revolution and it shaped the economy of the Antebellum South. The growth of cotton was very

profitable and it allowed northern bankers, and shipowners to benefit from it which eventually

led to a significant increase in their demands for both slave and land labor. The production of

cotton was the greatest economic boom in U.S. history. As a result, the slaves in the upper south

became more valuable because of such high demands in the deep south. The demands for slaves

led to the second middle passage. People were forced to migrate due to the fact that they had to
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make more money. Million of African Americans were carried to the deep south. Mothers were

separated from their children and husbands were separated from their wives and children. It was

the largest forced migration in U.S history. The second middle passage lasted until 1790 which

led to the U.S. Civil War.

The Brown Fellowship Society is the oldest all-male funeral society that was located in

Charlestown, South Carolina. It was founded in order to provide benefits which the white church

denied them like a proper burial ground, widow and orphan care, and assistance in times of

sickness​. ​It was the largest slave society in the world, and it also had a major influence on

wealth. In the year of 1800 in Natchez, Mississippi the second largest slave market in the United

States occurred. Tens of thousands of slaves were sold. During the slave trades, the preferred

women over men because the women had a greater value because they could reproduce. Men

were used for heavy labor forces. Nat Turner was a black America slave that led the slave

rebellion. He followed his father’s footsteps and ran away from his master just like his father. On

the journey of his rebellion, he killed his master, his wife, and his master’s children.

The Underground Railroad was a network of both African American and white people

who offered slaves shelter and helped fugitive slaves escape from the South to the North. The

Underground Railroad was lead by a political activist and abolitionist named Harriet Tubman.

Harriet Tubman was the main conductor of the Underground Railroad. Leaders such as Issac

Harper, John Brown, Thomas Garrett, William Still, Levi Coffin, Elijah Anderson, and Thaddeus

Stevens also made significant contributions to the Underground Railroad. During the time of the

Underground Railroad president Abraham Lincoln was in office and he issued the Emancipation

Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation encouraged slaves to abandon

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plantations and it was their independence of freedom. It also granted the right for black men to

fight for the union. Although the Emancipation Proclamation gave African American men the

right to fight, it did not guarantee their freedom. The Emancipation Proclamation announced the

acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become

liberators. By the end of the Civil war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for

the Union and freedom.

In episode 3 of Many Rivers To Cross ¨Into The Fire (1861-1896)¨ the Civil War began

in the southern canons opened fire on Fort Sumter in 1861. The war had just begun and it was

about the union and safety. Robert Smalls was a twenty-three-year-old slave who plotted his

escape aboard a ship. During his escape, he had to disguise himself as a captain in order to make

it past the four major checkpoints Fort Ripley, Fort Johnson, Castle Pygmy, and Fort Sumter. He

successfully escaped the ship on May 13, 1862. During the time slaves were pursuing reading

and writing. In order for them to successfully win the war, they would have to emancipate the

slaves. Jefferson Davis believed that all black slaves should be treated like slaves and not as

equals. On September 29, 1864, the New Market Heights occurred and the Union troops had

assembled a new market. Benjamin F. Butler led the war and he commanded the black troops to

leave. The slaves were given promissory titles. The freedom of the slaves promised them a bright

future. They wanted to reclaim their rights as human beings.

Benjamin Montgomery owned a home that was built by the Confederacy. He purchased

land from Joseph Davis who was the head of the Confederacy. He was a very popular slave on

the plantation and he appeased whites to continue to profit from him. During that time, African

Americans struggled to vote. The Northern Republicans feared that the newly freed slaves might
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play into the hands of their enemies. Then, the 14th Amendment was passed and it granted all

U.S. citizens equal protection of the law and full citizenship regardless of race. Then, the 15th

Amendment got passed and it granted African Americans the right to vote. Black people had the

opportunity to become legislators in the South. The Republican parties supported the 13th, 14th,

and 15th amendments.

As time progressed, reconstruction was put into place and it began in the year of 1865.

Whites were beginning to kill unarmed black men more often. The goal of the white people was

to target people that had unreasonable success. They murdered the leading black man as a

warning. Rutherford B. Hayes was a Republican and he cut a deal with the Democrats. He

promised to remove the final troops that were lingering in the South. Just as reconstruction had

ended, white supremacy had just begun. Isaiah Montgomery was the only African American

delegate in the Mississippi state convention. He helped his father run the cotton plantation and he

was determined to build a Hayman for the black people in the mound corners of Mississippi. In

the result of the Mound Bayou, African Americans were able to own stores, share sidewalks, and

be free from judgment. They had their own town, and they did not have to live with white

people. Isaiah Montgomery wanted to claim his rights without creating any political problems

while satisfying everyone's needs. Literacy tests were then put into place to question the

intelligence of African Americans. They passed a law that all African Americans had to take the

literacy test before the could vote.

In episode 4 of Many Rivers To Cross “Making a Way Out of No Way (1897-1940)” it

discussed the Great Migration. The Great Migration was the largest flow stream of people. The

Great Migration was not about gaining freedom, it was mainly about identity, and gaining
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citizenship. Lynching was an unjustifiable act of economic jealousy and sexual anxiety. It was a

tactic that was used to black people in their places. Lynchings had become so popular that three

to four lynchings would happen in a week. Jim Crow laws were legal measures that kept the

African Americans in their place as well. It was illegal for blacks and whites to interact together.

It was also a code of conduct. Ida B. Wells was a journalist who wrote the ​Memphis Free Speech

newspaper. She was an anti-lynching crusader. Another influential African American is Booker

T. Washington. Washington was born a slave and believed that blacks and whites were equals.

He founded the Tuskegee Institute. He argued that political rights could be valued, advocated

self-help, and believed that blacks had the key to their own freedom. Sarah Breedlove also is

known as Madam C.J. Walker. Madam C.J. Walker was an African-American entrepreneur,

philanthropist, and a political and social activist. Walker was considered the wealthiest

African-American businesswoman and wealthiest self-made woman in America. She created her

own hair product and as a result, she became the mother of inventions.

African Americans during the pre-antebellum which was the time before the U.S. Civil

War in the South were considered faithful, hardworking, kind, reliable, trustworthy, manual.

After the Civil War during the antebellum, African Americans were considered to be racist,

beasts, threats, and coons. The massive propaganda campaign demeaned African Americans and

legitimized violence against them. William Edward Blackheart Dubois (W.E.B. Dubois) was the

leading black elite intellectual. His philosophy was African American leaders. He believed that

slaves had little to no liberation on their own. He was the first African American to earn a

doctoral degree at Harvard University. “The Talented 10” was a term that W.E.B. Dubois used to

describe the likelihood of one in ten black men becoming leaders of their race in the world,
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through methods such as continuing their education, writing books, or becoming directly

involved in social change. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

(NAACP) was the oldest and strongest Civil Rights literary movement.

Harlem, New York started off as a white class community, then it became a town for the

Negroes. Harlem was a place where African Americans could be free. The Harlem Renaissance

spotlighted African Americans. During Harlem, Renaissance jazz was the most popular art form.

It was significant because of the moments in democracy. The film industry was beginning to

boom and Oscar Micheaux was the first black independent filmmaker. He created 40 films that

focused on miscegenation and rape. He spoke the unspoken truth about black life through his art.

In Greenwood, Oklahoma it was known as the Black wall street. Black businesses thrived. In

1919, the Red Summer happened in Charlestown, South Carolina. ​The Red Summer marked the

culmination of steadily growing tensions surrounding the great migration of African Americans

from the rural South to the cities of the North that took place during World War I. Marcus

Garvey was an American immigrant who appealed to people who saw no future for themselves.

He believed in the fundamental unity of African Americans throughout the world.

The Universal Improvement Association and African Communities League (U.N.I.A)

was the largest black mass movement in history. The Great Depression of 1929 was the worst

economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world. The Great Depression was caused

by the Stock Market Crash of 1929, failures of the banks, the American Economic Policy of

1929, and conditions of the drought. The U.S. Supreme Court decision​ Brown vs The Board of

Education ​was​ a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that

American state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if
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the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. During the time of the Great Depression,

President Herbert Hoover was in office and did not help the economy with all of the financial

hardships that they had experienced. President Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential

election in 1932. He put the New Deal into place. It was a series of programs, public work

projects, financial reforms, and regulations. It responded to needs for relief, reform, and recovery

from the Great Depression.

In episode 5 of Many Rivers to Cross “Rise (1940-1968)” it summarized the Civil Rights

Movement and all of the historical public figures that contributed to it. The Race War of 1943

occurred and people were being killed by the Detroit police officers. The W.D.I.A was a radio

station that was based in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a social change radio station. There were

black programs and black DJs. It was considered to be the “mother station of the negroes”.

Jackie Robinson was the highest paid baseball player and dodger. On the other hand, Paul

Robinson used his celebrity authority for the Civil Rights movement. He advocated against a

criminal government against the negro people. A very popular and influential person that had a

significant impact on the Civil Rights movement was Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks challenged

segregation on public buses. She invigorated the struggle for racial equality when she refused to

give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks' arrest on December 1,

1955, launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott that would impact history forever. When the black

people sat down, Rosa Parks stood up. She advocated for freedom and believed that everyone

should be ​treated with respect and equality.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a minister and activist who became the most visible

spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King Jr. changed the
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world by positioning the blacks as equals to whites in American society. He led a series of

protests and sit-ins. His letter from the Birmingham Jail was a way to address the criticisms that

were directed against him by individuals who should have known better. Martin Luther King was

a defense attorney and mediator between the blacks and whites. The purpose of Martin Luther

King's "I Have a Dream" speech was to expose the American public to the injustice of racial

inequality and to persuade them to stop discriminating on the basis of race. Shortly after Martin

Luther King’s legacy, the first sit-in was staged in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville was the first

city to desegregate lunch counters. Ella Baker was an organizer of the Civil Rights Movement.

She founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (S.N.C.C.)​. ​It was one of the

major American Civil Rights Movement organizations of the 1960s. It emerged from the first

wave of student sit-ins.

During the Civil Rights Movement, black people were losing gains and were

unemployed, and undereducated. Motown was a spark of hope for the Civil Rights Movement.

Berry Gordy found a music recording label and named it Motown. Malcolm X was an American

Muslim minister and human rights activist who was popular during the Civil Rights Movement.

He appealed to people that were impatient. He was radicalized by his experiences in prison. He

was more interested in desegregation instead of economic and radical justice. In June of 1963,

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X marched side by side to protest for freedom. President

Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it prohibited discrimination in public

places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment

discrimination illegal. On March 7, 1965, there was a peaceful march from Selma, Montgomery

that turned into what was called a bloody Sunday. Police officers and guards used gas masks to
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fight off African Americans. The purpose of the peaceful march was to advocate for equal voting

rights. President Lyndon Johnson stated ¨And We Shall Overcome¨ and that statement sparked

the Civil Rights Movement and was the beginning of a popular negro spiritual.

In episode 6 of Many Rivers To Cross ¨A More Perfect Union (1968-2013)¨ it discussed

the progression of black history. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The

Black Panther Party was a militant group that promoted self-defense and advocated change.

Cathleen Neel handled communications for the Black Panther Party. The party was considered to

be the “brothers on the block”. They offered free breakfast programs, sickle cell treatments, and

school programs. The black power movement stopped asking for freedom and started demanding

it. They created feminism, black arts, cultural naturalism, and theology. In 1966, Maulana

Karenga created an African American holiday named Kwanzaa. It was a movement holiday. It

threw off the white conspiracies and promoted the belief that Black is Beautiful. Over time, more

African Americans got screen time on televisions and were apart on tv shows and sitcoms. Soul

Train was founded by Don Cornelius. Soul Train was a show that consisted of dancing, singing,

entertainment. It showed how natural and beautiful the black culture was. It advertised hair

products and changed the lives of black people by advocating self-love.

The Affirmative Action policies referred to admission policies that provide equal access

to education for those groups that have been historically excluded or underrepresented, such as

women and minorities. It was apart of the American dream. In the 1970s, there were three cities

in the black community such as the few African Americans who achieved real greatness, the

middle-class citizens, and the poor black community. There was a negative impact on the war on

drugs. President Ronald Reagan put an anti-drug law into place that would fight drug abuse that
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occurred in the black communities. The war on drugs situation mainly focused on crime and

racial politics and not the people that were actually being abused by drugs such as Cocaine. In

the mid-1980s, crack cocaine was popular propaganda that was used towards the African

Americans in the black communities throughout Harlem, New York. Crack cocaine was

considered to be a black drug and prisons were being filled up fast by an overwhelmingly

amount of teenage African Americans.

To distract the world from the terrors that they were facing in black communities, people

found new ways to cope with their depression and frustration through music and rapping. The

black parties created their culture by using music, dances, and forms of visual arts such as

Graffiti. Chuck D was the first African American artist to release a rap record during the time

and he expressed his emotions about black power, police brutality, poverty, financial hardships,

and black resistance through his music. Just as the black community was getting themselves back

on track, the death of Rodney King sparked the cruel injustices of police brutality. The black

middle class was becoming more prominent in television series such as the Cosby Show. The

Cosby Show was the most popular African American sitcom. It showed black traditional culture

and explained the importance of historically black colleges and universities and black art. A

moment in African American history that gave black people a glimpse of hope is when President

Barack Obama was elected into office. President Barack Obama made history by being the first

African American president of the United States. President Barack Obama’s presidency proved

that African Americans still had hope for the future because a black president was not a possible

guarantee in the past due to police brutality and lynchings.

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In conclusion, after watching the six-episode series Many Rivers to Cross, I have learned

that African Americans have faced many challenges and obstacles that affected their

opportunities for success. After learning about all of the influential people that have made

contributions to make the black communities better such as W.E.B. Dubois, Martin Luther King

Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Malcolm X, I feel as though we should appreciate our African

American history and take the time to learn about our roots and our ancestors. Each episode in

the series has expressed a great number of hardships and disappointments that African

Americans have faced over the course of time, but at the end of each episode something positive

always happened and it is a sign of hope.

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“Franklin D. Roosevelt: The American Franchise.” ​Miller Center,​ 24 July 2018,

millercenter.org/president/fdroosevelt/the-american-franchise.

Gates, Henry Louis. ​The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross​. Smiley Books, 2016.

Joseph, Peniel E. “How Martin Luther King Jr.'s Assassination Changed America 50 Years

PBS,​ Public Broadcasting Service,​ ​www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html.

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. ​YouTube​, YouTube, 30 Oct. 2013,

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“The Emancipation Proclamation.” ​National Archives and Records Administration,​ National

Archives and Records Administration,

www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation.