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Since Christopher Columbus first landed in America in 1492, many people have emigrated there to start new lives, but not all those emigrants did so voluntarily.
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The United States started out as British and French colonies, until they won their independence (The American War of Independence 1775-1783, The Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776). At the time, slavery was legal in all 13 colonies, but after the United States became an independent country, the northern states started to abolish slavery.
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On january 1 1863, Abraham lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all slaves were now free.
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In 1865, the south surrendered, and the United States were once again one country, now without slavery.
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After the Civil War ended and through the first half of the 20th century, the African-American population in the southern states was subjected to discrimination and often violence by the white population
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During the 1950s, a movement took form. The American Civil Rights Movement. They worked to gain equal rights for black and white, and to see an end to segregation.
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Changes were made with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned discrimination
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Act of 1965 that restored the right to vote to minorities
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the Fair Housing Act of 1968 that banned discrimination in the sale and rental of housing.
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The history of segregation is the reason why it was such a big deal when Barack Obama was elected the first black president of the USA in 2009.
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In 2012, a young African-American boy named Trayvon Martin was killed by a neighborhood watchman named George Zimmerman.
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Zimmerman alleged self-defense and was acquitted for second-degree murder in 2013.
