The Mountaintop

The American Civil Rights Movement is largely remembered as occurring in the 1950s and 1960s, but its roots began in the earliest days of the transatlantic slave trade in 1501—and Black Americans have fought for their rights ever since. Throughout nearly four centuries of legalized slavery, almost 13 million people were abducted from Africa and trafficked into slavery, and millions more were born to enslaved people. They were denied both human rights and civil rights, as enslaved humans were legally treated as livestock. Abolitionist movements, rebellions, and escapees sought to deliver as many enslaved people as possible to places where slavery had been abolished. When Congress ratified the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865, chattel slavery became illegal—except for the incarcerated. Owning nothing but themselves, many newly freed people remained stuck in the sharecropping system. The 14th Amendment in 1868 granted these people citizenship and equal protection under the law, and the 15th Amendment in 1869 granted Black men the right to vote. Former slave states fought to keep the spirit of slavery alive, and in 1896, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Plessy vs. Ferguson determined providing “separate but equal” facilities to Black Americans did not violate the 14th Amendment—paving the way for legal segregation.