Translate learning into practice · The Civil Rights Movement and Beyond

Knowledge of this history is basic literacy. The 1619 Project, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (Smithsonian, opened 2016), and recent historical scholarship have brought this history into clearer focus. It is not “in the past.”

Key moments

Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–56), Rosa Parks. Little Rock Nine (1957). Greensboro sit-ins (1960). Freedom Rides (1961). March on Washington (1963), MLK’s “I Have a Dream.” Civil Rights Act (1964). Selma to Montgomery March (1965). Voting Rights Act (1965). MLK assassination (4 April 1968). Black Power Movement (1965–1975). Black Panther Party (1966). Black Arts Movement (1965–1975). The election of Barack Obama (2008). Black Lives Matter (2013–present). The 1619 Project (2019). The murder of George Floyd and the 2020 uprising. Vice President Kamala Harris (2021).

The record

A DHS badge is not automatically help. Civil rights statutes did not close the record. Floyd is not closed for a Black household in this state. This chapter does not replace Somali, Liberian, or Nigerian briefs.

African Americans have a long tradition of entrepreneurship despite enormous structural barriers.

The tradition

Pre-emancipation free Black entrepreneurs — barbers, caterers, sailors, craftsmen. Reconstruction and Jim Crow — Black banks (founded after emancipation), insurance companies, newspapers, funeral homes, beauty businesses. Madam C.J. Walker — first self-made American female millionaire, Black hair-care empire. Black Wall Street (Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma) — destroyed in the 1921 massacre. Mid-century — Motown Records, Johnson Publishing (Ebony, Jet), soul-food restaurants, BET (Bob Johnson). Contemporary — Oprah Winfrey, Robert F. Smith, Tyler Perry, Rihanna’s Fenty, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, Magic Johnson’s businesses.

Style and networks

Black American business culture varies by region, industry, and individual. Trust matters; relationships often precede transactions. Respect for hierarchy — titles, formal address. Directness is common. Multiple meetings before commitments. Code-switching in predominantly white business environments. Strong networks: National Black MBA Association, National Society of Black Engineers, National Association of Black Journalists, the Divine Nine. The Links, Incorporated — elite Black women’s service organization. Jack and Jill of America — Black middle-class family organization. HBCU alumni networks — extensive, multi-generational.

Staff are not unpaid culture tutors. Identity is not a staffing plan. A financial analyst, a scientist, a plant worker, and a county case manager are the portrait.

Government and politics

African Americans are among the most politically engaged racial-ethnic groups in the United States. High turnout in presidential elections; about 85–95 percent Democratic. About 10,000-plus Black elected officials at all levels; growing Congressional Black Caucus. Activism: NAACP, Urban League, Black Lives Matter, the Movement for Black Lives, SCLC, the National Action Network, reparations advocates. Key issues: voting rights, criminal justice reform, healthcare, education, housing, reparations.

While “African American” typically refers to people in the United States, the cultural community has global reach.

In the world

Cultural exports — jazz, hip-hop, soul food, Black film and literature — are global. African American expatriates — historically in Paris (Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Richard Wright), in Ghana (W.E.B. Du Bois moved there during Kwame Nkrumah’s presidency), in contemporary Berlin, Mexico City, Lisbon, Bali. Pan-African connections — Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Kwame Ture / Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis. Family ties to Africa — increasing DNA-based genealogy connecting African Americans to specific West African ancestries; Year of Return pilgrimages to Ghana (2019) and similar programs.

Recent African immigrants

African Americans and recent African immigrants (Nigerian, Ghanaian, Senegalese, Ethiopian, Somali, and others) share race and often have distinct cultures, accents, religious traditions, and economic patterns. Tensions: competition for limited “Black opportunity” slots; cultural misunderstandings; immigration-narrative differences. Connections: shared experience of anti-Black racism; coalition politics; intermarriage; Pan-African cultural events. Generational shifts: children of African immigrants growing up alongside African Americans often blend identities. Those communities have their own pages. This page does not swallow them.

Afro-Caribbean communities

African Americans and Afro-Caribbean immigrants (Jamaican, Haitian, Trinidadian, Cuban, Bahamian, and others) similarly share race and have distinct national-origin cultures. Long-established Afro-Caribbean communities in New York, Miami, and Boston have produced political and cultural figures who navigate both identities — Colin Powell (Jamaican parents), Susan Rice (Jamaican father), Eric Holder (Barbadian father). Open those pages.

Minnesota’s Black population

Minnesota’s Black population is more recently immigrant-heavy than the national average — Somali, Liberian, Ethiopian, Sudanese, and other African immigrant communities are significant. The historically rooted African American community in North Minneapolis, Rondo St. Paul, and South Minneapolis is distinct from these newer communities and increasingly intermingled. Census “Black” mixes those stories. This page does not.