LYCOS RETRIEVER 
African Americans: Civil War
built 640 days ago
The Battle of New Market Heights, Virginia (Chaffin's Farm) became one of the most heroic engagements involving African Americans. On September 29, 1864, the African American division of the Eighteenth Corps, after being pinned down by Confederate artillery fire for about 30 minutes, charged the earthworks and rushed up the slopes of the heights. During the hour-long engagement the division suffered tremendous casualties. Of the sixteen African Americans who were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Civil War, fourteen received the honor as a result of their actions at New Market Heights.
Source:
Despite the advancements made by African Americans in politics and business, gang violence continued to plague African American communities in the 1990s. To encourage positive feelings, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and civil rights activist Phile Chionesu organized the Million Man March. On October 16, 1995, close to one million African American men converged on the nation's capital to hear speeches and connect with other socially conscious black men. The Reverend Jesse Jackson spoke at the event, as did poet Maya Angelou, Damu Smith of Greenpeace, Rosa Parks, the Reverend Joseph Lowery, and other luminaries.
Source:
Although the flow of African American migrants into the cities slowed to a trickle in the 1930s because of the Great Depression, World War II rekindled the flame of migration. New Immigrants crowded into already crowded cities. Racial and ethnic conflicts increased in the struggle over living space and jobs. By the 1960s over one half of the African American population now resided in the large cities, particularly in the North.
Source:
There is no better advocate for African Americans than Barack Obama. Barack knows your story, because it is his story. The causes that you hold dear have been the causes of his life. Barack has spent his entire career fighting for justice — as a community organizer in the streets of the South Side of Chicago, as a civil rights attorney, a constitutional law professor, an Illinois state Senator and a U.S. Senator.
Source:
One of the most extraordinary African-American New Orleanians of the nineteenth century was Francois Lacroix. A merchant tailor by trade, Lacroix acquired massive land holdings in the city and accumulated a considerable fortune. The civil court proceedings to settle his estate lasted for over a quarter century following his death in 1876 and generated an enormous amount of paper. The Francois Lacroix succession record includes many interesting documents that provide insights into both his own life and the larger life of the black community in New Orleans.
Source:
In 1942, against overwhelming odds, Captain Hugh Mulzac became the first African-American merchant marine naval officer to command an integrated crew during World War II. Born March 26, 1886 on Union Island, St. Vincent Island Group, British West Indies, Mulzac entered the Swansea Nautical College in South Wales to prepare for a seaman's career while in his youth. He became an American citizen in 1918, and continued his training at the Shipping Board in New York. He earned his captain's rating in the merchant marine in 1918, but racial prejudice denied him the right to command a ship.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Civil War