The term African-American is generally used to refer to Americans whose racial heritage is originally from Africa.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html Since being brought to America on slave ships, people of African origin have had to fight for the same rights as other people living in the United States. There have been many heroes in the African-American rights movement. People like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Martin Luther King, Jr. have played significant roles in the history and the advancement of African-Americans.http://www.biography.com/blackhistory/history/black-history-month.jsp

In 2008, voters in the United States elected the first African-American president, Barack Obama. This event was widely celebrated by African-Americans across the country who viewed the election as a sign of progress . During his inauguration, Obama took his oath on the Lincoln Bible, the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln was sworn into office with.http://www.loc.gov/wiseguide/feb09/swear.html

African-American history in the United States originated with the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. This period of human trafficking involved African natives being taken, usually against their will, from Africa to colonial America. The ruling tribes of Africa occasionally cooperated with this arrangement, receiving money in exchange for the slaves they provided.http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/slavetrade.htm

Captured slaves were then packed into large cargo ships and transported as freight. Many slaves died during these voyages and those that survived were often made to lie in the blood, urine and feces of other slaves on the journey. Female slaves were frequently raped and male slaves were chained to each other in pairs. Those who became ill were thrown overboard to prevent contamination to the others. Crews used iron muzzles and whips to prevent rebellion. During the hundreds of years that the trade continued, one to two million slaves died during ocean journeys.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr4.html

On arrival in America, slaves were sold at a high markup rate to wealthy landowners. These owners then used them to cultivate land and perform work on plantations in exchange for lodging and food. Many slaves were treated worse than animals, being forced to sleep outside and given scraps to eat. As the slave population grew, many white slave owners became fearful of insurrection. To try to prevent this, some became even harsher in their treatment of slaves. Colonial laws allowed owners to whip, dismember, castrate and even kill slaves under certain circumstances.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr5.html

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. Since Lincoln had campaigned against slavery, Southern states (where slavery was primarily used) seceded from the country and formed the Confederate States of America. To try to keep peace, Lincoln gave a speech in which he said he had no plans to end slavery where it currently existed, but the Confederacy attacked Fort Sumter, South Carolina, beginning the Civil War.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2967.html

Southern states began using slaves to assist them in winning the war effort and President Lincoln was concerned with their growing numbers. To counteract this, he decided to allow escaped slaves to remain free in the hopes of having them fight for the Union army. This provision grew into the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued on September 22, 1862.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2967.html

The Proclamation stated that "all persons held as slaves within any states, or designated part of the state, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free". The proclamation applied only to those states that had seceded from the union and did not apply to border states or any states that had come back under Union control..http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1549.html http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/

After the Union won the Civil War, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was enacted in December 1865. This amendment formally abolished slavery.http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/document.html?doc=9&title.raw=13th%20Amendment%20to%20the%20U.S.%20Constitution:%20Abolition%20of%20Slavery The 14th Amendment was ratified in July 1868 and granted citizenship to all slaves born or naturalized in the United States.http://www.14thamendment.us/amendment/14th_amendment.html

In 1925, Carter G. Woodson instituted the first "Negro History Week". The first celebration occurred in 1926. February was chosen as the month, since it included the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In 1976, Negro History Week was expanded to the entire month of February. President Gerald Ford stated that Black History Month was an "opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history." The observance is still held every February and is now also referred to as African-American History Month.http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/about.html

There have been many prominent African-Americans throughout American history. A few of these are:

1. Frederick Douglass
2. Nat Turner
3. Harriet Tubman
4. Marcus Garvey
5. W.E.B. DuBois
6. Mary McLeod Bethune
7. Marian Anderson
8. Alex Haley
9. Langston Hughes
10. Martin Luther King, Jr.
11. Medgar Evers
12. Malcolm Xhttp://www.aawc.com/paa.html