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The Harlem Riots occurred between July 16 and 22 in 1964. They were started after a 15 Year old boy was shot and killed in front of multiple witnesses. Directly after the shooting 300 students who had been informed rallied in the streets which set of multiple rallies in the days to come by thousands of other protestors. 406 people were arrested and lots of protesters were severely beaten in the streets during the riots.
-Sam Sears

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The Harlem riot of 1964 occurred between July 16 and 22, 1964. It began after James Powell, a 15-year-old African American, was shot and killed by police Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan in front of Powell's friends and about a dozen other witnesses. Hundreds of students from Powell's school protested the killing. The shooting set off six consecutive nights of rioting that affected the New York City neighborhoods of Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant. By some accounts, 4,000 people participated in the riots. People attacked the New York City Police Department (NYPD), destroyed property, and looted stores. Several protesters were severely beaten by NYPD officers. The riots and unrest left one dead, 118 injured, and 465 arrested.

In the early 1900s, the Harlem neighborhood in Manhattan benefited from the construction of new subway routes, and in turn, saw an increase in real estate investment. However, by 1905, many homes sat vacant, and landlords opened their doors to Black people.

More Black people began to move to New York from the south. The Afro-American Realty Company allowed Black residents to invest in real estate and avoid eviction by white property owners. Black churches solidified their cultural and financial position in the neighborhood.

In the early 1920s, many Black American institutions, such as NAACP, Odd Fellows, and The United Order of True Reformers, started moving their headquarters to Harlem which, with the continuous migration of Blacks, received the name of "Greater Harlem". The Harlem Renaissance was in full swing.

Black public figures, such as Father Divine, Daddy Grace and Marcus Garvey started spreading their ideas of salvation for the Black community. After World War II, the neighborhood again suffered disinvestment. Despite its attractive facade, tensions among Harlem residents increased. The murder rate in the area shot up dramatically, and street crime became a fixture of Harlem nightlife.

Patrick Lynch was a building superintendent in Yorkville, a predominantly working-class white area on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Lynch was frequently aggravated by young people who hung out on the building stoop. On July 16, 1964 around 9:15 a.m., he sprayed water from a hose on Black students, who said Lynch shouted "Dirty niggers, I'll wash you clean." Lynch refuted this account. The students responded by throwing bottles and garbage can lids at Lynch.

James Powell, 15, was among a group of Bronx youth who were drawn to the disturbance. Powell pursued Lynch into the building, and according to a witness, "didn't stay two minutes." As Powell exited the building, off-duty NYPD police Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan had also been drawn to the disturbance and ran to the scene from a nearby shop.

Gilligan, confronting Powell, said he fired a warning shot which hit a window in the building. Powell then lunged at him with a knife, and Gilligan fired twice in self defense, killing Powell.

Hearing a disturbance in the street, Gilligan said he ran to the apartment building with his badge and gun displayed. "I'm a police lieutenant. Come out and drop it!," he said he yelled at Powell. He then fired a warning shot as he saw Powell raising the knife. Powell then lunged at Gilligan. With his gun, Gilligan blocked Powell's from stabbing him, and deflecting the knife to his arm. The attack led Gilligan to fire a third round that killed Powell.

Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan

Lieutenant Gilligan had served seventeen years in the NYPD. Prior to killing Powell, Gilligan had shot a man who he said was trying to push him off a roof, and he also shot a younger man who he said was burglarizing cars in front of his apartment. The New York Daily News reported that Gilligan had disarmed suspects in the past. He was 6'2" (187 cm) tall and weighed 200 pounds (91 kg).

James Powell

Powell was from the Bronx. He was in the ninth grade, and was attending summer school at the Robert F. Wagner Sr. Junior High School on East 76th Street, across the street from where he was shot. Neighbors said the young boy had become "a little wild" after the death of his father. He had four prior run-ins with the law. He was twice caught trying to board a subway or bus without paying. He was accused of breaking a car window and attempted robbery, but he was cleared of those charges. He was 5 feet 6 inches (168 cm) tall and weighed 122 pounds (55 kg).

Rioting, protests, and unrest

Just moments after Gilligan shot Powell, and as police were securing the crime scene, 300 teenagers who had been attending summer school across the street spilled out of the building. The students, who were mostly Black, began throwing bottles, cans, and chunks of cement at the police. At least 75 officers had to be called in to quell the angry crowd.

On the morning after the shooting, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) went to the school building. They demanded a civilian review board to discipline the police, but they were met by 50 officers holding nightsticks. About 200 picketers, mainly whites and Puerto Ricans, protested at the school around noon that day. They chanted "Stop killer cops!", "We want legal protection" and "End police brutality!"

On July 18, the temperature soared to 92 °F (33 °C). About 250 people attended a funeral for James Powell. Police had erected barricades in the area around the funeral. Police officers were also present at a rally protesting the rising crime rate in Harlem. Both the funeral and protest ended without incident.

Later, at a largely peaceful CORE rally, Reverend Nelson C. Dukes called for protestors to march on the 28th police precinct. The organizers demanded that Gilligan be suspended.

Among those who marched on the precinct were Black Nationalist Edward Mills Davis and James Lawson. Arriving at the precinct, organizers briefly spoke with police Inspector Pendergast, but the crowd had quickly turned violent. People threw bottles and bricks at the police, and others took to nearby rooftops, hurling tiles and other debris on police.

By the time the rioting began, many members of the press had already left the protest.

Officers rushed to the rooftops, arresting CORE members. Michael Doris became the first police officer injured in the riots when he was hit in the face with a bottle. Inspector Pendergast told officers to clear the streets.

By 10 p.m., a thousand people had assembled at the intersection of the Seventh Avenue and 125th Street. "Go home, go home", police shouted. The crowd answered back: "We are home, Baby."

More officers from the Tactical Patrol Force (TPF) arrived and attempted to break the crowd up. One group of rioters went down to 123rd St., leaving destruction in their wake. Around 10:30 p.m., a Molotov cocktail was thrown on a police car near the Theresa hotel, injuring an officer.

Police officers received permission to draw their firearms, and some fired into the air. Officials later found a man who had been shot in the chaos with a .38 caliber round. Meanwhile, police in the Bronx loaded a truck with ammunition to be driven to the scene of unrest. Other people were swept up in the chaos as they exited the subway and local businesses, and some did not realize they were being pursued by police.

Following the chaos of Saturday night, NYPD Police Commissioner Michael J. Murphy distributed a statement to every church in Harlem. "In our estimation, this is a crime problem and not a social problem!," the flier read.

Malcolm X, answered the missive later that day. "There are probably more armed Negroes in Harlem than in any other spot on earth. If the people who are armed get involved in this, you can bet they'll really have something on their hands," Malcolm X said.

James Farmer, national director of CORE, said he saw bullet holes in windows and walls of the Theresa Hotel, and blamed the police for much of the violence that had spread through the neighborhood the night before.

At a tense community meeting, some members of the Black Citizens Council called for "Guerilla warfare" against the NYPD.

Others were more measured in their response to the violence. "If we must die, we must die scientifically," said Bayard Rustin, engineer of the March on Washington and the New York's first school boycott. Other speakers at the rally tried to reason with the crowd to join in a peaceful protest.

A fight broke out, and two reporters were beaten by some in the crowd, and police officers did not intervene. The group moved to the Delany Funeral Home, where a service for Powell's death had been scheduled for 8 a.m. Someone threw a bottle at the police and the police threw it back at the crowd. The riot had started once again, and people threw objects from rooftops.

Bayard Rustin and other speakers were trying to calm the crowd, but the crowd shouted back at them: "Tom, Uncle Tom."

Police shot two young men in the chaos. The rioting continued past midnight. Molotov cocktails were thrown by protesters. The police shot and wounded two more men, and a police officer suffered a heart attack.

The situation was quieter in the street of Harlem on Monday. Paul R. Screvane said that a New York County grand jury would look into the murder of James Powell and at the same time, announced Mayor Wagner's hasty return to the city.

Protestors rallied at the United Nations demonstration, calling for an end to genocide against Black Americans.

Confrontation between African Americans and police at Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue on July 21, in Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn CORE branch had prepared an all-day march for Monday in support of the rioters and activists in Harlem. They protested the shooting of Powell and denounced police brutality against Harlem residents. After blocking four main intersections in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, the CORE members and other protestors met at Nostrand Ave. and Fulton St., where the crowd swelled to about 1000 people. The crowd became more agitated, and ignored speakers at the rally.

A meeting was brokered between Black protest organizers and Captain Edward Jenkins of Brooklyn's 79th precinct at the Bedford YMCA, to little effect.

Speakers from Black Nationalist Party attended an event usually organized by CORE. During a speech, the crowd again grew agitated. Rioting soon brook out again, and police charged the mob, who responded with bottles and other objects. The unrest continued until 2 a.m. Wednesday.

Police officials launched an investigation targeting protest organizers and other agitators, specifically Black Nationalists and the Harlem Progressive Labor Club, the Harlem branch of the Progressive Labor Party. Mayor Paul R. Screvane defended the police and the investigation.

On Wednesday night, police on horseback patrolled the intersection of Nostrand Ave. and Fulton St. in Brooklyn. The NAACP drove a truck up and down local streets. A crowd later formed around the truck and a NAACP spokesperson addressed the crowd. He claimed that Bedford-Stuyvesant was a "community of law". He said that riots weren't how they were going to get what they wanted. Several men soon approached the sound truck. They started to rock the vehicle while the people around the truck grew agitated, and a riot soon began again.

An incident at 133rd Street and Seventh Avenue during the Harlem riot of 1964

An estimated 144 people were injured, one person was killed, and a further 465 men and women were arrested over the course of the unrest. 541 shops were looted or damaged with costs estimated between $1 million (equivalent to $9,824,034 in 2023) and $2 million (equivalent to $19,648,069 in 2023).

Two months after the shooting, Gilligan was cleared of any wrongdoing by a grand jury. He maintained Powell had lunged at him with a knife.

Project Uplift was a major short-term program of the Johnson administration's Great Society suite of social welfare programs. An experimental anti-poverty program in Harlem, New York, in the summer of 1965, it was intended to prevent the recurrence of the riots that had hit the community the summer before.

Thousands of young people were employed in a variety of jobs intended in the short run to keep them busy and, in the long run, to give them skills and opportunities to break out of poverty. Young people were employed running a summer camp, planting trees, repairing damaged buildings, and printing a newspaper. Projects included a Project Uplift theater program, run by LeRoi Jones, and a dance program.

In Popular Culture

The riots feature prominently in Colson Whitehead's 2021 novel " Harlem Shuffle." The riots were also depicted on Godfather of Harlem (season 2, episode 10 and season 3, episode 1).

The riots inspired the 1965 song "In the Heat of the Summer" by Phil Ochs.

1. ^ Proceedings and Debates of the 90th Congress First Session. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1967. p. 19335 - via Google Books.

2. ^ Fred C. Shapiro and James W. Sullivan (1964). Race riots, New York, 1964. New York: Crowell.

3. ^ Abu-Lughod, Janet L. (2007). Race, space, and riots in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

4. ^ "Police Board Absolves Gilligan In Slayin g of Negro Teen‐Ager; No Violation of Rules Found-Shooting Led to Riots in Harlem and Brooklyn". The New York Times. November 7, 1964. ISSN 0362-4331.

Abu-Lughod, Janet L. (2007). Race, Space, and Riots in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195328752.

Meister, Richard J. (1971). The Black Ghetto: Promised Land or Colony?. Heath. OCLC 756463437.

Pinkney, Alphonso; Woock, Roger R. (1970). Poverty and Politics in Harlem. New College & University Press. ISBN 9780808402503.

Shapiro, Fred C.; Sullivan, James W. (1964). Race riots, New York, 1964. Crowell. OCLC 614949750.

Threadcraft, Shatema A. (2007). "New York City Riot of 1964". In Rucker, Walter C.; Upton, James N. (eds.). Encyclopedia of American Race Riots. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 478-480. ISBN 9780313333026.

Hayes, Christopher. (2021). The Harlem Uprising: Segregation and Inequality in Postwar New York City. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231181877.

Flamm, Michael W. (2016). In the Heat of the Summer: The New York Riots of 1964 and the War on Crime. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812248500.

RW Apple, "Police Defend the Use of Gunfire in Controlling Riots in Harlem", The New York Times, 7/21/64.

Peter Kihss, "Screvane Links Reds to Rioting", The New York Times, 7/22/64; and letters in response on 7/24/64.

Barbara Benson, Letter to Editor, "Why Harlem Negroes Riot", The New York Times, 7/22/64.

"'Casualty' List in Battle of Harlem", Amsterdam News, 7/25/64

"Injured in the Battle of Harlem", Amsterdam News, 7/25/64

George Barner, "The Negro Cop in a Race Riot", Amsterdam News, 7/25/64

"The Total in Riots", Amsterdam News, 8/l/64.

"Rioting follows a common pattern", The New York Times, 8/30/64.

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The Harlem riot of 1964 occurred between July 16 and 22, 1964. It began after James Powell, a 15-year-old African American, was shot and killed by police Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan in front of Powell's friends and about a dozen other witnesses. Hundreds of students from Powell's school protested the killing.

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The Harlem riots during the year 1964 all started when an off duty white police officer shot an African American teen in Harlem, the riots traveled through numerous neighborhoods lasted two nights after the police responded to the riots with violence many stores were vandalized and with over 100 casualties 450 persons arrested and one death.

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Harlem race riot of 1964, a six-day period of rioting that started on July 18, 1964, in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Harlem after a white off-duty police officer shot and killed an African American teenager. The rioting spread to Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville in Brooklyn and to South Jamaica, Queens, and was the first of a number of race riots in major American cities-including Rochester, New York; Jersey City, Paterson, and Elizabeth, New Jersey; Dixmoor (near Chicago), Illinois; and Philadelphia-in that year alone, not to mention the notorious Watts riots of 1965.

Harlem experienced this, its third race riot, two decades after the riot of 1943. When veteran officer Thomas Gilligan fatally shot 15-year-old James Powell, violent protests erupted throughout the neighbourhood. A protest organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) had originally been planned to address the disappearance of three civil rights workers in Mississippi, but its focus was quickly shifted to the Powell shooting in particular and police brutality in general. The march began peacefully, but emotions were running high. Some protesters became violent; police responded violently; and chaos quickly followed. Rioters looted stores, vandalized private property, and struggled against the police who had been called into the neighbourhood to restore order.

The rioting continued for two nights and spread to other African American neighbourhoods and beyond. When the smoke cleared and peace had been restored, 1 person was dead, more than 100 had been injured, and more than 450 had been arrested.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Amy Tikkanen.

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Harlem race riot of 1964 | Civil Rights Movement, Racial Tensions, NYC

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Harlem race riot of 1964, a six-day period of rioting that started on July 18, 1964, in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Harlem after a white off-duty police officer shot and killed an African American teenager. The rioting spread to Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville in Brooklyn and to South

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the atlantic slave trade- esi was captured and caught in the middle of the slave trade esi was taken from aferica to the U.S.. the journey was a very dangouous trip for the slaves they were practically starved while being chained up. in the slave trade boats there were diseases and sicknesses that came about from the harsh conditions

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the anansi stories- anansi is the spider, anansi is a spider who is considered wise and skillfull he is known to out-wit larger animal than him. anansi finds himself in a great load of danger while on a journy. anansi has six sons an one of them can sense danger he sensed that his father was in danger and alerted his brothers to go and rescue him. when anansi is returned safely by his sons he has trouble decideing which son to reward for saving him. he consults with the god of all this nyame for his help with the decision. the anansi stories are a treadition

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There was number of examples of the fugitive slave act at play in the book homegoing one of them being when Jo's wife and many other people he had heard of were getting taken by slaves and brought back down south.  The Fugitive slave Act was an act put in action in 1705 that allowed soliders to take return runaways back to their masters.
-Kellan Hudson

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The Fugitive Slave Acts were a pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway enslaved people within the territory of the United States. Enacted by Congress in 1793, the first Fugitive Slave Act authorized local governments to seize and return escapees to their owners and imposed penalties on anyone who aided in their flight. Widespread resistance to the 1793 law led to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which added more provisions regarding runaways and levied even harsher punishments for interfering in their capture. The Fugitive Slave Acts were among the most controversial laws of the early 19th century.

What Were the Fugitive Slave Acts?

Statutes regarding refugee slaves existed in America as early as 1643 and the New England Confederation, and slave laws were later enacted in several of the 13 original colonies.

Among others, New York passed a 1705 measure designed to prevent runaways from fleeing to Canada, and Virginia and Maryland drafted laws offering bounties for the capture and return of escaped enslaved people.

By the time of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, many Northern states including Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut had abolished slavery.

Concerned that these new free states would become safe havens for runaways, Southern politicians saw that the Constitution included a "Fugitive Slave Clause." This stipulation (Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3) stated that, "no person held to service or labor" would be released from bondage in the event they escaped to a free state.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1793

Despite the inclusion of the Fugitive Slave Clause in the U.S. Constitution, anti-slavery sentiment remained high in the North throughout the late 1780s and early 1790s, and many petitioned Congress to abolish the practice outright.

Bowing to further pressure from Southern lawmakers-who argued the slave debate was driving a wedge between the newly created states-Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.

This edict was similar to the Fugitive Slave Clause in many ways, but included a more detailed description of how the law was to be put into practice. Most importantly, it decreed that owners of enslaved people and their "agents" had the right to search for escapees within the borders of free states.

In the event they captured a suspected runaway, these hunters had to bring them before a judge and provide evidence proving the person was their property. If court officials were satisfied by their proof-which often took the form of a signed affidavit-the owner would be permitted to take custody of the enslaved person and return to their home state. The law also imposed a $500 penalty on any person who helped harbor or conceal escapees.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was immediately met with a firestorm of criticism. Northerners bristled at the idea of turning their states into a stalking ground for bounty hunters, and many argued the law was tantamount to legalized kidnapping. Some abolitionists organized clandestine resistance groups and built complex networks of safe houses to aid enslaved people in their escape to the North.

Refusing to be complicit in the institution of slavery, most Northern states intentionally neglected to enforce the law. Several even passed so-called "Personal Liberty Laws" that gave accused runaways the right to a jury trial and also protected free blacks, many of whom had been abducted by bounty hunters and sold into slavery.

Did you know? The passage of the Fugitive Slave Acts resulted in many free blacks being illegally captured and sold into slavery. One famous case concerned Solomon Northup, a freeborn black musician who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. in 1841. Northup would spend 12 years enslaved in Louisiana before winning back his freedom in 1853.

Prigg v. Pennsylvania

The legality of Personal Liberty Laws was eventually challenged in the 1842 Supreme Court case Prigg v. Pennsylvania. The case concerned Edward Prigg, a Maryland man who was convicted of kidnapping after he captured a suspected slave in Pennsylvania.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Prigg, setting the precedent that federal law superseded any state measures that attempted to interfere with the Fugitive Slave Act.

Despite decisions like Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 remained largely unenforced. By the mid-1800s, thousands of enslaved people had poured into free states via networks like the Underground Railroad.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

Following increased pressure from Southern politicians, Congress passed a revised Fugitive Slave Act in 1850.

Part of Henry Clay 's famed Compromise of 1850-a group of bills that helped quiet early calls for Southern secession-this new law forcibly compelled citizens to assist in the capture of runaways. It also denied enslaved people the right to a jury trial and increased the penalty for interfering with the rendition process to $1,000 and six months in jail.

In order to ensure the statute was enforced, the 1850 law also placed control of individual cases in the hands of federal commissioners. These agents were paid more for returning a suspected runaway than for freeing them, leading many to argue the law was biased in favor of Southern slaveholders.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was met with even more impassioned criticism and resistance than the earlier measure. States like Vermont and Wisconsin passed new measures intended to bypass and even nullify the law, and abolitionists redoubled their efforts to assist runaways.

The Underground Railroad reached its peak in the 1850s, with many enslaved people fleeing to Canada to escape U.S. jurisdiction.

Resistance also occasionally boiled over into riots and revolts. In 1851 a mob of antislavery activists rushed a Boston courthouse and forcibly liberated an escapee named Shadrach Minkins from federal custody. Similar rescues were later made in New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Acts

Widespread opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 saw the law become virtually unenforceable in certain Northern states, and by 1860 only around 330 enslaved people had been successfully returned to their Southern masters.

Republican and Free Soil congressmen regularly introduced bills and resolutions related to repealing the Fugitive Slave Act, but the law persisted until after the beginning of the Civil War. It wasn't until June 28, 1864, that both of the Fugitive Slave Acts were repealed by an act of Congress.

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The Fugitive Slave Acts were a pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway enslaved people within the territory of the United States. Enacted by Congress in 1793, the first Fugitive Slave Act authorized local governments to seize and return escapees to their owners and imposed penalties on anyone who aided in their flight.

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Luke VanGessel
the Harlem riot was an ongoing event that had happened over s course of many years but it started in 1964 when a 15-yr old African-American was shot and killed by a police officer. this relates to the story when kojo has to witness innocent black people get beat up by cops for no reason.

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The Harlem riot of 1964 occurred between July 16 and 22, 1964. It began after James Powell, a 15-year-old African American, was shot and killed by police Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan in front of Powell's friends and about a dozen other witnesses. Hundreds of students from Powell's school protested the killing. The shooting set off six consecutive nights of rioting that affected the New York City neighborhoods of Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant. By some accounts, 4,000 people participated in the riots. People attacked the New York City Police Department (NYPD), destroyed property, and looted stores. Several protesters were severely beaten by NYPD officers. The riots and unrest left one dead, 118 injured, and 465 arrested.

In the early 1900s, the Harlem neighborhood in Manhattan benefited from the construction of new subway routes, and in turn, saw an increase in real estate investment. However, by 1905, many homes sat vacant, and landlords opened their doors to Black people.

More Black people began to move to New York from the south. The Afro-American Realty Company allowed Black residents to invest in real estate and avoid eviction by white property owners. Black churches solidified their cultural and financial position in the neighborhood.

In the early 1920s, many Black American institutions, such as NAACP, Odd Fellows, and The United Order of True Reformers, started moving their headquarters to Harlem which, with the continuous migration of Blacks, received the name of "Greater Harlem". The Harlem Renaissance was in full swing.

Black public figures, such as Father Divine, Daddy Grace and Marcus Garvey started spreading their ideas of salvation for the Black community. After World War II, the neighborhood again suffered disinvestment. Despite its attractive facade, tensions among Harlem residents increased. The murder rate in the area shot up dramatically, and street crime became a fixture of Harlem nightlife.

Patrick Lynch was a building superintendent in Yorkville, a predominantly working-class white area on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Lynch was frequently aggravated by young people who hung out on the building stoop. On July 16, 1964 around 9:15 a.m., he sprayed water from a hose on Black students, who said Lynch shouted "Dirty niggers, I'll wash you clean." Lynch refuted this account. The students responded by throwing bottles and garbage can lids at Lynch.

James Powell, 15, was among a group of Bronx youth who were drawn to the disturbance. Powell pursued Lynch into the building, and according to a witness, "didn't stay two minutes." As Powell exited the building, off-duty NYPD police Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan had also been drawn to the disturbance and ran to the scene from a nearby shop.

Gilligan, confronting Powell, said he fired a warning shot which hit a window in the building. Powell then lunged at him with a knife, and Gilligan fired twice in self defense, killing Powell.

Hearing a disturbance in the street, Gilligan said he ran to the apartment building with his badge and gun displayed. "I'm a police lieutenant. Come out and drop it!," he said he yelled at Powell. He then fired a warning shot as he saw Powell raising the knife. Powell then lunged at Gilligan. With his gun, Gilligan blocked Powell's from stabbing him, and deflecting the knife to his arm. The attack led Gilligan to fire a third round that killed Powell.

Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan

Lieutenant Gilligan had served seventeen years in the NYPD. Prior to killing Powell, Gilligan had shot a man who he said was trying to push him off a roof, and he also shot a younger man who he said was burglarizing cars in front of his apartment. The New York Daily News reported that Gilligan had disarmed suspects in the past. He was 6'2" (187 cm) tall and weighed 200 pounds (91 kg).

James Powell

Powell was from the Bronx. He was in the ninth grade, and was attending summer school at the Robert F. Wagner Sr. Junior High School on East 76th Street, across the street from where he was shot. Neighbors said the young boy had become "a little wild" after the death of his father. He had four prior run-ins with the law. He was twice caught trying to board a subway or bus without paying. He was accused of breaking a car window and attempted robbery, but he was cleared of those charges. He was 5 feet 6 inches (168 cm) tall and weighed 122 pounds (55 kg).

Rioting, protests, and unrest

Just moments after Gilligan shot Powell, and as police were securing the crime scene, 300 teenagers who had been attending summer school across the street spilled out of the building. The students, who were mostly Black, began throwing bottles, cans, and chunks of cement at the police. At least 75 officers had to be called in to quell the angry crowd.

On the morning after the shooting, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) went to the school building. They demanded a civilian review board to discipline the police, but they were met by 50 officers holding nightsticks. About 200 picketers, mainly whites and Puerto Ricans, protested at the school around noon that day. They chanted "Stop killer cops!", "We want legal protection" and "End police brutality!"

On July 18, the temperature soared to 92 °F (33 °C). About 250 people attended a funeral for James Powell. Police had erected barricades in the area around the funeral. Police officers were also present at a rally protesting the rising crime rate in Harlem. Both the funeral and protest ended without incident.

Later, at a largely peaceful CORE rally, Reverend Nelson C. Dukes called for protestors to march on the 28th police precinct. The organizers demanded that Gilligan be suspended.

Among those who marched on the precinct were Black Nationalist Edward Mills Davis and James Lawson. Arriving at the precinct, organizers briefly spoke with police Inspector Pendergast, but the crowd had quickly turned violent. People threw bottles and bricks at the police, and others took to nearby rooftops, hurling tiles and other debris on police.

By the time the rioting began, many members of the press had already left the protest.

Officers rushed to the rooftops, arresting CORE members. Michael Doris became the first police officer injured in the riots when he was hit in the face with a bottle. Inspector Pendergast told officers to clear the streets.

By 10 p.m., a thousand people had assembled at the intersection of the Seventh Avenue and 125th Street. "Go home, go home", police shouted. The crowd answered back: "We are home, Baby."

More officers from the Tactical Patrol Force (TPF) arrived and attempted to break the crowd up. One group of rioters went down to 123rd St., leaving destruction in their wake. Around 10:30 p.m., a Molotov cocktail was thrown on a police car near the Theresa hotel, injuring an officer.

Police officers received permission to draw their firearms, and some fired into the air. Officials later found a man who had been shot in the chaos with a .38 caliber round. Meanwhile, police in the Bronx loaded a truck with ammunition to be driven to the scene of unrest. Other people were swept up in the chaos as they exited the subway and local businesses, and some did not realize they were being pursued by police.

Following the chaos of Saturday night, NYPD Police Commissioner Michael J. Murphy distributed a statement to every church in Harlem. "In our estimation, this is a crime problem and not a social problem!," the flier read.

Malcolm X, answered the missive later that day. "There are probably more armed Negroes in Harlem than in any other spot on earth. If the people who are armed get involved in this, you can bet they'll really have something on their hands," Malcolm X said.

James Farmer, national director of CORE, said he saw bullet holes in windows and walls of the Theresa Hotel, and blamed the police for much of the violence that had spread through the neighborhood the night before.

At a tense community meeting, some members of the Black Citizens Council called for "Guerilla warfare" against the NYPD.

Others were more measured in their response to the violence. "If we must die, we must die scientifically," said Bayard Rustin, engineer of the March on Washington and the New York's first school boycott. Other speakers at the rally tried to reason with the crowd to join in a peaceful protest.

A fight broke out, and two reporters were beaten by some in the crowd, and police officers did not intervene. The group moved to the Delany Funeral Home, where a service for Powell's death had been scheduled for 8 a.m. Someone threw a bottle at the police and the police threw it back at the crowd. The riot had started once again, and people threw objects from rooftops.

Bayard Rustin and other speakers were trying to calm the crowd, but the crowd shouted back at them: "Tom, Uncle Tom."

Police shot two young men in the chaos. The rioting continued past midnight. Molotov cocktails were thrown by protesters. The police shot and wounded two more men, and a police officer suffered a heart attack.

The situation was quieter in the street of Harlem on Monday. Paul R. Screvane said that a New York County grand jury would look into the murder of James Powell and at the same time, announced Mayor Wagner's hasty return to the city.

Protestors rallied at the United Nations demonstration, calling for an end to genocide against Black Americans.

Confrontation between African Americans and police at Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue on July 21, in Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn CORE branch had prepared an all-day march for Monday in support of the rioters and activists in Harlem. They protested the shooting of Powell and denounced police brutality against Harlem residents. After blocking four main intersections in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, the CORE members and other protestors met at Nostrand Ave. and Fulton St., where the crowd swelled to about 1000 people. The crowd became more agitated, and ignored speakers at the rally.

A meeting was brokered between Black protest organizers and Captain Edward Jenkins of Brooklyn's 79th precinct at the Bedford YMCA, to little effect.

Speakers from Black Nationalist Party attended an event usually organized by CORE. During a speech, the crowd again grew agitated. Rioting soon brook out again, and police charged the mob, who responded with bottles and other objects. The unrest continued until 2 a.m. Wednesday.

Police officials launched an investigation targeting protest organizers and other agitators, specifically Black Nationalists and the Harlem Progressive Labor Club, the Harlem branch of the Progressive Labor Party. Mayor Paul R. Screvane defended the police and the investigation.

On Wednesday night, police on horseback patrolled the intersection of Nostrand Ave. and Fulton St. in Brooklyn. The NAACP drove a truck up and down local streets. A crowd later formed around the truck and a NAACP spokesperson addressed the crowd. He claimed that Bedford-Stuyvesant was a "community of law". He said that riots weren't how they were going to get what they wanted. Several men soon approached the sound truck. They started to rock the vehicle while the people around the truck grew agitated, and a riot soon began again.

An incident at 133rd Street and Seventh Avenue during the Harlem riot of 1964

An estimated 144 people were injured, one person was killed, and a further 465 men and women were arrested over the course of the unrest. 541 shops were looted or damaged with costs estimated between $1 million (equivalent to $9,824,034 in 2023) and $2 million (equivalent to $19,648,069 in 2023).

Two months after the shooting, Gilligan was cleared of any wrongdoing by a grand jury. He maintained Powell had lunged at him with a knife.

Project Uplift was a major short-term program of the Johnson administration's Great Society suite of social welfare programs. An experimental anti-poverty program in Harlem, New York, in the summer of 1965, it was intended to prevent the recurrence of the riots that had hit the community the summer before.

Thousands of young people were employed in a variety of jobs intended in the short run to keep them busy and, in the long run, to give them skills and opportunities to break out of poverty. Young people were employed running a summer camp, planting trees, repairing damaged buildings, and printing a newspaper. Projects included a Project Uplift theater program, run by LeRoi Jones, and a dance program.

In Popular Culture

The riots feature prominently in Colson Whitehead's 2021 novel " Harlem Shuffle." The riots were also depicted on Godfather of Harlem (season 2, episode 10 and season 3, episode 1).

The riots inspired the 1965 song "In the Heat of the Summer" by Phil Ochs.

1. ^ Proceedings and Debates of the 90th Congress First Session. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1967. p. 19335 - via Google Books.

2. ^ Fred C. Shapiro and James W. Sullivan (1964). Race riots, New York, 1964. New York: Crowell.

3. ^ Abu-Lughod, Janet L. (2007). Race, space, and riots in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

4. ^ "Police Board Absolves Gilligan In Slayin g of Negro Teen‐Ager; No Violation of Rules Found-Shooting Led to Riots in Harlem and Brooklyn". The New York Times. November 7, 1964. ISSN 0362-4331.

Abu-Lughod, Janet L. (2007). Race, Space, and Riots in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195328752.

Meister, Richard J. (1971). The Black Ghetto: Promised Land or Colony?. Heath. OCLC 756463437.

Pinkney, Alphonso; Woock, Roger R. (1970). Poverty and Politics in Harlem. New College & University Press. ISBN 9780808402503.

Shapiro, Fred C.; Sullivan, James W. (1964). Race riots, New York, 1964. Crowell. OCLC 614949750.

Threadcraft, Shatema A. (2007). "New York City Riot of 1964". In Rucker, Walter C.; Upton, James N. (eds.). Encyclopedia of American Race Riots. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 478-480. ISBN 9780313333026.

Hayes, Christopher. (2021). The Harlem Uprising: Segregation and Inequality in Postwar New York City. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231181877.

Flamm, Michael W. (2016). In the Heat of the Summer: The New York Riots of 1964 and the War on Crime. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812248500.

RW Apple, "Police Defend the Use of Gunfire in Controlling Riots in Harlem", The New York Times, 7/21/64.

Peter Kihss, "Screvane Links Reds to Rioting", The New York Times, 7/22/64; and letters in response on 7/24/64.

Barbara Benson, Letter to Editor, "Why Harlem Negroes Riot", The New York Times, 7/22/64.

"'Casualty' List in Battle of Harlem", Amsterdam News, 7/25/64

"Injured in the Battle of Harlem", Amsterdam News, 7/25/64

George Barner, "The Negro Cop in a Race Riot", Amsterdam News, 7/25/64

"The Total in Riots", Amsterdam News, 8/l/64.

"Rioting follows a common pattern", The New York Times, 8/30/64.

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The Harlem riot of 1964 occurred between July 16 and 22, 1964. It began after James Powell, a 15-year-old African American, was shot and killed by police Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan in front of Powell's friends and about a dozen other witnesses. Hundreds of students from Powell's school protested the killing.

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Anasi the Spider is an old fable that orginated in Ghana that is now told to chldren in different places all over the world. The stories of the spider have changed through time but the little spider is known for  his wisdom and skill which he uses to defeat enemies who are sronger then him. This was mentioned in the homegoing book multiple times by multiple different characters recalling hearing the stories as children. One example is when Tansi told Esi the story of the Kente cloth which is one of Ansis stories. -Kellan Hudson

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Anansi the Spider - Teaching Children Philosophy - Prindle Institute

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A Teaching Children Philosophy book module for Anansi the Spider that raises philosophical questions about fairness and reciprocity.

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A. Philip Randolph was an African American man who established the first black labor union called The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. This relates to H's story because he moves to Pratt City and joins an African American labor union much like the one A. Philip Randolph started originally. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/a-philip-randolph

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Contents

1. Early Life and Move to Harlem

2. The 'Messenger' and Randolph's Socialist Politics

3. Founding of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP)

4. Civil Rights Activism and the March on Washington

5. Later Years and Founding of A. Philip Randolph Institute

A. Philip Randolph was a labor leader and civil rights activist who founded the nation's first major Black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) in 1925. In the 1930s, his organizing efforts helped end both racial discrimination in defense industries and segregation in the U.S. armed forces. Randolph was also a principal organizer of the March on Washington in 1963, which paved the way for passage of the Civil Rights Act the following year.

Early Life and Move to Harlem

Asa Philip Randolph was born on April 15, 1889 in Crescent City, Florida, where his father was a preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He grew up in an intellectual household, and Randoph and his older brother both studied at the Cookman Institute in Jacksonville, a Methodist school founded during Reconstruction as Florida's first all-Black institution of higher education.

Inspired by the writings of leading Black intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois, Randolph moved to New York City in 1911. He settled in Harlem, where he found a job working on the switchboard in an apartment building and enrolled in courses at the City College of New York. Randolph's devotion to the socialist cause led to a job working for the Brotherhood of Labor, an employment agency for Black workers. In 1914, he married Lucille Green, a young widow and Howard University graduate who owned a beauty salon in the building where he worked.

The 'Messenger' and Randolph's Socialist Politics

Randolph and Chandler Owen, a law student and fellow socialist thinker, met in 1915 and became close friends. The two men joined the Socialist Party the following year and soon began publishing a magazine, Hotel Messenger (later renamed the Messenger), to advance their socialist views and rally fellow African Americans to the cause. In 1918, Randolph and Owen were arrested and jailed briefly for sedition for their public criticism of Woodrow Wilson's presidential administration and its policies during World War I.

Randolph was an early supporter of Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican-born founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). But by 1920, he and other influential Black leaders in Harlem had begun to publicly criticize Garvey, helping spur a federal investigation that would eventually lead to Garvey's deportation.

Founding of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP)

In the summer of 1925, Randolph received an invitation to speak to a group of porters from the Pullman Palace Car Company, a Chicago-based company that hired mainly African American men to serve white passengers aboard its luxury railroad sleeping cars. Pullman porters were generally paid far lower wages than white workers, and subjected to punishing working hours and conditions. After this initial meeting, Randolph agreed to help organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BCSP), the nation's first predominantly Black labor union.

Under Randolph's leadership, the BSCP became the first Black union to be granted a charter by the American Federation of Labor (AFL). In 1934, Congress amended the earlier Railway Labor Act to specifically cover workers in sleeping cars, making it illegal for Pullman to fire members of the BSCP. The new legislation paved the way for Randolph and the BSCP to win a collective bargaining agreement and sign a contract with Pullman that recognized the union, reduced porters' monthly work hours and raised wages.

After the AFL merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO, Randolph joined the organization's executive council; he became one of its first two Black vice presidents in 1957.

Civil Rights Activism and the March on Washington

Meanwhile, in addition to workers' rights, Randolph had gained national prominence as an outspoken advocate for racial equality. In 1941, he announced a large protest march in Washington, D.C., aimed at convincing President Franklin D. Roosevelt to end discrimination in the nation's defense industries. After Roosevelt responded by issuing Executive Order 8802, which opened war industries in World War II to Black workers and created the Fair Employment Practice Commission (FEPC), Randolph canceled the planned march. In 1948, Randolph's activism similarly helped persuade President Harry Truman to desegregate the U.S. armed forces with passage of the Universal Military Service and Training Act.

Randolph organized several other major protest marches in the nation's capital in the late 1950s, including the Pilgrimage of Prayer (1957) and two youth marches protesting the slow pace of school desegregation in the South. In 1959, he helped found the Negro American Labor Council (NALC), which aimed to fight racial discrimination within labor unions.

In 1963, Randolph worked with fellow activist Bayard Rustin to spearhead the massive March on Washington held on August 28. At that event, nearly 250,000 people gathered to hear from civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King Jr., who delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Randolph, whose beloved wife, Lucille, died only weeks before the event, told the crowd they were witnessing the beginning of a new fight "not only for the Negro but for all Americans who thirst for freedom and a better life."

Later Years and Founding of A. Philip Randolph Institute

The March on Washington helped pave the way for passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the first major piece of civil rights legislation since the Reconstruction era. That same year, Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Randolph the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his career of activism. In 1965, Rustin took charge of the newly founded A. Philip Randolph Institute, which replaced the NALC as the primary mode of advancing Randolph's labor and civil rights goals.

Randolph retired as president of the BCSP in 1968, and his public profile gradually receded as his health worsened. He spent his later years living quietly in New York City, and died in 1979, at the age of 90.

Sources

J.Y. Smith. "A. Philip Randolph Dies at 90." The Washington Post, May 17, 1979.

A. Philip Randoph: Biography. The Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.

Andrew E. Kersten. A. Philip Randolph: A Life in the Vanguard. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007)

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Early Life and Move to Harlem The 'Messenger' and Randolph's Socialist Politics Founding of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) Civil Rights Activism and the March on Washington Later Years and Founding of A. Philip Randolph Institute A.

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The Harlem riots was a six day string of riots in Manhattan New York. The riots started when a white off duty police officer shot and killed a black teenager. During the riots, 1 person was killed, and 465 people were arrested. These exact events took place in the book homegoing during the Willie chapter.

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Anansi Stories played a big role in Homegoing, there was always a story or passed down rumor relating to a characters problem or gift. Effia was labeled cursed as an infant due to her mothers lack of ability to feed her so she was said to be cursed, in James' story he refers to the memory of his mother who used to tell him Anansi stories.

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The Atlantic Slave Trade connected to many characters in Homegoing whether directly or indirectly. The AST was a big part in Homegoing, "its brutality and for the overcrowded unsanitary conditions on slave ships, in which hundreds of Africans were packed tightly into tiers below decks for a voyage of about 5,000 miles (8,000 km) that could last from a few weeks to several months" (Lewis). Esi was a character in Homegoing who experienced the slave trade and her story describes it in full transparency.

daphna

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transatlantic slave trade, segment of the global slave trade that transported between 10 million and 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century. It was the second of three stages of the so-called triangular trade, in which arms, textiles, and wine were shipped from Europe to Africa, enslaved people from Africa to the Americas, and sugar and coffee from the Americas to Europe.

Origins of the transatlantic trade of enslaved people

By the 1480s Portuguese ships were already transporting Africans for use as enslaved labourers on the sugar plantations in the Cape Verde and Madeira islands in the eastern Atlantic. Spanish conquistadors took enslaved Africans to the Caribbean after 1502, but Portuguese merchants continued to dominate the transatlantic slave trade for another century and a half, operating from their bases in the Congo-Angola area along the west coast of Africa. The Dutch became the foremost traders of enslaved people during parts of the 1600s, and in the following century English and French merchants controlled about half of the transatlantic slave trade, taking a large percentage of their human cargo from the region of West Africa between the Sénégal and Niger rivers. In 1713 an agreement between Spain and Britain granted the British a monopoly on the trade of enslaved people with the Spanish colonies. Under the Asiento de negros, Britain was entitled to supply those colonies with 4,800 enslaved Africans per year for 30 years. The contract for this supply was assigned to the South Sea Company, of which British Queen Anne held some 22.5 percent of the stock.

Study the history of the African slave trade and its economic effect on western Africa, where coastal states became rich and powerful while savanna states were destabilized as their people were taken captive

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Probably no more than a few hundred thousand Africans were taken to the Americas before 1600. In the 17th century, however, demand for enslaved labour rose sharply with the growth of sugar plantations in the Caribbean and tobacco plantations in the Chesapeake region in North America. The largest numbers of enslaved people were taken to the Americas during the 18th century, when, according to historians' estimates, nearly three-fifths of the total volume of the transatlantic slave trade took place.

The slave trade had devastating effects in Africa. Economic incentives for warlords and tribes to engage in the trade of enslaved people promoted an atmosphere of lawlessness and violence. Depopulation and a continuing fear of captivity made economic and agricultural development almost impossible throughout much of western Africa. A large percentage of the people taken captive were women in their childbearing years and young men who normally would have been starting families. The European enslavers usually left behind persons who were elderly, disabled, or otherwise dependent-groups who were least able to contribute to the economic health of their societies.

Historians have debated the nature and extent of European and African agency in the actual capture of those who were enslaved. During the early years of the transatlantic slave trade, the Portuguese generally purchased Africans who had been enslaved during tribal wars. As the demand for enslaved people grew, the Portuguese began to enter the interior of Africa to forcibly take captives; as other Europeans became involved in the slave trade, generally they remained on the coast and purchased captives from Africans who had transported them from the interior. Following capture, the abducted Africans were marched to the coast, a journey that could be as many as 300 miles (485 km). Typically, two captives were chained together at the ankle, and columns of captives were tied together by ropes around their necks. An estimated 10 to 15 percent of the captives died on their way to the coast.

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Transatlantic slave trade | History & Facts

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Transatlantic slave trade, part of the global slave trade that took 10-12 million enslaved Africans to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century. In the 'triangular trade,' arms and textiles went from Europe to Africa, enslaved people from Africa to the Americas, and sugar and coffee from the Americas to Europe.

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The Anglo-Ashanti wars consisted of 5 wars that ended in the destruction of the Ashanti Empire. The first happened in 1823 and ended in 1831. The end came about by a peace treaty that limited Ashanti territory. The second war started in 1863 and ended in 1864. The Ashanti crossed territory lines to search for an escaped man and were met with a battle with no winner. The third war lasted from 1873-1874. This was the first time the British had the idea to add the  Ashanti Territory to the Gold Coast. The British burnt down the Ashanti capital during this time. This war also ended with a treaty. The fourth war lasted from 1894-1896 and ended with Ashanti leaders being forced out of the Gold Coast. The fifth and final war happened during March of 1900 and ended in September of 1900. This battle began when a British man sat on the Golden Stool, a stool that only the Ashanti king may sit on. It served as a symbol of unity for the Empire. A rebellion ensued but the British won and the Ashanti Territory was absorbed into the Gold Coast until Ghana became an independent nation in 1957.

Citation: https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/anglo-ashanti-wars-1823-1900/

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The Asante Empire lasted from 1701-1900. Although the tribe existed before that, they had not risen to power. Considered the first king, Osei Bonsu, led the Asante Empire to their important place in history. Osei Bonsu fended off enemies and conquered different territories around the coast of modern-day Ghana. The Asante became rich by trading slaves to the British from early on in 18th century until the slave trade was banned in 1807. During that time, many kings ruled but the one that can be connected to the book is Osei Bonsu. James Collins was the grandson of Osei Bonsu and the subject of a chapter in the book. James does not fully agree with the slave trade. Therefore, he was bothered when the abolishment didn't do what it was supposed to but he had to accept it because it was his father's business.

Citation: https://www.britannica.com/place/Asante-empire

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Atlantic Slave Trade
The Atlantic Slave Trade transported between 10 million and 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century.
The slave trade tore families apart and killed millions of people on the journey. Esi was torn away from her family when she was captured by another tribe where she was sold into slavery. She was then  sent onto a ship that took her to America to be sold into slavery there.

Carter
Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/transatlantic-slave-trade

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Kennedy Storms
The fugitive slave act stated that all slaves were to be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. This meant that all escaped slaves had to be found and brought back to their owners. In the book, Kojo learns about this as he's living in baltimore, and when his wife disappears he assumes this is what happened to her.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/fugitive-slave-act#:~:text=Passed%20on%20September%2018%2C%201850,returning%2C%20and%20trying%20escaped%20slaves.

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Passed on September 18, 1850 by Congress, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves. Section 1
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the persons who have been, or may hereafter be, appointed commissioners, in virtue of any act of Congress, by the Circuit Courts of the United States, and Who, in consequence of such appointment, are authorized to exercise the powers that any justice of the peace, or other magistrate of any of the United States, may exercise in respect to offenders for any crime or offense against the United States, by arresting, imprisoning, or bailing the same under and by the virtue of the thirty-third section of the act of the twenty-fourth of September seventeen hundred and eighty-nine, entitled "An Act to establish the judicial courts of the United States" shall be, and are hereby, authorized and required to exercise and discharge all the powers and duties conferred by this act.
Section 2
And be it further enacted, That the Superior Court of each organized Territory of the United States shall have the same power to appoint commissioners to take acknowledgments of bail and affidavits, and to take depositions of witnesses in civil causes, which is now possessed by the Circuit Court of the United States; and all commissioners who shall hereafter be appointed for such purposes by the Superior Court of any organized Territory of the United States, shall possess all the powers, and exercise all the duties, conferred by law upon the commissioners appointed by the Circuit Courts of the United States for similar purposes, and shall moreover exercise and discharge all the powers and duties conferred by this act.
Section 3
And be it further enacted, That the Circuit Courts of the United States shall from time to time enlarge the number of the commissioners, with a view to afford reasonable facilities to reclaim fugitives from labor, and to the prompt discharge of the duties imposed by this act.
Section 4
And be it further enacted, That the commissioners above named shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the judges of the Circuit and District Courts of the United States, in their respective circuits and districts within the several States, and the judges of the Superior Courts of the Territories, severally and collectively, in term-time and vacation; shall grant certificates to such claimants, upon satisfactory proof being made, with authority to take and remove such fugitives from service or labor, under the restrictions herein contained, to the State or Territory from which such persons may have escaped or fled.
Section 5
And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of all marshals and deputy marshals to obey and execute all warrants and precepts issued under the provisions of this act, when to them directed; and should any marshal or deputy marshal refuse to receive such warrant, or other process, when tendered, or to use all proper means diligently to execute the same, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of one thousand dollars, to the use of such claimant, on the motion of such claimant, by the Circuit or District Court for the district of such marshal; and after arrest of such fugitive, by such marshal or his deputy, or whilst at any time in his custody under the provisions of this act, should such fugitive escape, whether with or without the assent of such marshal or his deputy, such marshal shall be liable, on his official bond, to be prosecuted for the benefit of such claimant, for the full value of the service or labor of said fugitive in the State, Territory, or District whence he escaped: and the better to enable the said commissioners, when thus appointed, to execute their duties faithfully and efficiently, in conformity with the requirements of the Constitution of the United States and of this act, they are hereby authorized and empowered, within their counties respectively, to appoint, in writing under their hands, any one or more suitable persons, from time to time, to execute all such warrants and other process as may be issued by them in the lawful performance of their respective duties; with authority to such commissioners, or the persons to be appointed by them, to execute process as aforesaid, to summon and call to their aid the bystanders, or posse comitatus of the proper county, when necessary to ensure a faithful observance of the clause of the Constitution referred to, in conformity with the provisions of this act; and all good citizens are hereby commanded to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient execution of this law, whenever their services may be required, as aforesaid, for that purpose; and said warrants shall run, and be executed by said officers, any where in the State within which they are issued.
Section 6
And be it further enacted, That when a person held to service or labor in any State or Territory of the United States, has heretofore or shall hereafter escape into another State or Territory of the United States, the person or persons to whom such service or labor may be due, or his, her, or their agent or attorney, duly authorized, by power of attorney, in writing, acknowledged and certified under the seal of some legal officer or court of the State or Territory in which the same may be executed, may pursue and reclaim such fugitive person, either by procuring a warrant from some one of the courts, judges, or commissioners aforesaid, of the proper circuit, district, or county, for the apprehension of such fugitive from service or labor, or by seizing and arresting such fugitive, where the same can be done without process, and by taking, or causing such person to be taken, forthwith before such court, judge, or commissioner, whose duty it shall be to hear and determine the case of such claimant in a summary manner; and upon satisfactory proof being made, by deposition or affidavit, in writing, to be taken and certified by such court, judge, or commissioner, or by other satisfactory testimony, duly taken and certified by some court, magistrate, justice of the peace, or other legal officer authorized to administer an oath and take depositions under the laws of the State or Territory from which such person owing service or labor may have escaped, with a certificate of such magistracy or other authority, as aforesaid, with the seal of the proper court or officer thereto attached, which seal shall be sufficient to establish the competency of the proof, and with proof, also by affidavit, of the identity of the person whose service or labor is claimed to be due as aforesaid, that the person so arrested does in fact owe service or labor to the person or persons claiming him or her, in the State or Territory from which such fugitive may have escaped as aforesaid, and that said person escaped, to make out and deliver to such claimant, his or her agent or attorney, a certificate setting forth the substantial facts as to the service or labor due from such fugitive to the claimant, and of his or her escape from the State or Territory in which he or she was arrested, with authority to such claimant, or his or her agent or attorney, to use such reasonable force and restraint as may be necessary, under the circumstances of the case, to take and remove such fugitive person back to the State or Territory whence he or she may have escaped as aforesaid. In no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted in evidence; and the certificates in this and the first [fourth] section mentioned, shall be conclusive of the right of the person or persons in whose favor granted, to remove such fugitive to the State or Territory from which he escaped, and shall prevent all molestation of such person or persons by any process issued by any court, judge, magistrate, or other person whomsoever.
Section 7
And be it further enacted, That any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant, his agent or attorney, or any person or persons lawfully assisting him, her, or them, from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor, either with or without process as aforesaid, or shall rescue, or attempt to rescue, such fugitive from service or labor, from the custody of such claimant, his or her agent or attorney, or other person or persons lawfully assisting as aforesaid, when so arrested, pursuant to the authority herein given and declared; or shall aid, abet, or assist such person so owing service or labor as aforesaid, directly or indirectly, to escape from such claimant, his agent or attorney, or other person or persons legally authorized as aforesaid; or shall harbor or conceal such fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest of such person, after notice or knowledge of the fact that such person was a fugitive from service or labor as aforesaid, shall, for either of said offences, be subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months, by indictment and conviction before the District Court of the United States for the district in which such offence may have been committed, or before the proper court of criminal jurisdiction, if committed within any one of the organized Territories of the United States; and shall moreover forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages to the party injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of one thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost as aforesaid, to be recovered by action of debt, in any of the District or Territorial Courts aforesaid, within whose jurisdiction the said offence may have been committed.
Section 8
And be it further enacted, That the marshals, their deputies, and the clerks of the said District and Territorial Courts, shall be paid, for their services, the like fees as may be allowed for similar services in other cases; and where such services are rendered exclusively in the arrest, custody, and delivery of the fugitive to the claimant, his or her agent or attorney, or where such supposed fugitive may be discharged out of custody for the want of sufficient proof as aforesaid, then such fees are to be paid in whole by such claimant, his or her agent or attorney; and in all cases where the proceedings are before a commissioner, he shall be entitled to a fee of ten dollars in full for his services in each case, upon the delivery of the said certificate to the claimant, his agent or attorney; or a fee of five dollars in cases where the proof shall not, in the opinion of such commissioner, warrant such certificate and delivery, inclusive of all services incident to such arrest and examination, to be paid, in either case, by the claimant, his or her agent or attorney. The person or persons authorized to execute the process to be issued by such commissioner for the arrest and detention of fugitives from service or labor as aforesaid, shall also be entitled to a fee of five dollars each for each person he or they may arrest, and take before any commissioner as aforesaid, at the instance and request of such claimant, with such other fees as may be deemed reasonable by such commissioner for such other additional services as may be necessarily performed by him or them; such as attending at the examination, keeping the fugitive in custody, and providing him with food and lodging during his detention, and until the final determination of such commissioners; and, in general, for performing such other duties as may be required by such claimant, his or her attorney or agent, or commissioner in the premises, such fees to be made up in conformity with the fees usually charged by the officers of the courts of justice within the proper district or county, as near as may be practicable, and paid by such claimants, their agents or attorneys, whether such supposed fugitives from service or labor be ordered to be delivered to such claimant by the final determination of such commissioner or not.
Section 9
And be it further enacted, That, upon affidavit made by the claimant of such fugitive, his agent or attorney, after such certificate has been issued, that he has reason to apprehend that such fugitive will he rescued by force from his or their possession before he can be taken beyond the limits of the State in which the arrest is made, it shall be the duty of the officer making the arrest to retain such fugitive in his custody, and to remove him to the State whence he fled, and there to deliver him to said claimant, his agent, or attorney. And to this end, the officer aforesaid is hereby authorized and required to employ so many persons as he may deem necessary to overcome such force, and to retain them in his service so long as circumstances may require. The said officer and his assistants, while so employed, to receive the same compensation, and to be allowed the same expenses, as are now allowed by law for transportation of criminals, to be certified by the judge of the district within which the arrest is made, and paid out of the treasury of the United States.
Section 10
And be it further enacted, That when any person held to service or labor in any State or Territory, or in the District of Columbia, shall escape therefrom, the party to whom such service or labor shall be due, his, her, or their agent or attorney, may apply to any court of record therein, or judge thereof in vacation, and make satisfactory proof to such court, or judge in vacation, of the escape aforesaid, and that the person escaping owed service or labor to such party. Whereupon the court shall cause a record to be made of the matters so proved, and also a general description of the person so escaping, with such convenient certainty as may be; and a transcript of such record, authenticated by the attestation of the clerk and of the seal of the said court, being produced in any other State, Territory, or district in which the person so escaping may be found, and being exhibited to any judge, commissioner, or other office, authorized by the law of the United States to cause persons escaping from service or labor to be delivered up, shall be held and taken to be full and conclusive evidence of the fact of escape, and that the service or labor of the person escaping is due to the party in such record mentioned. And upon the production by the said party of other and further evidence if necessary, either oral or by affidavit, in addition to what is contained in the said record of the identity of the person escaping, he or she shall be delivered up to the claimant, And the said court, commissioner, judge, or other person authorized by this act to grant certificates to claimants or fugitives, shall, upon the production of the record and other evidences aforesaid, grant to such claimant a certificate of his right to take any such person identified and proved to be owing service or labor as aforesaid, which certificate shall authorize such claimant to seize or arrest and transport such person to the State or Territory from which he escaped: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed as requiring the production of a transcript of such record as evidence as aforesaid. But in its absence the claim shall be heard and determined upon other satisfactory proofs, competent in law.

Approved, September 18, 1850.

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The Harlem Riot took place in New York on March 19th 1935 during the Great Depression. The Harlem Riot began after a 15 year old African American boy, James Powell was murdered by a police man, Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan. This relates to the story homegoing because there were many times when each character felt like they didn't belong and didnt have a say in what they though because of the color of their skin.

Kate Fredrickson

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The Atlantic slave trade was a trading route through the broader system of trade between West and Central Africa, Western Europe, and North and South America.Throughout the book we are able to see how the Atlantic slave trade impacted each character weather that was directly or through their ancestors. The Atlantic slave trade also gave us a look into pain and inhuman conditions some people had to endure. This was able to change my perspective on the whole book when I was able to read about these living conditions some of the characters in the book had to go through.

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parts of the fugitive slave act were passed in 1793 and 1850 and allowed for runaway slaves to be seized and returned. This turned out to be very corrupt as the people in charge of enforcing this act received a monetary incentive to rule in favor of slave owners this ties into the story of Kojo and Anna in Homegoing who's story takes place during the time in which the fugitive slave act is passed. During this time they see many of there friends flee and they worry about being taken. Eventually, Anna is taken by slave catchers and the two are never reunited.
Source: https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/federal/fugitive-slave-act-of-1850/

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The Fugitive Slave Acts were congressional statutes passed in 1793 and 1850 that permitted for the seizure and return of runaway slaves who escaped from one state and fled into another ( Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, as a part of the Compromise of 1850, required that the U.S. government actively intervene to help slave owners regain control over their slaves (Ohio History Connection, n.d.). This act dictated that fugitive slaves were neither allowed to testify on their own behalf, nor were they allowed to have a trial by jury ( Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.) . This was "justified" through legislators' claims that African Americans could not be United States citizens and thus were not afforded any protections (Ohio History Connection, n.d.).

Moreover, federal marshals who refused to enforce the law and individuals who helped slaves to escape were heavily penalized and were fined $1,000 (Ohio History Connection, n.d.). Furthermore, special commissioners were given concurrent jurisdiction with U.S. courts enforcing this act ( Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.) . This was determined to be wildly corrupt, for these special commissioners were paid $10 to rule in favor of slave owners, but they only received $5 if they sided with slaves. Between 1850 and 1860, 343 fugitive slaves appeared before these special commission, and of those, 332 were returned to slavery in the South (Ohio History Connection, n.d.).

The severity of this statute inspired an increased number of abolitionists, the development of a more efficient Underground Railroad , and the establishment of new personal-liberty laws in the North ( Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.) . These personal liberty laws were enacted in eight Northern States and prohibited state officials from assisting in returning fugitive slaves to the South (Olson & Mendoza, 2015). This prominent resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 incited further hostility between the North and the South and bolstered the controversy over slavery ( Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.) . Anti-Fugitive Slave Act riots erupted all over the North in 1851 (Olson & Mendoza, 2015). The Fugitive Slave Acts were not repealed until June 28, 1864 ( Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.) .
For further reading: Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, courtesy of The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library. References:
Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.). Fugitive Slave Acts: United States (1793, 1850). In Encyclopedia Britannica online . Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/event/Fugitive-Slave-Acts

Ohio History Connection. (n.d.). Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Ohio History Central. Retrieved from http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Fugitive_Slave_Law_of_1850

Olson, J. S. & Mendoza, A. O. (2015). Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. In American Economic History: A Dictionary and Chronology . Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

How to Cite this Article (APA Format): Paul, C. A. (2016). Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Social Welfare History Project. Retrieved from https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/federal/fugitive-slave-act-of-1850/

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The Fugitive Slave Acts were congressional statutes passed in 1793 and 1850 that permitted for the seizure and return of runaway slaves who escaped from one state and fled into another ( Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, as a part of the Compromise of 1850, required that the U.S.

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The Golden Stool- Luke VanGessel
The Golden Stool is a royal and divine stool of the Ashanti people and it is the ultimate symbol of power. The Ashanti people had guarded this ancient and royal stool from the British.

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The Golden Stool ( Ashanti- Twi: ; full title, Sika Dwa Kofi "the Golden Stool born on a Friday") is the royal and divine throne of kings of the Ashanti people and the ultimate symbol of power in Asante. According to legend, Okomfo Anokye, High Priest and one of the two chief founders of the Asante Confederacy, caused the stool to descend from the sky and land on the lap of the first Asante king, Osei Tutu. Such seats were traditionally symbolic of a chieftain's leadership, but the Golden Stool is believed to house the spirit of the Asante nation-living, dead and yet to be born.

Each stool is understood to be the seat of the owner's soul and when not in use it is placed against a wall so that other souls passing by may relax on it. The Golden Stool is the royal throne and must never touch the ground; instead it is placed on a blanket. During inauguration, a new king is raised and lowered over the stool without touching it. The Golden Stool is carried to the king on a pillow, as only the Asantehene himself is allowed to handle it. During solemn occasions, the Golden Stool is placed on the king's left on a throne of its own, the hwedom dwa ( Ashanti, throne facing the crowd).

Many wars have broken out over the ownership of the royal throne. In 1896, Asantehene Prempeh I was deported rather than risk losing both the war and the throne. In 1900, Sir Frederick Hodgson, the Governor of the Gold Coast, demanded to be allowed to sit on the Golden Stool, and ordered that a search for it be conducted. This provoked an armed rebellion known as the War of the Golden Stool, which resulted in the annexation of Ashanti to the British Empire, but preserved the sanctity of the Golden Stool. In 1921, African road workers discovered the stool and stripped some of the gold ornaments. They were taken into protective custody by the British, before being tried according to local custom and sentenced to death. The British intervened and the group was instead banished. An assurance of non-interference with the stool was then given by the British and it was brought out of hiding.

In 1935 the stool was used in the ceremony to crown Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II.

The Golden Stool is a curved seat 46 cm high with a platform 61 cm wide and 30 cm deep. Its entire surface is inlaid with gold, and hung with bells to warn the king of impending danger.[self-published source? ] It has not been seen by many and only the king, queen, true prince Ofosu Sefa Boakye[further explanation needed ], and trusted advisers know the hiding place. Replicas have been produced for the chiefs and at their funerals are ceremonially blackened with animal blood, a symbol of their power for generations.[self-published source? ] The stool is one of the main focal points of the Asante today because it still shows succession and power.

Each stool is made from a single block of the wood of Alstonia boonei (a tall forest tree with numinous associations) and carved with a crescent-shaped seat, flat base and complex support structure. The many designs and symbolic meanings mean that every stool is unique; each has a different meaning for the person whose soul it seats. Some designs contain animal shapes or images that recall the person who used it. The general shape of Asante stools has been copied by other cultures and sold worldwide.[citation needed ]

If the Golden Stool was ever to be destroyed or captured by the enemies of the Asante Kingdom of Ghana, the whole kingdom would descend into chaos.

The Statement above is said to be the warning given by Okomfo Anokye, the priest or traditional healer of the Ashanti empire who is revered as the greatest and wisest sage of the Asante people and would cofound the Asante empire.

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The Golden Stool ( Ashanti- Twi: ; full title, Sika Dwa Kofi "the Golden Stool born on a Friday") is the royal and divine throne of kings of the Ashanti people and the ultimate symbol of power in Asante.

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The Riots in Harlem began after an off-duty police officer shot and killed an African American teenager. The riots lasted 6 days and led to 1 person dying, over 100 people being injured, and over 450 people being arrested. This connects with Sonny's story in Homegoing who participated in the civil rights movement and the frustration he feels with the injustice he experiences which is what people at the time were feeling and is what led to the riots
Source: https://www.britannica.com/event/Harlem-race-riot-of-1964

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Table of Contents

This article was most recently revised and updated by

Harlem race riot of 1964, a six-day period of rioting that started on July 18, 1964, in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Harlem after a white off-duty police officer shot and killed an African American teenager. The rioting spread to Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville in Brooklyn and to South Jamaica, Queens, and was the first of a number of race riots in major American cities-including Rochester, New York; Jersey City, Paterson, and Elizabeth, New Jersey; Dixmoor (near Chicago), Illinois; and Philadelphia-in that year alone, not to mention the notorious Watts riots of 1965.

Harlem experienced this, its third race riot, two decades after the riot of 1943. When veteran officer Thomas Gilligan fatally shot 15-year-old James Powell, violent protests erupted throughout the neighbourhood. A protest organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) had originally been planned to address the disappearance of three civil rights workers in Mississippi, but its focus was quickly shifted to the Powell shooting in particular and police brutality in general. The march began peacefully, but emotions were running high. Some protesters became violent; police responded violently; and chaos quickly followed. Rioters looted stores, vandalized private property, and struggled against the police who had been called into the neighbourhood to restore order.

The rioting continued for two nights and spread to other African American neighbourhoods and beyond. When the smoke cleared and peace had been restored, 1 person was dead, more than 100 had been injured, and more than 450 had been arrested.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Amy Tikkanen.

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Harlem race riot of 1964 | Civil Rights Movement, Racial Tensions, NYC

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Harlem race riot of 1964, a six-day period of rioting that started on July 18, 1964, in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Harlem after a white off-duty police officer shot and killed an African American teenager. The rioting spread to Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville in Brooklyn and to South

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There were a ton of riots at this time in Harlem Harlem. The chapter Willie took place, after Willie and Robert got married and had their child Carson they decided to move to Harlem so they could both get the jobs they want and enjoyed. Once they got there they found it very hard to do this because Willie was black and Robert was white this made it hard for both the parents and Carson being mixed. This is an example of racism.
- Ava Kantor

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The Anglo Ashanti War were a series of five conflicts between the Ashanti empire and the British Empire and its African allies. British Empire ended up winning. Many characters in this book are related to or are in the Ashanti empire.

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The Fugitive Slave Act was a federal law which allowed runaway slaves in the North to be returned to the South as slaves. This would mean that if slave holders suspected a runaway slave the slave owners or hunters could bring them to a judge who could decide whether or not they could bring them back to the south as a slave. This directly relates to the character Kojo who was a runaway who lived in constant fear from this act due to him having forged papers and causes his wife to be kidnapped. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fugitive-slave-acts

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Table of Contents

1. What Were the Fugitive Slave Acts?

2. Fugitive Slave Act of 1793

3. Prigg v. Pennsylvania

4. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

5. Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Acts

The Fugitive Slave Acts were a pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway enslaved people within the territory of the United States. Enacted by Congress in 1793, the first Fugitive Slave Act authorized local governments to seize and return escapees to their owners and imposed penalties on anyone who aided in their flight. Widespread resistance to the 1793 law led to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which added more provisions regarding runaways and levied even harsher punishments for interfering in their capture. The Fugitive Slave Acts were among the most controversial laws of the early 19th century.

What Were the Fugitive Slave Acts?

Statutes regarding refugee slaves existed in America as early as 1643 and the New England Confederation, and slave laws were later enacted in several of the 13 original colonies.

Among others, New York passed a 1705 measure designed to prevent runaways from fleeing to Canada, and Virginia and Maryland drafted laws offering bounties for the capture and return of escaped enslaved people.

By the time of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, many Northern states including Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut had abolished slavery.

Concerned that these new free states would become safe havens for runaways, Southern politicians saw that the Constitution included a "Fugitive Slave Clause." This stipulation (Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3) stated that, "no person held to service or labor" would be released from bondage in the event they escaped to a free state.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1793

Despite the inclusion of the Fugitive Slave Clause in the U.S. Constitution, anti-slavery sentiment remained high in the North throughout the late 1780s and early 1790s, and many petitioned Congress to abolish the practice outright.

Bowing to further pressure from Southern lawmakers-who argued the slave debate was driving a wedge between the newly created states-Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.

This edict was similar to the Fugitive Slave Clause in many ways, but included a more detailed description of how the law was to be put into practice. Most importantly, it decreed that owners of enslaved people and their "agents" had the right to search for escapees within the borders of free states.

In the event they captured a suspected runaway, these hunters had to bring them before a judge and provide evidence proving the person was their property. If court officials were satisfied by their proof-which often took the form of a signed affidavit-the owner would be permitted to take custody of the enslaved person and return to their home state. The law also imposed a $500 penalty on any person who helped harbor or conceal escapees.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was immediately met with a firestorm of criticism. Northerners bristled at the idea of turning their states into a stalking ground for bounty hunters, and many argued the law was tantamount to legalized kidnapping. Some abolitionists organized clandestine resistance groups and built complex networks of safe houses to aid enslaved people in their escape to the North.

Refusing to be complicit in the institution of slavery, most Northern states intentionally neglected to enforce the law. Several even passed so-called "Personal Liberty Laws" that gave accused runaways the right to a jury trial and also protected free blacks, many of whom had been abducted by bounty hunters and sold into slavery.

Did you know? The passage of the Fugitive Slave Acts resulted in many free blacks being illegally captured and sold into slavery. One famous case concerned Solomon Northup, a freeborn black musician who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. in 1841. Northup would spend 12 years enslaved in Louisiana before winning back his freedom in 1853.

Prigg v. Pennsylvania

The legality of Personal Liberty Laws was eventually challenged in the 1842 Supreme Court case Prigg v. Pennsylvania. The case concerned Edward Prigg, a Maryland man who was convicted of kidnapping after he captured a suspected slave in Pennsylvania.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Prigg, setting the precedent that federal law superseded any state measures that attempted to interfere with the Fugitive Slave Act.

Despite decisions like Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 remained largely unenforced. By the mid-1800s, thousands of enslaved people had poured into free states via networks like the Underground Railroad.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

Following increased pressure from Southern politicians, Congress passed a revised Fugitive Slave Act in 1850.

Part of Henry Clay 's famed Compromise of 1850-a group of bills that helped quiet early calls for Southern secession-this new law forcibly compelled citizens to assist in the capture of runaways. It also denied enslaved people the right to a jury trial and increased the penalty for interfering with the rendition process to $1,000 and six months in jail.

In order to ensure the statute was enforced, the 1850 law also placed control of individual cases in the hands of federal commissioners. These agents were paid more for returning a suspected runaway than for freeing them, leading many to argue the law was biased in favor of Southern slaveholders.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was met with even more impassioned criticism and resistance than the earlier measure. States like Vermont and Wisconsin passed new measures intended to bypass and even nullify the law, and abolitionists redoubled their efforts to assist runaways.

The Underground Railroad reached its peak in the 1850s, with many enslaved people fleeing to Canada to escape U.S. jurisdiction.

Resistance also occasionally boiled over into riots and revolts. In 1851 a mob of antislavery activists rushed a Boston courthouse and forcibly liberated an escapee named Shadrach Minkins from federal custody. Similar rescues were later made in New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Acts

Widespread opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 saw the law become virtually unenforceable in certain Northern states, and by 1860 only around 330 enslaved people had been successfully returned to their Southern masters.

Republican and Free Soil congressmen regularly introduced bills and resolutions related to repealing the Fugitive Slave Act, but the law persisted until after the beginning of the Civil War. It wasn't until June 28, 1864, that both of the Fugitive Slave Acts were repealed by an act of Congress.

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Fugitive Slave Acts - Definition, 1793 & 1850 | HISTORY

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The Fugitive Slave Acts, passed in 1793 and 1850, were federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway enslaved people within the United States.

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The cape coast castle is located on the Gold Coast of Ghana, the cape coast castle was also known as a "slave castle". The cape coast castle is a place where a lot of tragic things happened and the story of Esi is able to give us a view of the tragic side of the castle. Esi was held in the dungeon of the cape coast castle, she was held in terrible conditions, starved and raped. All though we see a tragic side of the castle we are able to get a different perspective of the castle through Effia. Effia had married a British governor and lived in the castle with him. She lived a more elegant style of life, with her husband James Collins.

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The Anglo-Ashanti wars were a series of attacks that involved the British and the Ashanti. there were 5 different encounters total, and resulted in British victory. this connects to homegoing because Effia dealt with the suffering that came with war. -Jon Richards

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The Harlem Race Riots were a series of riots that occured after an off-duty police officer shot and killed and killed an African American teenager. Riots broke out in many places like New York, Jersey City, Illinois and Philadelphia.

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Victoria Rd, Clifton, Cape Town, South Africa

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The Cape Coast Castle was a slave trading fortress built by Europeans. Here they kept many slaves imprisoned in dungeons called "Slave Holes,"(www.blackpast.org). This is where Effia lived after marrying James. This castle represents the corruption and cruelty of the slave trade.

-James Wiener

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Esi is caught in the middle of the slave trade, and is taken from Africa to the America's on the trade routes. She is sent there by ship and has a very hard time surviving the journey. The slave trade was extremely harsh as slaves were shipped on ships to other countries, while being starved and chained up next to each other.

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Kennedy Storms
The golden stool represented the power and authority of the Asante king, and was an important symbol to the Asante people. This artifact was mentioned in the book when Akua finds out from her family that the British are trying to take the stool away from their people.
https://aaregistry.org/story/the-golden-stool-of-the-ashanti-a-story/

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EXITS AND ENTRANCES by Naomi Long Madgett.

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The Golden Stool of The Ashanti, a story

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*The Golden Stool is celebrated on this date, c 1700. This is the royal and divine throne of kings of the Ashanti people and the ultimate symbol of power in Asante. The Golden Stool is a curved seat 46 cm high with a platform 61 cm wide and 30 cm deep. Its entire surface is […]

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The great migration is where around 6 million african americans migrated from the southern states like Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and georgia, to the northern, western and eastern parts of the USA.
-Sam Sears

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The Atlantic slave trade was the way they moved slaves between Africa and the Americas. Slaves were transported on ships packed to capacity and they were very bad living environments. This relates to the book because some of the characters, such as esi actually experienced this trade and almost all the characters were affected by it.

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transatlantic slave trade, segment of the global slave trade that transported between 10 million and 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century. It was the second of three stages of the so-called triangular trade, in which arms, textiles, and wine were shipped from Europe to Africa, enslaved people from Africa to the Americas, and sugar and coffee from the Americas to Europe.

Origins of the transatlantic trade of enslaved people

By the 1480s Portuguese ships were already transporting Africans for use as enslaved labourers on the sugar plantations in the Cape Verde and Madeira islands in the eastern Atlantic. Spanish conquistadors took enslaved Africans to the Caribbean after 1502, but Portuguese merchants continued to dominate the transatlantic slave trade for another century and a half, operating from their bases in the Congo-Angola area along the west coast of Africa. The Dutch became the foremost traders of enslaved people during parts of the 1600s, and in the following century English and French merchants controlled about half of the transatlantic slave trade, taking a large percentage of their human cargo from the region of West Africa between the Sénégal and Niger rivers. In 1713 an agreement between Spain and Britain granted the British a monopoly on the trade of enslaved people with the Spanish colonies. Under the Asiento de negros, Britain was entitled to supply those colonies with 4,800 enslaved Africans per year for 30 years. The contract for this supply was assigned to the South Sea Company, of which British Queen Anne held some 22.5 percent of the stock.

Study the history of the African slave trade and its economic effect on western Africa, where coastal states became rich and powerful while savanna states were destabilized as their people were taken captive

See all videos for this article

Probably no more than a few hundred thousand Africans were taken to the Americas before 1600. In the 17th century, however, demand for enslaved labour rose sharply with the growth of sugar plantations in the Caribbean and tobacco plantations in the Chesapeake region in North America. The largest numbers of enslaved people were taken to the Americas during the 18th century, when, according to historians' estimates, nearly three-fifths of the total volume of the transatlantic slave trade took place.

The slave trade had devastating effects in Africa. Economic incentives for warlords and tribes to engage in the trade of enslaved people promoted an atmosphere of lawlessness and violence. Depopulation and a continuing fear of captivity made economic and agricultural development almost impossible throughout much of western Africa. A large percentage of the people taken captive were women in their childbearing years and young men who normally would have been starting families. The European enslavers usually left behind persons who were elderly, disabled, or otherwise dependent-groups who were least able to contribute to the economic health of their societies.

Historians have debated the nature and extent of European and African agency in the actual capture of those who were enslaved. During the early years of the transatlantic slave trade, the Portuguese generally purchased Africans who had been enslaved during tribal wars. As the demand for enslaved people grew, the Portuguese began to enter the interior of Africa to forcibly take captives; as other Europeans became involved in the slave trade, generally they remained on the coast and purchased captives from Africans who had transported them from the interior. Following capture, the abducted Africans were marched to the coast, a journey that could be as many as 300 miles (485 km). Typically, two captives were chained together at the ankle, and columns of captives were tied together by ropes around their necks. An estimated 10 to 15 percent of the captives died on their way to the coast.

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Transatlantic slave trade | History & Facts

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Transatlantic slave trade, part of the global slave trade that took 10-12 million enslaved Africans to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century. In the 'triangular trade,' arms and textiles went from Europe to Africa, enslaved people from Africa to the Americas, and sugar and coffee from the Americas to Europe.

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The Harlem riots in 1964 began when James Powell, a 15-year old male of color, was killed by a policeman in front of his friends. for the following Nights (6), Riots broke out, harming the New York Police Department. the riots also included looting stores and vandalism. this connects to homegoing because it takes place around the time that Willie was living in Harlem. riots like these are what affected their lives the most because it tells them how real it can be, how it could happen to them at any point. -Jon Richards

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Cape Coast Castle, Victoria Road, Cape Coast, Ghana

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Cape Coast Castle, Victoria Road, Cape Coast, Ghana

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Cape Coast Castle, Victoria Road, Cape Coast, Ghana

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Cape Coast castle is a slave castle on the Gold Coast of Africa. The first couple chapters of Homegoing took place here. Effia grew up here with her family. While her sister, Esi, was held captive as a slave.

Kate Fredrickson

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Brogan Bernard
In the start of the book homegoing there is a lot that relates to the Cape Coast Castle, a Castle located on Victoria Rd, Cape Coast, Ghana. At one point two long lost sisters, Effia and Esi, live in seperate parts of the castle. The two sisters throughout their lives never knew about each others location.

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After two half sisters are separated, we follow their family lines over the course of two centuries through a series of short stories. Some of their descendants are in Africa, some are in America; some are free, some are enslaved. In the end, the two separate family sagas merge into one, back in the place where it all began.

As plots go, this is one is pretty formulaic, but one of the achievements of Yaa Gyasi's debut novel, Homegoing, is that, although it's patterned on the "same-old, same-old" narrative blueprint that's framed many a blockbuster, the feel of her novel is mostly sophisticated, rather than pre-fab.

Gyasi's lyric and versatile language makes all the difference. She's only 26, yet she writes with authority about history and pulls her readers deep into her characters' lives through the force of her empathetic imagination.

Here's the origin story at the beginning of Homegoing: in 18 th Ghana, two half-sisters named Effia and Esi are born in different tribal villages and grow up in ignorance of each other's existence.

Effia is married off to an Englishman who is the acting governor of Cape Coast Castle, one of the sites that features an infamous "door of no return" through which thousands of captives are pushed onto waiting ships to carry them into slavery in The New World.

Gyasi's ambitious project in this first part of her novel is to survey the slave trade among Africans: Esi's people, the Asante, capture and enslave their enemies; Effia's people, the Fante, act as middlemen, selling those captives to the Europeans.

In a section that personalizes the malign capriciousness of the slave trade, Esi is captured in a raid on her village and winds up in the dungeon of Cape Coast Castle, the very dungeon that Effia walks over daily as the wife or "wench" of the governor.

Again, it's a stagey premise, but Gyasi coaxes us into accepting this baroque situation through the conviction and, occasionally, even the playful novelty of her descriptions. For instance, when Effia first meets her future husband she sees a white Englishman, sweating profusely because he's unused to the heat of West Africa. We're told that "Effia started to think of him as a rain cloud: sallow and wet and shapeless."

Effia eventually gives birth to a son, and his descendants remain in Ghana to face war and colonization; Esi's descendants labor as slaves in America and then, well, although you can anticipate some of the terrain Gyasi covers, she makes some surprising detours.

Gyasi - wisely, I think - skips over the Civil War and, instead, explores some less familiar historical episodes. For instance, we hear the story of one of Esi's descendants - a man simply named "H," - who's entrapped in the convict leasing system, which is essentially another form of slavery in post-Civil-War Alabama.

Another striking story centers on H's daughter, Willie, who's dark-skinned and her husband Robert, who's light enough to pass as white. They move to New York during the Harlem Renaissance years. The city promises possibility and, yet, is demarcated by racial boundaries, boundaries that rise up the minute Willie and Robert walk out of their Harlem apartment. Here's Gyasi's description of the couple's joint attempts at job hunting:

Being [in New York] meant they no longer walked together on the sidewalk. Robert always walked a little ahead of [Willie], and they never touched. ... Even if [Willie] was falling into the street. ... she knew not to call [Robert's] name. She'd done it once, and Robert had turned, and everyone had stared.

At first, they both looked for jobs in Harlem. ...

[Then] they only walked so far south before splitting off, and Willie lost Robert to the rest of Manhattan. He looked so white now, it only took a few seconds for her to lose him completely, just one white face among the many, all bustling up and down the sidewalks.

Homegoing would have been a stronger novel if it had ended sooner, perhaps on a moment like this one, where the urban crowd absorbs Robert in his whiteness, but silently rebuffs Willie. As the novel moves forward into our own time the pressure to wrap up the two storylines intensifies, and contrivance comes to the fore. But so many moments earlier on in this strong debut novel linger.

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In 'Homegoing,' A Saga Of A Family United By Blood, Separated By Slavery

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After two half sisters are separated, we follow their family lines over the course of two centuries through a series of short stories. Some of their descendants are in Africa, some are in America; some are free, some are enslaved. In the end, the two separate family sagas merge into one, back in the place where it all began.

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Ghana is the place where the book started as well as where Yaa Gyasi was born, her being born here is one of the things that inspired her to write this book.
- Ava Kantor

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Yaa Gyasi: History is an Ongoing Story - Vilcek Foundation

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Yaa Gyasi's novel, Homegoing, is an emotional portrayal of the impacts of intergenerational trauma on families in the African and African American diaspora.