Cause: Enslaved Africans from diverse linguistic backgrounds. Effect: Fostered community, shared identity, and resistance.

Cause: Desire to express faith in a culturally resonant way. Effect: Created distinct American sacred music like gospel and blues.

Cause: Need to communicate about resistance without arousing suspicion. Effect: Allowed enslaved people to convey warnings and escape plans.

Cause: Fear of enslaved people gaining knowledge and power. Effect: Resistance through art and defiance, like David Drake's pottery.

Cause: Seeking better economic opportunities and escaping racial discrimination in the South. Effect: Transformed urban landscapes and contributed to cultural movements like the Harlem Renaissance.

Cause: Desire to maintain white supremacy and racial segregation. Effect: Limited African Americans' rights and opportunities, leading to social and economic inequality.

Cause: Systemic racial discrimination and segregation. Effect: Landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Cause: Frustration with the slow pace of integration and persistent inequality. Effect: Increased racial pride, self-determination, and the creation of Black cultural and political institutions.

Cause: Racial resentment and economic jealousy towards a prosperous Black community. Effect: Destruction of Greenwood and loss of lives, highlighting racial violence and injustice.

Cause: Enslaved Africans bringing their musical heritage. Effect: Development of unique American musical forms like blues and jazz.

An abolitionist and former slave whose writings exposed the brutalities of slavery and advocated for freedom and equality.

An enslaved potter who inscribed his work with poetry, defying laws prohibiting literacy among slaves.

Gospel singers whose performance of "Steal Away to Jesus" demonstrates the enduring power and cultural significance of African American spirituals.

The period before the Civil War, marked by the height of slavery and growing abolitionist movements.

These laws aimed to control enslaved people by preventing them from reading and writing, but were often defied.

The movement of millions of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North and West in the early to mid-20th century.

It led to the abolition of slavery and the beginning of Reconstruction, though challenges remained.

The period after the Civil War focused on rebuilding the South and integrating formerly enslaved people into society.

A cultural, social, and artistic explosion in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s, celebrating African American heritage.

A struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States.

A political and social movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s that emphasized racial pride, economic empowerment, and the creation of political and cultural institutions.

These laws enforced racial segregation in the South, limiting African Americans' rights and opportunities.

A violent attack on the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921, resulting in the destruction of a prosperous Black community.