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OUR HISTORY, OUR FUTURE
First and foremost slaves gave America almost three hundred years as free labor towards the building of America. There is no other nationality that gave America this many years of free labor. However, historically speaking Black American's have had to die, fight, get bitten by dogs, clubbed by police, lynched, hosed with fire hoses even sing and dance, to receive any democracy given rights in America after the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Still today black American’s have to struggle to receive what others receive on their merit. One of the first thing black's fought for was freedom hardly rights came with freedom. One important right that came with freedom, which was very powerful, was the right to read. Reading was kept from slaves, slave owners knew reading meant knowledge and knowledge meant power and they wanted to keep the slaves powerless so harsh punishments were the norm if a slave was caught trying to learn to read. To teach a slave to read was against the law some slaves lost their site and their lives trying to learn to read. Excerpt taken from: www.blacklegacyimages.com
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