The Plight of the Black Man in America

(you must realize that this is, of necessity, a much-abbreviated piece of US History …)
The Africans who were brought to America and their descendants who worked as slaves to Americans of all levels of society were sold by other Africans to slave traders who sold them to others. As horrible as that may seem, this was for many years a legal and lucrative business.
Now - fast forward to 1861 in the United States ... The American Civil War (or, War Between the States) broke out and one of the several factors leading up to this may have been the slaves in the Southern States - it seems some in the Northern States didn't like the Folks in the South — there were many factors leading up to the breakout of the War ...
Now, come forward to present day ... it's been 150 years since President Abraham Lincoln issued his Executive Order known as the Emancipation Proclamation (issued in Sept 1862, took effect Jan 1, 1863) which stated, in part, "… for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons."
The aforementioned "said designated states" were those States which were in active rebellion against the United States of America ... this was done with the idea that if the southern slaves were freed, it would have a detrimental effect (that's a "not good" thing) on the War efforts of the Southern States ...
SO - as I was writing before that little aside ... 150 years ago the Southern Slaves were set free (the Northern slaves were not) ... a little later, the 13th Amendment, ratified Dec 16, 1865, abolished slavery in the United States ...
The black people were treated badly; they were abused and treated little better than animals ... but that was a long time ago ... I know of no one today who is either slave or slave owner ... blacks were given preferential treatment (affirmative action) for many years and still they did not improve their station in life ... the biggest reason that, today, the Black People in the United states are "behind" the rest of us is that they believe Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and others of that stripe when told they cannot improve because there were slaves 150 years ago ...
If the Blacks would turn aside from Al and Jesse they would do much better ... in my own humble opinion, that is ... .. .