专题 02 英美文化阅读理解专项：美国黑人+美国国会+美国选举- 2024年高考英语常考英美文化阅读专练+素材积累

4. Black Americans 美国黑人 One of the sad stories in American history has to do with slavery. For a short time between 1800 and 1865, British and American ships would go to Africa and buy Africans from people who forced young men and women to leave their villages. They were brought to coastal cities and put on ships which came to the states where cotton was grown. American farmers would buy the Africans and put them to work picking cotton. The Africans had to work for these farmers all of their lives. It was President Abraham Lincoln who signed a law that slavery was unfair to the Africans. He thought they should be released. But the farmers in the southern states did not agree with him. There was a fight over this disagreement and it was called the American Civil War. The southern farmers lost the war and Africans could now become free Americans. However, 100 years after Lincoln signed the law, some Black Americans were not voting and did not have an equal chance to eat in a restaurant or ride on a bus. It was Martin Luther King, a Black American minister who began the Equal Rights Movement in the 1960's. He was successful in telling the American people that the Black Americans were still not equal. His most famous speech was given in the capital city of American, Washington D.C.A Slave Auction in Virginia 1961 He stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a large statue of Lincoln which everyone in the country knew. His speech, "I Have a Dream", is now taught in most schools of the world. Martin Luther King became so famous that the American Congress declared a special national holiday in his name in January. Only two other Americans, President George Washington and President Abraham Lincoln, have a national holiday named after them. Though Martin Luther King was never a president, he turned a sad story into a happy story so Black Americans could be equal to everyone else. （328 words） ◆Helper: slavery奴隶制 release释放 American Congress美国议会 a