From Crispus Attucks, a formerly enslaved man who was the first to fall in the Boston Massacre of 1770, to Barack Obama, the nation's first African American president elected in 2008, the history of African Americans in the United States has been one of struggle, resilience, and triumph. Despite centuries of discrimination and oppression, African Americans have made significant contributions to American society in all areas of endeavor, including politics, civil rights, science, literature, music, and sports. The election of Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and a white American mother, as president of the United States in 2008 was a historic moment that symbolized the progress that had been made in race relations in America.
