User talk:Nzingha915

Hello, I am happy to be in the Wikipedia community, I have decided to do some research on my fathers family history. It has been almost five years come January of my dear Mothers death, I only know little of information she told she said he were loved dearly by her and others in the community. They both traveled allot around the USA myself and three of my eldest brothers were sent to Great Aunts to be care for before my return home to Texas were I reside now. I choose this website to start the journey do not have the funds that Oparh to research looked, @ the videos of American Lives and were impressed also gave me some ideals. I ask for any advice and prayer to complete the journey "bad or good" My name is Dalla I am told it means "good victory" My Father God rest his soul Mr. Walter Joesph Isacc African American I too. Sincerely, Ms. Dalla Mae Isacc Matlock                                    African-Americans

Prior to the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, the vast majority of African-Americans in the United States were enslaved. During enslavement, slaves' names were assigned by their owners. Others received a name based on what kind of work they were forced to do. Some African-Americans have last names such as Cotton, reflecting when they were made to pick cotton as slaves.[citation needed]

After emancipation, many freedmen and -women took the surnames of their former owners as their own. Some blacks in the U.S. took on the surname Freeman, while others adopted the names of popular historical or contemporary figures of social importance, such as former presidents Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson.

A number of African-Americans and Jamaican Americans have changed their names out of the belief that the names they were given at birth were "slave names." An individual's name change often coincides with a religious conversion (Muhammad Ali and Louis Farrakhan, for example) or involvement with the black nationalist movement (e.g., Amiri Baraka and Assata Shakur).[citation needed]

Some organizations encourage African-Americans to abandon their "slave names." The Nation of Islam is perhaps the best-known of them. In his book, Message to the Blackman in America, Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad writes often of "slave names." Some of his comments include:

* "You must remember that slave-names will keep you a slave in the eyes of the civilized world today. You have seen, and recently, that Africa and Asia will not honor you or give you any respect as long as you are called by the white man’s name."[3] * "You are still called by your slave-masters' names. By rights, by international rights, you belong to the white man of America. He knows that. You have never gotten out of the shackles of slavery. You are still in them."[4]

Other organizations, such as the Black Nationalist US Organization, also advocate for African-Americans to change their "slave names."[citation needed]