African American history began with the first slaves being brought to the United States in the early 1600s. Through the 1800s, slavery expanded and the abolitionist movement grew stronger, culminating in the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and the end of the Civil War. The late 1800s through the 1960s saw the establishment of Jim Crow laws, the Great Migration, and the Civil Rights Movement working to end racial segregation and discrimination.