African Americans have been part of America's story from the beginning.

非裔美国人自建国之初就一直是美国历史上不可或缺的一部分

As foot soldiers and fighting men,civilians and citizens,

他们是步兵 是战士 是平民 是百姓

doing the dangerous job of whaling in the 19th century.

19世纪时 他们做的是危险的捕鲸工作

1619 The first Africans arrived in Virginia.

1619年 第一批非洲人抵达弗吉尼亚

Although some will gain their freedom and own land ,most were slaves.

尽管有些人后来获得了自由并拥有自己的土地，大多数人仍是奴隶

Over 200 years,slavery became a key part of the American economy,

历经两百年，奴隶制已成为支撑美国经济的一个支柱

particularly in the South.

在南方尤其如此

By 1861, nearly four million slaves.

到1861年 奴隶人数接近400万

They helped to fuel a $2 billion cotton boom that makes the South rich.

他们成就了价值20亿美元的棉花业的繁荣，南方因此而富足

The ghosts are very much alive today in people who have, if not the actual memory of that,

如今人们心中仍然存在阴影，即使不是亲身经历

but a family memory, a memory of what that was like

也有亲人经历过

and the social memory of what it was like when people were treated as things.

或是对当时社会的集体记忆 那时 人不被当人看

Now, in 1963,

到了1963年

drawing on the inspiration of their deeper past,

在他们过往经历的激励下

African Americans are about to change everything.

非裔美国人决定要改变一切

This country once and for all grasps the nettle of the most vexed issue in all of this country's history,which is race.

美国迎难而上 要彻底解决美国历史上最为棘手的问题 种族问题

We waited a hundred years after the Civil War to take that issue up again.

内战过了一百年才重新开始解决这一问题

The Civil War was fought in part over the right to own slaves.

内战爆发起因之一就是在奴隶制存废问题上的分歧

When it was over,

内战结束后

African Americans were supposed to be on an equal footing,

非裔美国人本该被同等对待

but segregation then took hold in the South.

然而 种族隔离随即在南方大行其道

And so you needed that second Civil War.

所以我们需要进行"第二次内战"

I call it that

这是我的叫法

others would not perhaps call it the same thing.

其他人可能并不这样说

But it was a different kind of Civil War.

但那确实是另一种内战

But it had the same goal as the first Civil War did.

目标与内战完全相同

And it was led by different people.

只是领导者不同