African Americans: Difference between revisions

From Bharatpedia, an open encyclopedia
m (clean up)
m (robot: Trimming article to decrease server load)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|Americans of ancestry from Black ethnic groups of Africa}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{See also|African diaspora in the Americas|African immigration to the United States}}
{{pp-semi|small=yes}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{See also|African immigration to the United States}}
{{distinguish|South African Americans}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = African Americans
| group            = African Americans
| image            = African-Americans by state.svg
| image            = African Americans by state.svg
| image_caption    = Percentage of African Americans in each U.S. state in 2019
| image_caption    = Proportion of African Americans in each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States Census
| pop              = '''46,713,850''' (2019)<ref name="auto2">[https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=population&g=0100000US&tid=ACSDP1Y2019.DP05&hidePreview=true  ACS DEMOGRAPHIC AND HOUSING ESTIMATES] U.S. Census Bureau.</ref><br/>14.2% of the total U.S. population (2019)<ref name="auto2"/><br/>'''41,989,671''' (2019) (one race)<ref name="auto2"/><br />12.8% of the total U.S. population (2019)<ref name="auto2"/><br/> '''40,596,040''' (2019) (non-Hispanic)<ref name="auto2"/><br />12.4% of the total U.S. population (2019)<ref name="auto2"/>
| pop              = '''46,936,733''' (2020)<ref name=2020USCensus>https://census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/race-and-ethnicity-in-the-united-state-2010-and-2020-census.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211007112207/https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/race-and-ethnicity-in-the-united-state-2010-and-2020-census.html |date=2021-10-07 }}. 2020 U.S. Census</ref><br/>14.2% of the total U.S. population (2020)<ref name=2020USCensus/><br/>'''41,104,200''' (2020) (one race)<ref name=2020USCensus/><br />12.4% of the total U.S. population (2020)<ref name=2020USCensus/>  
| popplace        = Across the United States, especially in the [[Southern United States|South]] and [[List of United States urban areas|urban areas]]
| popplace        = Across the United States, especially in the [[Southern United States|South]] and [[List of United States urban areas|urban areas]]
| languages        = English {{small|([[American English|American English dialects]], [[African-American English]])}}<br />[[Louisiana Creole French]]<br />[[Gullah language|Gullah Creole English]]<br />[[African languages]]
| languages        = English {{small|([[American English|American English dialects]], [[African-American English]])}}<br />[[Louisiana Creole French]]<br />[[Gullah language|Gullah Creole English]]<br />[[African languages]]
| religions        = Predominantly [[Protestant]] (71%) {{longlink|Minorities: [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] (5%), [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] (2%), [[Islam in the United States|Muslim]] (2%); [[Irreligion|Irreligious]] or unaffiliated (18%)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/compare/religious-tradition/by/racial-and-ethnic-composition/ |title=Religious tradition by race/ethnicity (2014) |publisher=[[Pew Research Center|The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life]] |access-date=April 5, 2019}}</ref>}}
| religions        = Predominantly [[Protestant]] (71 %) including [[Black churches|Historically Black Protestant]] (53%), [[Evangelical Protestant]] (14%), and [[Mainline Protestant]] (4%); {{longlink|significant{{refn|group=nb|Meaning "1 % or more"}} others include [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] (5%), [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] (2%), [[Islam in the United States|Muslim]] (2%), and [[Irreligion|unaffiliated]] (18%)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/compare/religious-tradition/by/racial-and-ethnic-composition/ |title=Religious tradition by race/ethnicity (2014) |publisher=[[Pew Research Center|The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life]] |access-date=April 5, 2019 |archive-date=May 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518010639/https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/compare/religious-tradition/by/racial-and-ethnic-composition/ |url-status=live }}</ref>}}
| related = [[Black Canadians]], [[Louisiana Creole people]], [[Gullah people]]
}}
}}
{{African American topics sidebar}}
[[File:Portrait of an African American family- Gainesville, Florida (6909517529).jpg|thumb|African American family in [[Gainesville, Florida]].]]
'''African Americans''' (also referred to as '''Black Americans''' or '''Afro-Americans''')<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Cornel West|last=West|first=Cornel|chapter=The Paradox of Afro-American Rebellion|pages=[https://archive.org/details/60swithoutapolog0000unse/page/44 44–58]|title=The 60s Without Apology|year=1985|editor1-first=Sohnya|editor1-last=Sayres|editor2-first=Anders|editor2-last=Stephanson|editor3-first=Stanley|editor3-last=Aronowitz|editor4-first=Fredric|display-editors=3|editor4-last=Jameson|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-1337-3|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/60swithoutapolog0000unse/page/44}}</ref> are an [[ethnic group]] of [[Americans]] with total or partial ancestry from any of the [[Black people|Black]] racial groups of [[Africa]].<ref>[https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-06.pdf "The Black Population: 2010" (PDF)], Census.gov, September 2011. "Black or African Americans" refers to a person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The Black racial category includes people who marked the "Black, African Am., or Negro" checkbox. It also includes respondents who reported entries such as African American; Sub-Saharan African entries, such as Kenyan and Nigerian; and Afro-Caribbean entries, such as Haitian and Jamaican."</ref><ref>[https://definitions.uslegal.com/a/african-americans/ African Americans Law & Legal Definition]: "African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry."</ref> The term ''African American'' generally denotes descendants of [[Slavery in the United States|enslaved Africans]] who are from the United States,<ref name="Cldcd">{{cite book|last1=Carol Lynn Martin|first1=Richard Fabes|title=Discovering Child Development|date=2008|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1111808112|page=19|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=3V88AAAAQBAJ|access-date=October 25, 2014|quote= most (but not all) Americans of African descent are grouped racially as Black; however, the term ''African American'' refers to an ethnic group, most often to people whose ancestors experienced slavery in the United States (Soberon, 1996). Thus, not all Blacks in the United States are African-American (for example, some are from Haiti and others are from the Caribbean).}}</ref><ref name="Locke">{{cite book|last1=Don C. Locke|first1=Deryl F. Bailey|title=Increasing Multicultural Understanding|year=2013|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-1483314211|page=106|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=7nJFBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA106|access-date=March 7, 2018|quote=African American refers to descendants of enslaved Black people who are from the United States. The reason we use an entire continent (Africa) instead of a country (e.g., Irish American) is because slave masters purposefully obliterated tribal ancestry, language, and family units in order to destroy the spirit of the people they enslaved, thereby making it impossible for their descendants to trace their history prior to being born into slavery.}}</ref><ref name="LewisM"/> while some Black immigrants or their children may also come to identify as African-American.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Forson |first=Tracy Scott |date=2018-02-21 |title=Who is an 'African American'? Definition evolves as USA does |language=en-US |work=USA Today |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/02/21/black-history-african-american-definition/1002344001/ |access-date=2020-08-30}}</ref>
[[File:Official portrait of Barack Obama.jpg|thumb|First African American president [[Barack Obama]]]]
An '''African American''' is a person who lives in the [[United States]] whose [[ancestor]]s were from [[Africa]]. It could also mean a first [[generation]] African [[immigration|immigrant]] who has [[citizenship in the United States]]. Some African Americans are also of [[Caribbean]] or [[Black Hispanic and Latino Americans|Afro-Latino]] ancestry.<ref>[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-changing-definition-of-african-american-4905887/ The Changing Definition of African-American]</ref><ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/03/how-us-census-ignores-afro-latinos/</ref>


African Americans constitute the third largest ethnic group and the second largest racial group in the US, after [[White Americans]] and [[Hispanic and Latino Americans]].<ref name="tthqvu">{{cite web|author=American FactFinder, United States Census Bureau|url=https://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_QTP4&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-redoLog=false|title=United States&nbsp;– QT-P4. Race, Combinations of Two Races, and Not Hispanic or Latino: 2000|publisher=Factfinder.census.gov|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606042749/http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_QTP4&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-redoLog=false|archive-date=June 6, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people within the boundaries of the present United States.<ref>Gomez, Michael A: ''Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South'', p. 29. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1998.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The River Flows On: Black resistance, culture, and identity formation in early America|first=Walter C.|last=Rucker|publisher=LSU Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-8071-3109-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c2XlG4rRK4QC&pg=PA126|page=126}}</ref> On average, African Americans are of [[West Africa|West]]/[[Central Africa|Central]] African and European descent, and some also have [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] ancestry.<ref name="auto">{{cite book|title=''In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past''|author=Gates, Henry Louis Jr |author-link=Henry Louis Gates Jr.|publisher=New York: Crown Publishing|date= 2009|pages=20–21}}</ref> According to U.S. Census Bureau data, [[African immigration to the United States|African immigrants]] generally do not self-identify as African American. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants identify instead with their own respective ethnicities (≈95%).<ref>{{cite web|last1=Kusow|first1=AM|title=African Immigrants in the United States: Implications for Affirmative Action|url=https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=soc_las_pubs|publisher=Iowa State University|access-date=May 16, 2016}}</ref> Immigrants from some [[Afro-Caribbean|Caribbean]], [[Afro-Latin Americans|Central American]], and [[Afro-Latin American|South American]] nations and their descendants may or may not also self-identify with the term.<ref name="LewisM">{{cite web|url=https://mumford1.dyndns.org/cen2000/BlackWhite/BlackDiversityReport/black-diversity03.htm|title=The size and regional distribution of the black population|access-date=October 1, 2007|publisher=Lewis Mumford Center|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012170004/https://mumford1.dyndns.org/cen2000/BlackWhite/BlackDiversityReport/black-diversity03.htm|archive-date=October 12, 2007}}</ref>
The term is usually associated with [[black people]]. This is because of many African Americans' dark [[skin]] due to having [[Sub-Saharan Africa]]n ancestors. Many Africans were brought to the United States in the [[slave trade]]. Many of the U.S. [[population]] (especially in many [[urban]] or [[city]] areas) are African American. Many others live in [[rural]] areas in the [[Southern United States]]. [[Detroit]] has the highest percent of blacks in the nation, and many live in other big cities. Cities with the highest percent of African Americans are [[Jackson, Mississippi]]; [[New Orleans]]; [[Memphis]]; [[Miami Gardens, Florida|Miami Gardens]]; and [[Savannah, Georgia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infoplease.com/us/society-culture/race/ten-cities-100000-or-more-highest-percentage-blacks-or-african-americans-2000-and|title=Top 10 Cities with Highest African American Population of 100,000 or more people|website=infoplease.com|access-date=2021-08-06|archive-date=2021-08-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210819032401/https://www.infoplease.com/us/society-culture/race/ten-cities-100000-or-more-highest-percentage-blacks-or-african-americans-2000-and|url-status=live}}</ref> [[New York City]] and [[Chicago]] have the largest population of African Americans. Other cities with a high African American population are [[Baltimore]], [[Houston]], [[Atlanta]], [[Philadelphia]], [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana|Baton Rouge]], [[Washington, D.C.]] and [[Dallas]]. States with the highest percentage of African Americans are [[Mississippi]], [[Louisiana]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Maryland]], [[South Carolina]], [[Alabama]], [[Delaware]], [[North Carolina]], [[Virginia]] and [[Tennessee]]. African Americans are third largest ethnic group in the United States after [[White Americans]] and [[Hispanic and Latino Americans]]. African Americans are the second largest ancestral group in the United States after [[German Americans|Germans]].<ref>[https://www.worldatlas.com/amp/articles/largest-ethnic-groups-and-nationalities-in-the-united-states.html Largest Ethnic Groups And Nationalities In The United States]</ref> Many African Americans have [[White people|European]] and [[Native American]] ancestry.<ref>[https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/gb-2009-10-12-r141 Characterizing the admixed African ancestry of African Americans]</ref> The first African slaves were brought on a Dutch boat from [[Angola]] in 1619 to the British colony of [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]] in Virginia.<ref>[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/how-slavery-flourished-united-states-chart-maps How slavery flourished in the United States]</ref><ref>[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/virginia-first-africans-transatlantic-slave-trade Stolen from Africa, enslaved people first arrived in colonial Virginia in 1619]</ref> [[New York City]] has the largest African American population by city.<ref>https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/census_2000/cb01cn176.html</ref>


[[African-American history]] began in the 16th century, with Africans from [[West Africa]] being sold to [[Atlantic slave trade|European slave traders]] and [[Middle Passage|transported across the Atlantic]] to the [[Thirteen Colonies]]. After arriving in the Americas, they were [[Slavery in the colonial United States|sold as slaves]] to European colonists and put to work on [[plantation]]s, particularly [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|in the southern colonies]]. A few were able to achieve freedom through manumission or escape and founded independent communities before and during the [[American Revolution]]. After the United States was founded in 1783, most [[Slavery in the United States|Black people continued to be enslaved]], being most concentrated in the [[Southern United States|American South]], with four million enslaved only [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|liberated]] during and at the end of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] in 1865.<ref>{{cite news|title=How the end of slavery led to starvation and death for millions of black Americans|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/16/slavery-starvation-civil-war|newspaper=The Guardian|date=October 8, 2015}}</ref> During [[Reconstruction Era|Reconstruction]], they gained [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|citizenship]] and the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|right to vote]], but due to [[White supremacy]], they were largely treated as [[second-class citizens]] and found themselves soon [[Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era|disenfranchised in the South]]. These circumstances changed due to further development of the Black community, participation in the [[Military history of African Americans|military conflicts of the United States]], substantial [[Great Migration (African American)|migration out of the South]], the elimination of legal [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]], and the [[civil rights movement]] which sought political and social freedom. In 2008, [[Barack Obama]] became the first African American to be elected President of the United States.<ref>{{cite news|title=Barack Obama to be America's first black president|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/05/uselections20084|newspaper=The Guardian|date=November 5, 2008|access-date=February 19, 2016|issn=0261-3077|first1=Ewen|last1=MacAskill|first2=Suzanne|last2=Goldenberg|first3=Elana|last3=Schor}}</ref>
== Ethnicity ==
African-American refers to a specific range of diverse cultures with a common thread of ethnic connection to Africa. This term was created to describe an ethnic/cultural link to Africa for people who are American, much as in the case of [[Italian Americans]], [[Irish Americans]], or [[Polish Americans]]. The difference is that Italian Americans and Polish Americans know they are Americans of Italian or Polish (not general European) descent.{{cn}}


==History==
The 'African' in African-American acknowledges the connection to a number of African cultures, not one in particular. The 'American' shows the nationality and culture of the United States. A person born in [[Nigeria]] is still Nigerian even if he or she comes to the United States and lives here for the rest of their life. If that person wants to say that they are an American citizen, they would simply say "I am an American citizen". His American-born children could correctly call themselves Nigerian-American OR African-American.{{cn}}
{{Main|African-American history}}


===Colonial era===
Some [[Caribbean]]s such as [[Jamaica]]ns do not identify as African American, even if they have African ancestry.<ref name="USA Today">{{cite news |last1=Forson |first1=Tracy Scott |title=Who is an 'African American'? Definition evolves as USA does |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/02/21/black-history-african-american-definition/1002344001 |access-date=6 August 2021 |work=USA Today |date=22 February 2018 |archive-date=6 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806215812/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/02/21/black-history-african-american-definition/1002344001/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
{{Main|Slavery in the colonial United States|Atlantic slave trade}}
The vast majority of those who were enslaved and transported in the [[Atlantic slave trade|transatlantic slave trade]] were people from [[Middle Africa|Central]] and [[West Africa]], who had been captured directly by the slave traders in coastal raids,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zy7fr82/revision/3|title=The transatlantic slave trade|publisher=BBC|access-date=2021-05-06}}</ref> or sold by other West Africans, or by half-European "merchant princes"<ref>{{cite web|title=Implications of the slave trade for African societies|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zxt3gk7/revision/7|publisher=[[BBC]]|access-date=12 June 2020|location=[[London]]}}</ref> to European slave traders, who brought them to the Americas.<ref>{{cite web|title=The capture and sale of slaves|url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/africa/capture_sale.aspx|publisher=[[International Slavery Museum]]|access-date=14 October 2015|location=[[Liverpool]]}}</ref>


The first African slaves arrived via [[Captaincy General of Santo Domingo|Santo Domingo]] to the [[San Miguel de Gualdape]] colony (most likely located in the [[Winyah Bay]] area of present-day [[South Carolina]]), founded by Spanish explorer [[Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón]] in 1526.<ref name=wright>{{cite journal|last=Robert Wright|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Robert Wright|year=1941|title=Negro Companions of the Spanish Explorers|journal=Phylon|volume=2|issue=4}}</ref> The ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]]. De Ayllón and many of the colonists died shortly afterward of an epidemic and the colony was abandoned. The settlers and the slaves who had not escaped returned to [[Haiti]], whence they had come.<ref name=wright/>
=== Black ===
In America, and from an American point of view, the term 'Black' is often applied to other ethnic groups throughout the [[Earth|world]] who do not necessarily see themselves as Black, such as [[Indigenous Australians|Australian Aborigines]], for example. African American [[culture]] was born in the United States and is distinct from any single African culture.


The marriage between Luisa de Abrego, a free Black domestic servant from [[Seville]], and Miguel Rodríguez, a White [[Segovia]]n conquistador in 1565 in [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]] (Spanish Florida), is the first known and recorded Christian marriage anywhere in what is now the continental United States.<ref>{{citation|url=https://laflorida.org/florida-stories/|title=Luisa de Abrego: Marriage, Bigamy, and the Spanish Inquisition|publisher=University of Southern Florida|author=J. Michael Francis, PhD}}</ref>
African-American is a term that many Black people chose to call themselves because they found the term "Negro" offensive.


The first recorded Africans in [[British America|English America]] (including most of the future United States) were [[First Africans in Virginia|"20 and odd negroes"]] who came to [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]], [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]] via [[Old Point Comfort|Cape Comfort]] in August 1619 as [[indentured servant]]s.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Frank E.|last1=Grizzard Jr.|author-link1=Frank E. Grizzard Jr.|first2=D. Boyd|last2=Smith |title=Jamestown Colony: A Political, Social, and Cultural History|year=2007|publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, Calif.|isbn=978-1-85109-637-4|page=198}}</ref> As many Virginian settlers began to die from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers.<ref>{{cite book|first=Betty|last=Wood|title=The Origins of American Slavery: Freedom and Bondage in the English Colonies|year=1997|publisher=Hill and Wang|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8090-1608-2|chapter=Tobacco Slaves: The Chesapeake Colonies|pages=68–93}}</ref>
In America there are many immigrants of mixed race that includes African descent, like Cape Verdeans, Dominicans, Cubans, Brazilians and Puerto Ricans. These groups, by and large, do not think of themselves as Black or African American and object to these labels.


[[File:1670 virginia tobacco slaves.jpg|thumb|Slaves processing tobacco in 17th-century Virginia, illustration from 1670]]
Many [[mixed race]] Americans also resist pressure to identify themselves as Black or White. Blasians and Afro-Hispanics also resist pressure.
An indentured servant (who could be White or Black) would work for several years (usually four to seven) without wages. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland was similar to slavery. Servants could be bought, sold, or leased and they could be physically beaten for disobedience or running away. Unlike slaves, they were freed after their term of service expired or was bought out, their children did not inherit their status, and on their release from contract they received "a year's provision of corn, double apparel, tools necessary", and a small cash payment called "freedom dues".<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Tim |last=Hashaw |title=The First Black Americans |url=https://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070121/29african.htm |magazine=[[U.S. News & World Report]] |date=January 21, 2007 |access-date=February 13, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110202205901/https://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070121/29african.htm |archive-date=February 2, 2011 }}</ref>


Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-147667728.html?Q=Jamestown|title=The shaping of Black America: forthcoming 400th celebration|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com|date=June 26, 2006|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080305014338/http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-147667728.html?Q=Jamestown|archive-date=March 5, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> They raised families, married other Africans and sometimes [[Interracial marriage|intermarried]] with Native Americans or European [[settler]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070121/29african.htm |title=The First Black Americans&nbsp;– U.S. News & World Report |publisher=Usnews.com |date=January 29, 2007 |access-date=January 20, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110202205901/https://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070121/29african.htm |archive-date=February 2, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== Population statistics ==
[[File:-African-American Family at Gee's Bend, Alabama- MET DP212791.jpg|thumb|left|African American family in Alabama]]
[[File:SlavePopulationUS1860.jpg|thumb|Slave population, 1860]]
[[File:USA 2000 black density.png|thumb|African Americans are concentrated in the South region]]
[[Alabama]] has a large population of African Americans. African Americans were enslaved in the state.<ref name="Slavery">{{cite web |last=Hebert |first=Keith S. |title=Slavery |url=http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2369 |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |publisher=Alabama Humanities Alliance |access-date=12 July 2021 |language=en |date=2 August 2017 |url-status=live |archive-date=14 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714174654/http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/Article/h-2369 }}</ref>


[[File:First Slave Auction 1655 Howard Pyle.jpg|thumb|upright|The first slave auction at [[New Amsterdam]] in 1655, illustration from 1895 by [[Howard Pyle]]<ref>{{cite web |title=New Netherland Institute :: Slave Trade |url=https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/digital-exhibitions/slavery-exhibit/slave-trade/ |website=newnetherlandinstitute.org |publisher=[[New Netherland Institute]] |access-date=July 8, 2019}}</ref>]]
African Americans constitute 15.4 percent of [[Arkansas]]’s population, according to the 2010 census, and they have been present in Arkansas since the earliest days of European settlement. Originally brought to Arkansas in large numbers as slaves, people of African ancestry drove the state’s plantation economy until long after the Civil War. African Americans have exerted a profound influence upon all aspects of the state’s history and culture.


By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards and purchased indentured servants of their own. In 1640, the Virginia General Court recorded the earliest documentation of lifetime slavery when they sentenced [[John Punch (slave)|John Punch]], a Negro, to lifetime servitude under his master Hugh Gwyn for running away.<ref>{{Cite book|title=White Over Black: American attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812|first=Winthrop|last=Jordan|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=1968|isbn=978-0807871416}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process: The Colonial Period|first=A. Leon|last=Higginbotham|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1975|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ErPg7VegkcMC&pg=PR7|isbn=9780195027457}}</ref>
Atlanta was the home of Martin Luther King Jr. and an important place in the [[Civil Rights Movement]].<ref name="PolitiFact">{{cite web |last=Stirgus |first=Eric |title=PolitiFact - Who's right? Cities lay claim to civil rights "cradle" mantle. |url=http://www.politifact.com/georgia/statements/2011/jun/28/al-roker/whos-right-cities-lay-claim-civil-rights-cradle-ma |website=PolitiFact |publisher=Poynter Institute 2020 |access-date=17 May 2012 |language=en |date=28 June 2011 |url-status=live |archive-date=9 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509224303/http://www.politifact.com/georgia/statements/2011/jun/28/al-roker/whos-right-cities-lay-claim-civil-rights-cradle-ma/ }}</ref> It has been referred to as a "black mecca".


In the [[Spanish Florida]] some [[Spaniards|Spanish]] married or had [[Placage|unions with]] [[Pensacola people|Pensacola]], [[Muscogee|Creek]] or [[List of ethnic groups of Africa|African]] women, both slave and free, and their descendants created a mixed-race population of [[mestizo]]s and [[mulatto]]s. The Spanish encouraged slaves from the [[Province of Georgia|colony of Georgia]] to come to Florida as a refuge, promising freedom in exchange for conversion to [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]]. [[Charles II of Spain|King Charles II]] issued a royal proclamation freeing all slaves who fled to Spanish Florida and accepted conversion and baptism. Most went to the area around [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]], but escaped slaves also reached Pensacola. St. Augustine had mustered an all-Black [[militia]] unit defending Spanish Florida as early as 1683.<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/sanctuary-in-the-spanish-empire.htm|title=Sanctuary in the Spanish Empire: An African American officer earns freedom in Florida|author=Gene Allen Smith, Texas Christian University|publisher=National Park Service}}</ref>
* "A CHAMPION FOR ATLANTA: Maynard Jackson: 'Black mecca' burgeoned under leader"<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Poole |first1=Shelia |last2=Paul |first2=Peralte C. |title=A CHAMPION FOR ATLANTA: Maynard Jackson: 'Black mecca' burgeoned under leader |journal=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |date=29 June 2003 |url=https://www.ajc.com/atlanta-weather/a-champion-for-atlanta-maynard-jackson-black-mecca-burgeoned-under-leader/E7QREDVYH5AKXFDZOVK7ZO2XZA/ |access-date=6 August 2021 |language=English |archive-date=14 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814184522/https://www.ajc.com/atlanta-weather/a-champion-for-atlanta-maynard-jackson-black-mecca-burgeoned-under-leader/E7QREDVYH5AKXFDZOVK7ZO2XZA/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* "The city that calls itself America's ' Black Mecca'"<ref>{{cite news |last1=Booth |first1=William |title=Atlanta is less than festive on eve of another freaknik' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/18/atlanta-is-less-than-festive-on-eve-of-another-freaknik/13092984-4c06-44e4-8a2a-d2eb6d7c67e0/ |access-date=6 August 2021 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=18 April 1996 |archive-date=26 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626124738/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/18/atlanta-is-less-than-festive-on-eve-of-another-freaknik/13092984-4c06-44e4-8a2a-d2eb6d7c67e0/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* "The Black Mecca leads the nation in numbers of African American millionaires; at the same time, it leads the nation in the percentage of its children in poverty"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bullard |first1=Robert Doyle |title=The Black Metropolis in the Twenty-first Century: Race, Power, and Politics of Place |date=2007 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-4329-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NZSE0jbhzGwC&pg=PA151 |language=en |access-date=2021-07-15 |archive-date=2021-07-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713151423/https://books.google.com/books?id=NZSE0jbhzGwC&pg=PA151 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* "the city that earned a national reputation as America's 'black mecca'"<ref name="Dent">{{cite book |last1=Dent |first1=David J. |title=In Search Of Black America: Discovering The African-American Dream |date=2001 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-7432-0305-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YOGxSZO7fEQC |language=en |access-date=2021-07-15 |archive-date=2021-07-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713151422/https://books.google.com/books?id=YOGxSZO7fEQC |url-status=live }}</ref>
* "the cornerstone upon which today's 'Black Mecca' was built"<ref name="Cobb">{{cite news |last1=Cobb |first1=William Jelani |title=The New South's Capital Likes to Contradict Itself |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/11/AR2008071102393.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=6 August 2021 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806174630/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/11/AR2008071102393.html |archivedate=6 August 2021 |pages=1–2 |date=13 July 2008}}</ref>
* "And, they said, don't forget Atlanta's reputation as a black mecca"<ref name="AJC">{{cite web |last1=Stafford |first1=Leon |title=Georgia second in nation for black-owned businesses |url=http://www.ajc.com/news/business/georgia-second-in-nation-for-black-owned-businesse/nQjBH/ |website=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |access-date=6 August 2021 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128031551/http://www.ajc.com/news/business/georgia-second-in-nation-for-black-owned-businesse/nQjBH/#selection-1595.0-1608.0 |archivedate=28 January 2015 |date=6 August 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Ebony">{{cite book |last1=Company |first1=Johnson Publishing |title=Ebony |date=September 1997 |publisher=Johnson Publishing Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IcRRkW6YcWIC&pg=PA68 |access-date=6 August 2021 |language=en |archive-date=7 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210807204138/https://books.google.com/books?id=IcRRkW6YcWIC&pg=PA68 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* "Atlanta's allure as the black mecca"<ref name="NBC">{{cite news |title=Atlanta contest shows battered black electorate |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna34277938 |access-date=6 August 2021 |publisher=NBC News |date=4 December 2009 |language=en |archive-date=6 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806185435/https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna34277938 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* "The Southern capital regarded as the nation's black mecca"<ref>{{cite news |last1=Writer |first1=Errin HainesAssociated Press |title=Race, attacks expected in Atlanta mayor runoff |url=https://www.mdjonline.com/news/national/race-attacks-expected-in-atlanta-mayor-runoff/article_8caba684-90e7-59a6-a684-b849524f9e28.html |access-date=6 August 2021 |work=MDJOnline.com |date=November 5, 2009 |language=en |archive-date=6 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806185436/https://www.mdjonline.com/news/national/race-attacks-expected-in-atlanta-mayor-runoff/article_8caba684-90e7-59a6-a684-b849524f9e28.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Company |first1=Johnson Publishing |title=Ebony |date=2002 |publisher=Johnson Publishing Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=otkDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA148 |access-date=6 August 2021 |language=en |archive-date=9 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409232613/https://books.google.com/books?id=otkDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA148 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Company |first1=Johnson Publishing |title=Ebony |date=1971 |publisher=Johnson Publishing Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DNwDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA152 |access-date=6 August 2021 |language=en |archive-date=9 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409232617/https://books.google.com/books?id=DNwDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA152 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Company |first1=Johnson Publishing |title=Ebony |date=1971 |publisher=Johnson Publishing Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DNwDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA152 |language=en |access-date=2022-02-22 |archive-date=2022-04-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409232617/https://books.google.com/books?id=DNwDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA152 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Communications |first1=Emmis |title=Atlanta Magazine |date=2003 |publisher=Emmis Communications |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FuECAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA81 |language=en |access-date=2022-02-22 |archive-date=2022-04-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409232618/https://books.google.com/books?id=FuECAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA81 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* “Atlanta is a city that is known as the black mecca"<ref>{{cite web |last1=Saporta |first1=Maria |title=Upcoming city elections will show how Atlanta is undergoing profound changes |url=http://saportareport.com/blog/2009/10/city-elections-will-show-how-atlanta-is-undergoing-profound-changes |website=Saparta Report |access-date=6 August 2021 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102171158/http://saportareport.com/blog/2009/10/city-elections-will-show-how-atlanta-is-undergoing-profound-changes/ |archivedate=November 2, 2013 |language=en |date=October 19, 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> "Upcoming city elections will show how Atlanta is undergoing profound changes", '"Saporta Report'', October 2009''
* "Some people call Atlanta the Black Mecca"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ltd |first1=Earl G. Graves |title=Black Enterprise |date=1987 |publisher=Earl G. Graves, Ltd. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajdqo3F73y4C&pg=PA56 |access-date=6 August 2021 |language=en |archive-date=13 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713151421/https://books.google.com/books?id=ajdqo3F73y4C&pg=PA56 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* "That stockpile of black brain power has made Atlanta the nation's mecca for blacks, especially buppies looking for Afro-American affluence and political clout." in "Bond vs. Lewis - it's Atlanta's loss that only one of the two can win ", ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'', August 16, 1986
* "Is it this that has made Atlanta the mecca of the black middle class?"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gates Jr |first1=Henry Louis |title=America Behind The Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans |date=2007 |publisher=Grand Central Publishing |isbn=978-0-446-53390-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yE5Rw7PkupAC&pg=PT174 |language=en |access-date=2021-07-15 |archive-date=2021-07-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713151425/https://books.google.com/books?id=yE5Rw7PkupAC&pg=PT174 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* "Atlanta emerges as a center of black entertainment"<ref>{{cite news |last1=Severson |first1=Kim |title=Stars Flock to Atlanta, Reshaping a Center of Black Culture |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/us/atlanta-emerges-as-a-center-of-black-entertainment.html?pagewanted=all |access-date=6 August 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=26 November 2011 |archive-date=16 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210716133846/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/us/atlanta-emerges-as-a-center-of-black-entertainment.html?pagewanted=all |url-status=live }}</ref>


One of the Dutch African arrivals, [[Anthony Johnson (American Colonial)|Anthony Johnson]], would later own one of the first Black "slaves", [[John Casor]], resulting from the court ruling of a civil case.<ref name="russell">[https://archive.org/stream/freenegro00russrich#page/28/mode/2up/search/page+29 John Henderson Russell, ''The Free Negro In Virginia, 1619–1865''], Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1913, pp. 29–30, scanned text online.</ref><ref name="Sweet2005">{{Cite book|author=Frank W. Sweet|title=Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kezflCVnongC&pg=PA117|date=July 2005|publisher=Backintyme|isbn=978-0-939479-23-8|page=117}}</ref>
[[Delaware]] has a significant African American population. African Americans were enslaved in the state. In 1721, an estimated 2,000-5,000 black slaves lived in Pennsylvania and the three lower counties on the Delaware.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Newton |first1=James E. |title=Black Americans in Delaware: An Overview |url=https://www1.udel.edu/BlackHistory/overview.html |website=www1.udel.edu |publisher=University of Delaware |access-date=6 August 2021 |date=27 June 1997 |archive-date=27 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927063845/https://www1.udel.edu/BlackHistory/overview.html |url-status=live }}</ref>


The popular conception of a race-based slave system did not fully develop until the 18th century. The [[Dutch West India Company]] introduced slavery in 1625 with the importation of eleven Black slaves into [[New Amsterdam]] (present-day [[New York City]]). All the colony's slaves, however, were freed upon its surrender to the English.<ref name="branchandroot">{{Citation|last=Hodges|first=Russel Graham|title=Root and Branch: African Americans in New York and East Jersey, 1613–1863|place=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=1999}}</ref>
As of the [[2010 U.S. Census]], African Americans were 31.2% of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]'s population.<ref>{{cite web|year=2011|title=Georgia QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau|url=http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13000.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150622105843/http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13000.html|archive-date=June 22, 2015|access-date=January 20, 2014|publisher=Quickfacts.census.gov}}</ref>


[[File:Slave Auction Ad.jpg|thumb|upright|Reproduction of a handbill advertising a slave auction in [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]], South Carolina, in 1769]]
The first black people to live in Texas were [[Afro-Mexicans]] when Texas was a [[Spain|Spanish]] colony.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The African American Story {{!}} Texas State History Museum|url=https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/campfire-stories/african-americans|access-date=May 30, 2021|website=thestoryoftexas.com|language=en|archive-date=May 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507193527/https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/campfire-stories/african-americans|url-status=live}}</ref> Texas has one of the largest African-American populations in the country.<ref name="blackmigration">{{cite report|first=William H.|last=Frey|title=The New Great Migration: Black Americans' Return to the South, 1965–2000|date=May 2004|publisher=The Brookings Institution|page=1|url=https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-new-great-migration-black-americans-return-to-the-south-1965-2000/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080428042235/http://www.brookings.edu/urban/pubs/20040524_Frey.pdf|archive-date=April 28, 2008}}</ref> African Americans are concentrated in northern, eastern and east-central Texas as well as the [[Dallas]], [[Houston]] and [[San Antonio]] metropolitan areas.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Texas – BlackDemographics.com|url=https://blackdemographics.com/states/texas/|access-date=2021-07-15|archive-date=2019-05-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513200200/https://blackdemographics.com/states/texas/|url-status=live}}</ref> African Americans form 24 percent of both the cities of Dallas and Houston, 19% of Fort Worth, 8.1 percent of Austin, and 7.5 percent of San Antonio.<ref>{{Cite web|date=January 15, 2018|title=How the Eastside Became Home to San Antonio's Black Community|url=https://sanantonioreport.org/how-the-eastside-became-home-to-san-antonios-black-community/|access-date=December 14, 2020|website=San Antonio Report|language=en-US|archive-date=January 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121012853/https://sanantonioreport.org/how-the-eastside-became-home-to-san-antonios-black-community/|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[Massachusetts Bay Colony|Massachusetts]] was the first English colony to legally recognize slavery in 1641. In 1662, Virginia passed a law that children of enslaved women took the status of the mother, rather than that of the father, as under [[common law]]. This legal principle was called ''[[partus sequitur ventrum]]''.<ref name="Banks">[https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/fac_pubs/52/ Taunya Lovell Banks, "Dangerous Woman: Elizabeth Key's Freedom Suit – Subjecthood and Racialized Identity in Seventeenth Century Colonial Virginia"], 41 ''Akron Law Review'' 799 (2008), Digital Commons Law, University of Maryland Law School. Retrieved April 21, 2009</ref><ref>PBS. ''Africans in America: the Terrible Transformation.'' "[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr3.html From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery]." Accessed September 13, 2011.</ref>


By an act of 1699, the colony ordered all free Blacks deported, virtually defining as slaves all people of African descent who remained in the colony.<ref name="Wood">[https://books.google.com/books?id=BEd85InqqAIC&pg=PA48 William J. Wood, "The Illegal Beginning of American Slavery"], ''ABA Journal'', 1970, American Bar Association</ref> In 1670, the colonial assembly passed a law prohibiting free and baptized Blacks (and Indians) from purchasing Christians (in this act meaning White Europeans) but allowing them to buy people "of their owne nation".<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Colored Freemen as Slave Owners in Virginia|first=John H.|last=Russell|journal=Journal of Negro History|date=June 1916|volume=1|issue=3|pages=233–242|doi=10.2307/3035621|jstor=3035621|doi-access=free}}</ref>
Virginia is home to the longest continuous experience of African American life and culture in the United States spanning more than four centuries – beginning before the first English settlement at Jamestown and through the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Emancipation and the Civil Rights eras.


In the [[Louisiana (New Spain)|Spanish Louisiana]] although there was no movement toward abolition of the African slave trade, Spanish rule introduced a new law called [[Coartación (slavery)|''coartación'']], which allowed slaves to buy their freedom, and that of others.<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/693820/Early_Anti-Slavery_Sentiment_in_the_Spanish_Atlantic_World_1765_1817]{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Berquist, Emily. ''Early Anti-Slavery Sentiment in the Spanish Atlantic World, 1765–1817''</ref> Although some did not have the money to buy their freedom, government measures on slavery allowed many free Blacks. That brought problems to the Spaniards with the French Creoles who also populated Spanish Louisiana, French creoles cited that measure as one of the system's worst elements.<ref name="louisiana">{{citation|url=https://www.knowlouisiana.org/entry/slavery-in-spanish-colonial-louisiana|publisher=knowlouisiana.org|title=Slavery in Spanish Colonial Louisiana|access-date=July 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721134124/https://www.knowlouisiana.org/entry/slavery-in-spanish-colonial-louisiana|archive-date=July 21, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Outside of the United States, the history of African Americans in [[Ghana]] goes back to people such as American civil rights activist and writer W. E. B. Du Bois, who settled in Ghana in the last years of his life and is buried in the capital [[Accra]]. Since then, other African Americans who are descended from slaves imported from areas within the present-day jurisdiction of Ghana and neighboring states have applied for permanent resident status in Ghana. As of 2015, the number of African American residents has been estimated at around 3,000 people, a large portion of whom live in Accra.


First established in South Carolina in 1704, groups of armed White men—[[slave patrol]]s—were formed to monitor enslaved Black people.<ref name="Patrols"/> Their function was to police slaves, especially fugitives. Slave owners feared that slaves might organize revolts or [[slave rebellion]]s, so state militias were formed in order to provide a military command structure and discipline within the slave patrols so they could be used to detect, encounter, and crush any organized slave meetings which might lead to revolts or rebellions.<ref name="Patrols">{{Cite web|date=2019-07-10|title=Slave Patrols: An Early Form of American Policing |url=https://lawenforcementmuseum.org/2019/07/10/slave-patrols-an-early-form-of-american-policing/ |access-date=2020-06-16|website=National Law Enforcement Museum |language=en-US}}</ref>
[[Texas]] has the largest African American population of any state in 2019. Followed by, [[Florida]],   [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and [[New York (state)|New York]]. The [[New York metropolitan area|New York City metropolitan area]] has the largest African American metropolitan population. In 2019, the South had the largest black population by region.<ref>[https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2021/03/25/the-growing-diversity-of-black-america/ The Growing Diversity of Black America]</ref>


The earliest African-American congregations and churches were organized before 1800 in both northern and southern cities following the [[First Great Awakening|Great Awakening]]. By 1775, Africans made up 20% of the population in the [[Thirteen Colonies|American colonies]], which made them the second largest ethnic group after [[English Americans]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dalhousielodge.org/Thesis/scotstonc.htm|title=Scots to Colonial North Carolina Before 1775|publisher=Dalhousielodge.org|date=n.d.|access-date=April 20, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219045151/http://www.dalhousielodge.org/Thesis/scotstonc.htm|archive-date=February 19, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[New York City]] has had the largest number of African Americans by city, followed by [[Chicago]], [[Detroit]], [[Philadelphia]] and [[Houston]].<ref>[https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/census_2000/cb01cn176.html Majority of African Americans Live in 10 States; New York City and Chicago Are Cities With Largest Black Populations]</ref>


===From the American Revolution to the Civil War===
African Americans from north are moving back to the [[Southern United States]] and the [[suburbs]].<ref>[http://urbanhabitat.org/files/18-2.kromm_.pdf African Americans Moving South— and to the Suburbs]</ref> African Americans are moving to smaller cities especially in [[Fort Worth, Texas]], [[Columbus, Ohio]], [[Jacksonville, Florida]] and [[Charlotte, North Carolina]].<ref>[https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2022-03-14/us-black-population-the-biggest-growth-is-in-smaller-cities?context=amp US Black Population: the Biggest Growth Is in Smaller Cities]</ref>
{{Main|Slavery in the United States}}
[[File:Crispus Attucks.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Crispus Attucks]], the first "[[Martyr (politics)|martyr]]" of the [[American Revolution]]. He was of [[Black Indians in the United States|Native American and African-American]] descent.]]
During the 1770s, Africans, both enslaved and free, helped rebellious American colonists secure their independence by defeating the British in the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/DIASPORA/REV.HTM |title=African Americans in the American Revolution |publisher=Wsu.edu:8080 |date=June 6, 1999 |access-date=January 20, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514085114/https://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/DIASPORA/REV.HTM |archive-date=May 14, 2011 }}</ref> African Americans and European Americans fought side by side and were fully integrated.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.africanamericans.com/MilitaryTimeline.htm|title=AfricanAmericans.com|publisher=AfricanAmericans.com|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927130556/http://www.africanamericans.com/MilitaryTimeline.htm|archive-date=September 27, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> Blacks played a role in both sides in the American Revolution. Activists in the Patriot cause included [[James Armistead]], [[Prince Whipple]] and [[Oliver Cromwell (American soldier)|Oliver Cromwell]].<ref>Benjamin Quarles, ''The Negro in the American revolution'' (1961).</ref><ref>Gary B. Nash, "The African Americans’ Revolution" in ''The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution'' ed. by Jane Kamensky and Edward G. Gray (2012) online at {{DOI|10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199746705.013.0015}}</ref>


In the [[Spanish Louisiana]], Governor [[Bernardo de Gálvez]] organized Spanish free Black men into two militia companies to defend [[New Orleans]] during the American Revolution. They fought in the 1779 battle in which Spain captured [[Baton Rouge]] from the British. Gálvez also commanded them in campaigns against the British outposts in [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]], [[Alabama]], and [[Pensacola]], Florida, he recruited slaves for the militia by pledging to free anyone who was seriously wounded and promised to secure a low price for ''coartación'' (buy their freedom and that of others) for those who received lesser wounds. During the 1790s, Governor [[Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet|Francisco Luis Héctor, baron of Carondelet]] reinforced local fortifications and recruit even more free Black men for the militia. Carondelet doubled the number of free Black men who served, creating two more militia companies—one made up of Black members and the other of [[pardo]] (mixed race). Serving in the militia brought free Black men one step closer to equality with Whites, allowing them, for example, the right to carry arms and boosting their earning power. However, actually these privileges distanced free Black men from enslaved Blacks and encouraged them to identify with Whites.<ref name="louisiana"/>
There is a African American community in [[Arkansas]]. African Americans make up 15.4 percent of Arkansas's population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/african-americans-407/}}</ref>


Slavery had been tacitly enshrined in the [[U.S. Constitution]] through provisions such as Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, commonly known as the [[3/5 compromise]]. Slavery, which by then meant almost exclusively Black people, was the most important political issue in the [[antebellum United States]], leading to one crisis after another. Among these were the [[Missouri Compromise]], the [[Compromise of 1850]], the [[Fugitive Slave Act]], and the [[Dred Scott decision]].
1.2 million African Americans are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered.<ref>https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/black-lgbt-adults-in-the-us/</ref>


[[File:Frederick Douglass by Samuel J Miller, 1847-52.png|thumb|upright|left|[[Frederick Douglass]], ca 1850]]
== Genetic studies ==
Prior to the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], eight serving presidents owned slaves, a practice protected by the U.S. Constitution.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Calore|first1=Paul|title=The Causes of the Civil War: The Political, Cultural, Economic and Territorial Disputes between North and South|date=2008|publisher=McFarland|page=10}}</ref> By 1860, there were 3.5 to 4.4&nbsp;million enslaved Black people in the U.S. due to the [[Atlantic slave trade]], and another 488,000–500,000 Blacks lived free (with legislated limits)<ref name="ACS">[https://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=731&issue_id=75 "Background on conflict in Liberia"], Friends Committee on National Legislation, July 30, 2003 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070214051143/https://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=731&issue_id=75 |date=February 14, 2007 }}</ref> across the country.<ref name="GomezPremdas">{{cite book|author1=Edmund Terence Gomez|author2=Ralph Premdas|title=Affirmative Action, Ethnicity and Conflict|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XU_XDHfO3jsC&pg=PA48|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-64506-5|page=48}}</ref> With legislated limits imposed upon them in addition to "unconquerable prejudice" from Whites according to [[Henry Clay]],<ref>Maggie Montesinos Sale (1997). ''The Slumbering Volcano: American Slave Ship Revolts and the Production of Rebellious Masculinity'', Duke University Press, 1997, p. 264. {{ISBN|0-8223-1992-6}}</ref> some Black people who were not enslaved left the U.S. for [[Liberia]] in West Africa.<ref name="ACS"/> Liberia began as a settlement of the [[American Colonization Society]] (ACS) in 1821, with the abolitionist members of the ACS believing Blacks would face better chances for freedom and equality in Africa.<ref name="ACS"/>
Many African Americans have European ancestry and [[Native American]] along with African ancestry.


The slaves not only constituted a large investment, they produced America's most valuable product and export: [[King Cotton|cotton]]. They not only helped build the [[U.S. Capitol]], they built the [[White House]] and other [[District of Columbia]] buildings. ([[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] was a slave trading center.)<ref>"[https://emancipation.dc.gov/page/ending-slavery-district-columbia Ending slavery in the District of Columbia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119044541/https://emancipation.dc.gov/page/ending-slavery-district-columbia |date=November 19, 2018 }}", consulted June 20, 2015.</ref> Similar building projects existed in slaveholding states.
Recent surveys of African Americans using a genetic testing service have found varied ancestries. These studies found that on average, African Americans have 73.2–82.1% [[West African]], 16.7%–24% European, and 0.8–1.2% Native American genetic ancestry, with large variation between individuals.<ref name="Bryc2009">{{cite journal |last1=Bryc |first1=Katarzyna |last2=Auton |first2=Adam |last3=Nelson |first3=Matthew R. |last4=Oksenberg |first4=Jorge R. |last5=Hauser |first5=Stephen L. |last6=Williams |first6=Scott |last7=Froment |first7=Alain |last8=Bodo |first8=Jean-Marie |last9=Wambebe |first9=Charles |last10=Tishkoff |first10=Sarah A. |last11=Bustamante |first11=Carlos D. |title=Genome-wide patterns of population structure and admixture in West Africans and African Americans |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |date=12 January 2010 |volume=107 |issue=2 |pages=786–791 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0909559107 |pmid=20080753 |pmc=2818934 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Bryc 2015">{{cite journal |last1=Bryc |first1=Katarzyna |last2=Durand |first2=Eric Y. |last3=Macpherson |first3=J. Michael |last4=Reich |first4=David |last5=Mountain |first5=Joanna L. |title=The genetic ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans across the United States |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |date=8 January 2015 |volume=96 |issue=1 |pages=37–53 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.11.010 |pmid=25529636 |issn=1537-6605 |pmc=4289685}}</ref><ref name="Migration">{{cite journal |last1=Baharian |first1=Soheil |last2=Barakatt |first2=Maxime |last3=Gignoux |first3=Christopher R. |last4=Shringarpure |first4=Suyash |last5=Errington |first5=Jacob |last6=Blot |first6=William J. |last7=Bustamante |first7=Carlos D. |last8=Kenny |first8=Eimear E. |last9=Williams |first9=Scott M. |last10=Aldrich |first10=Melinda C. |last11=Gravel |first11=Simon |title=The Great Migration and African-American Genomic Diversity |journal=PLOS Genetics |date=27 May 2016 |volume=12 |issue=5 |pages=e1006059 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1006059 |pmid=27232753 |pmc=4883799 |s2cid=10501185 |url=https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006059 |access-date=6 August 2021 |language=en |issn=1553-7404 |archive-date=26 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626124734/https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1006059 |url-status=live }}</ref>


Emigration of free Blacks to their continent of origin had been proposed since the Revolutionary war. After [[Haiti]] became independent, it tried to recruit African Americans to migrate there after it re-established trade relations with the United States. The Haitian Union was a group formed to promote relations between the countries.<ref name="Nikki">Taylor, Nikki M. ''Frontiers of Freedom: Cincinnati's Black Community, 1802–1868.'' Ohio University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-8214-1579-4}}, pp. 50–79.</ref> After riots against Blacks in [[Cincinnati]], its Black community sponsored founding of the [[Wilberforce Colony]], an initially successful settlement of African-American immigrants to Canada. The colony was one of the first such independent political entities. It lasted for a number of decades and provided a destination for about 200 Black families emigrating from a number of locations in the United States.<ref name="Nikki"/>
Genetics websites themselves have reported similar ranges, with some finding 1 or 2 percent Native American ancestry and [[Ancestry.com]] reporting an outlying percentage of European ancestry among African Americans of 29%.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gates Jr |first1=Henry Louis |title=Exactly How 'Black' Is Black America? |url=https://www.theroot.com/exactly-how-black-is-black-america-1790895185 |website=The Root |access-date=6 August 2021 |language=en-us |date=February 2, 2013 |archive-date=14 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814202953/https://www.theroot.com/exactly-how-black-is-black-america-1790895185 |url-status=live }}</ref> 38% of African Americans have Irish ancestry.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Nadal |first1=Cecilia |title=The Irish and African-American Connection |url=http://www.stlamerican.com/news/columnists/guest_columnists/the-irish-and-african-american-connection/article_22740446-1fc1-11e7-921e-b7b5f4311a2d.html |access-date=6 August 2021 |publisher=St. Louis American |date=12 April 2017 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806195749/http://www.stlamerican.com/news/columnists/guest_columnists/the-irish-and-african-american-connection/article_22740446-1fc1-11e7-921e-b7b5f4311a2d.html |archivedate=6 August 2021 |language=en}}</ref>


In 1863, during the [[American Civil War]], President [[Abraham Lincoln]] signed the [[Emancipation Proclamation]]. The proclamation declared that all slaves in Confederate-held territory were free.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Emancipation Proclamation|website=Featured Documents|publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]]|access-date=June 7, 2007|url=https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607051115/https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/|archive-date=June 7, 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref> Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation, with Texas being the last state to be emancipated, in 1865.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm|title=History of Juneteenth|publisher=Juneteenth.com|year=2005|access-date=June 7, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070527081441/https://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm|archive-date=May 27, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>
African American men have the second highest [[interracial marriage]] rate, behind Asian American women.<ref>[https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/urls_cited/ot2015/14-981/14-981-9.pdf Interracial marriage: Who is ‘marrying out’?]</ref> Interracial marriage between African Americans and [[white people]] has rapidly increased.<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256375550_Changing_Patterns_of_Interracial_Marriage_in_a_Multiracial_Society Changing Patterns of Interracial Marriage in a Multiracial Society]</ref>


[[File:Harriet Tubman c1868-69 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Harriet Tubman]], around 1869]]
== History ==
Slavery in Union-held Confederate territory continued, at least on paper, until the passage of the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] in 1865.<ref>[https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=013/llsl013.db&recNum=803 Seward certificate] proclaiming the Thirteenth Amendment to have been adopted as part of the Constitution as of December 6, 1865.</ref> While the [[Naturalization Act of 1790]] limited U.S. citizenship to Whites only,<ref name="Schultz">{{cite book|last=Schultz|first=Jeffrey D.|title=Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics: African Americans and Asian Americans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WDV40aK1T-sC&pg=PA284|page=284|year=2002|access-date=October 8, 2015|isbn=9781573561488}}</ref><ref name="Sato">Leland T. Saito (1998). "Race and Politics: Asian Americans, Latinos, and Whites in a Los Angeles Suburb". p. 154. University of Illinois Press</ref> the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th Amendment]] (1868) gave Black people citizenship, and the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|15th Amendment]] (1870) gave Black males the right to vote (which would still be denied to all women until [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|1920]]).<ref>{{cite news |title=Black voting rights, 15th Amendment still challenged after 150 years |url=https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/03/black-voting-rights-15th-amendment-still-challenged-after-150-years/4587160002/ |access-date=November 19, 2020 |work=USA Today}}</ref>
[[File:African Americans picking cotton, Georgia, 1907.jpg|thumb|African Americans picking cotton in Georgia]]
[[File:Slaves To-be-sold.jpg|thumb|left|Slave trader advertisement in Charleston, South Carolina]]
Most of the first African Americans were brought to North America as part of the [[Atlantic slave trade]]. African slaves were brought to North America from 1619 to 1808. After the United States became independent, [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] became illegal in most [[Northern United States|northern states]]. At the same time, slavery grew more important to the [[economy]] of the [[Southern United States|southern states]]. Many African American slaves worked on [[plantations]] (large farms) that grew [[cotton]] and [[tobacco]].<ref name="Black History">{{cite web |title=Black History Milestones: Timeline |url=https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-milestones |website=HISTORY |publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC. |access-date=10 August 2020 |language=en |date=14 October 2009 |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804231739/http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-milestones |url-status=live }}</ref> Plantation work was very difficult and slaves were often [[whip]]ped and [[Corporal punishment|physically punished]]. It was illegal for slaves to learn how to read and write. White men often [[rape]]d slave women, but were not punished.<ref>{{cite web |title=Slave Life and Slave Codes [ushistory.org] |url=https://www.ushistory.org/us/27b.asp |website=www.ushistory.org |publisher=Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia |access-date=10 August 2020 |archive-date=22 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022171945/https://www.ushistory.org/us/27b.asp |url-status=live }}</ref>


===Reconstruction era and Jim Crow===
At the same time, there were many free African Americans in the north. Unlike slaves, they were allowed to start churches, write newspapers, and sometimes own property.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart2.html|title=African American Odyssey: Free Blacks in the Antebellum Period (Part 1)|website=memory.loc.gov|access-date=August 10, 2020|archive-date=September 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919061937/https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart2.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Frederick Douglass]] was an important abolitionist (fighter against slavery). [[Harriet Tubman]] helped to create the [[Underground Railroad]], which helped African Americans to [[wikt:Sneak|sneak]] away from their masters and become free. During the [[American Civil War]] from 1861 to 1865, the south broke away from the United States to form the [[Confederate States of America]], or Confederacy. The United States won the war, and in 1865, it freed all slaves (about 4 million) by the [[13th amendment]].
{{Main|Reconstruction era|Jim Crow laws}}
African Americans quickly set up congregations for themselves, as well as schools and community/civic associations, to have space away from White control or oversight. While the post-war Reconstruction era was initially a time of progress for African Americans, that period ended in 1876. By the late 1890s, Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws to enforce [[racial segregation]] and [[disfranchisement after the American Civil War|disenfranchisement]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Creating Jim Crow: In-Depth Essay |last=Davis |first=Ronald L.F., PhD |website=The History of Jim Crow |publisher=[[New York Life Insurance Company]] |access-date=June 7, 2007 |url=https://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020614223755/https://jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 14, 2002 }}</ref> Segregation, which began with slavery, continued with Jim Crow laws, with signs used to show Blacks where they could legally walk, talk, drink, rest, or eat.<ref name="Leon Litwack 2004">Leon Litwack, ''Jim Crow Blues'', Magazine of History (OAH Publications, 2004)</ref> For those places that were racially mixed, non-Whites had to wait until all White customers were dealt with.<ref name="Leon Litwack 2004"/> Most African Americans obeyed the Jim Crow laws, to avoid [[ethnic violence|racially motivated violence]]. To maintain self-esteem and dignity, African Americans such as [[Anthony Overton]] and [[Mary McLeod Bethune]] continued to build their own [[Historically Black colleges and universities|schools]], [[Black church|churches]], banks, social clubs, and other businesses.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/surviving.htm|title=Surviving Jim Crow|last=Davis|first=Ronald, PhD|website=The History of Jim Crow|publisher=[[New York Life Insurance Company]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120526204619/http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/surviving.htm|archive-date=May 26, 2012}}</ref>


In the last decade of the 19th century, racially discriminatory laws and racial violence aimed at African Americans began to mushroom in the United States, a period often referred to as the "[[nadir of American race relations]]". These discriminatory acts included racial segregation—upheld by the United States Supreme Court decision in ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' in 1896—which was legally mandated by southern states and nationwide at the local level of government, [[voter suppression in the United States|voter suppression]] or disenfranchisement in the southern states, denial of economic opportunity or resources nationwide, and private acts of violence and mass racial violence aimed at African Americans unhindered or encouraged by government authorities.<ref>''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' {{Ussc|163|537|1896}}</ref>
[[File:Family of slaves in Georgia, circa 1850.jpg|thumb|Enslaved African Americans in Georgia]]
African Americans were not slaves anymore, but white southerners passed laws called [[Black Codes]] that took away their freedom. Some African Americans served in government, but after 1877, the white southerners mostly kept them out of government. Whites founded the [[Ku Klux Klan]] to scare African Americans and stop them from voting.<ref name="Black History" /> Most southern African Americans became sharecroppers. [[Sharecropping]] was a system in which the [[farmer]]s rented the land from the landowner and had to pay the landowner part of their crops.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/sharecropping|title=Sharecropping|website=HISTORY|language=en|access-date=August 10, 2020|archive-date=August 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806154616/http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/sharecropping|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow]] laws [[Racial segregation|segregated]] white and black people. Black people had to go to different schools and usually live in different neighborhoods than white people. Many businesses were for whites only. The [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] case [[Plessy v. Ferguson]] said that black and white facilities could be [[separate but equal]], but facilities for black people were usually worse. [[Lynching]] was often practiced against African Americans.


===Great migration and civil rights movement===
In the early 1900s, African American culture grew with the [[Harlem Renaissance]], an artistic and literary movement in New York City. The [[NAACP]] was founded to improve the lives of African Americans. Leaders had different ideas about what was best for African Americans. [[Booker T. Washington]] thought they should go to [[vocational school]]s to get better jobs. W.E.B. Du Bois thought university education was more important. [[Marcus Garvey]] believed that African Americans should move to Africa to have a country of their own.<ref name="Black History" /> During the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]], from the 1910s to the 1960s, African Americans moved from the south to cities in the north and [[Western United States|west]]. At the beginning, only 10% of African Americans lived outside the south, but by the end, 47% lived in the north and west.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/long-lasting-legacy-great-migration-180960118/|title=The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration|last1=Wilkerson|first1=Isabel|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en|access-date=August 10, 2020|archive-date=February 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215000512/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/long-lasting-legacy-great-migration-180960118/|url-status=live}}</ref> Segregation also existed in the north. [[Redlining]] stopped people who lived in African American neighborhoods from buying homes.
{{Main|Great Migration (African American)|l1=Great Migration|civil rights movement}}
[[File:Omaha courthouse lynching.jpg|thumb|right|A group of White men pose for a 1919 photograph as they stand over the Black victim Will Brown who had been [[lynched]] and had his body mutilated and burned during the [[Omaha race riot of 1919]] in [[Omaha, Nebraska]]. Postcards and photographs of lynchings were popular souvenirs in the U.S.<ref>Moyers, Bill. [https://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11232007/profile2.html "Legacy of Lynching"]. PBS. Retrieved July 28, 2016.</ref>]]
The desperate conditions of African Americans in the South sparked the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] during the first half of the 20th century which led to a growing African-American community in [[Northern United States|Northern]] and Western United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/reference/articles/great_migration.html|title=The Great Migration|access-date=October 22, 2007|website=African American World|publisher=[[PBS]]|year=2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012201420/https://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/reference/articles/great_migration.html|archive-date=October 12, 2007}}</ref> The rapid influx of Blacks disturbed the racial balance within Northern and Western cities, exacerbating hostility between both Blacks and Whites in the two regions.<ref>Michael O. Emerson, Christian Smith (2001). "Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America". p. 42. Oxford University Press</ref> The [[Red Summer]] of 1919 was marked by hundreds of deaths and higher casualties across the U.S. as a result of race riots that occurred in more than three dozen cities, such as the [[Chicago race riot of 1919]] and the [[Omaha race riot of 1919]]. Overall, Blacks in Northern and Western cities experienced [[Racism in the United States|systemic discrimination]] in a plethora of aspects of life. Within employment, economic opportunities for Blacks were routed to the lowest-status and restrictive in potential mobility. At the 1900 [[Hampton Negro Conference]], Reverend Matthew Anderson said: "...the lines along most of the avenues of wage earning are more rigidly drawn in the North than in the South."<ref>{{cite book|title=Annual Report of the Hampton Negro Conference|chapter=The Economic Aspect of the Negro Problem|first=Anderson|last=Matthew|editor1-last=Browne |editor1-first=Hugh |editor2-last=Kruse |editor2-first=Edwina |editor4-last=Moton |editor3-last=Walker |editor3-first=Thomas C. |editor4-first=Robert Russa |editor4-link=Robert Russa Moton |editor5-last=Wheelock |editor5-first=Frederick D. |publisher=Hampton Institute Press|location=[[Hampton, Virginia]]|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gkQ9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA39|hdl=2027/chi.14025588?urlappend=%3Bseq=43|volume=4|year=1900|page=39}}</ref> Within the housing market, stronger discriminatory measures were used in correlation to the influx, resulting in a mix of "targeted violence, [[Covenant (law)#Exclusionary covenants|restrictive covenants]], [[redlining]] and [[racial steering]]".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Tolnay|first=Stewart|title=The African American 'Great Migration' and Beyond|journal=Annual Review of Sociology|year=2003|volume=29|pages=218–221|doi=10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100009|jstor=30036966}}</ref> While many Whites defended their space with violence, intimidation, or legal tactics toward African Americans, many other Whites migrated to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions, a process known as [[White flight]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Seligman|first=Amanda|title=Block by block : neighborhoods and public policy on Chicago's West Side|year=2005|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0-226-74663-0|pages=213–14}}</ref>


[[File:Rosa Parks being fingerprinted by Deputy Sheriff D.H. Lackey after being arrested for refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger on a segregated municipal bus in Montgomery, Alabama.jpg|thumb|left|[[Rosa Parks]] being fingerprinted after being arrested for not giving up her seat on a bus to a White person]]
In the 1950s and 1960s, the [[Civil Rights Movement]] called for equality between African Americans and whites. The 1954 Supreme Court case [[Brown v. Board of Education II|Brown v. Board of Education]] banned racial segregation in schools. Many Southern schools still stopped black students from attending, until 1957, when federal [[troops]] forced a school in [[Little Rock, Arkansas]] to allow black students (called the [[Little Rock Nine]]). In 1955, [[Rosa Parks]] refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus. This started the [[Montgomery Bus Boycott]], which involved [[Martin Luther King Jr.|Martin Luther King]]. King and [[Malcolm X]] were two leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, but they were both [[killed]] in the 1960s. In 1964, the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964|Civil Rights Act]] banned discrimination based on [[Race (sociology)|race]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/segregation-united-states|title=A Look Back at Segregation in the United States|website=HISTORY|language=en|access-date=August 10, 2020|archive-date=August 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806224741/https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/segregation-united-states|url-status=live}}</ref>
Despite discrimination, drawing cards for leaving the hopelessness in the South were the growth of African-American institutions and communities in Northern cities. Institutions included Black oriented organizations (e.g., [[Urban League]], [[NAACP]]), churches, businesses, and newspapers, as well as successes in the development in African-American intellectual culture, music, and popular culture (e.g., [[Harlem Renaissance]], [[Chicago Black Renaissance]]). The [[Cotton Club]] in Harlem was a Whites-only establishment, with Blacks (such as [[Duke Ellington]]) allowed to perform, but to a White audience.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ella Fitzgerald |date=1989 |publisher=Holloway House Publishing |page=27}}</ref> Black Americans also found a new ground for political power in Northern cities, without the enforced disabilities of [[Jim Crow]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Tolnay|first=Stewart|title=The African American 'Great Migration' and Beyond|journal=Annual Review of Sociology|year=2003|volume=29|pages=217 |doi=10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100009|jstor=30036966}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Wilkerson |first=Isabel |date=September 2016 |title=The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/long-lasting-legacy-great-migration-180960118/ |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref>


By the 1950s, the [[civil rights movement]] was gaining momentum. A 1955 lynching that sparked public outrage about injustice was that of [[Emmett Till]], a 14-year-old boy from Chicago. Spending the summer with relatives in [[Money, Mississippi]], Till was killed for allegedly having [[wolf-whistle]]d at a White woman. Till had been badly beaten, one of his eyes was gouged out, and he was shot in the head. The visceral response to his mother's decision to have an open-casket funeral mobilized the Black community throughout the U.S.<ref name="Atlantic">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/02/how-the-blood-of-emmett-till-still-stains-america-today/516891/|title=How 'The Blood of Emmett Till' Still Stains America Today|last=II|first=Vann R. Newkirk|work=The Atlantic|access-date=July 29, 2017}}</ref> Vann R. Newkirk| wrote "the trial of his killers became a pageant illuminating the tyranny of [[White supremacy]]".<ref name="Atlantic"/> The state of Mississippi tried two defendants, but they were speedily acquitted by an [[all-White jury]].<ref>Whitfield, Stephen (1991). A Death in the Delta: The story of Emmett Till. pp 41–42. JHU Press.</ref> One hundred days after Emmett Till's murder, [[Rosa Parks]] refused to give up her seat on the bus in Alabama—indeed, Parks told Emmett's mother [[Mamie Till]] that "the photograph of Emmett's disfigured face in the casket was set in her mind when she refused to give up her seat on the Montgomery bus."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Assassination of Fred Hampton|last=Haas|first=Jeffrey|publisher=Chicago Review Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1569767092|location=Chicago|page=17}}</ref>
Racism against African Americans is still prevalent in 2020. In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, [[George Floyd]] was killed by a white police officer. [[Black Lives Matter]] is a movement which started in 2013.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Lives-Matter}}</ref>


[[File:March on washington Aug 28 1963.jpg|thumb|[[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom]], August 28, 1963, shows civil rights leaders and union leaders]]
== Language and society ==
The [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom]] and the conditions which brought it into being are credited with putting pressure on presidents [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. Johnson put his support behind passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] that banned discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and [[Trade union|labor unions]], and the [[Voting Rights Act]] of 1965, which expanded federal authority over states to ensure Black political participation through protection of voter registration and elections.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/intro/intro_b.php|title=History of Federal Voting Rights Laws: The Voting Rights Act of 1965|publisher=United States Department of Justice|access-date=August 12, 2017|date=August 6, 2015}}</ref> By 1966, the emergence of the [[Black Power]] movement, which lasted from 1966 to 1975, expanded upon the aims of the civil rights movement to include economic and political self-sufficiency, and freedom from White authority.<ref name="abbeville">{{cite web|url=https://www.abbeville.com/civilrights/washington.asp |title=The March On Washington, 1963 |access-date=October 22, 2007 |publisher=Abbeville Press |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012121716/https://abbeville.com/civilrights/washington.asp |archive-date=October 12, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
With their American born children came the first generation of English speaking African Americans. But this development was not the same all over the country. For example; even today the [[Gullah]] of the Sea Islands off the Carolina and Georgia coasts still speak a language that is a blend of several African languages. They are the descendants of slaves from different countries in Africa.{{fact|date=December 2020}}


During the post-war period, many African Americans continued to be economically disadvantaged relative to other Americans. Average Black income stood at 54 percent of that of White workers in 1947, and 55 percent in 1962. In 1959, median family income for Whites was $5,600, compared with $2,900 for non-White families. In 1965, 43 percent of all Black families fell into the poverty bracket, earning under $3,000 a year. The Sixties saw improvements in the social and economic conditions of many Black Americans.<ref name="ReferenceA">The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II by William H. Chafe</ref>
In the United States when Americans say African-American or Black, they are referring to the same people. Both terms describe an ethnic group that came to exist in the United States. The Africans who were brought to America as slaves were from different nationalities and did not all speak the same language. They became a new blended ethnic group with a new language that was not their own: English.{{fact|date=December 2020}}


From 1965 to 1969, Black family income rose from 54 to 60 percent of White family income. In 1968, 23 percent of Black families earned under $3,000 a year, compared with 41 percent in 1960. In 1965, 19 percent of Black Americans had incomes equal to the national median, a proportion that rose to 27 percent by 1967. In 1960, the median level of education for Blacks had been 10.8 years, and by the late Sixties the figure rose to 12.2 years, half a year behind the median for Whites.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
Blacks used to be segregated in schools but since the 1960s were able to join major schools, colleges and universities. In the second half of the 20th century, reading-ability rates for blacks increased.


===Post–civil rights era===
In [[Louisiana]], Some blacks speak [[Louisiana Creole]], a Creole language similar to [[French language|French]]. In the 19th century, the majority of south Louisiana's blacks spoke Louisiana Creole.<ref>[https://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/amphtml/2000/1124/p3s1.html Louisiana links blacks to their French roots]</ref>
{{Main|Post–civil rights era in African-American history}}
[[File:Crowd at JJ Hill - Philando Castile (27547111053).jpg|thumb|[[Black Lives Matter]] protest in response to the [[shooting of Philando Castile|Philando Castile shooting]] in July 2016]]
Politically and economically, African Americans have made substantial strides during the post–civil rights era. In 1968, [[Shirley Chisholm]] became the first Black woman elected to the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]]. In 1989, [[Douglas Wilder]] became the first African American elected governor in U.S. history. [[Clarence Thomas]] became the second African-American Supreme Court Justice. In 1992, [[Carol Moseley-Braun]] of [[Illinois]] became the first African-American woman elected to the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]]. There were 8,936 Black officeholders in the United States in 2000, showing a net increase of 7,467 since 1970. In 2001, there were 484 Black mayors.<ref>{{citation|last=Jordan|first=John H.|title=Black Americans 17th Century to 21st Century: Black Struggles and Successes|publisher=[[Trafford Publishing]]|page=3|year=2013}}</ref>
 
In 2005, the number of Africans immigrating to the United States, in a single year, surpassed the peak number who were involuntarily brought to the United States during the [[Atlantic Slave Trade]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Roberts|first=Sam|date=February 21, 2005|title=More Africans Enter U.S. Than in Days of Slavery|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/nyregion/21africa.html|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=October 26, 2014}}</ref> On November 4, 2008, [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] [[United States Senator|Senator]] [[Barack Obama]] [[2008 United States presidential election|defeated]] [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] Senator [[John McCain]] to become the first African American to be elected president. At least 95 percent of African-American voters voted for Obama.<ref name=CNN-Obama>{{cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/exit.polls/|title=Exit polls: Obama wins big among young, minority voters|date=November 4, 2008|publisher=CNN|access-date=June 22, 2010}}</ref><ref name=Politico-Obama>{{cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15297.html|title=Exit polls: How Obama won|last=Kuhn|first=David Paul|date=November 5, 2008|website=[[Politico (newspaper)|Politico]]|access-date=June 22, 2010}}</ref> He also received overwhelming support from young and educated Whites, a majority of [[Asian Americans|Asians]],<ref name=exitpoll>{{cite news|url=https://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/exit-polls.html|title=Exit polls|year=2008|work=The New York Times|access-date=September 6, 2012}}</ref> and [[Hispanic and Latino Americans|Hispanics]],<ref name=exitpoll/> picking up a number of new states in the Democratic electoral column.<ref name=CNN-Obama/><ref name=Politico-Obama/> Obama lost the overall White vote, although he won a larger proportion of White votes than any previous nonincumbent Democratic presidential candidate since [[Jimmy Carter]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Noah|first=Timothy|url=https://www.slate.com/id/2204251/|title=What We Didn't Overcome|work=Slate|date=November 10, 2008|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110124183415/https://www.slate.com/id/2204251/|archive-date=January 24, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> Obama was [[2012 United States presidential election|reelected]] for a second and [[term limit|final term]], by a similar margin on November 6, 2012.<ref>{{cite news |last=Barnes |first=Robert |title=Obama wins a second term as U.S. president |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/after-grueling-campaign-polls-open-for-election-day-2012/2012/11/06/d1c24c98-2802-11e2-b4e0-346287b7e56c_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=November 6, 2012 |access-date=August 12, 2017 }}</ref> In 2021, [[Kamala Harris]] became the first woman, the first African American (and the first [[Asian American]]) to serve as [[Vice President of the United States]].<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Blood|first1=Michael R.|last2=Riccardi|first2=Nicholas|date=2020-12-05|title=Biden officially secures enough electors to become president|url=https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-elections-electoral-college-3e0b852c3cfadf853b08aecbfc3569fa|access-date=2021-03-02|work=[[Associated Press|AP News]]}}</ref>
 
==Demographics==
{{Further|Historical racial and ethnic demographics of the United States#Black population as a percentage of the total population by U.S. region and state (1790–2010)|List of U.S. communities with African-American majority populations|List of U.S. counties with African-American majority populations|List of U.S. states by African-American population}}
[[File:New 2000 black percent.gif|thumb|The proportional geographic distribution of African Americans in the United States, 2000]]
[[File:Absenceblacks.png|thumb|U.S. Census map indicating U.S. counties with fewer than 25 Black or African-American inhabitants]]
[[File:Percentage of African American population living in the American South.png|thumb|Graph showing the percentage of the African-American population living in the American South, 1790–2010. Note [[Great Migration (African American)|the major declines between 1910 and 1940]] and [[Second Great Migration (African American)|1940–1970]], and [[New Great Migration|the reverse trend post-1970]]. Nonetheless, the absolute majority of the African-American population has always lived in the American South.]]
 
In 1790, when the first [[United States Census|U.S. Census]] was taken, Africans (including slaves and free people) numbered about 760,000—about 19.3% of the population. In 1860, at the start of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the African-American population had increased to 4.4&nbsp;million, but the percentage rate dropped to 14% of the overall population of the country. The vast majority were slaves, with only 488,000 counted as "[[Freedman|freemen]]". By 1900, the Black population had doubled and reached 8.8&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.census.gov/prod/cen1990/wepeople/we-1.pdf|title= We the Americans: Blacks|website= US Bureau of Census|access-date= May 3, 2019}}</ref>
 
In 1910, about 90% of African Americans lived in the South. Large numbers began migrating north looking for better job opportunities and living conditions, and to escape [[Jim Crow laws]] and racial violence. The [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]], as it was called, spanned the 1890s to the 1970s. From 1916 through the 1960s, more than 6&nbsp;million [[Black people]] moved north. But in the 1970s and 1980s, [[New Great Migration|that trend reversed]], with more African Americans moving south to the [[Sun Belt]] than leaving it.<ref>{{cite book|title=Time: Almanac 2005|publisher=Time Incorporated Home Entertainment|page=[https://archive.org/details/timealmanac2006w00brun/page/377 377]|url=https://archive.org/details/timealmanac2006w00brun|url-access=registration|date=December 7, 2004}}</ref>
 
The following table of the African-American population in the United States over time shows that the African-American population, as a percentage of the total population, declined until 1930 and has been rising since then.
{|class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:85%;"
|+ African Americans in the United States<ref>This table gives the African-American population in the United States over time, based on U.S. Census figures. (Numbers from years 1920 to 2000 are based on U.S. Census figures as given by the ''Time Almanac'' of 2005, p. 377.)</ref>
! Year||Number||% of total<br />population||% Change<br />(10 yr)||Slaves||% in slavery
|-
|1790||757,208||19.3% (highest)||&nbsp;–||697,681||92%
|-
|1800||1,002,037||18.9%||32.3%||893,602||89%
|-
|1810||1,377,808||19.0%||37.5%||1,191,362||86%
|-
|1820||1,771,656||18.4%||28.6%||1,538,022||87%
|-
|1830||2,328,642||18.1%||31.4%||2,009,043||86%
|-
|1840||2,873,648||16.8%||23.4%||2,487,355||87%
|-
|1850||3,638,808||15.7%||26.6%||3,204,287||88%
|-
|1860||4,441,830||14.1%||22.1%||3,953,731||89%
|-
|1870||4,880,009||12.7%||9.9%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|1880||6,580,793||13.1%||34.9%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|1890||7,488,788||11.9%||13.8%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|1900||8,833,994||11.6%||18.0%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|1910||9,827,763||10.7%||11.2%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|1920||10.5&nbsp;million||9.9%||6.8%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|1930||11.9&nbsp;million||9.7% (lowest)||13%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|1940||12.9&nbsp;million||9.8%||8.4%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|1950||15.0&nbsp;million||10.0%||16%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|1960||18.9&nbsp;million||10.5%||26%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|1970||22.6&nbsp;million||11.1%||20%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|1980||26.5&nbsp;million||11.7%||17%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|1990||30.0&nbsp;million||12.1%||13%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|2000||34.6&nbsp;million||12.3%||15%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|-
|2010||38.9&nbsp;million||12.6%||12%||&nbsp;–||&nbsp;–
|}
 
By 1990, the African-American population reached about 30&nbsp;million and represented 12% of the U.S. population, roughly the same proportion as in 1900.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aap/timelin2.html|title=Time Line of African American History, 1881–1900|publisher=Lcweb2.loc.gov|date=n.d.|access-date=April 20, 2012}}</ref>
 
At the time of the [[United States Census 2000|2000 Census]], 54.8% of African Americans lived in the [[Southern United States|South]]. In that year, 17.6% of African Americans lived in the [[Northeastern United States|Northeast]] and 18.7% in the [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]], while only 8.9% lived in the [[Western United States|western]] states. The west does have a sizable Black population in certain areas, however. California, the nation's most populous state, has the fifth largest African-American population, only behind New York, Texas, Georgia, and Florida. According to the 2000 Census, approximately 2.05% of [[Black Hispanic and Latino Americans|African Americans identified as Hispanic or Latino in origin]],<ref name="tthqvu"/> many of whom may be of [[Afro-Brazilian|Brazilian]], [[Puerto Rican people|Puerto Rican]], [[Dominican American|Dominican]], [[Afro-Cuban|Cuban]], [[Haitian Americans|Haitian]], or other [[Afro-Latin American|Latin American]] descent. The only self-reported ''ancestral'' groups larger than African Americans are the [[Irish American|Irish]] and [[German Americans|Germans]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf|title=c2kbr01-2.qxd|access-date=January 20, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040920132346/https://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf|archive-date=September 20, 2004}}</ref>
 
According to the [[2010 United States Census|2010 U.S. Census]], nearly 3% of people who self-identified as Black had recent ancestors who immigrated from another country. Self-reported [[West Indian American|non-Hispanic Black immigrants from the Caribbean]], mostly from Jamaica and Haiti, represented 0.9% of the U.S. population, at 2.6&nbsp;million.<ref name="factfinder2.census.gov">[https://archive.today/20150118121537/http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_10_1YR_B04003&prodType=table "Total Ancestry Reported"], American FactFinder.</ref> Self-reported Black immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa also represented 0.9%, at about 2.8&nbsp;million.<ref name="factfinder2.census.gov"/> Additionally, self-identified [[Black Hispanic and Latino Americans|Black Hispanics]] represented 0.4% of the United States population, at about 1.2&nbsp;million people, largely found within the Puerto Rican and Dominican communities.<ref>[https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-04.pdf "The Hispanic Population: 2010"], 2010 Census Briefs. US Census Bureau, May 2011.</ref> Self-reported Black immigrants hailing from other countries in the Americas, such as Brazil and Canada, as well as several European countries, represented less than 0.1% of the population. Mixed-Race Hispanic and non-Hispanic Americans who identified as being part Black, represented 0.9% of the population. Of the 12.6% of United States residents who identified as Black, around 10.3% were "native Black American" or ethnic African Americans, who are direct descendants of West/Central Africans brought to the U.S. as slaves. These individuals make up well over 80% of all Blacks in the country. When including [[Multiracial American|people of mixed-race origin]], about 13.5% of the U.S. population self-identified as Black or "mixed with Black".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_10_1YR_DP05&prodType=table|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200212055927/http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_10_1YR_DP05&prodType=table|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-02-12|title=American FactFinder – Results|first=U.S. Census|last=Bureau|website=factfinder2.census.gov}}</ref> However, according to the U.S. census bureau, evidence from the 2000 Census indicates that many African and Caribbean immigrant ethnic groups do not identify as "Black, African Am., or Negro". Instead, they wrote in their own respective ethnic groups in the "Some Other Race" write-in entry. As a result, the census bureau devised a new, separate "African American" ethnic group category in 2010 for ethnic African Americans.<ref name="Tcpms">{{cite web|title=2010 CENSUS PLANNING MEMORANDA SERIES|url=https://www.census.gov/2010census/pdf/2010_Census_Race_HO_AQE.pdf|publisher=United States Census Bureau|access-date=November 3, 2014}}</ref>
 
===U.S. cities===
{{Further|List of U.S. cities with large African-American populations|List of U.S. metropolitan areas with large African-American populations}}
After 100 years of African Americans leaving the south in large numbers seeking better opportunities and treatment in the west and north, a movement known as the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]], there is now a reverse trend, called the [[New Great Migration]]. As with the earlier Great Migration, the New Great Migration is primarily directed toward cities and large urban areas, such as [[Atlanta]], [[Charlotte, North Carolina|Charlotte]], [[Houston]], [[Dallas]], [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]], [[Tampa]], [[San Antonio]], [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]], [[Nashville]], [[Jacksonville]], and so forth.<ref name="auto1">Greg Toppo and Paul Overberg, [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/02/02/census-great-migration-reversal/21818127/ "After nearly 100 years, Great Migration begins reversal"], ''USA Today'', 2014.</ref> A growing percentage of African-Americans from the west and north are migrating to the southern region of the U.S. for economic and cultural reasons. [[New York City]], [[Chicago]], and [[Los Angeles]] have the highest decline in African Americans, while [[Atlanta]], [[Dallas]], and [[Houston]] have the highest increase respectively.<ref name="auto1"/>
 
Among cities of 100,000 or more, [[Detroit|Detroit, Michigan]] had the highest percentage of Black residents of any U.S. city in 2010, with 82%. Other large cities with African-American majorities include [[Jackson, Mississippi]] (79.4%), [[Miami Gardens, Florida]] (76.3%), [[Baltimore|Baltimore, Maryland]] (63%), [[Birmingham, Alabama]] (62.5%), [[Memphis, Tennessee]] (61%), [[New Orleans|New Orleans, Louisiana]] (60%), [[Montgomery, Alabama]] (56.6%), [[Flint, Michigan]] (56.6%), [[Savannah, Georgia]] (55.0%), [[Augusta, Georgia]] (54.7%), [[Atlanta|Atlanta, Georgia]] (54%, see [[African Americans in Atlanta]]), [[Cleveland]], Ohio (53.3%), [[Newark, New Jersey]] (52.35%), Washington, D.C. (50.7%), [[Richmond, Virginia]] (50.6%), [[Mobile, Alabama]] (50.6%), [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana]] (50.4%), and [[Shreveport, Louisiana]] (50.4%).
 
The nation's most affluent community with an African-American majority resides in [[View Park–Windsor Hills, California]] with an annual median household income of $159,618.<ref>[https://atlantablackstar.com/2014/01/03/10-richest-black-communities-america/5/ "10 of the Richest Black Communities in America"], ''Atlanta Black Star'', January 3, 2014.</ref> Other largely affluent and African-American communities include [[Prince George's County, Maryland|Prince George's County]] in Maryland (namely [[Mitchellville, Maryland|Mitchellville]], [[Woodmore, Maryland|Woodmore]], and [[Upper Marlboro, Maryland|Upper Marlboro]]), [[DeKalb County, Georgia|Dekalb County]] and [[South Fulton, Georgia|South Fulton]] in Georgia, [[Charles City County, Virginia|Charles City County]] in Virginia, [[Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles|Baldwin Hills]] in California, [[Hillcrest, Rockland County, New York|Hillcrest]] and [[Uniondale, New York|Uniondale]] in New York, and [[Cedar Hill, Texas|Cedar Hill]], [[DeSoto, Texas|DeSoto]], and [[Missouri City, Texas|Missouri City]] in Texas. [[Queens|Queens County, New York]] is the only county with a population of 65,000 or more where African Americans have a higher median household income than White Americans.<ref name=Queens/>
 
[[Seatack, Virginia]] is currently the oldest African-American community in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://rigell.house.gov/videos/?VideoID=Nkfj0D-Qw78|title=Video Gallery – U.S. Representative Scott Rigell|access-date=July 18, 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821175636/https://rigell.house.gov/videos/?VideoID=Nkfj0D-Qw78|archive-date=August 21, 2016}}</ref> It survives today with a vibrant and active civic community.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archives.thenewjournalandguide.com/community/item/3764-seatack-community-celebrates-200%20-years-with-banquet|title=Seatack Community Celebrates 200+ Years With Banquet}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
 
===Education===
[[File:Neil deGrasse Tyson - NAC Nov 2005.jpg|thumb|upright|Astrophysicist [[Neil deGrasse Tyson]] is director of New York City's [[Hayden Planetarium]].]]
In 1863, enslaved Americans became free citizens during a time when public educational systems were expanding across the country. By 1870, around seventy-four institutions in the south provided a form of advanced education for African American students, and by 1800, over a hundred programs at these schools provided training for Black professionals, including teachers. Many of the students at Fisk University, including W. E. B. Du Bois when he was a student there, taught school during the summers to support their studies.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fultz |first1=Michael |title=Determination and Persistence: Building the African American Teacher Corps through Summer and Intermittent Teaching, 1860s-1890s |journal=History of Education Quarterly |date=February 2021 |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=4–34 |doi=10.1017/heq.2020.65|doi-access=free }}</ref>
 
African Americans were very concerned to provide quality education for their children, but White supremacy limited their ability to participate in educational policymaking on the political level. State governments soon moved to undermine their citizenship by restricting their right to vote. By the late 1870s, Blacks were disenfranchised and segregated across the American South.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=James D. |title=The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 |date=1988 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill, NC |isbn=0-8078-1793-7}}</ref> White politicians in Mississippi and other states withheld financial resources and supplies from Black schools. Nevertheless, the presence of Black teachers, and their engagement with their communities both inside and outside the classroom, ensured that Black students had access to education despite these external constraints.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Span |first1=Christopher M. |title=From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse: African American Education in Mississippi, 1862-1875 |date=2009 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill, NC}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ladson-Billings |first1=Gloria |last2=Anderson |first2=James D. |title=Policy Dialogue: Black Teachers of the Past, Present, and Future |journal=History of Education Quarterly |date=February 3, 2021 |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=94–102 |doi=10.1017/heq.2020.68|doi-access=free }}</ref>
 
Predominantly Black schools for kindergarten through twelfth grade students were common throughout the U.S. before the 1970s. By 1972, however, desegregation efforts meant that only 25% of Black students were in schools with more than 90% non-White students. However, since then, a trend towards re-segregation affected communities across the country: by 2011, 2.9&nbsp;million African-American students were in such overwhelmingly minority schools, including 53% of Black students in school districts that were formerly under desegregation orders.<ref>Kozol, J. [https://www.thenation.com/doc/20051219/kozol "Overcoming Apartheid", ''The Nation''. December 19, 2005. p. 26].</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url = https://www.propublica.org/article/segregation-now-full-text|title = Segregation Now|last = Hannah-Jones|first = Nikole|date = April 16, 2014|work = ProPublica|access-date = December 14, 2015}}</ref>
 
[[Historically Black colleges and universities|Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)]], which were originally set up when segregated colleges did not admit African Americans, continue to thrive and educate students of all races today. The majority of HBCUs were established in the [[southeastern United States]], [[List of colleges and universities in Alabama|Alabama]] has the most HBCUs of any state.<ref>[https://www.tnj.com/lists-resources/hbcu "Lists of Historical Black Colleges and Universities"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170702201350/http://www.tnj.com/lists-resources/hbcu |date=July 2, 2017 }}, ''The Network Journal''.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://hbcu-levers.blogspot.com/p/frequently-asked-questions-faqs-about.html#BestHBCU|title=TECH-Levers: FAQs About HBCUs|access-date=July 18, 2016}}</ref>
 
As late as 1947, about one third of African Americans over 65 were considered to lack the literacy to read and write their own names. By 1969, [[illiteracy]] as it had been traditionally defined, had been largely eradicated among younger African Americans.<ref>Public Information Office, [[U.S. Census Bureau]]. [https://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2000/cb00-151.html High School Completions at All-Time High, Census Bureau Reports] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327134138/http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2000/cb00-151.html |date=March 27, 2010 }}. September 15, 2000.</ref>
 
U.S. Census surveys showed that by 1998, 89 percent of African Americans aged 25 to 29 had completed a high-school education, less than Whites or Asians, but more than Hispanics. On many college entrance, standardized tests and grades, African Americans have historically lagged behind Whites, but some studies suggest that the [[Achievement gap in the United States|achievement gap]] has been closing. Many policy makers have proposed that this gap can and will be eliminated through policies such as [[affirmative action]], desegregation, and multiculturalism.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.closingtheachievementgap.org/cs/ctag/print/htdocs/home.htm|title=California|publisher=Closing the Achievement Gap|date=January 22, 2008|access-date=April 20, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120428123215/http://www.closingtheachievementgap.org/cs/ctag/print/htdocs/home.htm|archive-date=April 28, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>
 
Between 1995 and 2009, freshmen college enrollment for African Americans increased by 73 percent and only 15 percent for Whites.<ref>Michael A. Fletcher, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/minorities-and-whites-follow-unequal-college-paths-report-says/2013/07/31/61c18f08-f9f3-11e2-8752-b41d7ed1f685_story.html "Minorities and whites follow unequal college paths, report says"], ''The Washington Post'', July 31, 2013.</ref> Black women are enrolled in college more than any other race and gender group, leading all with 9.7% enrolled according to the 2011 U.S. Census Bureau.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/black-women-become-most-educated-group-in-us-a7063361.html|title=Black women become most educated group in US|date=June 3, 2016|access-date=July 18, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/hhes/school/data/cps/2011/tables.html |title=CPS October 2011 – Detailed Tables |access-date=December 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118080151/http://www.census.gov/hhes/school/data/cps/2011/tables.html |archive-date=January 18, 2017 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>
The average high school graduation rate of Blacks in the United States has steadily increased to 71% in 2013.<ref>Allie Bidwell, [https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/03/16/federal-data-show-racial-gap-in-high-school-graduation-rates-is-closing "Racial Gaps in High School Graduation Rates Are Closing"], ''U.S. News'', March 16, 2015.</ref> Separating this statistic into component parts shows it varies greatly depending upon the state and the school district examined. 38% of Black males graduated in the state of New York but in Maine 97% graduated and exceeded the White male graduation rate by 11 percentage points.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Alonso|first1=Andres A.|title=Black Male Graduation Rates|url=https://blackboysreport.org/national-summary/black-male-graduation-rates|website=blackboysreport.org|publisher=The Schott Foundation for Public Education|access-date=September 24, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016154552/http://blackboysreport.org/national-summary/black-male-graduation-rates|archive-date=October 16, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> In much of the southeastern United States and some parts of the southwestern United States the graduation rate of White males was in fact below 70% such as in Florida where 62% of White males graduated from high school. Examining specific school districts paints an even more complex picture. In the Detroit school district the graduation rate of Black males was 20% but 7% for White males. In the New York City school district 28% of Black males graduate from high school compared to 57% of White males. In Newark County{{Where|date=September 2014}} 76% of Black males graduated compared to 67% for White males. Further academic improvement has occurred in 2015. Roughly 23% of all Blacks have bachelor's degrees. In 1988, 21% of Whites had obtained a bachelor's degree versus 11% of Blacks. In 2015, 23% of Blacks had obtained a bachelor's degree versus 36% of Whites.<ref name="Census Report">{{cite web|last1=Ryan|first1=Camille L.|title=Educational Attainment in the United States|url=https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p20-578.pdf|website=census.gov|publisher=The United States Bureau Of Statistics|access-date=July 22, 2017}}</ref> Foreign born Blacks, 9% of the Black population, made even greater strides. They exceed native born Blacks by 10 percentage points.<ref name="Census Report"/>
 
===Economic status===
{{citations broken|date=July 2021}}
[[File:US Homeownership by Race 2009.png|thumb|The [[Homeownership in the United States|US homeownership rate]] according to race<ref name="US Census Bureau, homeownership by race">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/annual09/ann09t22.xls|title=US Census Bureau, homeownership by race|access-date=October 6, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327060251/http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/annual09/ann09t22.xls|archive-date=March 27, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>]]
Economically, African Americans have benefited from the advances made during the [[civil rights era]], particularly among the educated, but not without the lingering effects of historical marginalisation when considered as a whole. The [[Racial inequality in the United States|racial disparity in poverty rates]] has narrowed. The Black middle class has grown substantially. In the first quarter of 2021, 45.1% of African Americans owned their homes, compared to 65.3% of all Americans.<ref>{{cite web |title=RESIDENTIAL VACANCIES AND HOMEOWNERSHIP |url=https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf |website=U.S. Census Bureau |access-date=13 July 2021}}</ref> The [[African-American poverty|poverty rate among African Americans]] has decreased from 24.7% in 2004 to 18.8% in 2020, compared to 10.5% for all Americans.<ref name="DeNavas-Walt"/><ref>{{Cite web|last=CREAMER|first=JOHN|date=September 15, 2020|title=Inequalities Persist Despite Decline in Poverty For All Major Race and Hispanic Origin Groups|url=https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/poverty-rates-for-blacks-and-hispanics-reached-historic-lows-in-2019.html|url-status=live|website=U.S. Census Bureau}}</ref>
 
[[File:US real median household income 1967 - 2011.PNG|thumb|This graph shows the real median [[Household income in the United States|US household income]] by race: 1967 to 2011, in 2011 dollars.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Carmen|last1=DeNavas-Walt|first2=Bernadette D.|last2=Proctor|first3=Jessica C.|last3=Smith|date=September 2012|chapter=Real Median Household Income by Race and Hispanic Origin: 1967 to 2010|page=8|title=Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2011|chapter-url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-243.pdf|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau}}</ref>]]
 
African Americans have a combined buying power of over $892&nbsp;billion currently and likely over $1.1&nbsp;trillion by 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bizreport.com/2008/02/report_affluent_africanamericans_have_45_of_buying_power.html|title=Report: Affluent African-Americans have 45% of buying power|publisher=Bizreport.com|date=February 22, 2008|access-date=April 20, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS218860+06-Feb-2008+PRN20080206|title=Buying Power Among African Americans to Reach $1.1 Trillion by 2012|work=Reuters|date=February 6, 2008|access-date=April 20, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090912003237/https://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS218860+06-Feb-2008+PRN20080206|archive-date=September 12, 2009}}</ref> In 2002, African American-owned businesses accounted for 1.2&nbsp;million of the US's 23&nbsp;million businesses.<ref>[https://www.webcitation.org/6AUOAL4XD?url=http://web.archive.org/web/20051030110726/http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/business_ownership/005477.html Minority Groups Increasing Business Ownership at Higher Rate than National Average, Census Bureau Reports] U.S. Census Press Release</ref> {{as of|2011}} African American-owned businesses account for approximately 2&nbsp;million [[US businesses]].<ref name=Tozzi>{{cite web|last=Tozzi|first=John|url=https://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jul2010/sb20100715_469797.htm|title=Minority Businesses Multiply But Still Lag Whites|work=Bloomberg BusinessWeek|date=July 16, 2010|access-date=April 20, 2012}}</ref> Black-owned businesses experienced the largest growth in number of businesses among minorities from 2002 to 2011.<ref name=Tozzi/>
 
Twenty-five percent of Blacks had [[White-collar worker|white-collar]] occupations (management, professional, and related fields) in 2000, compared with 33.6% of Americans overall.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-25.pdf|title=Occupations: 2000|author1=Peter Fronczek |author2=Patricia Johnson |publisher=United States Census Bureau|date=August 2003|access-date=October 24, 2006}}</ref><ref name="Black Pop-March 2002">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p20-541.pdf|title=The Black Population in the United States: March 2002|author=Jesse McKinnon|publisher=United States Census Bureau|date=April 2003|access-date=October 24, 2006}}</ref> In 2001, over half of African-American households of married couples earned $50,000 or more.<ref name="Black Pop-March 2002"/> Although in the same year African Americans were over-represented among the nation's poor, this was directly related to the disproportionate percentage of African-American families headed by single women; such families are collectively poorer, regardless of ethnicity.<ref name="Black Pop-March 2002"/>
 
In 2006, the median earnings of African-American men was more than Black and non-Black American women overall, and in all educational levels.<ref name="census.gov-PINC03">{{cite web|url=https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_131.htm|title=PINC-03-Part 131|publisher=Pubdb3.census.gov|date=August 29, 2006|access-date=January 20, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515100925/https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_131.htm|archive-date=May 15, 2011}}</ref><ref name="census.gov-254">{{cite web|url=https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_254.htm|title=PINC-03-Part 254|publisher=Pubdb3.census.gov|date=August 29, 2006|access-date=January 20, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110509101748/https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_254.htm|archive-date=May 9, 2011}}</ref><ref name="census.gov-259">{{cite web|url=https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_259.htm|title=PINC-03-Part 259|publisher=Pubdb3.census.gov|date=August 29, 2006|access-date=January 20, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511022845/https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_259.htm|archive-date=May 11, 2011}}</ref><ref name="census.gov-135">{{cite web|url=https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_135.htm|title=PINC-03-Part 135|publisher=Pubdb3.census.gov|date=August 29, 2006|access-date=January 20, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110509101502/https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_135.htm|archive-date=May 9, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_253.htm|title=PINC-03-Part 253|publisher=Pubdb3.census.gov|date=August 29, 2006|access-date=January 20, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110509101729/https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_253.htm|archive-date=May 9, 2011}}</ref> At the same time, among American men, income disparities were significant; the median income of African-American men was approximately 76 cents for every dollar of their European American counterparts, although the gap narrowed somewhat with a rise in educational level.<ref name="census.gov-PINC03"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_128.htm|title=PINC-03-Part 128|publisher=Pubdb3.census.gov|date=August 29, 2006|access-date=January 20, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110509102045/https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_128.htm|archive-date=May 9, 2011}}</ref>
 
Overall, the median earnings of African-American men were 72 cents for every dollar earned of their Asian American counterparts, and $1.17 for every dollar earned by Hispanic men.<ref name="census.gov-PINC03"/><ref name="census.gov-135"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_133.htm|title=PINC-03-Part 133|publisher=Pubdb3.census.gov|date=August 29, 2006|access-date=January 20, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511022120/https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_133.htm|archive-date=May 11, 2011}}</ref> On the other hand, by 2006, among American women with post-secondary education, African-American women have made significant advances; the median income of African-American women was more than those of their Asian-, European- and Hispanic American counterparts with at least some college education.<ref name="census.gov-254"/><ref name="census.gov-259"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_005.htm|title=PINC-03-Part 5|publisher=Pubdb3.census.gov|date=August 29, 2006|access-date=January 20, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110509102039/https://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_005.htm|archive-date=May 9, 2011}}</ref>
 
The U.S. [[public sector]] is the single most important source of employment for African Americans.<ref name="laborcenter.berkeley.edu">{{cite web|url=https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/blackworkers/blacks_public_sector11.pdf|title="Black Workers and the Public Sector", Dr Steven Pitts, University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor Research and Education, April 4, 2011|access-date=July 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140713001456/http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/blackworkers/blacks_public_sector11.pdf|archive-date=July 13, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> During 2008–2010, 21.2% of all Black workers were public employees, compared with 16.3% of non-Black workers.<ref name="laborcenter.berkeley.edu"/> Both before and after the onset of the [[Great Recession]], African Americans were 30% more likely than other workers to be employed in the public sector.<ref name="laborcenter.berkeley.edu"/>
 
The public sector is also a critical source of decent-paying jobs for Black Americans. For both men and women, the median wage earned by Black employees is significantly higher in the public sector than in other industries.<ref name="laborcenter.berkeley.edu"/>
 
In 1999, the median income of African-American families was $33,255 compared to $53,356 of European Americans. In times of economic hardship for the nation, African Americans suffer disproportionately from job loss and [[underemployment]], with the Black underclass being hardest hit. The phrase "last hired and first fired" is reflected in the [[Bureau of Labor Statistics]] unemployment figures. Nationwide, the October 2008 unemployment rate for African Americans was 11.1%,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t02.htm|title=BLS.gov|publisher=BLS.gov|date=January 7, 2011|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213004820/https://bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t02.htm|archive-date=December 13, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> while the nationwide rate was 6.5%.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LNS14000000|title=BLS.gov|publisher=Data.bls.gov|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110120154929/https://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LNS14000000|archive-date=January 20, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
 
The income gap between Black and White families is also significant. In 2005, employed Blacks earned 65% of the wages of Whites, down from 82% in 1975.<ref name="DeNavas-Walt">{{cite web|author1=Carmen DeNavas-Walt |author2=Bernadette D. Proctor |author3=Cheryl Hill Lee |url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/p60-229.pdf|title=Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004|date=August 2005|publisher=United States Census Bureau|pages=60–229}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' reported in 2006 that in [[Queens]], New York, the median income among African-American families exceeded that of White families, which the newspaper attributed to the growth in the number of two-parent Black families. It noted that Queens was the only county with more than 65,000 residents where that was true.<ref name=Queens>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/nyregion/01census.html|title=Black Incomes Surpass Whites in Queens|date=October 1, 2006|website=The New York Times|access-date=July 18, 2016}}</ref> In 2011, it was reported that [[African-American family structure|72% of Black babies were born to unwed mothers]].<ref name="Washington">WASHINGTON, J. (2010). Blacks struggle with 72 percent unwed mothers rate.</ref> The poverty rate among single-parent Black families was 39.5% in 2005, according to [[Walter E. Williams]], while it was 9.9% among married-couple Black families. Among White families, the respective rates were 26.4% and 6% in poverty.<ref>[https://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams102705.asp Ammunition for poverty pimps] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525114424/http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams102705.asp |date=May 25, 2017 }} Walter E. Williams, October 27, 2005.</ref>
 
Collectively, African Americans are more involved in the American political process than other minority groups in the United States, indicated by the highest level of voter registration and participation in elections among these groups in 2004.<ref name="vote-nov2007">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p20-556.pdf|title=Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2007|date=March 2006|access-date=May 30, 2007}}</ref> African Americans also have the highest level of [[United States Congress|Congressional representation]] of any minority group in the U.S.<ref>{{cite web|author=Jonathan D. Mott|url=https://www.thisnation.com/congress-facts.html|title=The United States Congress Quick Facts|publisher=ThisNation.com|date=February 4, 2010|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110305031403/https://www.thisnation.com/congress-facts.html|archive-date=March 5, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
 
===Politics===
Since the mid 20th century, a large majority of African Americans support the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. In the [[2004 United States presidential election|2004 Presidential Election]], Democrat [[John Kerry]] received 88% of the African-American vote compared to 11% for [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[George W. Bush]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html|title=2004 Election Results|publisher=CNN|year=2004}}</ref> Although there is an African-American lobby in foreign policy, it has not had the impact that African-American organizations have had in domestic policy.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=American Society and the African American Foreign Policy Lobby: Constraints and Opportunities|first=David A.|last=Dickson|journal=Journal of Black Studies|year=1996|pages=139–151|volume=27|doi=10.1177/002193479602700201|issue=2|s2cid=143314945}}</ref>
 
Many African Americans were excluded from electoral politics in the decades following the end of Reconstruction. For those that could participate, until the [[New Deal]], African Americans were supporters of the Republican Party because it was Republican President Abraham Lincoln who helped in granting freedom to American slaves; at the time, the Republicans and Democrats represented the [[Sectionalism|sectional]] interests of the [[Northern United States|North]] and [[Southern United States|South]], respectively, rather than any specific ideology, and both [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] and [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]] were represented equally in both parties.
 
The African-American trend of voting for Democrats can be traced back to the 1930s during the [[Great Depression]], when [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]] program provided economic relief to African Americans. Roosevelt's [[New Deal coalition]] turned the Democratic Party into an organization of the working class and their liberal allies, regardless of region. The African-American vote became even more solidly Democratic when Democratic presidents [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] pushed for civil rights legislation during the 1960s. In 1960, nearly a third of African Americans voted for Republican [[Richard Nixon]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=John Clifford Green|author2=Daniel J. Coffey|title=The State of the Parties: The Changing Role of Contemporary American Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nIPRBXgzSYEC&pg=PA29|year=2007|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-5322-4|page=29}}</ref>
 
===Sexuality===
{{See also|African-American LGBT community}}
According to a [[Gallup survey]], 4.6% of Black or African-Americans self-identified as [[LGBT rights in the United States|LGBT]] in 2016,<ref name="More Adults" /> while the total portion of American adults in all ethnic groups identifying as LGBT was 4.1% in 2016.<ref name="More Adults">{{cite news|url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/201731/lgbt-identification-rises.aspx|title=In US, More Adults Identifying as LGBT|publisher=[[Gallup (company)|Gallup]] |date=January 11, 2017}}</ref>
 
===Health===
{{Further|Race and health in the United States#African Americans}}
 
====General====
The life expectancy for Black men in 2008 was 70.8 years.<ref name="articles.latimes.com">{{cite web |url=https://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/05/science/la-sci-life-expectancy-gap-20120606 |title="Life expectancy gap narrows between blacks, whites", Rosie Mestel, ''The Los Angeles Times'', June 5, 2012. |access-date=July 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826131902/http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/05/science/la-sci-life-expectancy-gap-20120606 |archive-date=August 26, 2017 |url-status=dead  |date=June 5, 2012 }}</ref> Life expectancy for Black women was 77.5 years in 2008.<ref name="articles.latimes.com"/> In 1900, when information on Black life expectancy started being collated, a Black man could expect to live to 32.5 years and a Black woman 33.5 years.<ref name="articles.latimes.com"/> In 1900, White men lived an average of 46.3 years and White women lived an average of 48.3 years.<ref name="articles.latimes.com"/> African-American life expectancy at birth is persistently five to seven years lower than [[European Americans]].<ref name="lavest">{{Cite journal|author=LaVeist TA|title=Racial segregation and longevity among African Americans: an individual-level analysis|journal=Health Services Research|volume=38|issue=6 Pt 2|pages=1719–33|date=December 2003|pmid=14727794|pmc=1360970|doi=10.1111/j.1475-6773.2003.00199.x}}</ref> Black men have shorter lifespans than any other group in the US besides Native American men.<ref name="Gilbert">{{cite journal|doi=10.1146/annurev-publhealth-032315-021556|doi-access=free|title=Visible and Invisible Trends in Black Men's Health: Pitfalls and Promises for Addressing Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Inequities in Health|year=2016|last1=Gilbert|first1=Keon L.|last2=Ray|first2=Rashawn|last3=Siddiqi|first3=Arjumand|last4=Shetty|first4=Shivan|last5=Baker|first5=Elizabeth A.|last6=Elder|first6=Keith|last7=Griffith|first7=Derek M.|journal=Annual Review of Public Health|volume=37|pages=295–311|pmid=26989830|pmc=6531286}}</ref>
 
Black people have higher rates of [[obesity]], [[diabetes]], and [[hypertension]] than the U.S. average.<ref name="articles.latimes.com"/> For adult Black men, the rate of obesity was 31.6% in 2010.<ref name="cdc.gov">{{Cite web|url=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_252.pdf|title=CDC 2012. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2010, p. 107}}</ref> For adult Black women, the rate of obesity was 41.2% in 2010.<ref name="cdc.gov"/> African Americans have higher rates of mortality than any other racial or ethnic group for 8 of the top 10 causes of death.<ref name=hummer2004>{{Cite journal|vauthors=Hummer RA, Ellison CG, Rogers RG, Moulton BE, Romero RR |s2cid=6053725|title=Religious involvement and adult mortality in the United States: review and perspective|journal=Southern Medical Journal|volume=97|issue=12|pages=1223–30|date=December 2004|pmid=15646761|doi=10.1097/01.SMJ.0000146547.03382.94}}</ref> In 2013, among men, Black men had the highest rate of getting cancer, followed by White, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander (A/PI), and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) men. Among women, White women had the highest rate of getting cancer, followed by Black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native women.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/dcpc/data/race.htm|title=Cancer Rates by Race/Ethnicity and Sex|website= Cancer Prevention and Control|publisher=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|date=June 21, 2016|access-date=February 24, 2017}}</ref>
 
Violence has an impact upon African-American life expectancy. A report from the [[U.S. Department of Justice]] states "In 2005, homicide victimization rates for blacks were 6 times higher than the rates for whites".<ref name="Homicide trends in the U.S">[https://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/race.htm Homicide trends in the U.S.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061212100248/https://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/race.htm |date=December 12, 2006 }}, U.S. Department of Justice</ref> The report also found that "94% of black victims were killed by blacks."<ref name="Homicide trends in the U.S"/> Black boys and men age 15&ndash;44 are the only race/sex category for which homicide is a top-five cause of death.<ref name="Gilbert"/>
 
====Sexual health====
According to the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]], African Americans have higher rates of [[sexually transmitted infections]] (STIs) compared to Whites, with 5 times the rates of [[syphilis]] and [[Chlamydia infection|chlamydia]], and 7.5 times the rate of [[gonorrhea]].<ref>{{cite web |title=STDs in Racial and Ethnic Minorities |url=https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats17/minorities.htm |website=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2017 |publisher=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |access-date=June 22, 2019|date=June 17, 2019 }}</ref>
 
The disproportionately high incidence of [[HIV/AIDS in the United States|HIV/AIDS among African-Americans]] has been attributed to [[Homophobia in the African American community|homophobic]] influences and lack of access to proper healthcare.<ref>{{cite news|title= Homophobia in Black Communities Means More Young Men Get AIDS|work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=November 22, 2013|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/events/archive/2013/11/homophobia-in-black-communities-means-more-young-men-get-aids/281741/|access-date=January 21, 2014}}</ref> The prevalence of [[HIV/AIDS]] among Black men is seven times higher than the prevalence for White men, and Black men are more than nine times as likely to die from HIV/AIDS-related illness than White men.<ref name="Gilbert"/>
 
==== Mental health ====
African Americans have several [[Obstacles to receiving mental health services among African American youth|barriers]] for accessing [[mental health]] services. [[Mental health counselor|Counseling]] has been frowned upon and distant in utility and proximity to many people in the African American community. In 2004, a qualitative research study explored the disconnect with African Americans and mental health. The study was conducted as a semi-structured discussion which allowed the focus group to express their opinions and life experiences. The results revealed a couple key variables that create barriers for many African American communities to seek mental health services such as the stigma, lack of four important necessities; trust, affordability, cultural understanding and impersonal services.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Thompson|first1=Vetta L. Sanders|last2=Bazile|first2=Anita|last3=Akbar|first3=Maysa|year=2004|title=African Americans' Perceptions of Psychotherapy and Psychotherapists.|journal=Professional Psychology: Research and Practice|volume=35|issue=1|pages=19–26|doi=10.1037/0735-7028.35.1.19|issn=1939-1323|citeseerx=10.1.1.515.2135}}</ref>
 
Historically, many African American communities did not seek counseling because religion was a part of the family values.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Turner|first=Natalie|title=Mental Health Care Treatment Seeking Among African Americans and Caribbean Blacks: What is The Role of Religiosity/Spirituality?|journal=Aging and Mental Health|volume=23|issue=7|pages=905–911|doi=10.1080/13607863.2018.1453484|pmid=29608328|year=2018|pmc=6168439|url=https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=honorscollege_sw}}</ref> African American who have a faith background are more likely to seek prayer as a coping mechanism for mental issues rather than seeking professional mental health services.<ref name=":0" /> In 2015 a study concluded, African Americans with high value in religion are less likely to utilize mental health services compared to those who have low value in religion.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Lukachko|first1=Alicia|last2=Myer|first2=Ilan|last3=Hankerson|first3=Sidney|date=August 1, 2015|title=Religiosity and Mental Health Service Use Among African-americans|journal=The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease|volume=203|issue=8|pages=578–582|doi=10.1097/NMD.0000000000000334|issn=0022-3018|pmc=4535188|pmid=26172387}}</ref>
 
Most counseling approaches are [[Westernization|westernized]] and do not fit within the African American culture. African American families tend to resolve concerns within the family, and it is viewed by the family as a strength. On the other hand, when African Americans seek counseling, they face a social backlash and are criticized. They may be labeled "crazy", viewed as weak, and their pride is diminished.<ref name=":0" /> Because of this, many African Americans instead seek mentorship within communities they trust.
 
Terminology is another barrier in relation to African Americans and mental health. There is more stigma on the term ''[[psychotherapy]]'' versus counseling. In one study, psychotherapy is associated with mental illness whereas counseling approaches problem-solving, guidance and help.<ref name=":0" /> More African Americans seek assistance when it is called counseling and not psychotherapy because it is more welcoming within the cultural and community.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A19573641/AONE|title='Don't Show Weakness:' Black Americans Still Shy Away from Psychotherapy|last=Leland|first=John|date=December 8, 2018|magazine=Newsweek}}</ref> Counselors are encouraged to be aware of such barriers for the well-being of African American clients. Without [[Cultural competence in healthcare|cultural competency]] training in health care, many African Americans go unheard and misunderstood.<ref name=":0" />
 
Although [[suicide]] is a top-10 cause of death for men overall in the US, it is not a top-10 cause of death for Black men.<ref name="Gilbert"/>
 
==Genetics==
 
===Genome-wide studies===
[[File:PCA and individual ancestry estimates for African Americans.png|thumb|upright=1.6|Genetic clustering of 128 African Americans, by Zakharaia et al. (2009). Each vertical bar represents an individual. The color scheme of the bar plot matches that in the PCA plot.<ref name="Zakharia2009"/>]]
Recent surveys of African Americans using a genetic testing service have found varied ancestries which show different tendencies by region and sex of ancestors. These studies found that on average, African Americans have 73.2–82.1% [[West African people|West African]], 16.7%–24% European, and 0.8–1.2% Native American genetic ancestry, with large variation between individuals.<ref name="Bryc2009"/><ref name="Bryc 2015">{{cite journal|author1=Katarzyna Bryc |author2=Eric Y. Durand |author3=J. Michael Macpherson |author4=David Reich |author5=Joanna L. Mountain |title=The Genetic Ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans across the United States|journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics|date=January 8, 2015|volume=96|issue=1|pages=37–53|doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.11.010|pmc=4289685 |pmid=25529636}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author1=Soheil Baharian |author2=Maxime Barakatt |author3=Christopher R. Gignoux |author4=Suyash Shringarpure |author5=Jacob Errington |author6=William J. Blot |author7=Carlos D. Bustamante |author8=Eimear E. Kenny |author9=Scott M. Williams |author10=Melinda C. Aldrich |author11=Simon Gravel|title=The Great Migration and African-American Genomic Diversity|journal=PLOS Genetics|date=May 27, 2015|doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1006059|volume=12 |issue=5 |pages=e1006059 |pmid=27232753 |pmc=4883799}}</ref> Genetics websites themselves have reported similar ranges, with some finding 1 or 2 percent Native American ancestry and [[Ancestry.com]] reporting an outlying percentage of European ancestry among African Americans, 29%.<ref>[[Henry Louis Gates, Jr.]], "[https://www.theroot.com/exactly-how-black-is-black-america-1790895185 Exactly How 'Black' Is Black America?]", ''The Root'', February 11, 2013.</ref>
 
According to a genome-wide study by Bryc et al. (2009), the mixed ancestry of African Americans in varying ratios came about as the result of sexual contact between West/Central Africans (more frequently females) and Europeans (more frequently males). Consequently, the 365 African Americans in their sample have a genome-wide average of 78.1% West African ancestry and 18.5% European ancestry, with large variation among individuals (ranging from 99% to 1% West African ancestry). The West African ancestral component in African Americans is most similar to that in present-day speakers from the non-[[Bantu languages|Bantu]] branches of the [[Niger-Congo languages|Niger-Congo]] (Niger-Kordofanian) family.<ref name="Bryc2009">{{cite journal|author1=Katarzyna Bryc |author2=Adam Auton |author3=Matthew R. Nelson |author4=Jorge R. Oksenberg |author5=Stephen L. Hauser |author6=Scott Williams |author7=Alain Froment |author8=Jean-Marie Bodo |author9=Charles Wambebe |author10=Sarah A. Tishkoff |author11=Carlos D. Bustamante |title=Genome-wide patterns of population structure and admixture in West Africans and African Americans|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|date=January 12, 2010|volume=107|issue=2|pages=786–791|doi=10.1073/pnas.0909559107|pmid=20080753|pmc=2818934|bibcode=2010PNAS..107..786B }}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|DNA studies of African-Americans have determined that they primarily descend from various [[Niger-Congo languages|Niger-Congo]]-speaking West/Central African ethnic groups: [[Akan people|Akan]] (including the [[Ashanti people|Ashanti]] and [[Fante people|Fante]] subgroups), [[Balanta people|Balanta]], [[Bamileke]], [[Bamum people|Bamun]], [[Bariba people|Bariba]], [[Biafada people|Biafara]], [[Abron tribe|Bran]], [[Chokwe people|Chokwe]], [[Dagomba people|Dagomba]], [[Edo people|Edo]], [[Ewe people|Ewe]], [[Fon people|Fon]], [[Fula people|Fula]], [[Ga people|Ga]], [[Gurma]], [[Hausa people|Hausa]], [[Ibibio people|Ibibio]] (including the [[Efik people|Efik]] subgroup), [[Igbo people|Igbo]], [[Igala people|Igala]], [[Ijaw people|Ijaw]] (including the [[Kalabari tribe|Kalabari]] subgroup), [[Itsekiri]], [[Jola people|Jola]], [[Luchazes|Luchaze]], [[Lunda people|Lunda]], [[Kpelle people|Kpele]], [[Kru people|Kru]], [[Mahi people|Mahi]], [[Mandinka people|Mandinka]] (including the [[Mende people|Mende]] subgroup), [[Nalu people|Naulu]], [[Serer people|Serer]], [[Susu people|Susu]], [[Temne people|Temne]], [[Tikar]], [[Wolof people|Wolof]], [[Yaka people|Yaka]], [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]], and [[Bantu peoples]]; specifically the [[Duala people|Duala]], [[Kongo people|Kongo]], [[Luba people|Luba]], [[Ambundu|Mbundu]] (including the [[Ovimbundu]] subgroup) and [[Teke people|Teke]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2011/10/african_ethnicities_and_their_origins/|title=African Ethnicities and Their Origins|first1=John|last1=Thornton|author-link1=John Thornton (historian)|first2=Linda|last2=Heywood|date=October 1, 2011|website=[[The Root (magazine)|The Root]]|access-date=January 2, 2017}}</ref>}}
 
Correspondingly, Montinaro et al. (2014) observed that around 50% of the overall ancestry of African Americans traces back to the Niger-Congo-speaking [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] of southwestern [[Nigeria]] and southern [[Benin]], reflecting the centrality of this West African region in the Atlantic Slave Trade. The next most frequent ancestral component found among African Americans was derived from Great Britain, in keeping with historical records. It constitutes a little over 10% of their overall ancestry, and is most similar to the Northwest European ancestral component also carried by [[Barbadians]].<ref name="Montinaro2014">{{cite journal|author1=Francesco Montinaro |author2=George B.J. Busby |author3=Vincenzo L. Pascali |author4=Simon Myers |author5=Garrett Hellenthal |author6=Cristian Capelli |title=Unravelling the hidden ancestry of American admixed populations|journal=Nature Communications|date=March 24, 2015|doi=10.1038/ncomms7596|volume=6|page=6596 |pmid=25803618 |pmc=4374169|bibcode=2015NatCo...6.6596M }}</ref> Zakharaia et al. (2009) found a similar proportion of Yoruba associated ancestry in their African-American samples, with a minority also drawn from [[Mandenka people|Mandenka]] and [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] populations. Additionally, the researchers observed an average European ancestry of 21.9%, again with significant variation between individuals.<ref name="Zakharia2009">{{cite journal |author1=Fouad Zakharia |author2=Analabha Basu |author3=Devin Absher |author4=Themistocles L Assimes |author5=Alan S Go |author6=Mark A Hlatky |author7=Carlos Iribarren |author8=Joshua W Knowles |author9=Jun Li |author10=Balasubramanian Narasimhan |author11=Steven Sidney |author12=Audrey Southwick |author13=Richard M Myers |author14=Thomas Quertermous |author15=Neil Risch |author16=Hua Tang |title=Characterizing the admixed African ancestry of African Americans |journal=Genome Biology |year=2009 |volume=10 |issue=R141 |pages=R141 |doi=10.1186/gb-2009-10-12-r141 |pmid=20025784 |pmc=2812948 |url=https://genomebiology.com/2009/10/12/R141 |access-date=April 10, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150322074036/http://genomebiology.com/2009/10/12/R141/ |archive-date=March 22, 2015 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> Bryc et al. (2009) note that populations from other parts of the continent may also constitute adequate proxies for the ancestors of some African-American individuals; namely, ancestral populations from [[Guinea Bissau]], [[Senegal]] and [[Sierra Leone]] in West Africa and [[Angola]] in Southern Africa.<ref name="Bryc2009" />
 
Altogether, genetic studies suggest that African Americans are a genetically diverse people. According to DNA analysis led in 2006 by [[Pennsylvania State University|Penn State]] geneticist [[Mark D. Shriver]], around 58 percent of African Americans have at least 12.5% European ancestry (equivalent to one European great-grandparent and his/her forebears), 19.6 percent of African Americans have at least 25% European ancestry (equivalent to one European grandparent and his/her forebears), and 1 percent of African Americans have at least 50% European ancestry (equivalent to one European parent and his/her forebears).<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Michelle's Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy—and Yours|url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/118292|author=Henry Louis Gates Jr.|date=November 8, 2009|access-date=April 11, 2015}}</ref> According to Shriver, around 5 percent of African Americans also have at least 12.5% Native American ancestry (equivalent to one Native American great-grandparent and his/her forebears).<ref>{{cite book|title=The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader|author=Henry Louis Gates Jr.|publisher=Basci Civitas Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=5 Things to Know About Blacks and Native Americans|url=https://www.ebony.com/life/5-things-to-know-about-blacks-and-native-americans-119|date=November 20, 2012|access-date=April 11, 2015}}</ref> Research suggests that Native American ancestry among people who identify as African American is a result of relationships that occurred soon after slave ships arrived in the American colonies, and European ancestry is of more recent origin, often from the decades before the Civil War.<ref name="dnana1">{{cite web |last1=Zimmer |first1=Carl |title=Tales of African-American History Found in DNA |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/28/science/african-american-dna.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=May 10, 2019 |date=May 27, 2016}}</ref>
 
===Y-DNA===
Africans bearing the [[Haplogroup E-V38|E-V38]] (E1b1a) likely traversed across the [[Sahara]], from [[East Africa|east]] to [[West Africa|west]], approximately 19,000 years ago.<ref name="Shrine">{{cite journal |last1=Shrine |first1=Daniel |last2=Rotimi |first2=Charles |title=Whole-Genome-Sequence-Based Haplotypes Reveal Single Origin of the Sickle Allele during the Holocene Wet Phase |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=102 |issue=4 |pages=547–556 |publisher=Am J Hum Genet|pmc=5985360 |year=2018 |pmid=29526279 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.02.003 }}</ref> [[Haplogroup E-M2|E-M2]] (E1b1a1) likely originated in West Africa or Central Africa.<ref name="Trombetta">{{cite journal |last1=Trombetta |first1=Beniamino |title=Phylogeographic Refinement and Large Scale Genotyping of Human Y Chromosome Haplogroup E Provide New Insights into the Dispersal of Early Pastoralists in the African Continent |journal=Genome Biology and Evolution |volume=7 |issue=7 |pages=1940–1950 |publisher=Genome Biol Evol|pmc=4524485 |year=2015 |pmid=26108492 |doi=10.1093/gbe/evv118 }}</ref> According to a [[Y chromosome|Y-DNA]] study by Sims et al. (2007), the majority (≈60%) of African Americans belong to various subclades of the [[Haplogroup E-M2|E-M2]] (E1b1a1, formerly E3a) paternal haplogroup. This is the most common genetic paternal lineage found today among West/Central African males, and is also a signature of the historical [[Bantu migration]]s. The next most frequent Y-DNA haplogroup observed among African Americans is the [[Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA)|R1b]] clade, which around 15% of African Americans carry. This lineage is most common today among Northwestern European males. The remaining African Americans mainly belong to the paternal [[Haplogroup I-M170|haplogroup I]] (≈7%), which is also frequent in Northwestern Europe.<ref name="Sims2007">{{cite journal|author1=Lynn M. Sims |author2=Dennis Garvey |author3=Jack Ballantyne |title=Sub-populations within the major European and African derived haplogroups R1b3 and E3a are differentiated by previously phylogenetically undefined Y-SNPs|journal=Human Mutation|date=January 2007|volume=28|issue=1|page=97|doi=10.1002/humu.9469|pmid=17154278|doi-access=free}}</ref>
 
===mtDNA===
According to an [[Mitochondrial DNA|mtDNA]] study by Salas et al. (2005), the maternal lineages of African Americans are most similar to haplogroups that are today especially common in West Africa (>55%), followed closely by West-Central Africa and Southwestern Africa (<41%). The characteristic West African haplogroups [[Haplogroup L1 (mtDNA)|L1b]], [[Haplogroup L2 (mtDNA)|L2b,c,d]], and [[Haplogroup L3 (mtDNA)|L3b,d]] and West-Central African haplogroups [[Haplogroup L1 (mtDNA)|L1c]] and [[Haplogroup L3 (mtDNA)|L3e]] in particular occur at high frequencies among African Americans. As with the paternal DNA of African Americans, contributions from other parts of the continent to their maternal gene pool are insignificant.<ref name="Salas2005">{{cite journal|author1=Antonio Salas |author2=Ángel Carracedo |author3=Martin Richards |author4=Vincent Macaulay |title=Charting the Ancestry of African Americans|journal=American Journal of Human Genetics|date=October 2005|volume=77|issue=4|pages=676–680|doi=10.1086/491675|pmc=1275617|pmid=16175514}}</ref>
 
==Social status==
{{See also|Income inequality in the United States}}
Formal political, economic and social discrimination against minorities has been present throughout American history. Leland T. Saito, Associate Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the [[University of Southern California]], writes, "Political rights have been circumscribed by race, class and gender since the founding of the United States, when the right to vote was restricted to White men of property. Throughout the history of the United States race has been used by Whites for legitimizing and creating difference and social, economic and political exclusion."<ref name="Sato"/>
 
African Americans have improved their social and economic standing significantly since the civil rights movement and recent decades have witnessed the expansion of a robust, African-American middle class across the United States. Unprecedented access to higher education and employment in addition to representation in the highest levels of American government has been gained by African Americans in the post–civil rights era.<ref name="Brookings">{{cite news|last1=Thernstrom|first1=Abigail|author1-link=Abigail Thernstrom|last2=Thernstrom|first2=Stephan|author2-link=Stephan Thernstrom|title=Black Progress: How far we've come, and how far we have to go|url=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/black-progress-how-far-weve-come-and-how-far-we-have-to-go/|access-date=March 17, 2018|date= March 1, 1998|publisher=Brookings Institution}}</ref> Nonetheless, widespread [[racism against African Americans]] remains an issue that undermines the development of their social status in the United States.<ref name="Brookings"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/06/27/3-discrimination-and-racial-inequality/ |title=3. Discrimination and racial inequality|access-date=November 4, 2020 |agency=Pew Research Center}}</ref>
 
===Economic issues===
{{See also|Poverty in the United States|Income inequality in the United States}}
One of the most serious and long-standing issues within African-American communities is poverty. Poverty is associated with higher rates of marital stress and dissolution, [[physical disorder|physical]] and [[mental disorder|mental health]] problems, [[disability and poverty|disability]], [[cognitive deficit]]s, [[Achievement gap in the United States|low educational attainment]], and crime.<ref name="CharacOfFam">{{cite web|url=https://ssw.unc.edu/RTI/presentation/PDFs/aa_families.pdf|title=Characteristics of African American Families|author=Oscar Barbarin|publisher=University of North Carolina|access-date=September 23, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060920225226/https://ssw.unc.edu/RTI/presentation/PDFs/aa_families.pdf|archive-date=September 20, 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2004, almost 25% of African-American families lived below the poverty level.<ref name="DeNavas-Walt"/> In 2007, the average income for African Americans was approximately $34,000, compared to $55,000 for Whites.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.omhrc.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlID=51|title=OMHRC.gov|publisher=OMHRC.gov|date=October 21, 2009|access-date=January 20, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813055043/https://omhrc.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlID=51|archive-date=August 13, 2009}}</ref> African Americans experience a higher rate of unemployment than the general population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/12/black-white-unemployment-gap/421497/|title=Education Gaps Don't Fully Explain Why Black Unemployment Is So High|first=Gillian B.|last=White|date=December 21, 2015|website=[[The Atlantic]]|access-date=July 3, 2016}}</ref>
 
African Americans have a long and diverse history of [[African-American Businesses|business ownership]]. Although the first [[African-American Businesses|African-American business]] is unknown, slaves captured from West Africa are believed to have established commercial enterprises as peddlers and skilled craftspeople as far back as the 17th century. Around 1900, Booker T. Washington became the most famous proponent of African-American businesses. His critic and rival W. E. B. DuBois also commended business as a vehicle for African-American advancement.<ref>Juliet E.K. Walker, The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship (New York: Macmillan Library Reference, 1998)</ref>
 
===Policing and criminal justice===
{{See also|Race and crime in the United States}}
[[File:DSC 0008 (50283939071).jpg|thumb|[[Al Sharpton]] led the [[Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks]] protest on August 28, 2020.]]
Forty percent of prison inmates are African American.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/august/prison-black-laws-080614.html|title=Stanford research suggests support for incarceration mirrors whites' perception of Black prison population|first=Shara|last=Tonn|date=August 6, 2014|website=Stanford Report|publisher=Stanford University|access-date=July 3, 2016}}</ref> African American males are more likely to be [[police use of deadly force in the United States|killed by police]] when compared to other races.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/31/the-counted-police-killings-2015-young-black-men|title=Young black men killed by US police at highest rate in year of 1,134 deaths|first1=Jon|last1=Swaine|first2=Oliver|last2=Laughland|first3=Jamiles|last3=Lartey|first4=Ciara|last4=McCarthy|date=December 31, 2015|access-date=July 18, 2016|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> This is one of the factors that led to the creation of the [[Black Lives Matter]] movement in 2013.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2015/12/28/us/black-lives-matter-evolution/index.html|title=The rise of Black Lives Matter|author1=Sara Sidner |author2=Mallory Simon|access-date=July 18, 2016}}</ref> A historical issue in the U.S. where women have weaponized their White privilege in the country by reporting on Black people, often instigating racial violence,<ref>{{cite news |last=M. Blow|first=Charlea|date=May 27, 2020 |title=How White Women Use Themselves as Instruments of Terror |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/opinion/racism-white-women.html |access-date=November 8, 2020 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Lang|first=Cady|date=6 July 2020|title=How the Karen Meme Confronts History of White Womanhood|url=https://time.com/5857023/karen-meme-history-meaning/|access-date=2021-02-01|website=Time}}</ref> White women calling the police on Black people became widely publicized in 2020.<ref>{{cite news |title=From 'BBQ Becky' to 'Golfcart Gail,' list of unnecessary 911 calls made on blacks continues to grow|url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/bbq-becky-golfcart-gail-list-unnecessary-911-calls/story?id=58584961 |access-date=November 8, 2020 |agency=ABC}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=California woman threatens to call police on eight-year-old black girl for selling water |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/25/permit-patty-eight-year-old-selling-water-san-francisco-video |access-date=November 8, 2020 |work=The Guardian}}</ref>
 
Although in the last decade Black youth have had lower rates of [[cannabis]] (marijuana) consumption than Whites of the same age, they have disproportionately higher arrest rates than Whites: in 2010, for example, Blacks were 3.73 times as likely to get arrested for using cannabis than Whites, despite not significantly more frequently being users.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Matthews |first1=Dylan |title=The black/white marijuana arrest gap, in nine charts |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/06/04/the-blackwhite-marijuana-arrest-gap-in-nine-charts/ |website=The Washington Post }}</ref><ref>ACLU. [https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/aclu-thewaronmarijuana-rel2.pdf ''The War on Marijuana in Black and White'']. June 2013. 2010 rates on page 47.</ref>
 
===Social issues===
After over 50 years, marriage rates for all Americans began to decline while divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births have climbed.<ref name="media.hoover.org">{{cite web|url=https://media.hoover.org/documents/0817998721_95.pdf|author1=Douglas J. Besharov|author2=Andrew West|title=African American Marriage Patterns|publisher=Hoover Press<!--psi:output_files:HPTHER$$$6.PS-->|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516005550/http://media.hoover.org/documents/0817998721_95.pdf|archive-date=May 16, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> These changes have been greatest among African Americans. After more than 70 years of racial parity Black marriage rates began to fall behind Whites.<ref name="media.hoover.org"/> Single-parent households have become common, and according to U.S. census figures released in January 2010, only 38 percent of Black children live with both their parents.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/families_households/cb10-08.html|title=Census Bureau Reports Families With Children Increasingly Face Unemployment, US Census Bureau, January 15, 2010|publisher=Census.gov|date=n.d.|access-date=April 20, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515005733/http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/families_households/cb10-08.html|archive-date=May 15, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>
 
[[File:Mr & Mrs Sammy Davis Jnr 2 Allan Warren.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Although the [[Anti-miscegenation laws|ban on interracial marriage]] ended in California in 1948, entertainer [[Sammy Davis Jr.]] faced a backlash for his involvement with a White woman in 1957 ]]
 
The first ever [[anti-miscegenation law]] was passed by the [[Maryland General Assembly]] in 1691, criminalizing interracial marriage.<ref name="Anti-miscegenation"/> In a speech in [[Charleston, Illinois]] in 1858, [[Abraham Lincoln]] stated, "I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people".<ref>{{cite book |first=Stephen A. |last=Douglas|title=The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 |date=1991 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=235}}</ref> By the late 1800s, 38 US states had anti-miscegenation statutes.<ref name="Anti-miscegenation"/> By 1924, the ban on interracial marriage  was still in force in 29 states.<ref name="Anti-miscegenation"/> While interracial marriage had been legal in California since 1948, in 1957 actor [[Sammy Davis Jr.]] faced a backlash for his involvement with White actress [[Kim Novak]].<ref name="Smithsonian" /> [[Harry Cohn]], the president of Columbia Pictures (with whom Novak was under contract) gave in to his concerns that a racist backlash against the relationship could hurt the studio.<ref name="Smithsonian" /> Davis briefly married Black dancer Loray White in 1958 to protect himself from mob violence.<ref name="Smithsonian" /> Inebriated at the wedding ceremony, Davis despairingly said to his best friend, Arthur Silber Jr., "Why won't they let me live my life?" The couple never lived together, and commenced divorce proceedings in September 1958.<ref name="Smithsonian">Lanzendorfer, Joy (August 9, 2017) [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/hollywood-loved-sammy-davis-jr-until-he-dated-white-movie-star-180964395/ "Hollywood Loved Sammy Davis Jr. Until He Dated a White Movie Star"], ''[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]'' Retrieved February 23, 2021.</ref> In 1958, officers in [[Virginia]] entered the home of Richard and Mildred Loving and dragged them out of bed for living together as an interracial couple, on the basis that “any white person intermarry with a colored person”— or vice versa—each party “shall be guilty of a felony” and face prison terms of five years.<ref name="Anti-miscegenation">{{cite news |title=Eugenics, Race, and Marriage |url=https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/eugenics-race-and-marriage |access-date=February 23, 2021 |website=Facing History.org}}</ref> The law was ruled unconstitutional in 1967 by the U.S. Supreme Court in ''[[Loving v. Virginia]]''.<ref name="Anti-miscegenation"/>
 
In 2008, Democrats overwhelmingly voted 70% against [[California Proposition 8]], African Americans voted 58% in favor of it while 42% voted against Proposition 8.<ref>Patrick J. Egan, Kenneth Sherrill. [https://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/issues/egan_sherrill_prop8_1_6_09.pdf "California's Proposition 8: What Happened, and What Does the Future Hold?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611085654/http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/issues/egan_sherrill_prop8_1_6_09.pdf |date=June 11, 2014 }}. Taskforce.org. Retrieved October 8, 2015</ref> On May 9, 2012, Barack Obama, the first Black president, became the first U.S. president to support same-sex marriage. Since Obama's endorsement there has been a rapid growth in support for same-sex marriage among African Americans. As of 2012, 59% of African Americans support same-sex marriage, which is higher than support among the national average (53%) and White Americans (50%).<ref>{{cite news|author1=Scott Clement |author2=Sandhya Somashekhar |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-president-obamas-announcement-opposition-to-gay-marriage-hits-record-low/2012/05/22/gIQAlAYRjU_story.html|title=After President Obama's announcement, opposition to gay marriage hits record low|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=May 23, 2012|access-date=September 15, 2012}}</ref>
 
Polls in [[North Carolina]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/05/movement-among-black-north-carolinians-on-gay-marriage.html|title=Movement among black North Carolinians on gay marriage|publisher=Public Policy Polling|date=May 17, 2012|access-date=September 15, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120908153828/http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/05/movement-among-black-north-carolinians-on-gay-marriage.html|archive-date=September 8, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Pennsylvania]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/05/pa-blacks-shift-quickly-in-favor-of-gay-marriage.html|title=PA blacks shift quickly in favor of gay marriage|publisher=Public Policy Polling|date=May 23, 2012|access-date=September 15, 2012}}</ref> [[Missouri]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Missouri will be a swing state this year, voters say|url=https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_MO_060112.pdf|publisher=Public Policy Polling|access-date=January 3, 2015}}</ref> [[Maryland]],<ref>[https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/MarylandPollingMemo.pdf Public Policy Polling] Memo.</ref> [[Ohio]],<ref>{{cite news|first=Sabrina|last=Siddiqui|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/03/ohio-black-voters-same-sex-marriage-obama_n_1646189.html|title=Ohio's Black Voters Support Same-Sex Marriage After Obama's Endorsement, Poll Finds|work=HuffPost|date=July 3, 2012|access-date=October 9, 2012}}</ref> Florida,<ref>{{cite web|title=LeBron more popular than Gov. Scott in Florida|url=https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_MiscellaneousFL_060812.pdf|publisher=Public Policy Polling|access-date=January 3, 2015}}</ref> and [[Nevada]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=12824&MediaType=1&Category=26|title=Black Nevadans Support For Gay Marriage Surges After Obama Nod|publisher=Ontopmag.com|date=August 29, 2012|access-date=September 15, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030070051/http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=12824&MediaType=1&Category=26|archive-date=October 30, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> have also shown an increase in support for same sex marriage among African Americans. On November 6, 2012, [[Maryland Question 6|Maryland]], [[Maine Question 1, 2012|Maine]], and [[Washington Referendum 74|Washington]] all voted for approve of same-sex marriage, along with Minnesota rejecting a [[Minnesota Amendment 1|constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage]]. Exit polls in Maryland show about 50% of African Americans voted for same-sex marriage, showing a vast evolution among African Americans on the issue and was crucial in helping pass same-sex marriage in Maryland.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204755404578102953841743658|title=Gay Marriage Gets First Ballot Wins|publisher=Ontopmag.com|date=November 7, 2012|access-date=November 11, 2012|first=Geoffrey A.|last=Fowler}}</ref>
 
Black Americans hold far more conservative opinions on abortion, [[Affair|extramarital sex]], and raising children out of wedlock than Democrats as a whole.<ref name=social>{{cite web|url=https://www.gallup.com/poll/112807/Blacks-Conservative-Republicans-Some-Moral-Issues.aspx|title=Blacks as Conservative as Republicans on Some Moral Issues|publisher=Gallup.com|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110121132114/https://www.gallup.com/poll/112807/Blacks-Conservative-Republicans-Some-Moral-Issues.aspx|archive-date=January 21, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> On financial issues, however, African Americans are in line with Democrats, generally supporting a more [[progressive tax]] structure to provide more government spending on social services.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://people-press.org/commentary/?analysisid=121|title=PeoplePress.org|publisher=People-Press.org|date=October 31, 2005|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110110201635/https://people-press.org/commentary/?analysisid=121|archive-date=January 10, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
 
===Political legacy===
[[File:Martin-Luther-King-1964-leaning-on-a-lectern.jpg|upright|thumb|Dr. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] remains the most prominent political leader in the American civil rights movement and perhaps the most influential African-American political figure in general.]]
[[Military history of African Americans|African Americans have fought in every war]] in the [[Military history of the United States|history of the United States]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48936|title=Defenselink.mil|publisher=Defenselink.mil|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091130124013/http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48936|archive-date=November 30, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>
 
The gains made by African Americans in the [[civil rights movement]] and in the [[Black Power movement]] not only obtained certain rights for African Americans, but changed American society in far-reaching and fundamentally important ways. Prior to the 1950s, Black Americans in the South were subject to de jure discrimination, or [[Jim Crow laws]]. They were often the victims of extreme cruelty and violence, sometimes resulting in deaths: by the post World War II era, African Americans became increasingly discontented with their long-standing inequality. In the words of [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], African Americans and their supporters challenged the nation to "rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed that all men are created equal{{nbsp}}..."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/38.htm|title=Martin Luther King, Jr|access-date=May 30, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613010952/https://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/38.htm|archive-date=June 13, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>
 
The civil rights movement marked an enormous change in American social, political, economic and civic life. It brought with it [[boycott]]s, [[sit-in]]s, [[nonviolent]] demonstrations and marches, court battles, bombings and other violence; prompted worldwide media coverage and intense public debate; forged enduring civic, economic and religious alliances; and disrupted and realigned the nation's two major political parties.
 
Over time, it has changed in fundamental ways the manner in which Blacks and Whites interact with and relate to one another. The movement resulted in the removal of codified, ''de jure'' racial segregation and discrimination from American life and law, and heavily influenced other groups and movements in struggles for civil rights and social equality within American society, including the [[Free Speech Movement]], the [[Disability|disabled]], the [[Feminist movement|women's movement]], and [[migrant workers]]. It also inspired the [[Native American rights movement]], and in King's 1964 book ''[[Why We Can't Wait]]'' he wrote the U.S. "was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bender |first1=Albert |title=Dr. King spoke out against the genocide of Native Americans |url=http://www.peoplesworld.org/article/dr-king-spoke-out-against-the-genocide-of-native-americans/ |publisher=People's World |access-date=March 5, 2021 |date=February 13, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Rickert |first1=Levi |title=Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: Our Nation was Born in Genocide |url=https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-nation-born-genocide/ |website=Native News Online |publisher=Native News Online |access-date=March 5, 2021 |date=January 16, 2017 |archive-date=November 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126092832/https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-nation-born-genocide/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
 
==Media and coverage==
{{See also|Representation of African Americans in media|African-American newspapers}}
[[File:President George W. Bush is welcomed by Bob Johnson, founder and chairman of the RLJ Companies.jpg|thumb|upright|BET founder [[Robert L. Johnson]] with former U.S. President [[George W. Bush]]]]
Some activists and academics contend that American news media coverage of African-American news, concerns, or dilemmas is inadequate,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blackandbrownnews.com|title=BBN|publisher=blackandbrownnews.com|access-date=October 7, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4608039|title=Examining the Future of Black News Media|date=April 20, 2005|publisher=NPR}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4608042|title=How Will African Americans Get the News?|date=April 20, 2005|publisher=NPR}}</ref> or that the news media present distorted images of African Americans.<ref>{{cite web|author=Mikal Muharrar|title=Media Blackface|publisher=FAIR|date=September–October 1998|url=https://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1431}}</ref>
 
To combat this, [[Robert L. Johnson]] founded [[Black Entertainment Television]] (BET), a network that targets young African Americans and urban audiences in the United States. Over the years, the network has aired such programming as [[Hip hop music|rap]] and [[Contemporary R&B|R&B]] music videos, urban-oriented movies and television series, and some public affairs programs. On Sunday mornings, BET would broadcast Christian programming; the network would also broadcast non-affiliated Christian programs during the early morning hours daily. BET is now a global network that reaches households in the United States, Caribbean, Canada, and the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite web|title=BET Networks|url=https://www.viacom.com/ourbrands/medianetworks/betnetworks/pages/default.aspx|access-date=September 6, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120828171159/https://www.viacom.com/ourbrands/medianetworks/betnetworks/Pages/default.aspx|archive-date=August 28, 2012}}</ref>{{dubious|date=July 2019}} The network has gone on to spawn several spin-off channels, including [[BET Her]] (originally launched as ''BET on Jazz''), which originally showcased [[jazz]] music-related programming, and later expanded to include general-interest urban programs as well as some R&B, [[soul music|soul]], and [[world music]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bet.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070829101056/https://bet.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=18|archive-date=August 29, 2007 |title=BET J}}</ref>{{dubious|date=July 2019}}
 
Another network targeting African-Americans is [[TV One (Radio One)|TV One]]. TV One's original programming was formally focused on lifestyle and entertainment-oriented shows, movies, fashion, and music programming. The network also reruns classic series from as far back as the 1970s to current series such as ''[[Empire (2015 TV series)|Empire]]'' and ''Sister Circle''. TV One is owned by [[Urban One]], founded and controlled by [[Cathy Hughes|Catherine Hughes]]. Urban One is one of the nation's largest radio broadcasting companies and the largest African-American-owned radio broadcasting company in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.blackamericastudy.com/|title=BlackAmericaStudy.com|publisher=BlackAmericaStudy.com|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110207200823/https://blackamericastudy.com/|archive-date=February 7, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
 
African-American networks that were scheduled to launch in 2009 include the Black Television News Channel founded by former Congressman [[J. C. Watts]] and [[Better Black Television]] founded by [[Master P|Percy Miller]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Kaplan|first=Don|url=https://www.nypost.com/seven/05272008/tv/black_news_net_112648.htm|title=Black News Net|work=New York Post|date=May 27, 2008|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090401171134/http://www.nypost.com/seven/05272008/tv/black_news_net_112648.htm|archive-date=April 1, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[https://www.prweb.com/releases/betterblacktv/20080815/prweb1214764.htm Better Black Television (BBTV) Set to Launch Worldwide in 2009] Press Release</ref> In June 2009, [[NBC News]] launched a new website named [[The Grio]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thegrio.com/|title=TheGrio.com|date=January 16, 2011|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110120223126/https://www.thegrio.com/|archive-date=January 20, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> in partnership with the production team that created the Black documentary film ''[[Meeting David Wilson]]''. It is the first African-American video [[news site]] that focuses on underrepresented stories in existing national news. [[The Grio]] consists of a broad spectrum of original video packages, news articles, and contributor blogs on topics including breaking news, politics, health, business, entertainment and Black History.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thegrio.com/about/|title=NBC News & TheGrio|publisher=Thegrio.com|access-date=January 20, 2011}}</ref>
 
Other Black-owned and oriented media outlets include:
* [[The Africa Channel]] – Dedicated to programming representing the best in African culture.
* [[ASPiRE (TV network)|aspireTV]] – a digital cable and satellite channel owned by businessman and former basketball player [[Magic Johnson]].
* [[ATTV]] – an independent public affairs and educational channel.
* [[Bounce TV]] – a digital multicast network owned by [[E. W. Scripps Company]].
* [[Cleo TV]] – a sister network to [[TV One (U.S. TV network)|TV One]] targeting African-American women.
* [[Fox Television Stations#Fox Soul|Fox Soul]] – a digital streaming channel primarily airing original talk shows and syndicated programming
* [[Oprah Winfrey Network]] – a cable and satellite network founded by [[Oprah Winfrey]] and jointly owned by [[Discovery, Inc.]] and [[Harpo Studios]]. While not exclusively targeting African Americans, much of its original programming is geared towards a similar demographic.
* [[Revolt (TV network)|Revolt]] – a music channel owned by [[Sean Combs|Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs]].
* [[Soul of the South Network]] – a regional broadcast network.
* [[VH1]] – A female-oriented general entertainment channel owned by [[Viacom (2005–present)|Viacom]]. Originally focused on light genres of music, the network's programming became slanted towards African American culture in recent years.<ref>{{cite web|title=Why VH1 Gets to Be Black Without the Burden|url=https://www.theroot.com/why-vh1-gets-to-be-black-without-the-burden-1790877558|work=[[The Root (magazine)|The Root]]|date=October 29, 2014}}</ref>


==Culture==
==Culture==
{{Further|African-American culture}}
[[File:Sister lights the candles (2162322153).jpg|thumb|left|African Americans celebrating Kwanzaa]]
[[File:Soul Food at Powell's Place.jpg|thumb|A traditional [[soul food]] dinner consisting of [[fried chicken]] with [[macaroni and cheese]], [[collard greens]], breaded fried [[okra]] and [[cornbread]]]]
[[File:Soul Food at Powell's Place.jpg|thumb|A traditional soul food dinner: [[Fried chicken]] with [[macaroni and cheese]], [[collard greens]], breaded fried [[okra]] and [[cornbread]].]]
From their earliest presence in North America, African Americans have significantly contributed literature, art, agricultural skills, cuisine, clothing styles, music, language, and social and technological innovation to American culture. The cultivation and use of many agricultural products in the United States, such as [[Sweet potato|yams]], peanuts, rice, [[okra]], [[sorghum]], [[grits]], [[watermelon]], [[indigo dye]]s, and cotton, can be traced to West African and African-American influences. Notable examples include [[George Washington Carver]], who created 300 products from peanuts, 118 products from sweet potatoes, and 75 products from pecans; and [[George Crum]], a local legend incorrectly associates him with the creation of the potato chip in 1853.<ref>{{cite news |first1=Steve |last1=Berry |first2=Phil |last2=Norman |name-list-style=amp |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/10965628/Crisps-buoyed-Britain-in-its-darkest-hour.html |title=Crisps buoyed Britain in its darkest hour |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=July 14, 2014 |access-date=November 14, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/black.shtml|title=African-American Inventors|access-date=May 30, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613230925/https://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/black.shtml|archive-date=June 13, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Soul food]] is a variety of cuisine popular among African Americans. It is closely related to the [[cuisine of the Southern United States]]. The descriptive terminology may have originated in the mid-1960s, when ''[[wikt:soul|soul]]'' was a common definer used to describe African-American culture (for example, [[soul music]]). African Americans were the first peoples in the United States to make fried chicken, along with [[Scottish people|Scottish]] immigrants to the South. Although the Scottish had been frying chicken before they emigrated, they lacked the spices and flavor that African Americans had used when preparing the meal. The Scottish American settlers therefore adopted the African-American method of seasoning chicken.<ref>{{cite book|title=Advances in Deep Fat Frying of Foods|author1=Servet Gulum Sumnu |author2=Serpil Sahin |pages=1–2}}</ref> However, fried chicken was generally a rare meal in the African-American community, and was usually reserved for special events or celebrations.<ref>{{cite book|title=World of a Slave: Encyclopedia of the Material Life of Slaves in the United States|author1=Martha B. Katz-Hyman |author2=Kym S. Rice |page=110}}</ref>
[[File:National Museum of African American History and Culture in February 2020.jpg|thumb|National Museum of African American History and Culture]]
 
Black culture in the United States is influenced by African, European and Native American cultures.<ref>{{cite book|title=Cultural Revolutions: Everyday Life and Politics in Britain, North America, and France}}</ref> African Americans have influenced various forms of [[African-American music|music]], including [[Hip hop]], R&B, funk, rock and roll, soul, [[blues]], and other contemporary American musical forms while older black forms of music included blues, doo-wop, barbershop, [[ragtime]], bluegrass, jazz, and gospel music. [[Michael Jackson]], an African-American pop singer, released an album called ''[[Thriller (album)|Thriller]]'' in 1982 which is the best-selling album of all time. In the nineties [[Beyonce Knowles]] became famous as the lead singer of the R&B girl band [[Destiny's Child]]. In the 2000s she started releasing music on her own. Her first album ''Dangerously in Love'' sold 11 million copies and won five Grammy Awards.
===Language===
{{Main|African-American English}}
[[African-American English]] is a [[Variety (linguistics)|variety]] ([[dialect]], [[ethnolect]], and [[sociolect]]) of [[American English]], commonly spoken by urban [[working class|working-class]] and largely [[wikt:bidialectal|bi-dialectal]] [[middle class|middle-class]] African Americans.<ref>{{cite book|last=Edwards|first=Walter|chapter=African American Vernacular English: phonology|editor-last=Kortmann|editor-first=Bernd|work=A Handbook of Varieties of English|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|year=2004|volume=2|page=383|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dptsvykgk3IC|title=A Handbook of Varieties of English: CD-ROM|isbn=9783110175325}}</ref>
 
African-American English evolved during the antebellum period through interaction between speakers of 16th- and 17th-century English of Great Britain and Ireland and various West African languages. As a result, the variety shares parts of its [[grammar]] and [[phonology]] with the [[Southern American English]] dialect. African-American English differs from Standard American English (SAE) in certain pronunciation characteristics, tense usage, and grammatical structures, which were derived from West African languages (particularly those belonging to the [[Niger-Congo languages|Niger-Congo]] family).<ref name="Aave">{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Cross-Cultural School Psychology|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-0387717982|page=405|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=PaO3jsaGkeYC|access-date=October 21, 2014|date=February 18, 2010}}</ref>
 
Virtually all habitual speakers of African-American English can understand and communicate in Standard American English. As with all linguistic forms, AAVE's usage is influenced by various factors, including geographical, educational and socioeconomic background, as well as formality of setting.<ref name="Aave"/> Additionally, there are many literary uses of this variety of English, particularly in [[African-American literature]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Green|first1=Lisa J.|title=African American English : a linguistic introduction|date=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521891387|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780521891387/page/164 164]–199|edition=1. publ., 4. print.|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780521891387|url-access=registration}}</ref>
 
====Traditional names====
{{Main|African-American names}}
[[African-American names]] are part of the cultural traditions of African Americans. Prior to the 1950s, and 1960s, most African-American names closely resembled those used within European American culture.<ref name="Norman">{{cite book|last1=Norman|first1=Teresa|title=The African-American Baby Name Book|date=1998|publisher=Berkley Books|isbn=978-0425159392|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=XPkLGtzsKv0C|access-date=May 1, 2016}}</ref> Babies of that era were generally given a few common names, with children using nicknames to distinguish the various people with the same name. With the rise of 1960s civil rights movement, there was a dramatic increase in names of various origins.<ref name="Moskowitz">{{cite news|last=Moskowitz|first=Clara|title=Baby Names Reveal More About Parents Than Ever Before|url=https://www.livescience.com/9027-baby-names-reveal-parents.html|newspaper=Live Science|date=November 30, 2010}}</ref>
 
By the 1970s, and 1980s, it had become common among African Americans to invent new names for themselves, although many of these invented names took elements from popular existing names. Prefixes such as La/Le, Da/De, Ra/Re and Ja/Je, and suffixes like -ique/iqua, -isha and -aun/-awn are common, as are inventive spellings for common names. The book ''Baby Names Now: From Classic to Cool—The Very Last Word on First Names'' places the origins of "La" names in African-American culture in [[New Orleans]].<ref name="Rosenkrantz">{{cite book|last=Rosenkrantz|first=Linda|title=Baby Names Now: From Classic to Cool—The Very Last Word on First Names|date=August 16, 2001|publisher=St. Martin's Griffin|isbn=978-0312267575|url=https://archive.org/details/babynamesnow00rose|author2=Satran, Paula Redmond}}</ref>
 
Even with the rise of inventive names, it is still common for African Americans to use biblical, historical, or traditional European names. Daniel, Christopher, Michael, David, James, Joseph, and Matthew were thus among the most frequent names for African-American boys in 2013.<ref name="Norman"/><ref>{{cite web|last=Lack|first=Evonne|title=Popular African American Names|url=https://www.babycenter.com/0_popular-african-american-names_10329236.bc|website=babycenter.com|access-date=February 12, 2014}}</ref><ref name="Conley">{{cite journal|last=Conley|first=Dalton|title=Raising E and Yo...|journal=Psychology Today|date=March 10, 2010|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201003/raising-e-and-yo}}</ref>
 
The name LaKeisha is typically considered American in origin, but has elements that were drawn from both French and West/Central African roots. Names such as LaTanisha, JaMarcus, DeAndre, and Shaniqua were created in the same way. Punctuation marks are seen more often within African-American names than other American names, such as the names Mo'nique and D'Andre.<ref name="Norman"/>
 
===Religion===
{{Pie chart
| thumb = right
| caption = Religious affiliation of African Americans<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewforum.org/2009/01/30/a-religious-portrait-of-african-americans/|title=A Religious Portrait of African-Americans|date=January 30, 2009|website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project|access-date=November 2, 2019}}</ref>
| label1=[[Black Protestant]]
| value1=59
| color1=DodgerBlue
| label2=[[Evangelical Protestant]]
| value2=15
| color2=Blue
| label3=[[Mainline Protestant]]
| value3=4
| color3=DeepSkyBlue
| label4=[[Roman Catholic]]
| value4=5
| color4=Indigo
| label5=[[Jehovah's Witness]]
| value5=1
| color5=DarkBlue
| label6=Other Christian
| value6=1
| color6=LightBlue
| label7=Muslim
| value7=1
| color7=Green
| label8=Other religion
| value8=1|color8=Black
| label9=Unaffiliated| value9=11|color9=Honeydew
| label10=Atheist or agnostic| value10=2|color10=gray
}}
{{Main|Religion of Black Americans}}
{{Further|African-American Jews|African-American Muslims|Black church|Hoodoo (folk magic)|Louisiana Voodoo}}
[[File:Mount Zion United Methodist Church - facade.JPG|thumb|[[Mount Zion United Methodist Church (Washington, D.C.)|Mount Zion United Methodist Church]] is the oldest African-American congregation in Washington, D.C.]]
[[File:Malcolm Shabazz Mosque.jpg|thumb|[[Masjid Malcolm Shabazz]] in Harlem, New York City]]
The majority of African Americans are [[Protestant]], many of whom follow the historically Black churches.<ref name=PewForum>[https://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report-religious-landscape-study-full.pdf U.S.Religious Landscape Survey] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150423044142/http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report-religious-landscape-study-full.pdf |date=April 23, 2015 }} The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (February 2008). Retrieved July 20, 2009.</ref> The term [[Black church]] refers to churches which minister to predominantly African-American congregations. Black congregations were first established by freed slaves at the end of the 17th century, and later when slavery was abolished more African Americans were allowed to create a unique form of Christianity that was culturally influenced by African spiritual traditions.<ref>Charyn D. Sutton, [https://www.energizeinc.com/art/apas.html "The Black Church"]. Energize Inc. Retrieved November 18, 2009.</ref>
 
According to a 2007 survey, more than half of the African-American population are part of the historically Black churches.<ref name=religions/> The largest Protestant denomination among African Americans are the [[Baptists]],<ref>[[Bill J. Leonard]] (2007), ''Baptists in America'', Columbia University Press, p. 34. {{ISBN|0-231-12703-0}}.</ref> distributed mainly in four denominations, the largest being the [[National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.|National Baptist Convention, USA]] and the [[National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.|National Baptist Convention of America]].<ref name=church/> The second largest are the [[Methodist]]s,<ref name=doindrugs>William Henry James, Stephen Lloyd Johnson (1997). ''Doin' drugs: patterns of African American addiction''. University of Texas Press. p. 135. {{ISBN|0-292-74041-7}}.</ref> the largest denominations are the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]] and the [[African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church]].<ref name=church>[https://www.ncccusa.org/news/080215yearbook1.html The NCC's 2008 Yearbook of Churches reports a wide range of health care ministries] National Council of Churches USA. February 14, 2008. Retrieved June 22, 2009.</ref><ref>Roger Finke, Rodney Stark (2005). ''The Churching of America, 1776–2005: Winners and Losers in our Religious Economy''. Rutgers University Press, p. 235.</ref>
 
[[Pentecostalism|Pentecostals]] are distributed among several different religious bodies, with the [[Church of God in Christ]] as the largest among them by far.<ref name=church/> About 16% of African-American Christians are members of White Protestant communions,<ref name=doindrugs/> these denominations (which include the [[United Church of Christ]]) mostly have a 2 to 3% African-American membership.<ref>Alfred Abioseh Jarrett (2000). ''The Impact of Macro Social Systems on Ethnic Minorities in the United States'', Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 235. {{ISBN|0-275-93880-8}}.</ref> There are also large numbers of [[Catholic Church|Catholics]], constituting 5% of the African-American population.<ref name=religions>{{cite web|url=https://pewforum.org/A-Religious-Portrait-of-African-Americans.aspx|title=A Religious Portrait of African-Americans|publisher=Pewforum.org|date=January 30, 2009|access-date=April 20, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425171741/http://www.pewforum.org/A-Religious-Portrait-of-African-Americans.aspx|archive-date=April 25, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> Of the total number of [[Jehovah's Witnesses]], 22% are Black.<ref name=PewForum/>
 
Some African Americans follow [[Islam]]. Historically, between 15 and 30% of enslaved Africans brought to the Americas were [[Muslim]]s, but most of these Africans were converted to Christianity during the era of American slavery.<ref>Samuel S. Hill, Charles H. Lippy, Charles Reagan Wilson. ''Encyclopedia of religion in the South''. Mercer University Press (2005), p. 394. {{ISBN|978-0-86554-758-2}}.</ref> During the twentieth century, some African Americans converted to Islam, mainly through the influence of [[Black nationalism|Black nationalist]] groups that preached with distinctive Islamic practices; including the [[Moorish Science Temple of America]], and the largest organization, the [[Nation of Islam]], founded in the 1930s, which attracted at least 20,000 people by 1963.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lomax|title=When the Word Is Given|pages=15–16|quote=Estimates of Black Muslim membership vary from a quarter of a million down to fifty thousand. Available evidence indicates that about one hundred thousand Negroes have joined the movement at one time or another, but few objective observers believe that the Black Muslims can muster more than twenty or twenty-five thousand active temple people.|isbn=978-0-313-21002-0|year=1979}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad|first=Claude Andrew|last=Clegg|page=115|quote=The common response of Malcolm X to questions about numbers—'Those who know aren't saying, and those who say don't know'—was typical of the attitude of the leadership.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nva1ULVYh3QC|isbn=9780312181536|year=1998|publisher=Macmillan}}</ref> Prominent members included activist [[Malcolm X]] and boxer [[Muhammad Ali]].<ref>Jacob Neusner, ''World Religions in America: An Introduction'', Westminster John Knox Press (2003), pp. 180–181. {{ISBN|978-0-664-22475-2}}.</ref>
 
Malcolm&nbsp;X is considered the first person to start the movement among African Americans towards mainstream Islam, after he left the Nation and made the [[Hajj|pilgrimage to Mecca]].<ref>William W. Sales (1994). ''From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcolm X and the Organization of Afro-American Unity''. South End Press, p. 37. {{ISBN|978-0-89608-480-3}}.</ref> In 1975, [[Warith Deen Mohammed]], the son of [[Elijah Muhammad]] took control of the Nation after his father's death and guided the majority of its members to [[Sunni Islam|orthodox Islam]].<ref>Uzra Zeya (1990–01) [https://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0190/9001042.htm Islam in America: The Growing Presence of American Converts to Islam] Washington Report on Middle East Reports. Retrieved November 16, 2009.</ref>
 
[[African-American Muslims]] constitute 20% of the total [[Islam in the United States|U.S. Muslim population]],<ref name=PewMuslim>{{cite techreport|date=May 22, 2007|title=Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream|url=https://pewresearch.org/pubs/483/muslim-americans|publisher=[[Pew Research Center]]|access-date=November 27, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121125081805/http://pewresearch.org/pubs/483/muslim-americans|archive-date=November 25, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> the majority are [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] or orthodox Muslims, some of these identify under the community of [[W. Deen Mohammed]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Sacirbey|first=Omar|url=https://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Islam/2006/05/When-Unity-Is-Long-Overdue.aspx|title=When Unity is Long Overdue|publisher=Beliefnet.com|date=September 11, 2001|access-date=April 20, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/03/us/black-muslims-enter-islamic-mainstream.html|title=Black Muslims Enter Islamic Mainstream|work=The New York Times|date=May 3, 1993|access-date=April 20, 2012|first=Don|last=Terry}}</ref> The Nation of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan has a membership ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 members.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,254507,00.html|title=Farrakhan Set to Give Final Address at Nation of Islam's Birthplace|publisher=Fox News Channel|date=December 6, 2011|access-date=April 20, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120411224021/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,254507,00.html|archive-date=April 11, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>
 
There are relatively few African-American Jews; estimates of their number range from 20,000<ref>{{cite web|url=https://philanthropy.com/jobs/2003/05/15/20030515-359473.htm|title=A Fledgling Grant Maker Nurtures Young Jewish 'Social Entrepreneurs'|access-date=December 17, 2007|author=David Whelan|date=May 8, 2003|website=[[The Chronicle of Philanthropy]]}}</ref> to 200,000.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jweekly.com/article/full/8029/organization-for-black-jews-claims-200-000-in-u-s/|title=Organization for black Jews claims 200,000 in U.S|access-date=August 2, 2010|author=Michael Gelbwasser|date=April 10, 1998|website=[[j.]]}}</ref> Most of these Jews are part of mainstream groups such as the [[Reform Judaism|Reform]], [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative]], or [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] branches of Judaism; although there are significant numbers of people who are part of non-mainstream Jewish groups, largely the [[Black Hebrew Israelites]], whose beliefs include the claim that African Americans are descended from the Biblical [[Israelites]].<ref name="northstar">{{cite journal|url=https://northstar.vassar.edu/volume4/chireau_deutsch.html |first=Stephen W. |last=Angell |date=May 2001 |title=Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism |journal=The North Star |volume=4 |issue=2 |issn=1094-902X |access-date=October 19, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020040655/https://northstar.vassar.edu/volume4/chireau_deutsch.html |archive-date=October 20, 2007 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>
 
Confirmed [[Atheism|atheists]] are less than one half of one-percent, similar to numbers for [[Hispanic]]s.<ref>[https://www.pewforum.org/2009/01/30/a-religious-portrait-of-african-americans/ ''A Reglious Portrait of African Americans''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721132557/https://www.pewforum.org/2009/01/30/a-religious-portrait-of-african-americans/ |date=July 21, 2018 }} Pew Research 2009</ref><ref>Sikivu Hutchinson, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/06/16/blacks-are-even-discriminated-against-by-atheists/ "Atheism has a race problem"], ''The Washington Post'', June 16, 2014.</ref><ref>Emily Brennan, [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/fashion/african-american-atheists.html "The Unbelievers"], ''The New York Times'', November 27, 2011.</ref>
 
===Music===
{{multiple image
|total_width=350
|width1=780|height1=529|image1=Jazzing orchestra 1921.png|caption1=The King & Carter [[Jazz]]ing Orchestra photographed in Houston, Texas, January 1921
|width2=542|height2=600|image2=Chuck-berry-2007-07-18.jpg|thumb|left|upright|caption2=[[Chuck Berry]] was considered a pioneer of [[rock and roll]].
}}
[[African-American music]] is one of the most pervasive African-American cultural influences in the United States today and is among the most dominant in mainstream popular music. [[Hip hop music|Hip hop]], [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]], [[funk]], [[rock and roll]], [[soul music|soul]], [[blues]], and other contemporary American musical forms originated in Black communities and evolved from other Black forms of music, including [[blues]], [[doo-wop]], [[Barbershop music|barbershop]], [[ragtime]], [[Bluegrass music|bluegrass]], [[jazz]], and [[gospel music]].


African-American-derived musical forms have also influenced and been incorporated into virtually every other [[popular music]] genre in the world, including [[Country music|country]] and [[techno]]. African-American genres are the most important ethnic vernacular tradition in America, as they have developed independent of African traditions from which they arise more so than any other immigrant groups, including Europeans; make up the broadest and longest lasting range of styles in America; and have, historically, been more influential, interculturally, geographically, and economically, than other American vernacular traditions.<ref name="stewart">{{cite book|last=Stewart|first=Earl L.|year=1998|title=African American Music: An Introduction|isbn=978-0-02-860294-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780028602943/page/3 3]|publisher=Schirmer Books|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780028602943/page/3}}</ref>
Black culture has been the subject of documentaries. For example, the award-winning ''[[Black Is, Black Ain't]]'' explores black identity. ''Good Hair'' discusses the significance of having 'good hair' for black women in American culture.


===Dance===
There is a [[National Museum of African American History and Culture]] in [[Washington D.C]].<ref>https://www.lonelyplanet.com/usa/washington-dc/national-mall/attractions/national-museum-of-african-american-history-culture/a/poi-sig/1246939/1329647</ref>
African Americans have also had an important role in American dance. [[Bill T. Jones]], a prominent modern choreographer and dancer, has included historical African-American themes in his work, particularly in the piece "Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land". Likewise, [[Alvin Ailey]]'s artistic work, including his "Revelations" based on his experience growing up as an African American in the South during the 1930s, has had a significant influence on modern dance. Another form of dance, [[Stepping (African-American)|Stepping]], is an African-American tradition whose performance and competition has been formalized through the traditionally Black fraternities and sororities at universities.<ref name="Anderson">{{Cite news|last=Harris|first=Samantha|title=Stepping into controversy: Some fraternity members fear film 'Stomp the Yard' portrays them as glamorized dance group, trivializes traditions|newspaper=[[The Anderson Independent-Mail]]|location=Anderson, South Carolina|date=January 25, 2007|url=https://www.independentmail.com/news/2007/jan/25/stepping-controversy-some-fraternity-members-fear-/|access-date=January 11, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629142134/http://www.independentmail.com/news/2007/jan/25/stepping-controversy-some-fraternity-members-fear-/|archive-date=June 29, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>


===Literature and academics===
[[Protestantism|Protestant Christianity]] is the most practised religion by African Americans.<ref>https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/02/16/faith-among-black-americans/</ref>
Many African-American authors have written stories, poems, and essays influenced by their experiences as African Americans. [[African-American literature]] is a major genre in American literature. Famous examples include [[Langston Hughes]], [[James Baldwin (writer)|James Baldwin]], [[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]], [[Zora Neale Hurston]], [[Ralph Ellison]], Nobel Prize winner [[Toni Morrison]], and [[Maya Angelou]].


African-American inventors have created many widely used devices in the world and have contributed to international [[innovation]]. [[Norbert Rillieux]] created the technique for converting sugar cane juice into white sugar crystals. Moreover, Rillieux left [[Louisiana]] in 1854 and went to France, where he spent ten years working with the Champollions deciphering [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|Egyptian hieroglyphics]] from the [[Rosetta Stone]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.inventions.org/culture/african/rillieux.html|title=Norbert Rillieux|publisher=Inventors Assistance League|access-date=January 29, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204165759/https://inventions.org/culture/african/rillieux.html|archive-date=December 4, 2010}}</ref> Most slave inventors were nameless, such as the slave owned by the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] President Jefferson Davis who designed the ship propeller used by the Confederate navy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sluby|first=Patricia Carter|title=The Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity|year=2004|publisher=Praeger|location=Westport, Conn.|isbn=978-0-275-96674-4|pages=30–33|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wz-DTSXeLRYC&pg=PA30}}</ref>
[[Soul food]] is a cuisine eaten by African Americans in the South. [[Fried chicken]], mac and cheese, [[cornbread]], [[collard greens]] and candied yams is typical soul food. Soul food has West African, English, French, Caribbean, and Native American influences.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=moE5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA81&dq=soul+food+influenced+by+african+native+american&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi2h62s_PH4AhXBEYgKHTZrBbAQ6AF6BAgDEAM A Taste of Broadway: Food in Musical Theater - Page 81]</ref> African Americans have influenced [[Cuisine of the United States|American cuisine]]. Staples such as coffee, peanuts, millet, okra, sorghum, watermelon, and yams were brought to America from Africa during the slave trade. African slaves have influenced American dishes such as [[gumbo]] and [[jambalaya]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=cCMbE4KKlX4C&pg=PA38&dq=gumbo+jambalaya+african+slaves&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwio1ZXW_vH4AhWoRmwGHTqiCZEQ6AF6BAgFEAM Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass Three-volume Set]</ref>


By 1913, over 1,000 inventions were patented by Black Americans. Among the most notable inventors were [[Jan Matzeliger]], who developed the first machine to mass-produce shoes,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/matzeliger.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030302053043/http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/matzeliger.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2003-03-02|title=Jan Matzeliger|date=August 2002|publisher=[[Lemelson-MIT Program]]|access-date=January 29, 2011}}</ref> and [[Elijah McCoy]], who invented automatic lubrication devices for steam engines.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/mccoy.html|title=Elijah McCoy (1844–1929)|date=May 1996|publisher=[[Lemelson-MIT Program]]|access-date=January 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227194310/https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/mccoy.html|archive-date=December 27, 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Granville Woods]] had 35 patents to improve electric railway systems, including the first system to allow moving trains to communicate.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/woods.html|title=Granville T. Woods|date=August 1996|publisher=[[Lemelson-MIT Program]]|access-date=January 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227190714/https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/woods.html|archive-date=December 27, 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Garrett A. Morgan]] developed the first automatic traffic signal and gas mask.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/morgan.html|title=Garrett A. Morgan (1877–1963)|date=February 1997|publisher=[[Lemelson-MIT Program]]|access-date=January 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227190804/https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/morgan.html|archive-date=December 27, 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref>
[[Kwanzaa]] and [[Juneteenth]] are popular African American holidays.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.infoplease.com/culture-entertainment/holidays/african-american-holidays}}</ref>


[[Lewis Howard Latimer]] invented an improvement for the incandescent light bulb.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.todaysengineer.org/2004/Feb/history.asp|title=African American Heritage in Engineering|author=Michael N. Geselowitz|date=February 2004|publisher=todaysengineer.org|access-date=October 7, 2010}}</ref> More recent inventors include [[Frederick McKinley Jones]], who invented the movable refrigeration unit for food transport in trucks and trains.<ref name=FMJones>{{cite web|url=https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/jones.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030217213948/http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/jones.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 17, 2003|title=Frederick M. Jones (1893–1961)|publisher=[[Lemelson-MIT Program]]|access-date=January 29, 2011}}</ref> [[Lloyd Quarterman]] worked with six other Black scientists on the creation of the atomic bomb (code named the [[Manhattan Project]].)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.csupomona.edu/~nova/scientists/articles/quart.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060924200300/https://www.csupomona.edu/~nova/scientists/articles/quart.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 24, 2006|title=Lloyd Albert Quarterman|last=McConnell|first=Wendy|publisher=Project Nova, [[California State Polytechnic University, Pomona]]|access-date=January 29, 2011}}</ref> Quarterman also helped develop the first nuclear reactor, which was used in the atomically powered [[submarine]] called the Nautilus.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blackhistorypages.net/pages/lquarterman.php|title=Dr. Lloyd Quarterman|publisher=Black History Pages|access-date=January 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723025705/http://blackhistorypages.net/pages/lquarterman.php|archive-date=July 23, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Racism and issues==
{{expand section}}
African Americans are more likely to experience racism. African American males are more likely to be killed by [[police]], which resulted in the [[Black Lives Matter]] movement. African Americans are more likely to die from diseases like [[COVID-19]], [[HIV]], [[obesity]] and [[diabetes]]. African Americans still suffer from [[poverty]] and [[unemployment]]. African Americans are more likely to eat [[fast food]]. [[Heart disease]], diabetes, [[cancer]], and [[homicide]] is the main causes of death for African Americans.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Noonan |first1=Allan S. |last2=Velasco-Mondragon |first2=Hector Eduardo |last3=Wagner |first3=Fernando A. |title=Improving the health of African Americans in the USA: an overdue opportunity for social justice |journal=Public Health Reviews |date=3 October 2016 |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=12 |doi=10.1186/s40985-016-0025-4 |pmid=29450054 |pmc=5810013 |url=https://doi.org/10.1186/s40985-016-0025-4 |access-date=6 August 2021 |issn=2107-6952 |archive-date=26 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626124732/https://publichealthreviews.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40985-016-0025-4 |url-status=live }}</ref>


A few other notable examples include the first successful [[Cardiac surgery|open heart surgery]], performed by Dr. [[Daniel Hale Williams]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.blackinventor.com/pages/danielwilliams.html|title=Daniel Hale Williams|publisher=The Black Inventor Online Museum|access-date=January 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101105085253/http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/danielwilliams.html|archive-date=November 5, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the air conditioner, patented by Frederick McKinley Jones.<ref name=FMJones/> Dr. [[Mark Dean (computer scientist)|Mark Dean]] holds three of the original nine patents on the computer on which all PCs are based.<ref name=BlackInventorMarkDean>{{cite web|title=Mark Dean|url=https://blackinventor.com/mark-dean/|website=The Black Inventor Online Museum|publisher=Adscape International|access-date=March 12, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150311003924/http://blackinventor.com/mark-dean|archive-date=March 11, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=pcworldMarkDean>{{cite web|last1=Ung|first1=Gordon|title='The tablet is my device of choice': Why PC creator Mark Dean has largely abandoned his electronic child|url=https://www.pcworld.com/article/2859478/the-tablet-is-my-device-of-choice-why-pc-creator-mark-dean-has-largely-abandoned-his-electronic-chi.html|website=[[PC World]]|date=December 16, 2014|publisher=[[International Data Group|IDG]]|access-date=March 12, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/computer-science/dean_mark.html|title=Mark E. Dean|last=Williams|first=Scott|publisher=Computer Scientists of the African Diaspora, [[University at Buffalo, The State University of New York|State University of New York at Buffalo]]|access-date=January 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629081040/http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/computer-science/dean_mark.html|archive-date=June 29, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> More current contributors include [[Otis Boykin]], whose inventions included several novel methods for manufacturing electrical components that found use in applications such as guided missile systems and computers,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.blackinventor.com/pages/otisboykin.html|title=Otis Boykin|publisher=The Black Inventor Online Museum|access-date=January 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101105085412/http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/otisboykin.html|archive-date=November 5, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> and Colonel [[Frederick D. Gregory|Frederick Gregory]], who was not only the first Black [[astronaut]] pilot but the person who redesigned the cockpits for the last three space shuttles. Gregory was also on the team that pioneered the microwave instrumentation landing system.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Spangenburg|first1=Ray|last2=Moser|first2=Diane|title=African Americans in Science, Math, and Invention|year=2003|publisher=Facts on File|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8160-4806-9|pages=99–101|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XSOZ8kF5ynEC&pg=PA99}}</ref>
The [[suicide]] rate for African Americans increased due to racism, police brutality and the [[COVID-19 pandemic]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tareen |first1=Sophia |title=Pandemic, racism compound worries about Black suicide rate |url=https://www.denverpost.com/2020/07/12/pandemic-racism-black-suicide-rate |access-date=6 August 2021 |work=The Denver Post |date=12 July 2020 |archive-date=6 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806221555/https://www.denverpost.com/2020/07/12/pandemic-racism-black-suicide-rate/ |url-status=live }}</ref>


==Terminology==
In 2022, a white gunman killed ten African Americans at a grocery store in [[Buffalo, New York]]. 32% of African Americans said they worry every day that they might be threatened or attacked because of their race.<ref>[https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/05/20/safety-concerns-were-top-of-mind-for-many-black-americans-before-buffalo-shooting/ Safety concerns were top of mind for many Black Americans before Buffalo shooting]</ref>
===General===
[[File:"Afro-Americans" float in Golden Potlatch parade, Seattle, July 1911 (MOHAI 5590).jpg|thumb|left|This parade float displayed the word "Afro-Americans" in 1911.]]
The term ''African American'', coined by [[Jesse Jackson]] in the 1980s,<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Wilkerson|first1=Isabel|date=1989-01-31|title='African-American' Favored By Many of America's Blacks|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/31/us/african-american-favored-by-many-of-america-s-blacks.html|access-date=2020-12-28|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> carries important political overtones. Earlier terms used to describe Americans of African ancestry referred more to skin color than to ancestry, and were conferred upon the group by colonists and Americans of European ancestry; people with dark skins were considered inferior in fact and in law. Other terms (such as ''[[colored]]'', ''[[person of color]]'', or ''[[negro]]'') were included in the wording of various laws and legal decisions which some thought were being used as tools of [[White supremacy]] and [[oppression]].<ref name="books.google.com">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/outofmouthsofsla00john|url-access=registration|title=Out of the Mouths of Slaves: African American Language and Educational Malpractice|author=Baugh, John|page=[https://archive.org/details/outofmouthsofsla00john/page/86 86]|publisher=[[University of Texas Press]]|isbn=978-0-292-70873-0|year=1999}}</ref>


[[File:Michelle Obama official portrait crop.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Michelle Obama]] was the [[First Lady]] of the United States; she and her husband, President Barack Obama, are the first African Americans to hold these positions.]]
African Americans have a harder time getting good jobs because of their race.<ref>[https://americanprogress.org/article/african-americans-face-systematic-obstacles-getting-good-jobs/ African Americans Face Systematic Obstacles to Getting Good Jobs]</ref>


A 16-page pamphlet entitled "A Sermon on the Capture of Lord Cornwallis" is notable for the attribution of its [[authorship]] to "An ''African American''". Published in 1782, the book's use of this phrase predates any other yet identified by more than 50 years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogs.harvard.edu/houghton/2015/04/23/exploring-the-origins-of-african-american/|title=Exploring the origins of 'African American' Houghton Library Blog|website=blogs.harvard.edu|access-date=May 6, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180507153324/https://blogs.harvard.edu/houghton/2015/04/23/exploring-the-origins-of-african-american/|archive-date=May 7, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>
55% of African American adults have [[high blood pressure]].<ref>https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/high-blood-pressure/why-high-blood-pressure-is-a-silent-killer/high-blood-pressure-and-african-americans</ref>


In the 1980s, the term ''African American'' was advanced on the model of, for example, [[German Americans|German American]] or [[Irish Americans|Irish American]], to give descendants of [[Slavery in the United States|American slaves]], and other American Blacks who lived through the slavery era, a [[Cultural heritage|heritage]] and a cultural base.<ref name="books.google.com"/> The term was popularized in Black communities around the country via [[word of mouth]] and ultimately received mainstream use after [[Jesse Jackson]] publicly used the term in front of a national audience in 1988. Subsequently, major media outlets adopted its use.<ref name="books.google.com"/>
African Americans are more likely to become [[homeless]] than whites. African Americans make up 40 percent of the homeless population in the United States.<ref> https://endhomelessness.org/resource/racial-inequalities-homelessness-numbers/</ref>


Surveys show that the majority of Black Americans have no preference for ''African American'' versus ''Black American'',<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.gallup.com/poll/28816/black-african-american.aspx|title=Black or African American?|first=Frank|last=Newport|publisher=Gallup|date=September 28, 2007|access-date=September 26, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100906124630/https://www.gallup.com/poll/28816/Black-African-American.aspx|archive-date=September 6, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> although they have a slight preference for the latter in personal settings and the former in more formal settings.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=Pepper|last2=Kemp|first2=Herb|title=What's Black About? Insights to Increase Your Share of a Changing African-American Market|page=8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1OzZr_U2x_wC&pg=PA8|publisher=Paramount Market Publishing, Inc|year=2006|isbn=978-0-9725290-9-9|oclc=61694280}}</ref> Many African Americans have expressed a preference for the term ''African American'' because it was formed in the same way as the terms for the many other ethnic groups currently living in the United States. Some argued further that, because of the historical circumstances surrounding the capture, enslavement, and systematic attempts to de-Africanize Blacks in the United States under [[Slavery#Chattel slavery|chattel slavery]], most African Americans are unable to trace their ancestry to any specific [[List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa|African nation]]; hence, the [[Africa|entire continent]] serves as a geographic marker.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}
African Americans are more likely to get punished and arrested for drugs such as [[marijuana]] than whites.<ref> https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/3/17/8227569/war-on-drugs-racism</ref>


The term ''African American'' embraces [[pan-Africanism]] as earlier enunciated by prominent African thinkers such as [[Marcus Garvey]], [[W. E. B. Du Bois]], and [[George Padmore]]. The term ''Afro-[[Usonia]]n'', and variations of such, are more rarely used.<ref>Brennan, Timothy. 2008. ''Secular Devotion: Afro-Latin Music and Imperial Jazz'', p. 249.</ref><ref>[https://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2010/12/what_call_americans "Yankees, gringos and USAnians"], ''[[The Economist]]'', December 9, 2010. Retrieved March 26, 2014.</ref>
African Americans are more likely to experience [[hunger]] and lack of access to food.<ref> https://www.bread.org/sites/default/files/african-american-fact-sheet-february-2017.pdf</ref>


===Official identity===
African Americans are more likely to catch [[monkeypox]] and less likely to receive vaccines for the disease.<ref>https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/health/black-people-receiving-less-monkeypox-vaccine-compared-to-general-public-cdc</ref>
[[File:US Census Bureau keypunch operators, Negro section.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Racially segregated]] Negro section of keypunch operators at the [[US Census Bureau]]]]
Since 1977, in an attempt to keep up with changing social opinion, the [[Federal government of the United States|United States government]] has officially classified Black people (revised to ''Black'' or ''African American'' in 1997) as "having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa."<ref name="censusblack">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-5.pdf|first=Jesse|last=McKinnon|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=October 22, 2007|title=The Black Population: 2000 United States Census Bureau}}</ref> Other federal offices, such as the [[United States Census Bureau|U.S. Census Bureau]], adhere to the [[Office of Management and Budget]] standards on race in their data collection and tabulation efforts.<ref name="OMB">{{cite web|url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/1997standards.html |title=Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity |year=1997 |publisher=Office of Management and Budget |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315191301/https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/1997standards.html |archive-date=March 15, 2009 }}</ref> In preparation for the [[2010 United States Census|2010 U.S. Census]], a marketing and outreach plan called ''2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign Plan'' (ICC) recognized and defined African Americans as Black people born in the United States. From the ICC perspective, African Americans are one of three groups of Black people in the United States.<ref name="US2010ICCBlkAud">{{cite web|title=2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign Plan|url=https://www.census.gov/2010census/partners/pdf/2010_ICC_Plan_Final_Edited.pdf|website=2010 Census|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|page=225|date=August 2008|access-date=September 6, 2012|quote=The Black audience includes all individuals of Black African descent. There are three major groups that represent the Black Audience in the United States. These groups are African Americans (Blacks born in the United States), Black Africans (Black Immigrants from Africa) and Afro-Caribbeans, which includes Haitians.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310013605/http://www.census.gov/2010census/partners/pdf/2010_ICC_Plan_Final_Edited.pdf|archive-date=March 10, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>


The ICC plan was to reach the three groups by acknowledging that each group has its own sense of community that is based on geography and ethnicity.<ref name="US2010ICCBstRch">{{cite web|title=2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign Plan|url=https://www.census.gov/2010census/partners/pdf/2010_ICC_Plan_Final_Edited.pdf|website=2010 Census|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|page=230|date=August 2008|access-date=September 6, 2012|quote=Community, both geographic and ethnic, creates a sense of belonging and pride that is unique to the Black audience (African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, and Black Africans).|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310013605/http://www.census.gov/2010census/partners/pdf/2010_ICC_Plan_Final_Edited.pdf|archive-date=March 10, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> The best way to market the census process toward any of the three groups is to reach them through their own unique communication channels and not treat the entire Black population of the U.S. as though they are all African Americans with a single ethnic and geographical background. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] of the [[United States Department of Justice|U.S. Department of Justice]] categorizes Black or African American people as "[a] person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa" through racial categories used in the UCR Program adopted from the Statistical Policy Handbook (1978) and published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, [[United States Department of Commerce|U.S. Department of Commerce]], derived from the 1977 [[Office of Management and Budget]] classification.<ref name="FBIpop">{{cite web|url=https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/additional-ucr-publications/ucr_handbook.pdf/view|title=Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook|publisher=U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation|page=97|year=2004|format=PDF}}</ref>
==Related pages==
 
* [[African American Vernacular English]]
===Admixture===
* [[Black people]]
{{See also|Miscegenation#United States|Multiracial American|One-drop rule|hypodescent}}
* [[African immigration to the United States]]
Historically, "[[Miscegenation|race mixing]]" between Black and White people was [[taboo]] in the United States. So-called [[anti-miscegenation laws]], barring Blacks and Whites from [[Interracial marriage in the United States|marrying]] or having sex, were established in [[colonial America]] as early as 1691,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.backintyme.com/essay050101.htm|title=The Invention of the Color Line: 1691—Essays on the Color Line and the One-Drop Rule |author=Frank W Sweet |publisher=Backentyme Essays|date=January 1, 2005|access-date=January 4, 2008|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070409160923/https://backintyme.com/essay050101.htm|archive-date=April 9, 2007}}</ref> and endured in many [[Southern United States|Southern states]] until the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] ruled them unconstitutional in ''[[Loving v. Virginia]]'' (1967). The taboo among American Whites surrounding White-Black relations is a historical consequence of the oppression and [[racial segregation]] of African Americans.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Yancey|first=George|date=March 22, 2007|title=Experiencing Racism: Differences in the Experiences of Whites Married to Blacks and Non-Black Racial Minorities|journal=Journal of Comparative Family Studies|volume=38|issue=2|pages=197–213|doi=10.3138/jcfs.38.2.197}}</ref> Historian [[David Brion Davis]] notes the racial mixing that occurred during slavery was frequently attributed by the [[Plantations in the American South|planter class]] to the "lower-class White males" but Davis concludes that "there is abundant evidence that many slaveowners, sons of slaveowners, and overseers took black mistresses or in effect raped the wives and daughters of slave families."<ref>[[David Brion Davis|Davis, David Brion]]. ''[[Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World]].''(2006) {{ISBN|978-0-19-514073-6}} p. 201</ref> A famous example was [[Thomas Jefferson]]'s mistress, [[Sally Hemings]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Memoirs of Madison Hemings|publisher=PBS Frontline|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/cron/1873march.html}}</ref>
* [[Black Hispanic and Latino Americans]]
 
[[Harvard University]] historian [[Henry Louis Gates Jr.]] wrote in 2009 that "African Americans…are a racially mixed or [[mulatto]] people—deeply and overwhelmingly so" (see [[#Genetics|genetics]]). After the [[Emancipation Proclamation]], [[Chinese Americans|Chinese American]] men married African American women in high proportions to their total marriage numbers due to few Chinese American women being in the United States.<ref name="The United States">{{cite web|url=https://www.colorq.org/MeltingPot/article.aspx?d=America&x=ChineseBlacks|title=The United States|website=Chinese blacks in the Americas|publisher=Color Q World|access-date=March 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615185501/http://www.colorq.org/MeltingPot/article.aspx?d=America&x=ChineseBlacks|archive-date=June 15, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> African slaves and their descendants have also had a history of cultural exchange and [[Miscegenation|intermarriage]] with Native Americans,<ref name="gen2">{{cite web|url=https://www.african-nativeAmerican.com/1IntroPage.htm|title=Researching Black Native American Genealogy of the Five Civilized Tribes|author=Angela Y. Walton-Raji|access-date=March 20, 2018|year=2008|publisher=Oklahoma's Black Native Americans}}</ref> although they did not necessarily retain social, cultural or linguistic ties to Native peoples.<ref name="sad">{{cite book|author=G. Reginald Daniel|title=More Than Black?: Multiracial|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9tP7_3j3WrkC&pg=PA129year|publisher=Temple University Press|isbn=9781439904831|date=June 25, 2010}}</ref> There are also increasing intermarriages and offspring between non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics of any race, especially between Puerto Ricans and African Americans (American-born Blacks).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov|title=U.S. Census website|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=July 9, 2012}}</ref> According to author M.M. Drymon, many African Americans identify as having [[Scotch-Irish American|Scots-Irish]] ancestry.<ref>{{cite book|title=Scotch Irish Foodways in America: Recipes from History|author=M.M. Drymon|page=41}}</ref>
 
Racially mixed marriages have become increasingly accepted in the United States since the civil rights movement and up to the present day.<ref name="Swanbrow">{{cite news|url=https://www.ns.umich.edu/new/releases/3396-intimate-relationships-between-races-more-common-than-thought|title=Intimate Relationships Between Races More Common Than Thought|last=Swanbrow|first=Diane|date=March 23, 2000|publisher=University of Michigan|access-date=March 20, 2018}}</ref> Approval in national opinion polls has risen from 36% in 1978, to 48% in 1991, 65% in 2002, 77% in 2007.<ref>[[Paul Krugman|Krugman, Paul]], ''[[The Conscience of a Liberal]]'', W W Norton & Company, 2007, p. 210.</ref> A Gallup poll conducted in 2013 found that 84% of Whites and 96% of Blacks approved of interracial marriage, and 87% overall.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gallup.com/poll/163697/approve-marriage-blacks-whites.aspx|title=In U.S., 87% Approve of Black-White Marriage, vs. 4% in 1958|author=Newport, Frank|publisher=Gallup|date=July 25, 2013|access-date=December 21, 2015}}</ref>
 
At the end of [[World War II]], African American men married [[Women in Japan|Japanese women]] in Japan and immigrated to the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://dornsifelive.usc.edu/events/site/192/579045/|title=Rising Sun, "Rising Soul": Mixed Race Japanese of African Descent > Event Details > USC Center for Japanese Religions and Culture|website=dornsifelive.usc.edu}}</ref>
 
===<span id="The">Terminology dispute</span>===
In her book ''The End of Blackness'', as well as in an essay on the liberal website ''[[Salon.com|Salon]]'',<ref name="colorblind-salon">{{cite web|url=https://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2007/01/22/obama/|title=Colorblind&nbsp;– Barack Obama would be the great black hope in the next presidential race&nbsp;– if he were actually black|work=[[Salon (website)]]|author=Debra J. Dickerson|date=January 22, 2007|access-date=October 7, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100924194645/https://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2007/01/22/obama/|archive-date=September 24, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> author [[Debra Dickerson]] has argued that the term ''[[Black people|Black]]'' should refer strictly to the descendants of Africans who were brought to America as slaves, and not to the sons and daughters of Black immigrants who lack that ancestry. Thus, under her definition, President [[Barack Obama]], who is the son of a [[Kenyan Americans|Kenyan immigrant]], is not Black.<ref name="colorblind-salon"/><ref name="colbertnation.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/81955/february-08-2007/debra-dickerson?videoId=81955|title=The Colbert Report|author=Debra Dickerson|date=February 8, 2007|publisher=colbertnation.com|access-date=October 7, 2010}}</ref> She makes the argument that grouping all people of African descent together regardless of their unique ancestral circumstances would inevitably deny the lingering effects of slavery within the American community of slave descendants, in addition to denying Black immigrants recognition of their own unique ancestral backgrounds. "Lumping us all together," Dickerson wrote, "erases the significance of slavery and continuing racism while giving the appearance of progress."<ref name="colorblind-salon"/>
 
Similar viewpoints have been expressed by [[Stanley Crouch]] in a ''[[New York Daily News]]'' piece, [[Charles Steele Jr.]] of the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/sclc-head-michelle-obama-treated-more-roughly-than-her-husband-because-of-her-slave-heritage/XG74EGDUSZG23LDBKZOBX7WRI4/|title=SCLC head: Michelle Obama treated more roughly than her husband, because of her slave heritage|work=[[Atlanta Journal Constitution]]|date=June 21, 2008|access-date=June 4, 2021}}</ref> and African-American columnist [[David Ehrenstein]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', who accused White liberals of flocking to Blacks who were ''[[Magic Negro]]s'', a term that refers to a Black person with no past who simply appears to assist the mainstream White (as cultural protagonists/drivers) agenda.<ref name="Obama the 'Magic Negro'">{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ehrenstein19mar19,0,5335087.story?coll=la-opinion-center |work=Los Angeles Times|title=Obama the 'Magic Negro'|date=March 19, 2007|first=David|last=Ehrenstein}}</ref> Ehrenstein went on to say "He's there to assuage white 'guilt' they feel over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history."<ref name="Obama the 'Magic Negro'"/>
 
Former Secretary of State [[Condoleezza Rice]] (who was famously mistaken for a "recent American immigrant" by [[President of France|French President]] [[Nicolas Sarkozy]]),<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,309218,00.html|publisher=[[Fox News Channel]]|title=Nicolas Sarkozy Mistakes Condoleezza Rice for Recent Immigrant|date=November 7, 2007|access-date=July 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521160714/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,309218,00.html|archive-date=May 21, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> said "descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that." She has also rejected an immigrant designation for African Americans and instead prefers the term ''Black'' or ''White'' to denote the African and European U.S. founding populations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bbaaghs.org/news/?p=10|title=Book Excerpt: Condoleezza Rice: An American Life|author=Elisabeth Bumiller|date=December 22, 2007|access-date=October 7, 2010|author-link=Elisabeth Bumiller|archive-date=July 25, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725043206/http://bbaaghs.org/news/?p=10|url-status=dead}}</ref>
 
===Terms no longer in common use===
Before the independence of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] until the abolition of slavery in 1865, an African-American slave was commonly known as a ''[[negro]]''. ''[[Free negro]]'' was the legal status in the territory of an African-American person who was not a slave.<ref>{{cite book|last=Frazier|first=Edward Franklin|title=The Free Negro Family|year=1968|page=1}}</ref> The term ''[[colored]]'' later also began to be used until the second quarter of the 20th century, when it was considered outmoded and generally gave way again to the exclusive use of ''negro''. By the 1940s, the term was commonly capitalized (''Negro''); but by the mid-1960s, it was considered disparaging. By the end of the 20th century, ''negro'' had come to be considered inappropriate and was rarely used and perceived as a [[pejorative]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Tottie|first=Gunnel|title=An Introduction to American English|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WWDUtK-f1tQC&pg=PA200|year=2002|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-631-19792-8|page=200}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Anderson|first=Talmadge|author2=James Stewart|title=Introduction to African American Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=49tXR1Ok6poC&pg=PA3|year=2007|publisher=Black Classics Press|location=Baltimore|isbn=978-1-58073-039-6|page=3}}</ref> The term is rarely used by younger Black people, but remained in use by many older African Americans who had grown up with the term, particularly in the southern U.S.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/03/they-put-negro-on-there/38094/|title=They Put 'Negro' on There?|author=Chris Good|date=March 26, 2010|website=[[The Atlantic]]|access-date=October 7, 2010}}</ref> The term remains in use in some contexts, such as the [[United Negro College Fund]], an American philanthropic organization that funds scholarships for Black students and general scholarship funds for 39 private historically Black colleges and universities.
 
There are many other deliberately insulting terms, many of which were in common use (e.g., ''[[nigger]]''), but had become unacceptable in normal discourse before the end of the 20th century. One exception is the use, among the Black community, of the slur ''nigger'' rendered as ''[[nigga]]'', representing the pronunciation of the word in [[African-American English]]. This usage has been popularized by American [[rap]] and [[Hip hop|hip-hop]] [[Music of the United States|music cultures]] and is used as part of an [[In-group and out-group|in-group]] [[lexicon]] and speech. It is not necessarily [[Pejorative|derogatory]] and, when used among Black people, the word is often used to mean "homie" or "friend."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rahman|first=Jacquelyn|date=June 2012|title=The N Word: Its History and Use in the African American Community|journal=Journal of English Linguistics|volume=40|issue=2|pages=137–171|doi=10.1177/0075424211414807|s2cid=144164210|issn=0075-4242}}</ref>
 
Acceptance of intra-group usage of the word ''nigga'' is still debated, although it has established a foothold among younger generations. The [[NAACP]] denounces the use of both ''nigga'' and ''nigger''.<ref name="BaltSun">{{Cite news|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2007-07-10-0707100124-story.html|title=NAACP aims to bury the 'N-word'|last=Brewington|first=Kelly|date=July 10, 2007|work=The Baltimore Sun|access-date=June 15, 2019|publisher=Baltimore Sun Media Group|archive-date=October 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024221608/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2007-07-10-0707100124-story.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Mixed-race usage of ''nigga'' is still considered taboo, particularly if the speaker is White. However, trends indicate that usage of the term in intragroup settings is increasing even among White youth due to the popularity of rap and hip hop culture.<ref name="ENQ">Kevin Aldridge, Richelle Thompson and Earnest Winston, [https://archive.today/20130110202405/http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2001/08/05/loc_1the_n-word.html "The evolving N-word"], ''The Cincinnati Enquirer'', August 5, 2001.</ref>
 
==See also==
{{Portal|United States}}
{{Div col|colwidth=23em}}
* [[African-American art]]
* [[African-American middle class]]
* [[African-American neighborhood]]
* [[African-American upper class]]
* [[Afrophobia]]
* [[Black Belt in the American South]]
* [[Civil rights movement (1865–1896)]]
* [[Civil rights movement (1896–1954)]]
* [[Juneteenth]]
* [[North Africans in the United States]]
* [[National Museum of African American History and Culture]]
* [[Criollo people#Spanish colonial caste system|Society and Black people in the Spanish Colonial Americas]]
* [[South African Americans]]
* [[South African Americans]]
* [[Timeline of the civil rights movement]]
* [[Black Canadians]]
{{Div col end}}
* [[African-American culture]]
 
* [[White Americans]]
===Diaspora===
* [[Asian Americans]]
* [[African Americans in Africa]]
* [[Hispanic and Latino Americans]]
* [[African Americans in France]]
* [[African Americans in Ghana]]
* [[Americo-Liberian people]]
* [[Black Nova Scotians]]
* [[Sierra Leone Creole people]]
 
===Lists===
{{Div col}}
* [[Index of articles related to African Americans]]
* [[List of African-American neighborhoods]]
* [[List of African-American newspapers and media outlets]]
* [[List of historically Black colleges and universities]]
* [[List of monuments to African Americans]]
* [[List of populated places in the United States with African-American plurality populations]]
* [[List of topics related to the African diaspora]]
* [[Lists of African Americans]]
{{Div col end}}
 
==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=nb}}


==References==
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{reflist}}
 
;Notes
==Further reading==
<references group="nb"/>
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite book|last=Altman|first=Susan|title=The Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage|isbn=978-0-8160-4125-1|year=2000}}
* Finkelman, Paul, ed. ''Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass'' (3 vol Oxford University Press, 2006).
* Finkelman, Paul, ed. ''Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century'' (5 vol. Oxford University Press, USA, 2009).
* [[John Hope Franklin]], Alfred Moss, ''From Slavery to Freedom. A History of African Americans'', McGraw-Hill Education 2001, standard work, first edition in 1947.
* Gates, Henry L. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (eds), ''African American Lives'', Oxford University Press, 2004 – more than 600 biographies.
* [[Darlene Clark Hine]], [[Rosalyn Terborg-Penn]], Elsa Barkley Brown (eds), ''Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia'', Paperback Edition, Indiana University Press 2005.
* Kranz, Rachel. ''African-American Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs'' (Infobase Publishing, 2004).
* Salzman, Jack, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Afro-American culture and history'', New York City : Macmillan Library Reference USA, 1996.
* {{cite book|last=Stewart|first=Earl L.|year=1998|title=African American Music: An Introduction|isbn=978-0-02-860294-3|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780028602943}}
* {{Cite book|title=The Music of Black Americans: A History|author-link=Eileen Southern|first=Eileen|last=Southern|publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]]|edition=3rd|year=1997|isbn=978-0-393-97141-5}}
 
{{Refend}}


==External links==
==External links==
{{Sister project links|d=Q49085|wikt=African American|c=Category:African Americans|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|s=no|species=no}}
{{commonscat|African Americans}}
* Richard Thompson Ford [https://www.slate.com/id/2106753/ Name Games], ''Slate'', September 16, 2004. Article discussing the problems of defining ''African American''
*[https://www.britannica.com/topic/African-American African Americans | History, Facts, & Culture - Encyclopedia Britannica]
* [https://armsandthelaw.com/archives/2006/04/don_kates_on_af.php "Of Arms & the Law: Don Kates on Afro-American Homicide Rates"]
*[https://www.history.com/.amp/topics/black-history/slavery U.S. Slavery: Timeline, Figures & Abolition - HISTORY]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071015191820/http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa004&articleID=000C97BA-94E0-146C-944583414B7FFE9F ''Scientific American'' Magazine (June 2006) Trace Elements] Reconnecting African Americans to an ancestral past
*[https://www.everyculture.com/multi/A-Br/African-Americans.html African americans]
* [https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/02/EDGT1ODJHH1.DTL&hw=slaves+african+american+obama&sn=002&sc=736 "The Definition of Political Absurdity"], ''San Francisco Chronicle'', March 2, 2007
*[https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/african-americans TSHA | African Americans - Texas State Historical Association]
* [https://www.sonoma.edu/asc/publications/weweretheretoo/cooktoc.htm African American archaeology in Sacramento, California] pdf
*[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/27.html African Americans - Encyclopedia of Chicago]
* [https://www.sonoma.edu/asc/cypress/finalreport/index.htm African American archaeology in Oakland, California] – see Part III, Chap 10
*[https://www.history.com/.amp/topics/black-history/black-history-milestones Black History Milestones: Timeline]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110815220254/http://go.footnote.com/blackhistory/ Black History related original documents and photos]
*https://minorityrights.org/minorities/african-americans/
* [http://www.nbcnews.com/id/22425001 President Obama's Speech to the NAACP on July 16, 2009] – full video by MSNBC
*https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/african-americans-407/
* Frank Newport, [https://www.gallup.com/poll/28816/black-african-american.aspx "Black or African American?"], Gallup, September 28, 2007
*https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/on-african-american-migrations/
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110901161306/http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/45800,news-comment,news-politics,in-pictures-the-long-journey-of-black-americans "The Long Journey of Black Americans"]&nbsp;– slideshow by ''[[The First Post]]''


{{African American topics|state=expanded}}
{{Demographics of the United States}}
{{Demographics of the United States}}
{{African diaspora}}
{{African diaspora}}
{{Gullah topics|state=collapsed}}
{{African American topics}}
{{Authority control}}
 
{{authority control}}


[[Category:African-American society| ]]
[[Category:African-American people| ]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in the United States]]
[[Category:History of civil rights in the United States]]
[[Category:People of African descent|American]]
[[Category:African-American culture| ]]

Revision as of 06:06, 10 October 2022

African Americans
African Americans by state.svg
Proportion of African Americans in each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States Census
Total population
46,936,733 (2020)[1]
14.2% of the total U.S. population (2020)[1]
41,104,200 (2020) (one race)[1]
12.4% of the total U.S. population (2020)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Across the United States, especially in the South and urban areas
Languages
English (American English dialects, African-American English)
Louisiana Creole French
Gullah Creole English
African languages
Religion
Predominantly Protestant (71 %) including Historically Black Protestant (53%), Evangelical Protestant (14%), and Mainline Protestant (4%); Template:Longlink
Related ethnic groups
Black Canadians, Louisiana Creole people, Gullah people
African American family in Gainesville, Florida.
First African American president Barack Obama

An African American is a person who lives in the United States whose ancestors were from Africa. It could also mean a first generation African immigrant who has citizenship in the United States. Some African Americans are also of Caribbean or Afro-Latino ancestry.[2][3]

The term is usually associated with black people. This is because of many African Americans' dark skin due to having Sub-Saharan African ancestors. Many Africans were brought to the United States in the slave trade. Many of the U.S. population (especially in many urban or city areas) are African American. Many others live in rural areas in the Southern United States. Detroit has the highest percent of blacks in the nation, and many live in other big cities. Cities with the highest percent of African Americans are Jackson, Mississippi; New Orleans; Memphis; Miami Gardens; and Savannah, Georgia.[4] New York City and Chicago have the largest population of African Americans. Other cities with a high African American population are Baltimore, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Baton Rouge, Washington, D.C. and Dallas. States with the highest percentage of African Americans are Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Maryland, South Carolina, Alabama, Delaware, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. African Americans are third largest ethnic group in the United States after White Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans. African Americans are the second largest ancestral group in the United States after Germans.[5] Many African Americans have European and Native American ancestry.[6] The first African slaves were brought on a Dutch boat from Angola in 1619 to the British colony of Jamestown in Virginia.[7][8] New York City has the largest African American population by city.[9]

Ethnicity

African-American refers to a specific range of diverse cultures with a common thread of ethnic connection to Africa. This term was created to describe an ethnic/cultural link to Africa for people who are American, much as in the case of Italian Americans, Irish Americans, or Polish Americans. The difference is that Italian Americans and Polish Americans know they are Americans of Italian or Polish (not general European) descent.[citation needed]

The 'African' in African-American acknowledges the connection to a number of African cultures, not one in particular. The 'American' shows the nationality and culture of the United States. A person born in Nigeria is still Nigerian even if he or she comes to the United States and lives here for the rest of their life. If that person wants to say that they are an American citizen, they would simply say "I am an American citizen". His American-born children could correctly call themselves Nigerian-American OR African-American.[citation needed]

Some Caribbeans such as Jamaicans do not identify as African American, even if they have African ancestry.[10]

Black

In America, and from an American point of view, the term 'Black' is often applied to other ethnic groups throughout the world who do not necessarily see themselves as Black, such as Australian Aborigines, for example. African American culture was born in the United States and is distinct from any single African culture.

African-American is a term that many Black people chose to call themselves because they found the term "Negro" offensive.

In America there are many immigrants of mixed race that includes African descent, like Cape Verdeans, Dominicans, Cubans, Brazilians and Puerto Ricans. These groups, by and large, do not think of themselves as Black or African American and object to these labels.

Many mixed race Americans also resist pressure to identify themselves as Black or White. Blasians and Afro-Hispanics also resist pressure.

Population statistics

African American family in Alabama
Slave population, 1860
African Americans are concentrated in the South region

Alabama has a large population of African Americans. African Americans were enslaved in the state.[11]

African Americans constitute 15.4 percent of Arkansas’s population, according to the 2010 census, and they have been present in Arkansas since the earliest days of European settlement. Originally brought to Arkansas in large numbers as slaves, people of African ancestry drove the state’s plantation economy until long after the Civil War. African Americans have exerted a profound influence upon all aspects of the state’s history and culture.

Atlanta was the home of Martin Luther King Jr. and an important place in the Civil Rights Movement.[12] It has been referred to as a "black mecca".

  • "A CHAMPION FOR ATLANTA: Maynard Jackson: 'Black mecca' burgeoned under leader"[13]
  • "The city that calls itself America's ' Black Mecca'"[14]
  • "The Black Mecca leads the nation in numbers of African American millionaires; at the same time, it leads the nation in the percentage of its children in poverty"[15]
  • "the city that earned a national reputation as America's 'black mecca'"[16]
  • "the cornerstone upon which today's 'Black Mecca' was built"[17]
  • "And, they said, don't forget Atlanta's reputation as a black mecca"[18][19]
  • "Atlanta's allure as the black mecca"[20]
  • "The Southern capital regarded as the nation's black mecca"[21][22][23][24][25]
  • “Atlanta is a city that is known as the black mecca"[26] "Upcoming city elections will show how Atlanta is undergoing profound changes", '"Saporta Report, October 2009
  • "Some people call Atlanta the Black Mecca"[27]
  • "That stockpile of black brain power has made Atlanta the nation's mecca for blacks, especially buppies looking for Afro-American affluence and political clout." in "Bond vs. Lewis - it's Atlanta's loss that only one of the two can win ", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 16, 1986
  • "Is it this that has made Atlanta the mecca of the black middle class?"[28]
  • "Atlanta emerges as a center of black entertainment"[29]

Delaware has a significant African American population. African Americans were enslaved in the state. In 1721, an estimated 2,000-5,000 black slaves lived in Pennsylvania and the three lower counties on the Delaware.[30]

As of the 2010 U.S. Census, African Americans were 31.2% of Georgia's population.[31]

The first black people to live in Texas were Afro-Mexicans when Texas was a Spanish colony.[32] Texas has one of the largest African-American populations in the country.[33] African Americans are concentrated in northern, eastern and east-central Texas as well as the Dallas, Houston and San Antonio metropolitan areas.[34] African Americans form 24 percent of both the cities of Dallas and Houston, 19% of Fort Worth, 8.1 percent of Austin, and 7.5 percent of San Antonio.[35]

Virginia is home to the longest continuous experience of African American life and culture in the United States spanning more than four centuries – beginning before the first English settlement at Jamestown and through the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Emancipation and the Civil Rights eras.

Outside of the United States, the history of African Americans in Ghana goes back to people such as American civil rights activist and writer W. E. B. Du Bois, who settled in Ghana in the last years of his life and is buried in the capital Accra. Since then, other African Americans who are descended from slaves imported from areas within the present-day jurisdiction of Ghana and neighboring states have applied for permanent resident status in Ghana. As of 2015, the number of African American residents has been estimated at around 3,000 people, a large portion of whom live in Accra.

Texas has the largest African American population of any state in 2019. Followed by, Florida, Georgia and New York. The New York City metropolitan area has the largest African American metropolitan population. In 2019, the South had the largest black population by region.[36]

New York City has had the largest number of African Americans by city, followed by Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and Houston.[37]

African Americans from north are moving back to the Southern United States and the suburbs.[38] African Americans are moving to smaller cities especially in Fort Worth, Texas, Columbus, Ohio, Jacksonville, Florida and Charlotte, North Carolina.[39]

There is a African American community in Arkansas. African Americans make up 15.4 percent of Arkansas's population.[40]

1.2 million African Americans are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered.[41]

Genetic studies

Many African Americans have European ancestry and Native American along with African ancestry.

Recent surveys of African Americans using a genetic testing service have found varied ancestries. These studies found that on average, African Americans have 73.2–82.1% West African, 16.7%–24% European, and 0.8–1.2% Native American genetic ancestry, with large variation between individuals.[42][43][44]

Genetics websites themselves have reported similar ranges, with some finding 1 or 2 percent Native American ancestry and Ancestry.com reporting an outlying percentage of European ancestry among African Americans of 29%.[45] 38% of African Americans have Irish ancestry.[46]

African American men have the second highest interracial marriage rate, behind Asian American women.[47] Interracial marriage between African Americans and white people has rapidly increased.[48]

History

African Americans picking cotton in Georgia
Slave trader advertisement in Charleston, South Carolina

Most of the first African Americans were brought to North America as part of the Atlantic slave trade. African slaves were brought to North America from 1619 to 1808. After the United States became independent, slavery became illegal in most northern states. At the same time, slavery grew more important to the economy of the southern states. Many African American slaves worked on plantations (large farms) that grew cotton and tobacco.[49] Plantation work was very difficult and slaves were often whipped and physically punished. It was illegal for slaves to learn how to read and write. White men often raped slave women, but were not punished.[50]

At the same time, there were many free African Americans in the north. Unlike slaves, they were allowed to start churches, write newspapers, and sometimes own property.[51] Frederick Douglass was an important abolitionist (fighter against slavery). Harriet Tubman helped to create the Underground Railroad, which helped African Americans to sneak away from their masters and become free. During the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865, the south broke away from the United States to form the Confederate States of America, or Confederacy. The United States won the war, and in 1865, it freed all slaves (about 4 million) by the 13th amendment.

Enslaved African Americans in Georgia

African Americans were not slaves anymore, but white southerners passed laws called Black Codes that took away their freedom. Some African Americans served in government, but after 1877, the white southerners mostly kept them out of government. Whites founded the Ku Klux Klan to scare African Americans and stop them from voting.[49] Most southern African Americans became sharecroppers. Sharecropping was a system in which the farmers rented the land from the landowner and had to pay the landowner part of their crops.[52] Jim Crow laws segregated white and black people. Black people had to go to different schools and usually live in different neighborhoods than white people. Many businesses were for whites only. The Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson said that black and white facilities could be separate but equal, but facilities for black people were usually worse. Lynching was often practiced against African Americans.

In the early 1900s, African American culture grew with the Harlem Renaissance, an artistic and literary movement in New York City. The NAACP was founded to improve the lives of African Americans. Leaders had different ideas about what was best for African Americans. Booker T. Washington thought they should go to vocational schools to get better jobs. W.E.B. Du Bois thought university education was more important. Marcus Garvey believed that African Americans should move to Africa to have a country of their own.[49] During the Great Migration, from the 1910s to the 1960s, African Americans moved from the south to cities in the north and west. At the beginning, only 10% of African Americans lived outside the south, but by the end, 47% lived in the north and west.[53] Segregation also existed in the north. Redlining stopped people who lived in African American neighborhoods from buying homes.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement called for equality between African Americans and whites. The 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education banned racial segregation in schools. Many Southern schools still stopped black students from attending, until 1957, when federal troops forced a school in Little Rock, Arkansas to allow black students (called the Little Rock Nine). In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus. This started the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which involved Martin Luther King. King and Malcolm X were two leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, but they were both killed in the 1960s. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act banned discrimination based on race.[54]

Racism against African Americans is still prevalent in 2020. In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, George Floyd was killed by a white police officer. Black Lives Matter is a movement which started in 2013.[55]

Language and society

With their American born children came the first generation of English speaking African Americans. But this development was not the same all over the country. For example; even today the Gullah of the Sea Islands off the Carolina and Georgia coasts still speak a language that is a blend of several African languages. They are the descendants of slaves from different countries in Africa.[citation needed]

In the United States when Americans say African-American or Black, they are referring to the same people. Both terms describe an ethnic group that came to exist in the United States. The Africans who were brought to America as slaves were from different nationalities and did not all speak the same language. They became a new blended ethnic group with a new language that was not their own: English.[citation needed]

Blacks used to be segregated in schools but since the 1960s were able to join major schools, colleges and universities. In the second half of the 20th century, reading-ability rates for blacks increased.

In Louisiana, Some blacks speak Louisiana Creole, a Creole language similar to French. In the 19th century, the majority of south Louisiana's blacks spoke Louisiana Creole.[56]

Culture

African Americans celebrating Kwanzaa
A traditional soul food dinner: Fried chicken with macaroni and cheese, collard greens, breaded fried okra and cornbread.
National Museum of African American History and Culture

Black culture in the United States is influenced by African, European and Native American cultures.[57] African Americans have influenced various forms of music, including Hip hop, R&B, funk, rock and roll, soul, blues, and other contemporary American musical forms while older black forms of music included blues, doo-wop, barbershop, ragtime, bluegrass, jazz, and gospel music. Michael Jackson, an African-American pop singer, released an album called Thriller in 1982 which is the best-selling album of all time. In the nineties Beyonce Knowles became famous as the lead singer of the R&B girl band Destiny's Child. In the 2000s she started releasing music on her own. Her first album Dangerously in Love sold 11 million copies and won five Grammy Awards.

Black culture has been the subject of documentaries. For example, the award-winning Black Is, Black Ain't explores black identity. Good Hair discusses the significance of having 'good hair' for black women in American culture.

There is a National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C.[58]

Protestant Christianity is the most practised religion by African Americans.[59]

Soul food is a cuisine eaten by African Americans in the South. Fried chicken, mac and cheese, cornbread, collard greens and candied yams is typical soul food. Soul food has West African, English, French, Caribbean, and Native American influences.[60] African Americans have influenced American cuisine. Staples such as coffee, peanuts, millet, okra, sorghum, watermelon, and yams were brought to America from Africa during the slave trade. African slaves have influenced American dishes such as gumbo and jambalaya.[61]

Kwanzaa and Juneteenth are popular African American holidays.[62]

Racism and issues

African Americans are more likely to experience racism. African American males are more likely to be killed by police, which resulted in the Black Lives Matter movement. African Americans are more likely to die from diseases like COVID-19, HIV, obesity and diabetes. African Americans still suffer from poverty and unemployment. African Americans are more likely to eat fast food. Heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and homicide is the main causes of death for African Americans.[63]

The suicide rate for African Americans increased due to racism, police brutality and the COVID-19 pandemic.[64]

In 2022, a white gunman killed ten African Americans at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. 32% of African Americans said they worry every day that they might be threatened or attacked because of their race.[65]

African Americans have a harder time getting good jobs because of their race.[66]

55% of African American adults have high blood pressure.[67]

African Americans are more likely to become homeless than whites. African Americans make up 40 percent of the homeless population in the United States.[68]

African Americans are more likely to get punished and arrested for drugs such as marijuana than whites.[69]

African Americans are more likely to experience hunger and lack of access to food.[70]

African Americans are more likely to catch monkeypox and less likely to receive vaccines for the disease.[71]

Related pages

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 https://census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/race-and-ethnicity-in-the-united-state-2010-and-2020-census.html Archived 2021-10-07 at the Wayback Machine. 2020 U.S. Census
  2. The Changing Definition of African-American
  3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/03/how-us-census-ignores-afro-latinos/
  4. "Top 10 Cities with Highest African American Population of 100,000 or more people". infoplease.com. Archived from the original on August 19, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  5. Largest Ethnic Groups And Nationalities In The United States
  6. Characterizing the admixed African ancestry of African Americans
  7. How slavery flourished in the United States
  8. Stolen from Africa, enslaved people first arrived in colonial Virginia in 1619
  9. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/census_2000/cb01cn176.html
  10. Forson, Tracy Scott (February 22, 2018). "Who is an 'African American'? Definition evolves as USA does". USA Today. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  11. Hebert, Keith S. (August 2, 2017). "Slavery". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Alliance. Archived from the original on July 14, 2021. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  12. Stirgus, Eric (June 28, 2011). "PolitiFact - Who's right? Cities lay claim to civil rights "cradle" mantle". PolitiFact. Poynter Institute 2020. Archived from the original on May 9, 2012. Retrieved May 17, 2012.
  13. Poole, Shelia; Paul, Peralte C. (June 29, 2003). "A CHAMPION FOR ATLANTA: Maynard Jackson: 'Black mecca' burgeoned under leader". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on August 14, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  14. Booth, William (April 18, 1996). "Atlanta is less than festive on eve of another freaknik'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 26, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  15. Bullard, Robert Doyle (2007). The Black Metropolis in the Twenty-first Century: Race, Power, and Politics of Place. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-4329-4. Archived from the original on July 13, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  16. Dent, David J. (2001). In Search Of Black America: Discovering The African-American Dream. Free Press. ISBN 978-0-7432-0305-0. Archived from the original on July 13, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  17. Cobb, William Jelani (July 13, 2008). "The New South's Capital Likes to Contradict Itself". The Washington Post. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  18. Stafford, Leon (August 6, 2010). "Georgia second in nation for black-owned businesses". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  19. Company, Johnson Publishing (September 1997). Ebony. Johnson Publishing Company. Archived from the original on August 7, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  20. "Atlanta contest shows battered black electorate". NBC News. December 4, 2009. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  21. Writer, Errin HainesAssociated Press (November 5, 2009). "Race, attacks expected in Atlanta mayor runoff". MDJOnline.com. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  22. Company, Johnson Publishing (2002). Ebony. Johnson Publishing Company. Archived from the original on April 9, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  23. Company, Johnson Publishing (1971). Ebony. Johnson Publishing Company. Archived from the original on April 9, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  24. Company, Johnson Publishing (1971). Ebony. Johnson Publishing Company. Archived from the original on April 9, 2022. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  25. Communications, Emmis (2003). Atlanta Magazine. Emmis Communications. Archived from the original on April 9, 2022. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  26. Saporta, Maria (October 19, 2009). "Upcoming city elections will show how Atlanta is undergoing profound changes". Saparta Report. Archived from the original on November 2, 2013. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  27. Ltd, Earl G. Graves (1987). Black Enterprise. Earl G. Graves, Ltd. Archived from the original on July 13, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  28. Gates Jr, Henry Louis (2007). America Behind The Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-0-446-53390-4. Archived from the original on July 13, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  29. Severson, Kim (November 26, 2011). "Stars Flock to Atlanta, Reshaping a Center of Black Culture". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 16, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  30. Newton, James E. (June 27, 1997). "Black Americans in Delaware: An Overview". www1.udel.edu. University of Delaware. Archived from the original on September 27, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  31. "Georgia QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau". Quickfacts.census.gov. 2011. Archived from the original on June 22, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  32. "The African American Story | Texas State History Museum". thestoryoftexas.com. Archived from the original on May 7, 2021. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  33. Frey, William H. (May 2004). The New Great Migration: Black Americans' Return to the South, 1965–2000 (Report). The Brookings Institution. p. 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 28, 2008.
  34. "Texas – BlackDemographics.com". Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  35. "How the Eastside Became Home to San Antonio's Black Community". San Antonio Report. January 15, 2018. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
  36. The Growing Diversity of Black America
  37. Majority of African Americans Live in 10 States; New York City and Chicago Are Cities With Largest Black Populations
  38. African Americans Moving South— and to the Suburbs
  39. US Black Population: the Biggest Growth Is in Smaller Cities
  40. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/african-americans-407/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  41. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/black-lgbt-adults-in-the-us/
  42. Bryc, Katarzyna; Auton, Adam; Nelson, Matthew R.; Oksenberg, Jorge R.; Hauser, Stephen L.; Williams, Scott; Froment, Alain; Bodo, Jean-Marie; Wambebe, Charles; Tishkoff, Sarah A.; Bustamante, Carlos D. (January 12, 2010). "Genome-wide patterns of population structure and admixture in West Africans and African Americans". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107 (2): 786–791. doi:10.1073/pnas.0909559107. PMC 2818934. PMID 20080753.
  43. Bryc, Katarzyna; Durand, Eric Y.; Macpherson, J. Michael; Reich, David; Mountain, Joanna L. (January 8, 2015). "The genetic ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans across the United States". American Journal of Human Genetics. 96 (1): 37–53. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.11.010. ISSN 1537-6605. PMC 4289685. PMID 25529636.
  44. Baharian, Soheil; Barakatt, Maxime; Gignoux, Christopher R.; Shringarpure, Suyash; Errington, Jacob; Blot, William J.; Bustamante, Carlos D.; Kenny, Eimear E.; Williams, Scott M.; Aldrich, Melinda C.; Gravel, Simon (May 27, 2016). "The Great Migration and African-American Genomic Diversity". PLOS Genetics. 12 (5): e1006059. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1006059. ISSN 1553-7404. PMC 4883799. PMID 27232753. S2CID 10501185. Archived from the original on June 26, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  45. Gates Jr, Henry Louis (February 2, 2013). "Exactly How 'Black' Is Black America?". The Root. Archived from the original on August 14, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  46. Nadal, Cecilia (April 12, 2017). "The Irish and African-American Connection". St. Louis American. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  47. Interracial marriage: Who is ‘marrying out’?
  48. Changing Patterns of Interracial Marriage in a Multiracial Society
  49. 49.0 49.1 49.2 "Black History Milestones: Timeline". HISTORY. A&E Television Networks, LLC. October 14, 2009. Archived from the original on August 4, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  50. "Slave Life and Slave Codes [ushistory.org]". www.ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  51. "African American Odyssey: Free Blacks in the Antebellum Period (Part 1)". memory.loc.gov. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  52. "Sharecropping". HISTORY. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  53. Wilkerson, Isabel. "The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on February 15, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  54. "A Look Back at Segregation in the United States". HISTORY. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  55. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Lives-Matter. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  56. Louisiana links blacks to their French roots
  57. Cultural Revolutions: Everyday Life and Politics in Britain, North America, and France.
  58. https://www.lonelyplanet.com/usa/washington-dc/national-mall/attractions/national-museum-of-african-american-history-culture/a/poi-sig/1246939/1329647
  59. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/02/16/faith-among-black-americans/
  60. A Taste of Broadway: Food in Musical Theater - Page 81
  61. Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass Three-volume Set
  62. https://www.infoplease.com/culture-entertainment/holidays/african-american-holidays. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  63. Noonan, Allan S.; Velasco-Mondragon, Hector Eduardo; Wagner, Fernando A. (October 3, 2016). "Improving the health of African Americans in the USA: an overdue opportunity for social justice". Public Health Reviews. 37 (1): 12. doi:10.1186/s40985-016-0025-4. ISSN 2107-6952. PMC 5810013. PMID 29450054. Archived from the original on June 26, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  64. Tareen, Sophia (July 12, 2020). "Pandemic, racism compound worries about Black suicide rate". The Denver Post. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  65. Safety concerns were top of mind for many Black Americans before Buffalo shooting
  66. African Americans Face Systematic Obstacles to Getting Good Jobs
  67. https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/high-blood-pressure/why-high-blood-pressure-is-a-silent-killer/high-blood-pressure-and-african-americans
  68. https://endhomelessness.org/resource/racial-inequalities-homelessness-numbers/
  69. https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2015/3/17/8227569/war-on-drugs-racism
  70. https://www.bread.org/sites/default/files/african-american-fact-sheet-february-2017.pdf
  71. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/health/black-people-receiving-less-monkeypox-vaccine-compared-to-general-public-cdc
Notes


External links

Template:Demographics of the United States Template:African diaspora Template:African American topics