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{{Short description|Ethnic group in the United States}}
{{AfricanAmerican|right}}
{{pp-semi-indef}}
An '''African American''' (also '''Afro-American''', '''Black American''', or simply '''black'''), is a member of an [[ethnic group]] in the [[United States]] whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to [[Africa]]. Many African Americans have [[European]] and/or [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] ancestry as well. Some have Asian ancestry too. The term refers specifically to black African ancestry; not, for example, to white or Arab African ancestry, such as Moroccan or white South African ancestry. Blacks from non-African countries such as [[Haiti]], [[Cuba]], or [[Australia]] are theoretically referred to by their nation of origin and not African American, but in general the assumption is that if a person is black, they are "African American".
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group = African Americans
| image = Black Americans by county.png
| image_caption = <div style="text-align: center">Proportion of Black Americans in each county as of the [[2020 U.S. census]]</div>
| pop = '''46,936,733''' (2020)<ref name="2020USCensus">{{cite web|url=https://census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/race-and-ethnicity-in-the-united-state-2010-and-2020-census.html|title=Race and Ethnicity in the United States: 2010 Census and 2020 Census|date=August 12, 2021|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|access-date=September 18, 2021|archive-date=October 7, 2021|archive-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|url-status=live}}</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]]
| languages = English ([[American English|American English dialects]], [[African-American English]], [[African-American Vernacular English]])<br />[[Gullah language|Gullah Creole English]]<br />[[Black American Sign Language]]
| religions = Predominantly [[Protestantism|Protestant]] (71%) including [[Black church|Historically Black Protestant]] (53%), [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical Protestant]] (14%), and [[Mainline Protestant]] (4%); {{longlink|significant{{NoteTag|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 =
}}
{{African American topics sidebar}}


'''African Americans''', also known as '''Black Americans''' or '''Afro-Americans''', are an [[Ethnicity|ethnic group]] consisting of [[Americans]] with partial or total ancestry from any of the [[Black people|Black]] racial groups of [[Africa]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220301190109/http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-06.pdf "The Black Population: 2010" (PDF)], Census Bureau, 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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817202929/https://definitions.uslegal.com/a/african-americans/ |date=August 17, 2018 }}: "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> African Americans constitute the third largest racial or ethnic group in the U.S. after [[White Americans]] and [[Hispanic and Latino Americans]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Measuring Racial and Ethnic Diversity for the 2020 Census |url=https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2021/08/measuring-racial-ethnic-diversity-2020-census.html |access-date=2023-04-23 |website=The United States Census Bureau |language=EN-US |archive-date=April 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430114126/https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2021/08/measuring-racial-ethnic-diversity-2020-census.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of [[Slavery in the United States|Africans enslaved in the United States]].<ref name="Cldcd">{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Carol Lynn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3V88AAAAQBAJ |title=Discovering Child Development |last2=Fabes |first2=Richard |date=2008 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-1111808112 |page=19 |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). |access-date=October 25, 2014 |archive-date=October 19, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181019091856/https://books.google.com/books?id=3V88AAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Locke">{{cite book |last1=Locke |first1=Don C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7nJFBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA106 |title=Increasing Multicultural Understanding |last2=Bailey |first2=Deryl F. |publisher=SAGE Publications |year=2013 |isbn=978-1483314211 |page=106 |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. |access-date=March 7, 2018 |archive-date=August 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818040343/https://books.google.com/books?id=7nJFBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA106 |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Nomenclature==
The term "African American" has been in common usage in the United States since the late [[1980s]], when greater numbers of African Americans began to adopt the term self-referentially. [[Malcolm X]] favored the term "African American" over "Negro" and used the term at an [[OAAU]] (Organization of Afro American Unity) meeting in the early [[1960s]], saying, "Twenty-two million African-Americans - that's what we are - Africans who are in America." Former NBA player/coach [[Lenny Wilkens]] is another who used the term as a teenager when filling a job application. Many blacks began to abandon the term "Afro-American", which had become popular in the [[1960s]] and [[1970s|'70s]], for "African-American," because they desired an unabbreviated expression of their African heritage that could not be mistaken or derided as an allusion to the [[afro]] hairstyle. The term became increasingly popular, and by the 1980s, [[Jesse Jackson]] and others pressed for its adoption and acceptance. Users of the term argued that "African-American" was more in keeping with the nation's immigrant tradition of so-called "hyphenated Americans", who were known by terms like "[[Irish-American]]", or "[[Chinese-American]]", "[[Polish-American]]"), which link people with their, or their ancestors', geographic points of origin.


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 |last=Rucker |first=Walter C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c2XlG4rRK4QC&pg=PA126 |title=The River Flows On: Black resistance, culture, and identity formation in early America |publisher=LSU Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8071-3109-1 |page=126}}</ref> While some Black immigrants or their children may also come to identify as African American, the majority of first-generation immigrants do not, preferring to identify with their nation of origin.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Forson |first=Tracy Scott |date=February 21, 2018 |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=May 14, 2023 |archive-date=May 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230516231442/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/02/21/black-history-african-american-definition/1002344001/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Most African Americans are of [[West Africa]]n and coastal [[Central Africa]]n ancestry, with varying amounts of [[Western Europe]]an and [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] ancestry.<ref name="auto">{{cite book|author=Gates, Henry Louis Jr|title=''In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past''|date=2009|publisher=New York: Crown Publishing|pages=20–21|author-link=Henry Louis Gates Jr.}}</ref>
Terms used at various points in American history include ''[[Negro]]es'', ''[[colored]]'', ''[[blacks]]'' and ''Afro-Americans''. ''Negro'' and ''colored'' were common until the late [[1960s]], but are now less commonly used and considered derogatory. ''African American'', ''black'' and, to a lesser extent, ''Afro-American'' are used interchangeably today, but their precise meanings and connotations are in dispute.


[[African-American history]] began in the 16th century, with Africans from West Africa and coastal Central Africa being sold to [[Atlantic slave trade|European slave traders]] and [[Middle Passage|transported across the Atlantic]] to [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|the Western Hemisphere]]. After arriving in the [[Americas]], they were [[slavery in the colonial history of the 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 |last=Harris |first=Paul |date=October 8, 2015 |title=How the end of slavery led to starvation and death for millions of black Americans |newspaper=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/16/slavery-starvation-civil-war |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116000423/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/16/slavery-starvation-civil-war |archive-date=Jan 16, 2023}}</ref> During [[Reconstruction Era|Reconstruction]], they gained [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|citizenship]] and adult-males the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|right to vote]]; due to the widespread policy and ideology of [[White supremacy in the United States|White supremacy]], they were largely treated as [[second-class citizen]]s and found themselves soon [[Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era|disenfranchised in the South]]. These circumstances changed due to 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. However, [[racism against African Americans]] and [[Racial inequality in the United States|racial socioeconomic disparity]] remains a problem into the 21st century. In 2008, [[Barack Obama]] became the first, and so far only 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|archive-date=March 1, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301125609/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/05/uselections20084|url-status=live}}</ref>
The term ''African American'' is sometimes problematic because of its imprecise [[cultural]] and geographic meaning. The term as originally applied refers to only those descended from a small number of colonial [[indentured servitude|indentured servants]] and the estimated 500,000 Africans taken to British North America or the U.S. as slaves (of approximately 11 million Africans taken to the western hemisphere in general). In slightly broader usage, the term can include [[West Indies|West Indian]] and [[Afro-Latino]] [[immigrants]] whose African ancestors also survived the [[Middle Passage]] or recent African immigrants/children of immigrants with American citizenship, but these groups tend to use the ethnic terms ''Latino'' or ''Hispanic'', or identify themselves by their countries of origin (i.e., as [[Dominican Republic|Dominican]] or [[Jamaican]] instead of African American). The term does not include white, Indian or Arab immigrants from the African continent, as they are not generally considered 'Africans'.


[[African-American culture]] has had a significant influence on worldwide culture, making numerous contributions to [[African-American art|visual arts]], [[African-American literature|literature]], the English language, [[Africana philosophy|philosophy]], politics, [[Soul food|cuisine]], sports, and [[African-American music|music]]. The African-American contributions to popular music is so profound that most American music, including [[jazz]], [[Gospel music|gospel]], [[blues]], [[rock and roll]], [[funk]], [[disco]], [[Hip hop music|hip hop]], [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]] and [[Soul music|soul]], has its origins either partially or entirely in the African-American community.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Eaglin |first=Maya |date=Feb 21, 2021 |title=The soundtrack of history: How Black music has shaped American culture through time |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/soundtrack-history-how-black-music-has-shaped-american-culture-through-n1258474 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220419033050/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/soundtrack-history-how-black-music-has-shaped-american-culture-through-n1258474 |archive-date=Apr 19, 2022 |access-date=April 14, 2022 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Osei |first=Sarah |date=November 4, 2020 |title=How Black People Created All Your Favorite Music |url=https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/black-music-genres/ |access-date=April 14, 2022 |website=Highsnobiety |language=en}}</ref>
==Current Demographics==
[[Image:USA 2000 black density.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Population density of African Americans in 2000]]
According to [[2003]] U.S. [[Census]] figures, some 37.1 million African Americans live in the United States, comprising 12.9 percent of the total population. At the time of the [[2000]] Census, 54.8 percent of African Americans lived in the [[Southern United States|South]]. In that year, 17.6 percent of African Americans lived in the Northeast and 18.7 percent in the Midwest, while only 8.9 percent lived in the western states. Almost 88 percent of African Americans lived in metropolitan areas in 2000. With over 2 million black residents, [[New York City]] had the largest black urban population in the United States in 2000. Among cities of 100,000 or more, [[Gary, Indiana|Gary]], [[Indiana]], had the highest percentage of black residents of any U.S. city in 2000, with 85 percent, followed closely by [[Detroit, Michigan|Detroit]], [[Michigan]], with 83 percent. [[Atlanta, Georgia]], has a large African-American population of about 65 percent. The nation's capital, [[Washington, D.C.]], had a 60 percent black population.
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==African American history==
''Main article: [[African American history]]''
Blacks in America, like their White counterparts, are composed of many diverse ethnic groups. Over 40 identifiable ethnic groups from 25 different kingdoms were sold to the United States during the Atlantic Slave trade. These people came from an area spanning from present day [[Senegal]] all the way to [[Democratic Republic of Congo]] as well as the [[Portuguese]] [[colonies]] of [[Angola]] and [[Mozambique]]. Over time, Africans in America formed a new and common identity focused on their mutual condition in America as opposed to cultural and historic ties to Africa. Africans were sold and traded into bondage and shipped to the American South from [[1619]]. In [[1807]], the importation of slaves by U.S. citizens became illegal, yet the practice continued. By [[1860]], there were 3.5 million enslaved Africans in the [[Southern United States]], and another 500,000 Africans lived free across the country. [[Slavery]] was a controversial issue in American society and politics. The growth of [[abolitionism]], which opposed the institution of slavery, culminated in the [[1860]] election of [[Abraham Lincoln]] as [[President of the United States]], and was one reason for the secession of the [[Confederate States of America]], which lead to the [[American Civil War]] ([[1861]] - [[1865]]).
The [[Emancipation Proclamation]] of [[1862]] declared all slaves in the Confederacy free under U.S. law. It included exceptions for those held in all territories that had not seceded, however, and thus did not immediately free a single slave, since U.S. law held no sway over the Confederacy at the time. The [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], ratified in 1865, freed all slaves, including those in states that had not seceded. During [[Reconstruction]], African Americans in the South obtained the right to vote and to hold public office, as well as a number of other civil rights they previously had been denied. However, when [[Reconstruction]] ended in [[1877]], southern, white landowners reinstituted a regime of [[Disenfranchising|disenfranchisement]] and [[racial segregation]], and with it a wave of terrorism and repression, including [[lynchings]] and other [[vigilante]] violence.


==History==
The desperate conditions of African Americans in the South that sparked the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] of the early [[20th century]], combined with a growing African American intellectual and cultural elite in the [[Northern United States]], led to a movement to fight violence and [[discrimination]] against African Americans that, like [[abolitionism]] before it, crossed racial lines. One of the most prominent of these groups, the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]], galvanized by outspoken journalist and activist [[Ida B. Wells Barnett]], led an anti-lynching crusade. In the 1950s, the organization mounted a series of calculated legal challenges to overturn [[Jim Crow]] segregation, culminating in the landmark ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]] of Topeka, Kansas'' decision.
{{Main|African American history}}


===Colonial era===
The [[United States Supreme Court|Supreme Court]]'s decision in ''Brown v. Board'' was one of defining moments of the modern-day [[Civil Rights Movement]]. It was part of a long-term strategy to strike down Jim Crow segregation in public education, the hospitality industry, public transportation, employment and housing, granting equal access to African Americans and ensuring their right to vote. The movement reached its peak in the [[1960s]] under leaders such as Dr. [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]], [[Whitney Young]], and [[Roy Wilkins]], Sr. At the same time, [[Nation of Islam]] spokesman [[Malcolm X]] and, later, [[Stokely Carmichael]], the [[Black Panther Party]], and the [[Republic of New Africa]] called for African Americans to embrace [[black nationalism]] and black self-empowerment, propounding ideas of African (black) unity and solidarity and [[pan-Africanism]].
{{Main|Slavery in the colonial history of the United States}}
{{See also|Atlantic slave trade}}
[[File:Africa slave Regions.svg|thumb|upright=0.9|right|Major slave trading regions of Africa, 15th–19th centuries]]
The vast majority of those who were enslaved and transported in the [[Atlantic slave trade|transatlantic slave trade]] were people from several [[Middle Africa|Central]] and [[West Africa]] ethnic groups, 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=May 6, 2021|archive-date=May 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506163511/https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zy7fr82/revision/3|url-status=live}}</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=June 12, 2020|location=[[London]]|archive-date=June 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609025050/https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zxt3gk7/revision/7|url-status=live}}</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=October 14, 2015|location=[[Liverpool]]|archive-date=December 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229214612/https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/africa/capture_sale.aspx|url-status=live}}</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/>
==Contemporary issues==
{{NPOV}}
{{cleanup-date|November 2005}}
{{AfricanAmerican|right}}


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 South Florida|author=J. Michael Francis, PhD|access-date=July 21, 2018|archive-date=July 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721163646/https://laflorida.org/florida-stories/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
''Main article: [[African American contemporary issues]]''

[[File:1670 virginia tobacco slaves.jpg|thumb|left|Slaves processing tobacco in 17th-century Virginia, illustration from 1670]]
African Americans significantly have improved their social and economic standing since the [[Civil Rights Movement]], and recent [[decade]]s have witnessed the expansion of a robust, African American [[middle class]] across the United States. However, due in part to a legacy of racism and discrimination{{fact}}, African Americans as a group remain at a pronounced economic, educational, and social disadvantage relative to whites. Economically, the median income of African Americans is roughly 55 percent of that of European Americans{{fact}}. Persistent social, economic, and political issues for many African Americans include inadequate [[health care]] access and delivery; institutional racism and discrimination in housing{{fact}}, [[education]], policing, [[criminal justice]] and [[employment]]; [[crime]]; [[poverty]]; and [[substance abuse]]. African Americans are frequently the targets of [[racial profiling]]{{fact}}. They are also more likely to be [[prison|incarcerated]]. African Americans also have higher prevalence of some chronic [[health]] conditions and out-of-wedlock births relative to the general population. These problems and potential remedies have been the subject of intense [[public policy]] debate in the United States in general, and within the African American community in particular.
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. Jr.|last1=Grizzard|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>

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>
[[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 |archive-date=July 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190708145212/https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/digital-exhibitions/slavery-exhibit/slave-trade/ |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around [[Jamestown, Virginia|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>

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|access-date=April 5, 2018|archive-date=January 10, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210110103703/https://www.nps.gov/articles/sanctuary-in-the-spanish-empire.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Slave Auction Ad.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|left|Reproduction of a handbill advertising a slave auction in [[Charleston, South Carolina]], in 1769]]
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|first=Frank W.|last=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|access-date=June 16, 2015|archive-date=January 7, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107112641/https://books.google.com/books?id=kezflCVnongC&pg=PA117#v=onepage&q&f=false|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>

[[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"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024221530/https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/fac_pubs/52/ |date=October 24, 2019 }}, 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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070604113622/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr3.html |date=June 4, 2007 }}." Accessed September 13, 2011.</ref>

By an act of 1699, Virginia 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"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107112637/https://books.google.com/books?id=BEd85InqqAIC&pg=PA48#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=January 7, 2024 }}, ''ABA Journal'', 1970, American Bar Association</ref> In 1670, the colonial assembly passed a law prohibiting free and baptized Blacks (and Native Americans) 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>

[[File:Runaway slave advertisement 9-15-1774-NY.gif|thumb|right|1774 image of a [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|fugitive slave]] in a New York newspaper, offering a $10 reward ({{Inflation|US|10|1774|fmt=eq}}). Slave owners, including [[George Washington]] and [[Thomas Jefferson]], placed around 200,000 runaway slave adverts in newspapers across the U.S. before slavery ended in 1865.<ref name="Runaway">{{cite news |title=RUNAWAY! How George Washington, Other Slave Owners Used Newspapers to Hunt Escaped Slaves |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2019/10/runaway-how-george-washington-and-other-slave-owners-used-newspapers-to-hunt-escaped-slaves/ |access-date=August 30, 2022 |work=Library of Congress |archive-date=August 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220830181110/https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2019/10/runaway-how-george-washington-and-other-slave-owners-used-newspapers-to-hunt-escaped-slaves/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Fugitives"/>]]
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>{{cite journal |last1=Berquist |first1=Emily |title=Early Anti-Slavery Sentiment in the Spanish Atlantic World, 1765–1817 |journal=Slavery & Abolition |date=June 2010 |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=181–205 |doi=10.1080/01440391003711073|s2cid=145434799 }}</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>

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 [[rebellion]]s.<ref name="Patrols">{{cite web|date=July 10, 2019|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=June 16, 2020|website=National Law Enforcement Museum|language=en-US|archive-date=June 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609091807/https://lawenforcementmuseum.org/2019/07/10/slave-patrols-an-early-form-of-american-policing/|url-status=dead}}</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>

===From the American Revolution to the Civil War===
{{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> 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> Around 15,000 [[Black Loyalist]]s left with the British after the war, most of them ending up as free Black people in England<ref>{{cite book|first=Stephen|last=Braidwood|
year=1994|title=Black Poor and White Philanthropists: London's Blacks and the Foundation of the Sierra Leone Settlement, 1786–1791|publisher=Liverpool University Press|isbn=978-0-85323-377-0}}</ref> or its colonies, such as the [[Black Nova Scotians]] and the [[Sierra Leone Creole people]].<ref name="Duke Law">{{cite book |last1=Finkelman |first1=Paul |date=2012 |chapter=Slavery in the United States: Persons or Property? |editor-last=Allain |editor-first=Jean |title=The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=105–134 [116] |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199660469.003.0007 |chapter-url=https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/2709/ |isbn=978-0-19-174550-8 |access-date=April 18, 2023 |archive-date=April 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418120304/https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/2709/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Walker>{{cite book|last=Walker |first=James W. |year=1992 |chapter=Chapter Five: Foundation of Sierra Leone |title=The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783–1870 |location=Toronto |publisher=University of Toronto Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/blackloyalistsse0000walk/page/94 94]–114 |url=https://archive.org/details/blackloyalistsse0000walk |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-8020-7402-7}} Originally published by Longman & Dalhousie University Press (1976).</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"/>

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]]. Because of [[Article One of the United States Constitution#Clause 1: Slave trade|Section 9, Clause 1]], Congress was unable to pass an [[Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves]] until 1807.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://abolition.nypl.org/print/us_constitution/ | title=The Abolition of The Slave Trade | publisher=New York Public Library | date=2007 | access-date=August 30, 2021 | author=Finkelman, Paul | archive-date=October 9, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009202811/http://abolition.nypl.org/print/us_constitution/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Fugitive slave laws in the United States|Fugitive slave laws]] (derived from the [[Fugitive Slave Clause]] of the Constitution—[[Article Four of the United States Constitution#Clause 3: Fugitive Slave Clause|Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3]]) were passed by Congress in [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1793|1793]] and [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850|1850]], guaranteeing the right for a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave within the U.S.<ref name="Fugitives">{{cite news |title=Fugitive Slave Laws |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/fugitive-slave-laws/ |access-date=February 18, 2022 |work=Encyclopedia Virginia |archive-date=February 18, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220218075405/https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/fugitive-slave-laws/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Slave owners, who viewed slaves as property, made it a federal crime to assist those who had escaped slavery or to interfere with their capture.<ref name="Runaway"/> 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 [[Dred Scott decision]], and [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry]].

[[File:Frederick Douglass by Samuel J Miller, 1847-52.png|thumb|upright|left|[[Frederick Douglass]], {{circa|1850}}]]
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|first2=Ralph|last2=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|access-date=September 26, 2015|archive-date=January 7, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107112637/https://books.google.com/books?id=XU_XDHfO3jsC&pg=PA48#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</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"/>

The slaves not only constituted a large investment, they produced America's most valuable product and export: [[King Cotton|cotton]]. They helped build the [[United States Capitol]], the [[White House]] and other [[Slavery in the District of Columbia|Washington, D.C.-based]] buildings.<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 the [[slave states and free states|slave states]].

[[File:Crowe-Slaves Waiting for Sale - Richmond, Virginia.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|''Slaves Waiting for Sale: Richmond, Virginia'', 1853. Note the new clothes. The [[domestic slave trade]] broke up many families, and individuals lost their connection to families and clans.]]

By 1815, the [[Slavery in the United States#Domestic slave trade and forced migration|domestic slave trade]] had become a major economic activity in the United States; it lasted until the 1860s.<ref name="CUP">Marcyliena H. Morgan (2002). [https://books.google.com/books?id=mhJcsiydNe8C&pg=PA20 ''Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107112637/https://books.google.com/books?id=mhJcsiydNe8C&pg=PA20#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=January 7, 2024 }}, p. 20. Cambridge University Press, 2002.</ref> Historians estimate nearly one million in total took part in the forced migration of this new "Middle Passage". The historian [[Ira Berlin]] called this forced migration of slaves the "central event" in the life of a slave between the American Revolution and the Civil War, writing that whether slaves were directly uprooted or lived in fear that they or their families would be involuntarily moved, "the massive deportation traumatized black people".<ref>Berlin, ''Generations of Captivity'', pp. 161–162.</ref> Individuals lost their connection to families and clans, and many ethnic Africans lost their knowledge of varying tribal origins in Africa.<ref name="CUP" />

The 1863 photograph of [[Wilson Chinn]], a branded slave from Louisiana, like the one of [[Gordon (slave)|Gordon]] and his scarred back, served as two early examples of how the newborn medium of photography could encapsulate the cruelty of slavery.<ref>{{cite news|last=Paulson Gage|first=Joan|title=Icons of Cruelty|url=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/icons-of-cruelty/|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 5, 2013|access-date=February 16, 2022|archive-date=August 23, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130823025616/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/icons-of-cruelty/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:United States Colored Troop enlisted African-American soldier reading at 8 Whitehall Street, Atlanta slave auction house, Fall 1864- 'Auction & Negro Sales,' Whitehall Street LOC cwpb.03351 (cropped).tif|thumb|left|Slave trader's business on Whitehall Street [[Atlanta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], 1864 during the American Civil War with a [[Union Army|Union]] corporal of the [[United States Colored Troops]] sitting by the door.]]
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"/>

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>

[[File:Harriet Tubman c1868-69 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Harriet Tubman]], around 1869]]
Slavery in a few border states continued until the ratification of the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] in December 1865.<ref>[https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=013/llsl013.db&recNum=803 Seward certificate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721102957/https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=013/llsl013.db&recNum=803 |date=July 21, 2018 }} 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|publisher=Oryx Press|access-date=October 8, 2015|isbn=9781573561488|archive-date=February 4, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204144206/https://books.google.com/books?id=WDV40aK1T-sC&pg=PA284|url-status=live}}</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 men the right to vote.<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 |archive-date=April 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200425165501/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/03/black-voting-rights-15th-amendment-still-challenged-after-150-years/4587160002/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Reconstruction era and Jim Crow===
{{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.|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 was now imposed with Jim Crow laws, using 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|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>

===Great migration and civil rights movement===
{{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"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829121124/https://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11232007/profile2.html |date=August 29, 2017 }}. 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 against Black Americans|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|series=Hampton bulletinno. 9–10, 12–16|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|access-date=November 19, 2020|archive-date=January 7, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107112637/https://books.google.com/books?id=gkQ9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA39#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Within the housing market, stronger discriminatory measures were used in correlation to the influx, resulting in a mix of "targeted violence, [[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]]
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|page=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 |access-date=November 19, 2019 |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>

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=Newkirk II|first=Vann R.|work=The Atlantic|access-date=July 29, 2017|archive-date=July 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728213446/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/02/how-the-blood-of-emmett-till-still-stains-america-today/516891/|url-status=live}}</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>

[[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]]
The [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom]] and the conditions which brought it into being are credited with putting pressure on presidents [[Presidency of John F. Kennedy|John F. Kennedy]] and [[Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson|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|archive-date=January 6, 2021|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210106161217/https://www.justice.gov/crt/history-federal-voting-rights-laws|url-status=live}}</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>

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 ({{Inflation|US|5600|1959|fmt=eq}}), compared with $2,900 ({{Inflation|US|2900|1959|fmt=eq}}) for non-White families. In 1965, 43 percent of all Black families fell into the poverty bracket, earning under $3,000 ({{Inflation|US|3000|1965|fmt=eq}}) a year. The 1960s 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>

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 ({{Inflation|US|3000|1968|fmt=eq}}) 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 1960s, the figure rose to 12.2 years, half a year behind the median for Whites.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

===Post–civil rights era===
{{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 [[Killing of Philando Castile|fatal shooting of Philando Castile]] in July 2016]]
Politically and economically, African Americans have made substantial strides during the post–civil rights era. In 1967, [[Thurgood Marshall]] became the [[List of African-American federal judges|first African American]] Supreme Court Justice. 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]] succeeded Marshall to become the second African American Supreme Court Justice in 1991. 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 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050912203241/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/nyregion/21africa.html |archive-date=September 12, 2005 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|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|archive-date=August 10, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100810011229/http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/exit.polls/|url-status=live}}</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|archive-date=March 26, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100326033743/http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15297.html|url-status=live}}</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|archive-date=August 16, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120816170447/http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/exit-polls.html|url-status=live}}</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 non-incumbent 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 |archive-date=April 17, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150417162701/http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/after-grueling-campaign-polls-open-for-election-day-2012/2012/11/06/d1c24c98-2802-11e2-b4e0-346287b7e56c_story.html |url-status=live }}</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=December 5, 2020|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=March 2, 2021|work=Associated Press|archive-date=December 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201208201209/https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-elections-electoral-college-3e0b852c3cfadf853b08aecbfc3569fa|url-status=live}}</ref> In June 2021, [[Juneteenth]], a day which commemorates the end of slavery in the US, became a federal holiday.<ref name="Juneteenth">{{Cite web |date=June 17, 2021 |title=President Biden Signs the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Into Law |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUjBhwFcQ4U&t=3811s |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/lUjBhwFcQ4U |archive-date=December 11, 2021 |website=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}</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:Black Americans population pyramid in 2020.svg|thumb|Black Americans (alone/single race) population pyramid in 2020]]
[[File:African Americans by state.svg|thumb|<div style="text-align: center">Proportion of African Americans in each U.S. state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States Census</div>]]
[[File:Black Americans by county.png|thumb|<div style="text-align: center">Proportion of [[Black Americans]] (alone or in combination) in each county of the [[List of states and territories of the United States|fifty states]], [[Washington, D.C.]], and [[Puerto Rico]] as of the [[2020 United States census]]</div>]]
[[File:Black_Americans_(alone).svg|thumb|<div style="text-align: center">Proportion of [[Black Americans]] (alone) in each county of the [[List of states and territories of the United States|fifty states]], [[Washington, D.C.]], and [[Puerto Rico]] as of the [[2020 United States census]]</div>]]
[[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 [[1790 United States census|first 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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.census.gov/prod/cen1990/wepeople/we-1.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|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|isbn=9781932994414}}</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;–
|-
|2020||41.1&nbsp;million||12.4%||5.6%||&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|archive-date=May 19, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120519110018/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aap/timelin2.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

At the time of the [[2000 United States census|2000 U.S. 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">{{cite web |author=American FactFinder, United States Census Bureau |title=United States&nbsp;– QT-P4. Race, Combinations of Two Races, and Not Hispanic or Latino: 2000 |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 |url-status=dead |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 |access-date=January 20, 2011 |publisher=}}</ref> many of whom may be of [[Afro-Brazilians|Brazilian]], [[Afro–Puerto Ricans|Puerto Rican]], [[Dominican Americans|Dominican]], [[Afro-Cubans|Cuban]], [[Haitian Americans|Haitian]], or other [[Afro–Latin Americans|Latin American]] descent. The only self-reported ''ancestral'' groups larger than African Americans are the [[Irish Americans|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>
[[File:Harlem Street rehearsal (125th street).jpg|thumb|upright=1|[[Marching band|Band rehearsal]] on [[125th Street (Manhattan)|125th Street]] in [[Harlem]], the historic epicenter of African American culture. [[New York City]] is home by a significant margin to the world's largest [[Black people|Black]] population of any city outside [[Africa]], at over 2.2 million. [[African immigration to the United States|African immigration to New York City]] is now driving the growth of the city's Black population.<ref name=AfricanMigrationNYC>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/13/nyregion/west-african-immigrants-nyc.html|title=African and Invisible: The Other New York Migrant Crisis|author=Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 13, 2023|access-date=January 26, 2023|archive-date=January 25, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230125220924/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/13/nyregion/west-african-immigrants-nyc.html|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
According to the [[2010 United States census|2010 census]], nearly 3% of people who self-identified as Black had recent ancestors who immigrated from another country. Self-reported [[West Indian Americans|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"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127044304/https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-04.pdf |date=January 27, 2018 }}, 2010 Census Briefs. U.S. 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 Americans|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=February 12, 2020|title=American FactFinder – Results|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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.census.gov/2010census/pdf/2010_Census_Race_HO_AQE.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|publisher=United States Census Bureau|access-date=November 3, 2014}}</ref> [[Nigerian Americans]] and [[Ethiopian Americans]] were the most reported Sub-Saharan African groups in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/10/2020-census-dhc-a-black-population.html|title= New Population Counts for 62 Detailed Black or African American Groups }}</ref>

Historically, African Americans have been undercounted in the U.S. census due to a number of factors.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://civilrights.org/resource/will-you-count-african-americans-in-the-2020-census/ |title=African Americans in the 2020 Census |website=[[Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights]] |access-date=July 30, 2022 |archive-date=July 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730024818/https://civilrights.org/resource/will-you-count-african-americans-in-the-2020-census/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/census-sampling-is-dangerous/ |title=Census Sampling is Dangerous |first=Edward |last=Glaeser |date=February 15, 2001 |website=[[Brookings Institution]] |access-date=July 30, 2022 |archive-date=July 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730025331/https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/census-sampling-is-dangerous/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In the 2020 census, the African American population was undercounted at an estimated rate of 3.3%, up from 2.1% in 2010.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/10/2020-census-undercount-black-people-hispanics-native-americans-00016138 | first=Samuel | last=Benson | title=Census undercounted Black people, Hispanics and Native Americans in 2020 | website=[[Politico]] | date=March 10, 2022 | access-date=July 30, 2022 | archive-date=July 30, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730024457/https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/10/2020-census-undercount-black-people-hispanics-native-americans-00016138 | url-status=live }}</ref><gallery mode="nolines" caption="African American population distribution over time">
File:Black Americans 1790 County.png|1790
File:Black Americans 1800 County.png|1800
File:Black American 1810 County.png|1810
File:Black Americans 1820 County.png|1820
File:Black Americans 1830 County.png|1830
File:Black Americans 1840 County.png|1840
File:Black Americans 1850 County.png|1850
File:Black Americans 1860 County.png|1860
File:Black Americans 1870 County.png|1870
File:Black Americans 1880 County.png|1880
File:Black Americans 1890 County.png|1890
File:Black Americans 1880 County.png|1880
File:Black Americans 1900 County.png|1900
File:Black Americans 1910 County.png|1910
File:Black Americans 1920 County.png|1920
File:Black Americans 1930 County.png|1930
File:Black Americans 1940 County.png|1940
File:Black Americans 1970 County.png|1970
File:Black Americans 1980 County.png|1980
File:Black Americans 1990 County.png|1990
File:Black Americans 2000 County.png|2000
File:Black Americans 2010 County.png|2010
File:Black Americans 2020 County.png|2020
</gallery>

[[Texas]] has the largest African American population by state. Followed by Texas is [[Florida]], with 3.8 million, and [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], with 3.6 million.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/10/key-facts-about-black-americans/ |title=Key facts about the nation's 47.2 million Black Americans |first1=Mark Hugo |last1=Lopez |first2=Mohamad |last2=Moslimani |date=February 10, 2023 |website=Pew Research Center |access-date=July 27, 2023 |archive-date=July 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727125139/https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/10/key-facts-about-black-americans/ |url-status=live }}</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 [[Charlotte, North Carolina|Charlotte]], [[Houston]], [[Dallas]], [[Fort Worth]], [[Huntsville, Alabama|Huntsville]], [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]], [[Tampa]], [[San Antonio]], [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]], [[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"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210216191513/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/02/02/census-great-migration-reversal/21818127/ |date=February 16, 2021 }}, ''USA Today'', Feb 2, 2015.</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. The [[New York metropolitan area|New York City]], [[Chicago metropolitan area|Chicago]], and [[Greater Los Angeles|Los Angeles]] metropolitan areas have the highest decline in African Americans, while [[Metro Atlanta|Atlanta]], [[Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex|Dallas]], and [[Greater Houston|Houston]] have the highest increase respectively.<ref name="auto1"/> Several smaller metro areas also saw sizable gains, including San Antonio;<ref name="expressnews.com">{{Cite news|date=2021-08-13|title=Latinos, Blacks Show Strong Growth in San Antonio as White Population Declines|newspaper=San Antonio Express-News |url=https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Latinos-Black-communities-grow-in-San-Antonio-16385595.php|access-date=January 3, 2024|archive-date=March 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230301110840/https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Latinos-Black-communities-grow-in-San-Antonio-16385595.php|url-status=live |last1=O'Hare |first1=By Peggy }}</ref> Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C.; and Orlando.<ref>Felton&nbsp;Emmanuel (January 2022).</ref> Despite recent declines, as of 2020, the [[New York City metropolitan area]] still has the largest African American metropolitan population in the United States and the only to have over 3 million African Americans.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Closson |first1=Troy |last2=Hong |first2=Nicole |date=2023-01-31 |title=Why Black Families Are Leaving New York, and What It Means for the City |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/31/nyregion/black-residents-nyc.html |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=October 21, 2023 |archive-date=October 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231028123130/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/31/nyregion/black-residents-nyc.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Top Metropolitan Areas In The USA, By African American Population |url=https://www.nationalmediaspots.com/top-metropolitan-areas-in-the-usa,-by-african-american-population.php |website=National Media Spots |date=2020 |access-date=October 20, 2023 |archive-date=October 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021172251/https://www.nationalmediaspots.com/top-metropolitan-areas-in-the-usa,-by-african-american-population.php |url-status=live }}</ref>

Among [[List of U.S. cities with large Black populations|cities of 100,000 or more]], [[South Fulton, Georgia]] had the highest percentage of Black residents of any large U.S. city in 2020, with 93%. Other large cities with African American majorities include [[Jackson, Mississippi]] (80%), [[Detroit, Michigan]] (80%), [[Birmingham, Alabama]] (70%), [[Miami Gardens, Florida]] (67%), [[Memphis, Tennessee]] (63%), [[Montgomery, Alabama]] (62%), [[Baltimore|Baltimore, Maryland]] (60%), [[Augusta, Georgia]] (59%), [[Shreveport, Louisiana]] (58%), [[New Orleans, Louisiana]] (57%), [[Macon, Georgia]] (56%), [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana]] (55%), [[Hampton, Virginia]] (53%), [[Newark, New Jersey]] (53%), [[Mobile, Alabama]] (53%), [[Cleveland, Ohio]] (52%), [[Brockton, Massachusetts]] (51%), and [[Savannah, Georgia]] (51%).

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"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801103620/http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/01/03/10-richest-black-communities-america/5/ |date=August 1, 2018 }}, ''Atlanta Black Star'', January 3, 2014.</ref> Other largely affluent and African American communities include [[Prince George's County, Maryland|Prince George's County]] (namely [[Mitchellville, Maryland|Mitchellville]], [[Woodmore, Maryland|Woodmore]], [[Upper Marlboro, Maryland|Upper Marlboro]]) and [[Charles County, Maryland|Charles County]] in Maryland,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/prince-georges-county/charles-county-surpasses-prince-georges-as-wealthiest-black-county-in-us-post/3095774/ | title=Charles County Surpasses Prince George's as Wealthiest Black County in US: Post | date=July 8, 2022 | access-date=January 7, 2023 | archive-date=January 7, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107130730/https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/prince-georges-county/charles-county-surpasses-prince-georges-as-wealthiest-black-county-in-us-post/3095774/ | url-status=live }}</ref> [[DeKalb County, Georgia|Dekalb County]] (namely [[Stonecrest, Georgia|Stonecrest]], [[Lithonia, Georgia|Lithonia]], [[Smoke Rise, Georgia|Smoke Rise]]) 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:Former Slave Reading.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Former slave reading, 1870]]
{{Main|History of African-American education}}

During slavery, [[Anti-literacy laws in the United States|anti-literacy laws]] were enacted in the U.S. that prohibited education for Black people. Slave owners saw literacy as a threat to the institution of slavery. As a North Carolina statute stated, "Teaching slaves to read and write, tends to excite dissatisfaction in their minds, and to produce insurrection and [[slave rebellion|rebellion]]."<ref>{{cite book|title=An Inquiry Into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization, and American Anti-slavery Societies|author-link=William Jay (jurist)|first=William|last=Jay|year=1835|edition=2nd|location=New York|publisher=[[Dudley Leavitt (publisher)|Leavitt, Lord & Co.]]|url=https://archive.org/details/aninquiryintoch05jaygoog/page/n6/mode/2up}}</ref>

When slavery was finally abolished in 1865, 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. By 1900, over a hundred programs at these schools provided training for Black professionals, including teachers. Many of the students at Fisk University, including the young [[W. E. B. Du Bois]], 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>

During [[World War II]], demands for unity and racial tolerance on the home front provided an opening for the first Black history curriculum in the country.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Field |first1=Sherry |title=Intercultural Education and Negro History during the Second World War |journal=Journal of Midwest History of Education Society |date=1995 |volume=22 |pages=75–85}}</ref> For example, during the early 1940s, Madeline Morgan, a Black teacher in the Chicago public schools, created a curriculum for students in grades one through eight highlighting the contributions of Black people to the history of the United States. At the close of the war, Chicago's Board of Education downgraded the curriculum's status from mandatory to optional.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dennis |first1=Ashley D. |title="The Intellectual Emancipation of the Negro": Madeline Morgan and the Mandatory Black History Curriculum in Chicago during World War II |journal=History of Education Quarterly |date=May 2022 |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=136–160 |doi=10.1017/heq.2022.2|s2cid=248406635 }}</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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130325161054/http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051219/kozol |date=March 25, 2013 }}</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|archive-date = December 13, 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151213193910/https://www.propublica.org/article/segregation-now-full-text|url-status = live}}</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 and university entrance exams or on 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>

[[File:Neil deGrasse Tyson - NAC Nov 2005.jpg|thumb|upright|Astrophysicist [[Neil deGrasse Tyson]] is director of New York City's [[Hayden Planetarium]]]]
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"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223225704/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 |date=December 23, 2015 }}, ''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 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604003454/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/black-women-become-most-educated-group-in-us-a7063361.html |archive-date=June 4, 2016 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|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"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706054212/https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/03/16/federal-data-show-racial-gap-in-high-school-graduation-rates-is-closing |date=July 6, 2017 }}, ''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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p20-578.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|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"/>

[[College Board]], which runs the official college-level [[Advanced Placement|advanced placement]] (AP) programs in American high schools, have has received criticism in recent years that its curricula have focused too much on [[Euro-centric]] history.<ref name="Columbia">{{cite web |title=African Diaspora Advanced Placement Course, Co-developed by Teachers College, Highlighted by Time |url=https://www.tc.columbia.edu/articles/2020/february/african-diaspora-advanced-placement-course-highlighted-by-time-magazine/ |website=columbia.edu |publisher=Columbia University |access-date=7 July 2022 |archive-date=July 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707024842/https://www.tc.columbia.edu/articles/2020/february/african-diaspora-advanced-placement-course-highlighted-by-time-magazine/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2020, College Board reshaped some curricula among history-based courses to further reflect the [[African diaspora]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gleibermann |first1=Erik |title=New College Board curriculum puts the African diaspora in the spotlight |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/new-college-board-curriculum-puts-the-african-diaspora-in-the-spotlight/2020/09/07/579631c2-ee1b-11ea-b4bc-3a2098fc73d4_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=July 7, 2022 |archive-date=January 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230128113036/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/new-college-board-curriculum-puts-the-african-diaspora-in-the-spotlight/2020/09/07/579631c2-ee1b-11ea-b4bc-3a2098fc73d4_story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2021, College Board announced it would be piloting an [[AP African American Studies]] course between 2022 and 2024. The course is expected to launch in 2024.<ref name="TIG">{{cite conference |title= Teacher Information Guide AP African American Studies Pilot|last= Waters |first= Brandi|date= February 2022 |publisher= College Board|location= Washington, DC|conference= |id=}}</ref>

====Historically Black colleges and universities====
{{Main|Historically black colleges and universities|List of historically black colleges and universities}}
Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which were founded when [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregated institutions]] of higher learning did not admit African Americans, continue to thrive and educate students of all races today. There are 101 HBCUs representing three percent of the nation's colleges and universities with the majority established in the [[southeastern United States|Southeast]].<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|archive-date=August 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160827030310/http://hbcu-levers.blogspot.com/p/frequently-asked-questions-faqs-about.html#BestHBCU|url-status=live}}</ref> HBCUs have been largely responsible for establishing and expanding the African American middle-class by providing more career opportunities for African Americans.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47234239 |title=The story of historically black colleges in the US – BBC News |work=BBC News |date=February 15, 2019 |accessdate=January 10, 2022 |archive-date=January 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220102193058/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47234239 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/despite-obstacles-black-colleges-are-pipelines-to-the-middle-class-study-finds-heres-its-list-of-the-best/ |title=Despite Obstacles, Black Colleges Are Pipelines to the Middle Class, Study Finds. Here's Its List of the Best. |first=Marc |last=Parry |date=September 30, 2019 |newspaper=[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]] |access-date=January 2, 2022 |archive-date=January 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220102191119/https://www.chronicle.com/article/despite-obstacles-black-colleges-are-pipelines-to-the-middle-class-study-finds-heres-its-list-of-the-best/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Economic status===
{{Further|Black-owned business}}
The economic disparity between the races in the U.S. has marginally improved since the end of slavery. In 1863, two years prior to emancipation, Black people owned 0.5 percent of the national wealth, while in 2019 it is just over 1.5 percent.<ref>{{cite news |title=Why the racial wealth gap persists, more than 150 years after emancipation |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/19/why-racial-wealth-gap-persists-more-than-years-after-emancipation/ |access-date=January 25, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> [[Racial inequality in the United States|Racial disparity in poverty rates]] has narrowed since the civil rights era, with the [[African-American poverty|poverty rate among African Americans]] decreasing 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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200917070757/https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/poverty-rates-for-blacks-and-hispanics-reached-historic-lows-in-2019.html|archive-date=September 17, 2020|access-date=July 13, 2021}}</ref> 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|first=Oscar|last=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>

African Americans have a long and diverse history of business ownership. Although the first 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>

[[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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-243.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau}}</ref>]]

African Americans had a combined buying power of over $1.6 trillion as of 2021, a 171% increase of their buying power in 2000 but lagging significantly in growth behind American [[Hispanic and Latino Americans|Latinos]] and [[Asian Americans|Asians]] in the same timer period (with 288% and 383%, respectively; for reference, US growth overall was 144% in the same period); however, African American net worth had shrunk 14% in the previous year despite strong growth in property prices and the [[S&P 500]]. In 2002, African American-owned businesses accounted for 1.2&nbsp;million of the US's 23&nbsp;million businesses.<ref>[https://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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100719013730/http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jul2010/sb20100715_469797.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 19, 2010|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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-25.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Occupations: 2000|first1=Peter |last1=Fronczek |first2=Patricia |last2=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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p20-541.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=The Black Population in the United States: March 2002|first=Jesse|last=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> 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|archive-date=May 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522182744/https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/12/black-white-unemployment-gap/421497/|url-status=live}}</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|first1=Carmen |last1=DeNavas-Walt |first2=Bernadette D. |last2=Proctor |author3=Cheryl Hill Lee |url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/p60-229.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/p60-229.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|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 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061025143541/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/nyregion/01census.html |archive-date=October 25, 2006 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|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>{{cite news |last1=Riley |first1=Jason. L. |title=For blacks, the Pyrrhic Victory of the Obama Era |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204712904578090483678801780 |access-date=December 14, 2022 |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |date=November 4, 2012 |archive-date=December 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221214123842/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204712904578090483678801780 |url-status=live }}</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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p20-556.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|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|first=Jonathan D.|last=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>

====African American homeownership====
[[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>]]
[[Home-ownership in the United States|Homeownership in the U.S.]] is the strongest indicator of financial stability and the primary asset most Americans use to generate wealth. African Americans continue to lag behind other racial groups in becoming homeowners.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/10/13/black-families-fall-further-behind-on-homeownership#:~:text=In%202022%2C%2074.6%25%20of%20White,%2C%20a%2027%2Dpoint%20gap. | title=Black Families Fall Further Behind on Homeownership | date=October 13, 2022 | access-date=March 8, 2023 | archive-date=March 8, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308145123/https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/10/13/black-families-fall-further-behind-on-homeownership#:~:text=In%202022%2C%2074.6%25%20of%20White,%2C%20a%2027%2Dpoint%20gap. | url-status=live }}</ref> 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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |website=U.S. Census Bureau |access-date=July 13, 2021}}</ref> The African American homeownership rate has remained relatively flat since the 1970s despite an increase in [[Housing discrimination in the United States|anti-discrimination housing laws and protections]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwake/2019/05/16/the-shocking-truth-about-the-u-s-black-homeownership-rate-50-years-after-the-1968-fair-housing-act/|title=The Shocking Truth 50 Years After The 1968 Fair Housing Act: The Black Homeownership Paradox|first=John|last=Wake|website=Forbes|access-date=March 8, 2023|archive-date=March 8, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308143207/https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwake/2019/05/16/the-shocking-truth-about-the-u-s-black-homeownership-rate-50-years-after-the-1968-fair-housing-act/|url-status=live}}</ref> The average White high school drop-out still has a slightly better chance of owning a home than the average African American college graduate usually due to unfavorable [[debt-to-income ratio]]s or [[Credit score in the United States|credit scores]] among most African American college graduates.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news/student-loan-debt-barrier-black-homeownership|title=Student Loan Debt A Barrier To Black Homeownership – NMP|access-date=March 8, 2023|archive-date=March 8, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308143205/https://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news/student-loan-debt-barrier-black-homeownership|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/why-do-black-college-graduates-have-lower-homeownership-rate-white-people-who-dropped-out-high-school | title=Why do Black College Graduates Have a Lower Homeownership Rate Than White People Who Dropped Out of High School? | date=February 27, 2020 | access-date=May 28, 2023 | archive-date=May 28, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528124534/https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/why-do-black-college-graduates-have-lower-homeownership-rate-white-people-who-dropped-out-high-school | url-status=live }}</ref> Since 2000, fast-growing housing costs in most cities have made it even more difficult for the U.S. African-American homeownership rate to significantly grow and reach over 50% for the first time in history. From 2000 to 2022, the median home price in the U.S. grew 160%, outpacing average annual household income growth in that same period, which only grew about 30%.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/realestate/black-homeowners-gentrification.html|title=What Gentrification Means for Black Homeowners|first=Jacquelynn|last=Kerubo|work=The New York Times|date=August 17, 2021|via=NYTimes.com|access-date=March 8, 2023|archive-date=March 8, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308150657/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/realestate/black-homeowners-gentrification.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://thehill.com/business/3478213-rising-home-prices-a-timeline/|title=Rising home prices: a timeline|first=Monique|last=Beals|newspaper=The Hill |date=May 5, 2022|access-date=March 16, 2023|archive-date=March 8, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308171030/https://thehill.com/business/3478213-rising-home-prices-a-timeline/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/612519/average-annual-real-wages-united-states/|title=Average annual real wages U.S. 2021|website=Statista|access-date=March 8, 2023|archive-date=March 8, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308172443/https://www.statista.com/statistics/612519/average-annual-real-wages-united-states/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[South Carolina]] is the state with the most African American homeownership, with about 55% of African Americans owning their own homes.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-02-22 |title=South Carolina leads the U.S. in Black homeownership, but there are still a few gaps to close |url=https://www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/sc-news/2023-02-22/south-carolina-leads-the-u-s-in-black-homeownership-but-there-are-still-a-few-gaps-to-close |access-date=2023-10-16 |website=South Carolina Public Radio |language=en |archive-date=October 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018185059/https://www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/sc-news/2023-02-22/south-carolina-leads-the-u-s-in-black-homeownership-but-there-are-still-a-few-gaps-to-close |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bahney |first=Anna |date=2023-03-02 |title=The gulf between Black homeowners and White is actually getting bigger, not smaller {{!}} CNN Business |url=https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/02/homes/race-and-home-buying-nar/index.html |access-date=2023-10-16 |website=CNN |language=en |archive-date=October 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018185057/https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/02/homes/race-and-home-buying-nar/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Politics===
Since the mid 20th century, a large majority of African Americans support the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. In the [[2020 United States presidential election|2020 Presidential election]], 91% of African American voters supported Democrat [[Joe Biden]], while 8% supported Republican [[Donald Trump]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Staff |first=N. P. R. |date=2021-05-21 |title=Understanding The 2020 Electorate: AP VoteCast Survey |language=en |work=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/929478378/understanding-the-2020-electorate-ap-votecast-survey |access-date=2022-11-04 |archive-date=February 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210219064318/https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/929478378/understanding-the-2020-electorate-ap-votecast-survey |url-status=live }}</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|first1=John Clifford|last1=Green|first2=Daniel J.|last2=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|access-date=June 16, 2015|archive-date=January 7, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107112637/https://books.google.com/books?id=nIPRBXgzSYEC&pg=PA29#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Black national anthem====

[[File:The Obamas sing with Smokey Robinson, Joan Baez and others, 2014.jpg|thumb|right| "[[Lift Every Voice and Sing]]" being sung by the [[family of Barack Obama]], [[Smokey Robinson]] and others in the [[White House]] in 2014]]
"[[Lift Every Voice and Sing]]" is often referred to as the Black national anthem in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Jackson|first1=Jabar|last2=Martin|first2=Jill|date=July 3, 2020|title=NFL plans to play Black national anthem before Week 1 games|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/02/sport/nfl-black-national-anthem-week-1-spt-intl/index.html|access-date=July 4, 2020|website=CNN|archive-date=May 27, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527135554/https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/02/sport/nfl-black-national-anthem-week-1-spt-intl/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1919, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had dubbed it the "Negro national anthem" for its power in voicing a cry for liberation and affirmation for African American people.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Till Victory Is Won: The Staying Power Of 'Lift Every Voice And Sing'|language=en|work=NPR.org|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/638324920/american-anthem-lift-every-voice-and-sing-black-national-anthem|access-date=February 22, 2022|archive-date=May 31, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220531060339/https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/638324920/american-anthem-lift-every-voice-and-sing-black-national-anthem|url-status=live}}</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|access-date=July 21, 2018|archive-date=May 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210501142714/https://news.gallup.com/poll/201731/lgbt-identification-rises.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref> African Americans are more likely to identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender than any other racial or ethnic group in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtoninformer.com/blacks-are-more-likely-to-identify-as-gay-than-any-other-group/|title=Blacks Are More Likely to Identify as Gay Than Any Other Group|website=The Washington Informer}}</ref>

===Health===
{{Further|Race and health in the United States#African Americans}}
{{See also|Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on black people#United States}}

====General health====
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. |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_252.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|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|archive-date=February 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225051734/https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/dcpc/data/race.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> African Americans also have higher prevalence and incidence of Alzheimer's disease compared to the overall average.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2020-03-10 |title=2020 Alzheimer's disease facts and figures |journal=Alzheimer's & Dementia |language=en |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=391–460 |doi=10.1002/alz.12068 |pmid=32157811 |s2cid=212666886 |issn=1552-5260|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mayeda |first1=Elizabeth Rose |last2=Glymour |first2=M Maria |last3=Quesenberry |first3=Charles P |last4=Whitmer |first4=Rachel A |date=2016-02-11 |title=Inequalities in dementia incidence between six racial and ethnic groups over 14 years |journal=Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=216–224 |doi=10.1016/j.jalz.2015.12.007 |issn=1552-5260 |pmc=4969071 |pmid=26874595}}</ref>

Violence is a major problem within the African American community.<ref>https://www.lacasa.org/blog/2023/2/22/black-history-month-shining-a-light-on-domestic-violence-in-the-african-american-community</ref><ref>https://www.bradyunited.org/resources/research/disproportionate-impact-gun-violence-black-americans#:~:text=Despite%20accounting%20for%20only%2014,the%20disparities%20are%20even%20higher.</ref> 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"/> Of the nearly 20,000 recorded U.S. homicides in 2022, Blacks made up the majority of offenders and victims despite making up less than 20% of the population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/251877/murder-victims-in-the-us-by-race-ethnicity-and-gender/|title=Number of murder victims in the United States in 2022, by race|date=February 13, 2024|work=Statista}}</ref> Black males age 15–44 are the only race/sex category for which homicide is a top-five cause of death.<ref name="Gilbert"/> Black women are 3 times more likely to be killed by an intimate partner than white women.<ref>https://www.lacasa.org/blog/2023/2/22/black-history-month-shining-a-light-on-domestic-violence-in-the-african-american-community</ref> Black children are 3 times more likely to die due to parental abuse and neglect than white children.<ref>https://www.statista.com/statistics/255032/number-of-child-fatalities-due-to-abuse-or-maltreatment-in-the-us-by-race-ethnicity/#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20around%20457%20African,1%2C000%20children%20for%20white%20children.</ref>

African-Americans are more likely than White Americans to die due to health-related problems developed by [[alcoholism]]. Alcohol abuse is the main contributor to the top 3 causes of death among African Americans.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.alcoholrehabguide.org/resources/african-americans-alcohol/ | title=African-Americans and Alcohol | access-date=November 23, 2023 | archive-date=November 23, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231123144917/https://www.alcoholrehabguide.org/resources/african-americans-alcohol/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

In December 2020, African Americans were less likely to be [[COVID-19 vaccine|vaccinated]] against [[COVID-19]] due to mistrust in the U.S. medical system. From 2021 to 2022, there was an increase in African Americans who became vaccinated.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Steven |date=January 24, 2022 |title=Study: Black Americans Beat Back Vaccine Hesitancy Faster Than Whites |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-01-24/black-americans-beat-vaccine-hesitancy-faster-than-whites |access-date=March 2, 2022 |website=U.S. News & World Report |archive-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302090102/https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-01-24/black-americans-beat-vaccine-hesitancy-faster-than-whites |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/04/black-americans-face-higher-covid-19-risks-are-more-hesitant-to-trust-medical-scientists-get-vaccinated/|title=Black Americans face higher COVID-19 risks, are more hesitant to trust medical scientists, get vaccinated|first1=John|last1=Gramlich|first2=Cary|last2=Funk|access-date=January 28, 2022|archive-date=January 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128122957/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/04/black-americans-face-higher-covid-19-risks-are-more-hesitant-to-trust-medical-scientists-get-vaccinated/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first=Sweta |last=Haldar |date=February 2, 2022 |title=Latest Data on COVID-19 Vaccinations by Race/Ethnicity |url=https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-by-race-ethnicity/ |access-date=March 2, 2022 |website=KFF |language=en-US |archive-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302054432/https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-by-race-ethnicity/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Still, in 2022, COVID-19 complications became the third leading cause of death for African Americans.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://nul.org/news/new-report-states-covid-19-third-leading-cause-death-black-americans |title=New Report States COVID-19 Is Third-Leading Cause of Death for Black Americans |access-date=January 28, 2022 |archive-date=January 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128122738/https://nul.org/news/new-report-states-covid-19-third-leading-cause-death-black-americans |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{See also|Alzheimer's disease in African Americans}}

====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 |archive-date=June 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616010330/https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats17/minorities.htm |url-status=live }}</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 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|archive-date=January 27, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140127194146/http://www.theatlantic.com/events/archive/2013/11/homophobia-in-black-communities-means-more-young-men-get-aids/281741/|url-status=live}}</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|access-date=July 12, 2019|archive-date=April 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190429074817/https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=honorscollege_sw|url-status=live}}</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|access-date=September 11, 2020|archive-date=January 7, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107112648/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&id=GALE%7CA19573641&v=2.1&it=r&userGroupName=anon%7E4c6b23c&aty=open-web-entry|url-status=live}}</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" />

In 2021, African Americans had the third highest [[suicide]] rate trailing American Indians/Alaska Natives and White Americans. However, African Americans had the second highest increase of its suicide rate from 2011 to 2021, growing 58%.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://andscape.com/features/suicide-rates-among-black-americans-are-increasing-by-double-digits/ | title=Suicide rates among Black Americans are increasing by double digits | date=September 11, 2023 | access-date=November 24, 2023 | archive-date=November 24, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231124205820/https://andscape.com/features/suicide-rates-among-black-americans-are-increasing-by-double-digits/ | url-status=live }}</ref> And although suicide is a top-10 cause of death for American men overall, it is not a top-10 cause of death for African American men.<ref name="Gilbert"/>

==Genetics==
{{see also|Genetic history of the African diaspora}}

=== Genome-wide studies ===
[[File:PCA and individual ancestry estimates for African Americans.png|thumb|upright=1.6|Genetic clustering of 128 African Americans, by Zakharia 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% [[Population history of West Africa|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 |first1 = Katarzyna |last1 = Bryc |first2 = Eric Y. |last2 = Durand |first3 = J. Michael |last3=Macpherson |first4 = David |last4 = Reich |first5 = Joanna L. |last5 = 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 |first1=Soheil |last1=Baharian |first2=Maxime |last2=Barakatt |first3=Christopher R. |last3=Gignoux |first4=Suyash |last4=Shringarpure |first5=Jacob |last5=Errington |first6=William J. |last6=Blot |first7=Carlos D. |last7=Bustamante |first8=Eimear E. |last8=Kenny |first9=Scott M. |last9=Williams |first10=Melinda C. |last10=Aldrich |first11=Simon |last11=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 |doi-access=free }}</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?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814202953/https://www.theroot.com/exactly-how-black-is-black-america-1790895185 |date=August 14, 2021 }}", ''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). This can be understood as being the result of enslaved African American females being [[History of sexual slavery in the United States#Under chattel slavery|raped]] by White males.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Micheletti |first1=Steven J. |display-authors=etal |title=Genetic Consequences of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Americas |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |date=August 6, 2020 |volume=107 |issue=2 |pages=265–277 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.06.012 |pmid=32707084 |pmc=7413858 |s2cid=222230119 }}</ref> 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 |first1=Katarzyna |last1=Bryc |first2=Adam |last2=Auton |first3=Matthew R. |last3=Nelson |first4=Jorge R. |last4=Oksenberg |first5=Stephen L. |last5=Hauser |first6=Scott |last6=Williams |first7=Alain |last7=Froment |first8=Jean-Marie |last8=Bodo |first9=Charles |last9=Wambebe |first10=Sarah A. |last10=Tishkoff |first11=Carlos D. |last11=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 |doi-access=free }}</ref>{{NoteTag|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 |author1-link = John Thornton (historian) |first2 = Linda |last2 = Heywood |date = October 1, 2011 |website = [[The Root (magazine)|The Root]] |access-date = January 2, 2017 |archive-date = January 3, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170103004156/http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2011/10/african_ethnicities_and_their_origins/ |url-status = live }}</ref>}}

Correspondingly, Montinaro et al. (2014) observed that around 50% of the overall ancestry of African Americans traces comes from a population similar to the Niger-Congo-speaking [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] of southern [[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|first1=Francesco |last1=Montinaro |first2=George B.J. |last2=Busby |first3=Vincenzo L. |last3=Pascali |first4=Simon |last4=Myers |first5=Garrett |last5=Hellenthal |first6=Cristian |last6=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> Zakharia et al. (2009) found a similar proportion of Yoruba-like ancestry in their African American samples, with a minority also drawn from [[Mandinka 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 |first1=Fouad |last1=Zakharia |first2=Analabha |last2=Basu |first3=Devin |last3=Absher |first4=Themistocles L. |last4=Assimes |first5=Alan S. |last5=Go |first6=Mark A. |last6=Hlatky |first7=Carlos |last7=Iribarren |first8=Joshua W. |last8=Knowles |first9=Jun |last9=Li |first10=Balasubramanian |last10=Narasimhan |first11=Steven |last11=Sidney |first12=Audrey |last12=Southwick |first13=Richard M. |last13=Myers |first14=Thomas |last14=Quertermous |first15=Neil |last15=Risch |first16=Hua |last16=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 |doi-access=free }}</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" /> An individual African American person can have over fifteen African ethnic groups in their genetic makeup alone due to the slave trade covering such vast areas.<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 8, 2023 |title=African American Ethnic Heritage |url=https://blackdemographics.com/african-american-ethnic-heritage/amp/ |access-date=November 8, 2023 |website=Black Demographics |archive-date=November 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109193521/https://blackdemographics.com/african-american-ethnic-heritage/amp/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

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 their forebears), 19.6 percent of African Americans have at least 25% European ancestry (equivalent to one European grandparent and their forebears), and 1 percent of African Americans have at least 50% European ancestry (equivalent to one European parent and their 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 |archive-date = April 11, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150411083013/http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/118292 |url-status = live }}</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 their 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 |archive-date = April 19, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150419023648/http://www.ebony.com/life/5-things-to-know-about-blacks-and-native-americans-119 |url-status = live }}</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 news |last = Zimmer |first = Carl |title = Tales of African-American History Found in DNA |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/28/science/african-american-dna.html |archive-url = https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/28/science/african-american-dna.html |archive-date = January 1, 2022 |url-access=limited |newspaper = The New York Times |access-date=May 10, 2019 |date = May 27, 2016 }}{{cbignore}}</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|first1=Lynn M. |last1=Sims |first2=Dennis |last2=Garvey |first3=Jack |last3=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|first1=Antonio |last1=Salas |first2=Ángel |last2=Carracedo |first3=Martin |last3=Richards |first4=Vincent |last4=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>

==Racism and 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"/>

Although they have gained a greater degree of social equality since the civil rights movement, African Americans have remained stagnant economically, which has hindered their ability to break into the middle class and beyond. As of 2020, the [[Racial inequality in the United States|racial wealth gap]] between Whites and Blacks remains as large as it was in 1968, with the typical net worth of a White household equivalent to that of 11.5 black households.<ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/04/economic-divide-black-households/| title = The black-white economic gap remains as wide as in 1968 – The Washington Post| newspaper = [[The Washington Post]]| access-date = December 18, 2021| archive-date = December 5, 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211205101109/https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/04/economic-divide-black-households/| url-status = live}}</ref> Despite this, African Americans have increased employment rates and gained representation in the highest levels of American government 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|archive-date=April 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180409032025/https://www.brookings.edu/articles/black-progress-how-far-weve-come-and-how-far-we-have-to-go/|url-status=live}}</ref> However, widespread [[racism against African Americans|racism]] remains an issue that continues to undermine the development of social status.<ref name="Brookings"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/06/27/3-discrimination-and-racial-inequality/ |work=On Views of Race and Inequality, Blacks and Whites Are Worlds Apart |date=June 27, 2016 |title=3. Discrimination and racial inequality |access-date=November 4, 2020 |agency=Pew Research Center |archive-date=November 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101151213/https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/06/27/3-discrimination-and-racial-inequality/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Economically, of all the racially Black ethnic groups on the globe, African Americans are the wealthiest and most successful, with one in every fifty African American families being millionaires.<ref>{{Cite web |title=America's Black Upper Class |date=2022 |url=https://www.dw.com/en/americas-black-upper-class-rich-successful-empowered/a-60787979 |access-date=2023-10-16 |website=DW |language=en |archive-date=October 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018185101/https://www.dw.com/en/americas-black-upper-class-rich-successful-empowered/a-60787979 |url-status=live }}</ref> This equates in 2023 to approximately 1.79 million African American millionaires in the United States,<ref>{{Cite web |title=New poll finds economic optimism among Black Americans |url=https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2023/09/08/poll-finds-economic-optimism-among-adult-black-americans- |first1= Noorulain |last1=Khawaja |date=Sep 8, 2023 |access-date=2023-10-16 |website=Spectrum News |language=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018185102/https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2023/09/08/poll-finds-economic-optimism-among-adult-black-americans- |archive-date= Oct 18, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hale |first=Kori |title=Millionaire Status Is On The Rise With 5.2 Million People Joining The Club |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/korihale/2022/10/25/millionaire-status-is-on-the-rise-with-52-million-people-joining-the-club/ |access-date=2023-10-16 |website=Forbes |language=en |date=Oct 25, 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018185058/https://www.forbes.com/sites/korihale/2022/10/25/millionaire-status-is-on-the-rise-with-52-million-people-joining-the-club/ |archive-date= Oct 18, 2023 }}</ref> which is more than the total amount of millionaires in any racially Black country, and many other countries, around the world.

===Policing and criminal justice===
{{See also|Race and crime in the United States}}
In 2014, African Americans made up 12% of the U.S. population, while 40% of prison inmates were African American.<ref name="Stanford">{{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 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160713173404/https://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/august/prison-black-laws-080614.html |archive-date= Jul 13, 2016 }}</ref> In the U.S., which has the largest per-capita prison population in the world, African Americans made up the second largest population of prison inmates (38%) in 2023, coming second to Whites who made up 57% of the prison population.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BOP Statistics: Inmate Race |url=https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp |access-date=2023-10-16 |website=Bureau of Prisons |archive-date=July 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200706084618/https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp |url-status=live }}</ref> According to the National Registry of Exonerations, Blacks are roughly 7.5 times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder in the U.S. than Whites.<ref>{{cite news |title=Glynn Simmons: Freedom 'exhilarating' for man exonerated after 48 years |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67878504 |access-date=January 6, 2024 |publisher=BBC |archive-date=January 6, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240106025054/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67878504 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2012, the New York City Police Department detained people more than 500,000 times under the city's [[stop-and-frisk]] law. Of the total detained, 55% were African-Americans, while Black people made up 20% of the city's population.<ref name="Stanford"/>

[[File:DSC 0008 (50283939071).jpg|thumb|left|[[Al Sharpton]] led the [[Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks]] protest on August 28, 2020.]]
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|archive-date=May 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522183822/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/31/the-counted-police-killings-2015-young-black-men|url-status=live}}</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|first1=Sara|last1=Sidner|first2=Mallory|last2=Simon|access-date=July 18, 2016|archive-date=July 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160723004528/http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/28/us/black-lives-matter-evolution/index.html|url-status=live}}</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 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200528023029/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/opinion/racism-white-women.html |archive-date=May 28, 2020 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=November 8, 2020 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Lang|first=Cady|date=July 6, 2020|title=How the Karen Meme Confronts History of White Womanhood|url=https://time.com/5857023/karen-meme-history-meaning/|access-date=February 1, 2021|magazine=Time|archive-date=January 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111213845/https://time.com/5857023/karen-meme-history-meaning/|url-status=live}}</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|archive-date=November 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109042738/https://abcnews.go.com/US/bbq-becky-golfcart-gail-list-unnecessary-911-calls/story?id=58584961|url-status=live}}</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 |archive-date=November 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101022100/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/25/permit-patty-eight-year-old-selling-water-san-francisco-video |url-status=live }}</ref> In African American culture there is a long history of calling a meddlesome White woman by a certain name, while ''[[The Guardian]]'' called 2020 "the year of [[Karen (slang)|Karen]]".<ref>{{cite news|last=Wong|first=Julia Carrie|author-link=Julia Carrie Wong|date=December 27, 2020|title=The year of Karen: how a meme changed the way Americans talked about racism|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/27/karen-race-white-women-black-americans-racism|access-date=December 21, 2021|archive-date=October 3, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221003051502/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/27/karen-race-white-women-black-americans-racism|url-status=live}}</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 news |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/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=August 6, 2018 |archive-date=August 2, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180802194555/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/06/04/the-blackwhite-marijuana-arrest-gap-in-nine-charts/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>ACLU. [https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/aclu-thewaronmarijuana-rel2.pdf ''The War on Marijuana in Black and White''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190106092009/https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/aclu-thewaronmarijuana-rel2.pdf |date=January 6, 2019 }}. June 2013. 2010 rates on page 47.</ref> Even since the legalization of cannabis, there are still more arrests made for Black users than White, wasting taxpayer money, due to many of those cases being abandoned or dropped, with no charges being filed after the trivial, racially-biased arrests.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Schwartzman |first1=Paul |last2=Harden |first2=John D. |date=2020-09-15 |title=D.C. legalized marijuana, but one thing didn't change: Almost everyone arrested on pot charges is Black |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/dc-marijuana-arrest-legal/2020/09/15/65c20348-d01b-11ea-9038-af089b63ac21_story.html |access-date=2023-10-17 |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=May 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230502125115/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/dc-marijuana-arrest-legal/2020/09/15/65c20348-d01b-11ea-9038-af089b63ac21_story.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Urbina |first=Ian |date=June 3, 2013 |title=Blacks Are Singled Out for Marijuana Arrests, Federal Data Suggests |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/us/marijuana-arrests-four-times-as-likely-for-blacks.html |access-date=October 17, 2023 |archive-date=October 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018185057/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/us/marijuana-arrests-four-times-as-likely-for-blacks.html |url-status=live }}</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|first1=Douglas J.|last1=Besharov|first2=Andrew|last2=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 parents in the United States|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> In 2021, statistics show that over 80 percent marriages in the African American ethnic group marry within their ethnic group.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BLACK MARRIAGE |url=https://blackdemographics.com/households/marriage-in-black-america/ |access-date=2023-10-16 |website=BlackDemographics.com |language=en-US |archive-date=October 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004155357/https://blackdemographics.com/households/marriage-in-black-america/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Sammy Davis Jr. 1972.jpg|thumb|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"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126093738/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/hollywood-loved-sammy-davis-jr-until-he-dated-white-movie-star-180964395/ |date=January 26, 2021 }}, ''[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]'' Retrieved February 23, 2021.</ref> In 1958, officers in [[Virginia]] entered the home of [[Loving v. Virginia#Plaintiffs|Mildred and Richard 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 |archive-date=January 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119214057/https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/eugenics-race-and-marriage |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1967 the law was ruled unconstitutional (via the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th Amendment]] adopted in 1868) 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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/issues/egan_sherrill_prop8_1_6_09.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |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|first1=Scott|last1=Clement|first2=Sandhya|last2=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|archive-date=September 22, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120922012256/http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-president-obamas-announcement-opposition-to-gay-marriage-hits-record-low/2012/05/22/gIQAlAYRjU_story.html|url-status=live}}</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|archive-date=October 12, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012033801/http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/05/pa-blacks-shift-quickly-in-favor-of-gay-marriage.html|url-status=live}}</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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_MO_060112.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|publisher=Public Policy Polling|access-date=January 3, 2015}}</ref> [[Maryland]],<ref>[https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/MarylandPollingMemo.pdf Public Policy Polling] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525120133/http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/MarylandPollingMemo.pdf |date=May 25, 2017 }} 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|archive-date=July 12, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120712130638/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/03/ohio-black-voters-same-sex-marriage-obama_n_1646189.html|url-status=live}}</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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_MiscellaneousFL_060812.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|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|archive-date=January 3, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103210323/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204755404578102953841743658|url-status=live}}</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 |archive-date=June 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625114956/https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/dr-king-spoke-out-against-the-genocide-of-native-americans/ |url-status=live }}</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 |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>

African Americans were also involved in the drafting of laws in the United States, such as [[Frank L. Stanley Sr.]] who drafted the laws for the Human Rights Commission and the integration of Kentucky schools while his study of how African Americans were segregated was utilized by the government which led to the integration of the military.

==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|archive-date=November 22, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101122124035/http://blackandbrownnews.com/|url-status=dead}}</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|access-date=April 4, 2018|archive-date=April 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180403234608/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4608039|url-status=live}}</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|access-date=April 4, 2018|archive-date=July 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721103026/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4608042|url-status=live}}</ref> or that the news media present distorted images of African Americans.<ref>{{cite web|first=Mikal|last=Muharrar|title=Media Blackface|publisher=FAIR|date=September–October 1998|url=https://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1431|access-date=July 21, 2018|archive-date=September 8, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120908145032/http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1431|url-status=live}}</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. According to [[Viacom (2005–2019)|Viacom]], 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> 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>

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>

In June 2009, [[NBC News]] launched a new website named [[TheGrio]]<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|date=June 2, 2009|publisher=Thegrio.com|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-date=January 7, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110107105701/http://www.thegrio.com/about/|url-status=live}}</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 founded 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|access-date=August 26, 2019|archive-date=August 15, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190815195120/https://www.theroot.com/why-vh1-gets-to-be-black-without-the-burden-1790877558|url-status=live}}</ref>


==Culture==
==Culture==
''Main article: [[African American culture]]''
{{Further|African-American culture}}
{{See also|African-American art}}
[[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]]]]
African American culture is an amalgam of influences, including [[African]], [[Caribbean]], [[European]], and [[Latino]] cultures. From its music and dance, to speech, demeanor, and foodways, African American culture bears the strong imprint of West Africa, particularly in rural portions of the [[Deep South]] and [[Sea Islands]] of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and [[South Carolina]].
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 nearly 500 products from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and pecans.<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|first1=Servet Gulum |last1=Sumnu |first2=Serpil |last2=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|first1=Martha B. |last1=Katz-Hyman |first2=Kym S. |last2=Rice |page=110}}</ref>
[[African American music]] is one of the most pervasive African American cultural influences in the United States today. [[Hip hop music|Hip hop]], [[Rock music|rock]], [[R&B]], [[funk]], and other contemporary American musical forms evolved from [[blues]], [[jazz]], and [[gospel music]]. [[African American Vernacular English]] (AAVE) is a dialect of English spoken by many African Americans to varying degrees.
Many African American authors have written stories, poems, and essays influenced by their experiences as African Americans, and [[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]], [[Toni Morrison]], and [[Maya Angelou]].


===Language===
==The term ''African American''==
{{Main|African-American English}}
{{See also|Black American Sign Language}}
===Political overtones===
[[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|series=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|access-date=June 16, 2015|archive-date=January 7, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107112638/https://books.google.com/books?id=Dptsvykgk3IC|url-status=live}}</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://books.google.com/books?id=PaO3jsaGkeYC|access-date=October 21, 2014|date=February 18, 2010|archive-date=May 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525120210/https://books.google.com/books?id=PaO3jsaGkeYC|url-status=live}}</ref>
The term ''African American'' carries important political overtones. Previous terms used to identify Americans of African ancestry were conferred upon the group by whites and were included in the wording of various laws and legal decisions which became tools of white supremacy and oppression. There developed among blacks in America a growing desire for a term of their own choosing.
With the political consciousness that emerged from the political and social ferment of the late [[1960s]] and early [[1970s]], ''Negro'' fell into disfavor among many African Americans. It had taken on a moderate, accommodationist, even [[Uncle Tom]]<nowiki>ish</nowiki>, connotation. In this period, a growing number of blacks in the U.S., particularly African American youth, celebrated their [[blackness]] and their historical and cultural ties with the African continent. The [[Black_nationalism#Black_Power|Black Power]] movement defiantly embraced ''black'' as a group identifier&mdash;a term they themselves had repudiated only two decades earlier&mdash;a term often associated in English with things negative and undesirable, proclaiming, "Black is beautiful."
In this same period, others favored the term ''Afro-American''; this particular term never gained much traction, but by the [[1990s]], the term ''African American'' had emerged as the leading choice of self-referential term. Just as other ethnic groups in American society historically had adopted names descriptive of their families' geographical points of origin (such as ''[[Italian-American]]'', ''[[Irish-American]]'', ''[[Polish-American]]''), many blacks in America expressed a preference for a similar term. Because of the historical circumstances surrounding the capture, enslavement and systematic attempts to de-Africanize blacks in the U.S. under chattel slavery, most African Americans are unable to trace their ancestry to a specific African nation; hence, the entire continent serves as a geographic marker.


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|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>
For many, ''African American'' is more than a name expressive of cultural and historical roots. The term expresses African pride and a sense of kinship and solidarity with others of the African [[diaspora]]&mdash;an embracing of the notion of pan-Africanism earlier enunciated by prominent African thinkers such as [[Marcus Garvey]], [[W.E.B. Dubois]] and, later, [[George Padmore]].
A discussion of the term ''African American'' and related terms can be found in the journal article "The Politicization of Changing Terms of Self Reference Among American Slave Descendants" in ''American Speech'' v 66 is 2 Summer 1991 p. 133-46.


====Traditional names====
===Who is African American?===
{{Main|African-American names}}
To be considered African American in the [[United States|United States of America]], not even half of one's ancestry need to be black African. The nation's answer to the question "Who is black?" long has been that a "black" is any person with any known African ancestry. This definition reflects the long experience with [[racism]], [[white supremacy]], [[slavery]], and, later, with [[Jim Crow laws]].
[[African-American names]] are part of the cultural traditions of African Americans, most of these cultural names having no connection to Africa but strictly an African American cultural practice that developed in the United States during enslavement.<ref name="Logan">{{Cite web |last=Logan |first=Trevon |date=2020-01-23 |title=A brief history of black names, from Perlie to Latasha |url=http://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-black-names-from-perlie-to-latasha-130102 |access-date=2023-10-21 |website=The Conversation |language=en |archive-date=January 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107113148/http://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-black-names-from-perlie-to-latasha-130102 |url-status=live }}</ref> This new evidence became apparent by census records which show African Americans and White Americans, though they spoke the same language, chose to use different names even during times of enslavement, which is where and when the development of African American cultural names began.<ref name="Logan"/>
In the [[Southern United States]], it became known as the ''[[one-drop rule]]'', meaning that a single drop of "black blood" makes a person "black". Some courts have called it the ''traceable amount rule'', and [[anthropology|anthropologists]] call it the ''hypo-descent rule'', meaning that racially mixed persons are assigned the status of the subordinate group. This definition emerged from the American South to become America's national definition, generally accepted by whites and blacks -- but for different reasons. White supremacists, whose motivation was [[racism|racist]], considered anyone with African ancestry tainted, inherently inferior morally and intellectually and, thus, subordinate. During slavery, there was also a strong economic incentive to maximize the number of individuals who could be owned, bred, worked, traded and sold outright as human chattel. The designation of anyone possessing any trace of African ancestry as "black", and, therefore, of subordinate status to whites, guaranteed a source of free or cheap labor during slavery and for decades afterward. For African Americans, the one-drop system of racial designation was a significant factor in ethnic solidarity. African Americans generally shared a common lot in society and, therefore, common cause -- regardless of their ethnic admixture and social and economic stratification.
The [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]] formalized the legal status of this rule in ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' ([[1896]]), where the Court affirmed the legality of [[racial segregation]] and upheld the State of [[Louisiana]]'s ruling that, despite being 7/8 white, [[Homer Plessy]]'s one black great-grandparent rendered him legally non-white and, therefore, subject to being barred from whites-only railway carriages.


Prior to this newer information, it was only thought that before 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://books.google.com/books?id=XPkLGtzsKv0C|access-date=May 1, 2016|archive-date=March 31, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331121650/https://books.google.com/books?id=XPkLGtzsKv0C|url-status=live}}</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|author-link=Clara Moskowitz|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|access-date=July 21, 2018|archive-date=July 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721103020/https://www.livescience.com/9027-baby-names-reveal-parents.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[Caucasoid]] peoples, [[India|Indians]], [[Asians]] and [[Arab]]s are traditionally not considered African American, though they or their [[ancestor]]s may have [[emigrate|emigrated]] from the African continent after generations of residence. In relatively rare cases when [[South Africa|South African]] whites, Caucasoid [[North Africa|North African]]s or [[Asia]]n immigrants from Africa living in America have self-identified as African American in an attempt to benefit from [[Affirmative Action]] or other entitlement programs, their claims generally have not been upheld.
In the [[1980s]], parents of mixed-race children began to organize and lobby for the addition of a more inclusive term of racial designation that would reflect the heritage of their offspring. As a result, the term ''[[biracial]]'' has become more widely used and accepted to classify people of mixed race.


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>
===Terms no longer in common use===
The term ''[[Negro]]'', which was widely used until the [[1960s]], today increasingly is considered passé and inappropriate or derogatory. It is still fairly commonly used by older individuals and in the Deep South. Once widely considered acceptable, ''Negro'' fell into disfavor for reasons already herein stated. The self-referential term of preference for ''Negro'' became ''black''.
''Negroid'' is a term used by European anthropologists first in the [[18th century]] to describe indigenous Africans and their descendants throughout the African diaspora. As with most descriptors of [[race]] based on inconsistent, unscientific phenotypical standards, the term is controversial and imprecise. Because of its similarity to ''Negro'', growing numbers of blacks have substituted the term ''Africoid'' which, unlike ''Negroid'', encompasses the phenotypes of all indigenous African peoples.
Other largely defunct, seldom used terms to refer to African Americans are ''[[mulatto]]'' and ''[[colored]]''. Even so, the use of the word "colored" can still be found today in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or [[NAACP]]. The American use of the term ''mulatto'' originally was used to mean the offspring of a "pure African black" and a "pure European white". The Latin root of the word is ''mulo'', as in "[[mule]]", implying incorrectly that, like mules, which are [[horse]]-[[donkey]] [[hybrid]]s, mulattoes are sterile crosses of two different species. For example, in the early [[20th century]], African American leaders such as [[Booker T. Washington]] and [[Frederick Douglass]], who had enslaved blacks as mothers and white fathers, were referred to as mulattoes. While not as common as "mixed" or "biracial," or even "multiracial," ''mulatto'' is still sometimes used to refer to people of mixed parentage and, despite its origin, is not considered inherently derogatory.
The term ''quadroon'' referred to a person of one-fourth African descent, for example, someone born to a [[Whites|Caucasian]] father and a mulatto mother. Someone of one-eighth African descent technically was an ''octoroon'', although the term often was used to refer to any white person with even a hint of black ancestry.
''Mulatto'' and terms with the ''-roon'' suffix persisted in a social context for a number of decades, but by the mid twentieth century, they no longer were in common use. With the end of slavery, there was no longer a strong commercial incentive to classify blacks by their African-European ancestral admixture. The occasional use of these terms, however, does still persist in electronic media, literature and in some social settings.


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|archive-date=February 22, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222002808/http://www.babycenter.com/0_popular-african-american-names_10329236.bc|url-status=live}}</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|access-date=July 21, 2018|archive-date=January 7, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107113146/https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/articles/201003/raising-e-and-yo|url-status=live}}</ref>
===Criticisms of the Term===


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"/>
Some criticism has arisen with the use of the term "African American". Technically to be African- American an individual would have to be born in Africa and then immigrate to U.S. and obtain citizenship. So an overwhelming majority of Black Americans would not be African-American, but of African American descent. Some inaccuracies also exist with the term. It is associated with black people however one could be completely white and still technically be "African American" if they were born in Africa and immigrated to the U.S.


===Religion===
However, some counter that the "hyphenated American" is used to describe one's national origin, so any person born in Africa would take on the name of their country. For example, indivuals from Nigeria would be called Nigerian-American as it describes their national origin as opposed to African-American. The term African-American is preferred among many because although the regional/national origin of black Americans in Africa is not traceable, due to slavery, the continent of Africa provides a descriptive term of themselves.
{{Pie chart
| thumb = right
| caption = Religious affiliation of African Americans in 2007<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|archive-date=July 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721132557/https://www.pewforum.org/2009/01/30/a-religious-portrait-of-african-americans/|url-status=live}}</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|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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report-religious-landscape-study-full.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |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"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010002126/http://www.energizeinc.com/art/apas.html |date=October 10, 2014 }}. Energize Inc. Retrieved November 18, 2009.</ref> One of these early African American Christian cultural traditions in the Black Church is the [[Watchnight service]], also called Freedom's Eve, where African American congregations all over the nation come together on New Year's Eve through New Years morning in remembrance of the eve and New Year of their emancipation, sharing testimonies, being baptized and partaking in praise and worship.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Historical Legacy of Watch Night |url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-watch-night |access-date=2023-11-06 |website=National Museum of African American History and Culture |language=en |archive-date=December 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231209203550/https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-watch-night |url-status=live }}</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), ''[[iarchive:baptistsinameric0000leon/page/34/mode/2up|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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190519163031/http://www.ncccusa.org/news/080215yearbook1.html |date=May 19, 2019 }} 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>
There is also an inconsistency in usage of the term. The term "African-American" to describe darker skinned people is used in the same sentence with the term "whites" to describe lighter skinned people. Consistentency would dictate that either everyone is refered to by their ethnic heritage hyphenated with their current citizenship, or described by skin tones such as "black", "brown" or "white".


[[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/>
==Black American population==
The following gives the black population in the U.S. over time, based on U.S. Census figures. (Numbers from years 1920 to 2000 are based on U.S. Census figures as given on page 377 of the Time Almanac of 2005.


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|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad|first=Claude Andrew|last=Clegg|authorlink=Claude 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|access-date=June 16, 2015|archive-date=January 7, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107113203/https://books.google.com/books?id=nva1ULVYh3QC|url-status=live}}</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>
{| border=1 cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0 class="wikitable"
! Year || Number || Percentage of total population
|-
| [[1790]] || 757,208 || 19.3% (highest historic percentage)
|-
| [[1800]] || 1,002,037 || 18.9%
|-
| [[1810]] || 1,377,808 || 19.0%
|-
| [[1820]] || 1,771,656 || 18.4%
|-
| [[1830]] || 2,328,642 || 18.1%
|-
| [[1840]] || 2,873,648 || 16.8%
|-
| [[1850]] || 3,638,808 || 15.7%
|-
| [[1860]] || 4,441,830 || 14.1%
|-
| [[1870]] || 4,880,009 || 12.7%
|-
| [[1880]] || 6,580,793 || 13.1%
|-
| [[1890]] || 7,488,788 || 11.9%
|-
| [[1900]] || 8,833,994 || 11.6%
|-
| [[1910]] || 9,827,763 || 10.7%
|-
| [[1920]] || 10.5 million || 9.9%
|-
| [[1930]] || 11.9 million || 9.7% (lowest historic percentage)
|-
| [[1940]] || 12.9 million || 9.8%
|-
| [[1950]] || 15.0 million || 10.0%
|-
| [[1960]] || 18.9 million || 10.5%
|-
| [[1970]] || 22.6 million || 11.1%
|-
| [[1980]] || 26.5 million || 11.7%
|-
| [[1990]] || 30.0 million || 12.1%
|-
| [[2000]] || 34.6 million || 12.3% (current percentage)
|}


[[File:Muhammad Ali NYWTS.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Muhammad Ali]] converted to Islam in 1964]]
note: The [[CIA World Factbook]] gives the current [[2005]] figure as 12.9% [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/us.html]
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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724183609/http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0190/9001042.htm |date=July 24, 2008 }} Washington Report on Middle East Reports. Retrieved November 16, 2009.</ref>


[[African-American Muslims|African American Muslims]] constitute 20% of the total [[Islam in the United States|U.S. Muslim population]],<ref name=PewMuslim>{{cite tech report|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>
==See also==
*[[Black (people)]]
*[[:Category:African Americans]]
*[[African American National Biography Project]]
*[[List of African Americans]]
*[[List of African-American-related topics]]
*[[List of U.S. cities with large African-American populations]]
*[[Race]], [[Hyphenated American]]
*Terminology: [[Blacks]], [[Colored]], [[Creole]], [[Negro]]
*[[African American history]]
**[[Racial segregation]]
**[[Black nationalism]]
*[[African American literature]]
*[[African American Vernacular English]]
*[[Affirmative action]]
*[[Black Indians]]


There is also a small but growing group of [[African-American Jews|African American Jews]], making up less than 0.5% of African Americans or about 2% of the [[American Jews|Jewish population in the United States]]. The majority of African-American Jews are [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi]], while smaller numbers identify as [[Sephardic Jews|Sephardi]], [[Mizrahi Jews|Mizrahi]], or other.<ref name=":0a">{{Cite web |date=May 11, 2021 |title=JEWISH AMERICANS IN 2020: 9. Race, ethnicity, heritage and immigration among U.S. Jews |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/race-ethnicity-heritage-and-immigration-among-u-s-jews/ |website=Pew Research Center}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/jewish/ |title=Racial and ethnic composition among Jews|publisher=[[Pew Research Center|The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life]] |access-date=August 22, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|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|first=Michael|last=Gelbwasser|date=April 10, 1998|website=[[J. The Jewish News of Northern California]]}}</ref> Many African-American Jews are affiliated with denominations such as the [[Reform Judaism|Reform]], [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative]], [[Reconstructionist Judaism|Reconstructionist]], or [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] branches of Judaism, but the majority identify as "Jews of no religion", commonly known as secular Jews. A significant number of people who identify themselves as "Black Jews" are affiliated with [[religious syncretism|syncretic]] religious 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> Jews of all races typically do not accept Black Hebrew Israelites as Jews, in part because they are usually not Jewish [[who is a Jew|according to Jewish law]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Washington |first1=Robin |title=Who Black Hebrew Israelites Are—And Who They Are Not |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/2019/12/18/who-black-hebrew-israelites-are-and-who-they-are-not/ |website=My Jewish Learning |date=December 18, 2019 |publisher=70 Faces media |access-date=16 August 2022}}</ref> and in part because these groups are sometimes associated with antisemitism.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hwang |first1=Janice |title=Explainer: Who Are The Black Hebrew Israelites? |url=https://www.jta.org/2019/12/12/ny/explainer-who-are-the-black-hebrew-israelites |access-date=16 August 2022 |agency=New York Jewish Week |publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=December 12, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Musodza |first1=Masimba |title=The Hebrew Israelites Are A Real Threat |url=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-hebrew-israelites-are-a-real-threat/ |access-date=16 August 2022 |work=The Times of Israel |date=September 21, 2019}}</ref> African-American Jews have criticized the Black Hebrew Israelites, regarding the movement as primarily composed of Black non-Jews who have appropriated Black-Jewish identity.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tribeherald.com/a-case-of-mistaken-identity-black-jews-hebrew-israelites/ |title=A Case of Mistaken Identity: Black Jews & Hebrew Israelites |date=August 16, 2020 |publisher=TribeHerald.com |accessdate=2023-05-13}}</ref>
===Other groups===
*[[Afro-Argentinian]]
*[[Afro-Brazilian]]
*[[Afro-Cuban]]
*[[Afro-Ecuadorian]]
*[[Afro-Latin American]]
*[[Afro-Mexican]]
*[[Afro-Peruvian]]
*[[Afro-Trinidadian]]
*[[African American culture]]
*[[African American music]]
*[[Black Canadian]]


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 Religious 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>
==Further Reading==

*Jack Salzman, ed., ''Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history'', New York, NY : Macmillan Library Reference USA, 1996
===Music===
*''African American Lives'', edited by Henry L. Gates, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Oxford University Press, 2004 - more then 600 biographies
{{multiple image
*''From Slavery to Freedom. A History of African Americans'', by [[John Hope Franklin]], Alfred Moss, McGraw-Hill Education 2001, standard work, first edition in 1947
|total_width=350
*''Black Women in America - An Historical Encyclopedia'', Darlene Clark Hine (Editor), Rosalyn Terborg-Penn (Editor), Elsa Barkley Brown (Editor), Paperback Edition, Indiana University Press 2005
|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|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>

===Dance===
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===
[[File:Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye author portrait).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Toni Morrison]], recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature]]
Many African American authors have written stories, poems, and essays influenced by their experiences as African Americans. [[African-American literature|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 inventor|African American inventor]]s 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>

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=March 2, 2003|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>

[[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|first=Michael N.|last=Geselowitz|date=February 2004|publisher=todaysengineer.org|access-date=October 7, 2010|archive-date=July 16, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716023608/http://www.todaysengineer.org/2004/Feb/history.asp|url-status=dead}}</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>

A few other notable examples include the first successful [[Cardiac surgery|open heart surgery]], performed by [[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/> [[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/430842/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>

As part of the preservation of their culture, African Americans have continuously launched their own publications and publishing houses, such as [[Robert Sengstacke Abbott]], founder of the Chicago Defender newspaper, and [[Carter G. Woodson]], the founder of [[Black History Month]] who spent over thirty years documenting and publishing African American history in journals and books. The [[Johnson Publishing Company]], founded by John H. Johnson in 1942, is a National Historic Landmark.<ref>{{Cite web |last=History |first=Black Entrepreneur |date=2020-11-23 |title=John Warren Moutoussamy - One of Chicago's Finest High Rising Architects |url=https://blackentrepreneurhistory.com/black-history/john-warren-moutoussamy-one-of-chicagos-finest-high-rising-architects |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=Black Entrepreneur History |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Terminology==
===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'' was popularized by [[Jesse Jackson]] in the 1980s,<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Wilkerson|first1=Isabel|date=January 31, 1989|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=December 28, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> although there are recorded uses from the 18th and 19th centuries,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Schuessler |first=Jennifer |date=2015-04-20 |title=Use of 'African-American' Dates to Nation's Early Days |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/arts/use-of-african-american-dates-to-nations-early-days.html |access-date=2024-02-12 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> for example, in post-emancipation holidays and conferences.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Times-Picayune 29 Nov 1885, page Page 3 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/28238677/ |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Evening Herald 09 May 1884, page 1 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/418147252/ |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref> Earlier terms also used to describe Americans of African ancestry referred more to skin color than to ancestry. 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.]]

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>

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"/>

Surveys in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century showed that the majority of Black Americans had 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 had 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> By 2021, according to polling from [[Gallup, Inc.|Gallup]], 58% of Black Americans expressed no preference for what their group should be called, with 17% each preferring ''Black'' and ''African-American''. Among those with no preference, Gallup found a slight majority favored ''Black'' "if [they] had to choose."<ref>{{Cite web |last=McCarthy |first=Justin and Whitney Dupree |date=2021-08-04 |title=No Preferred Racial Term Among Most Black, Hispanic Adults |url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/353000/no-preferred-racial-term-among-black-hispanic-adults.aspx |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=Gallup.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 2020, the [[Associated Press]] updated its [[AP Stylebook]] to direct its writers to capitalize the first letter of ''Black'' when it is used "in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-07-20 |title=Explaining AP style on Black and white |url=https://apnews.com/article/archive-race-and-ethnicity-9105661462 |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref> ''[[The New York Times]]'' and other outlets made similar changes at the same time, to put "Black" on the same footing as other racial and ethnic terms, such as Latino, Asian, and African-American.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Coleman |first=Nancy |date=2020-07-05 |title=Why We're Capitalizing Black |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/05/insider/capitalized-black.html |access-date=2024-03-31 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

In 2023, the government released a new more detailed breakdown due to the rise in racially Black immigration into the US, listing African American as a compound termed ethnicity, distinguished from other racially Black ethnicities such as Nigerian, Jamaican etc.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Improvements to the 2020 Census Race and Hispanic Origin Question Designs, Data Processing, and Coding Procedures |url=https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2021/08/improvements-to-2020-census-race-hispanic-origin-question-designs.html |access-date=2023-09-30 |website=Census.gov}}</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>

===Official identity===
[[File:US Census Bureau keypunch operators, Negro section.jpg|thumb|[[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 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-5.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|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|access-date=July 28, 2016|archive-date=July 7, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160707134708/https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/additional-ucr-publications/ucr_handbook.pdf/view|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Admixture===
{{See also|Miscegenation#United States|Multiracial American|One-drop rule|hypodescent}}
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> Although publicly opposed to race mixing, Jefferson, in his ''[[Notes on the State of Virginia]]'' published in 1785, wrote: "The improvement of the blacks in body and mind, in the first instance of their mixture with the whites, has been observed by every one, and proves that their inferiority is not the effect merely of their condition of life".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Higginbotham |first1=A. Leon |title=In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process. The Colonial Period |publisher=Oxford University Press US |date=1980 |page=10}}</ref>

[[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|first=Angela Y.|last=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, some African American military men who had been stationed in Japan married [[Women in Japan|Japanese women]], who then 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|access-date=January 1, 2020|archive-date=January 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101093208/http://dornsifelive.usc.edu/events/site/192/579045/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===<span id="The">Terminology dispute</span>===
In her book ''The End of Blackness'', as well as in an essay for ''[[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)|Salon]]|first=Debra J.|last=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, is not Black.<ref name="colorblind-salon"/><ref name="colbertnation.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.cc.com/video/12d71h/the-colbert-report-debra-dickerson|title=The Colbert Report – Debra Dickerson|date=February 8, 2007|publisher=Comedy Central|access-date=December 6, 2021}}</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 author [[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=[[The 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'"/>

The [[American Descendants of Slavery]] (ADOS) movement coalesces around this view, arguing that Black descendants of American slavery deserve a separate ethnic category that distinguishes them from other Black groups in the United States.<ref name="NY Times overview">{{cite news|last=Stockman|first=Farah|date=November 8, 2019|title='We're Self-Interested': The Growing Identity Debate in Black America|page=A1|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/us/slavery-black-immigrants-ados.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/us/slavery-black-immigrants-ados.html |archive-date=January 1, 2022 |url-access=limited|authorlink=Farah Stockman}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Their terminology has gained popularity in some circles, but others have criticized the movement for a perceived bias against (especially poor and Black) immigrants, and for its often inflammatory rhetoric.<ref name="Libactivists">{{cite news|last1=Scherer|first1=Michael|last2=Wang|first2=Amy|date=July 8, 2019|title=A few liberal activists challenged Kamala Harris's black authenticity. The president's son amplified their message.|language=en|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-few-liberal-activists-challenged-kamala-harriss-black-authenticity-the-presidents-son-amplified-their-message/2019/07/07/f46c4b8a-9ccd-11e9-85d6-5211733f92c7_story.html|accessdate=March 13, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Chávez|first=Aída|date=February 13, 2019|title=Black Critics of Kamala Harris and Cory Booker Push Back Against Claims That They're Russian "Bots"|url=https://theintercept.com/2019/02/13/ados-kamala-harris-cory-booker-russian-bots/|access-date=December 1, 2021|website=The Intercept|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=|first=|title=Controversial group ADOS divides black Americans in fight for economic equality|url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/controversial-group-ados-divides-black-americans-fight-economic/story?id=66832680|url-status=live|access-date=December 1, 2021|website=ABC News|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200119104455/https://abcnews.go.com/US/controversial-group-ados-divides-black-americans-fight-economic/story?id=66832680|archive-date=January 19, 2020}}</ref> Politicians such as Obama and Harris have received especially pointed criticism from the movement, as neither are ADOS and have spoken out at times against policies specific to them.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hampton|first=Rachelle|date=July 9, 2019|title=A Movement or A Troll?: Why Claims That Kamala Harris Is "Not an American Black" Are Suddenly Everywhere|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/kamala-harris-not-black-ados-reparations-movement.html|access-date=December 1, 2021|website=Slate Magazine|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Russ|first=Valerie|title=It's not whether Kamala Harris is 'black enough,' critics say, but whether her policies will support native black Americans|url=https://www.inquirer.com/news/kamala-harris-ados-african-americans-black-immigrants-president-20190211.html|access-date=December 1, 2021|website=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=February 11, 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

Many [[Pan-Africanism|Pan-African]] movements and organizations that are ideologically [[Black nationalism|Black nationalist]], [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]], [[Anti-Zionism|anti-Zionist]], and [[Scientific socialism|Scientific socialist]] like The [[All-African People's Revolutionary Party|All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP)]], have argued that [[African diaspora|African]] (relating to the diaspora) or [[Republic of New Afrika|New Afrikan]] should be used instead of African American.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 18, 2016 |title=The Resurgence of New Afrikan Identity |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-resurgence-of-new-afr_b_9448640 |access-date=March 2, 2022 |website=HuffPost |language=en}}</ref> Most notably, [[Malcolm X]] and [[Stokely Carmichael|Kwame Ture]] expressed similar views that African Americans are Africans who "happen to be in America", and should not claim or identify as being American if they are fighting for Black (New Afrikan) liberation. Historically, this is due to the enslavement of Africans during the [[Atlantic slave trade|Trans-Atlantic slave trade]], ongoing anti-black violence, and structural racism in countries like the United States.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Witt |first=Karen de |date=April 14, 1996 |title=Conversations/Kwame Ture;Formerly Stokely Carmichael And Still Ready for the Revolution |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/14/weekinreview/conversations-kwame-ture-formerly-stokely-carmichael-still-ready-for-revolution.html |access-date=March 2, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Malcolm X – Ballot or the Bullet (Washington Heights, NY, March 29, 1964) |url=https://genius.com/Malcolm-x-ballot-or-the-bullet-washington-heights-ny-march-29-1964-annotated |access-date=March 2, 2022 |website=Genius}}</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 enslaved.<ref>{{cite book|last=Frazier|first=Edward Franklin|title=The Free Negro Family|year=1968|page=1}}</ref> In response to the project of the [[American Colonization Society]] to transport free Blacks to the future Liberia, a project most Blacks strongly rejected, the Blacks at the time said they were no more African than White Americans were European, and referred to themselves with what they considered a more acceptable term, "[[colored]] Americans". The term was 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|last1=Anderson|first1=Talmadge|first2=James|last2=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?|first=Chris|last=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|African American English]]. This usage has been popularized by American [[rap]] and [[Hip hop music|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 "[[wikt:homie|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|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 cinema]]
* [[African-American middle class]]
* [[African-American neighborhood]]
* [[African-American upper class]]
* [[African diaspora in the Americas]]
* [[Afrophobia]]
* [[AP African American Studies]]
* [[Black Belt in the American South]]
* [[Black Hispanic and Latino Americans]]
* [[Black Southerners]]
* [[Civil rights movement (1865–1896)]]
* [[Civil rights movement (1896–1954)]]
* [[Juneteenth]]
* [[National Museum of African American History and Culture]]
* [[North Africans in the United States]]
* [[Criollo people#Spanish colonial caste system|Society and Black people in the Spanish Colonial Americas]]
* [[South African Americans]]
* [[Stereotypes of African Americans]]
* [[Timeline of the civil rights movement]]
* [[African immigration to the United States]]
* [[West Indian Americans]]
* [[African American–Jewish relations]]
* [[African American–Korean American relations]]
{{Div col end}}

===Diaspora===
{{Div col}}
* [[African Americans in Africa]]
** [[African Americans in Ghana]]
** [[Americo-Liberian people]]
** [[Sierra Leone Creole people]]
* [[African Americans in Canada]]
* [[African Americans in France]]
* [[African Americans in Israel]]
* [[Black Nova Scotians]]
* [[Samaná Americans]]
* [[Haitian emigration]]
{{Div col end}}

===Lists===
{{Div col}}
* [[Index of articles related to African Americans]]
* [[List of African-American neighborhoods]]
* [[List of majority-Black counties in the United States]]
* [[List of African-American newspapers and media outlets]]
* [[List of historically black colleges and universities]]
* [[List of African-American inventors and scientists]]
* [[List of African American poets]]
* [[List of African-American astronauts]]
* [[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]]
* [[List of African-American holidays]]
* [[Lists of African Americans]]
* [[List of African-American LGBT people]]
{{Div col end}}

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite book|last=Altman|first=Susan|title=The Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage|isbn=978-0-8160-4125-1|year=2000|publisher=Facts on File }}
* 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, US, 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|Hine, Darlene Clark]], [[Rosalyn Terborg-Penn]], Elsa Barkley Brown (eds), ''Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia'', (Indiana University Press 2005).
* {{cite book |title=An African American and Latinx History of the United States |year=2018 |author=Ortiz, Paul |publisher=Beacon Press |isbn=978-0807005934}}
* Horton, James Oliver, and Lois E. Horton. ''Hard Road to Freedom: The Story of African America, African Roots Through the Civil War. Vol. 1'' (Rutgers University Press, 2002); ''Hard Road to Freedom: The Story of African America: Volume 2: From the Civil War to the Millennium'' (2002). [https://archive.org/details/hardroadtofreedo0000hort online]
* 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 US, 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}}
*[http://www.saxakali.com/caribbean/shamil.htm African Americans in the Caribbean and Latin America]
* Richard Thompson Ford [https://www.slate.com/id/2106753/ Name Games], ''Slate'', September 16, 2004. Article discussing the problems of defining ''African American''
*[http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmcensus1.html African Americans by the numbers]
* [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
*[http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhm1.html Black History Month]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110815220254/http://go.footnote.com/blackhistory/ Black History related original documents and photos]
*[http://www.sonofthesouth.net/Slavery_Pictures_.htm Slavery Pictures], Original 1860s
* Frank Newport, [https://www.gallup.com/poll/28816/black-african-american.aspx "Black or African American?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100906124630/https://www.gallup.com/poll/28816/Black-African-American.aspx |date=September 6, 2010 }}, Gallup, September 28, 2007
*[http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=38705 Definition of African American] from MedicineNet
* [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]]''
*[http://www.slate.com/id/2106753/ Article detailing the problems of defining African American]

*[http://www.radioblack.com/ African American Music] Black American Radio Stations
{{African American topics|state=collapsed}}
{{African diaspora}}
{{Demographics of the United States}}
{{Gullah topics|state=collapsed}}


{{Authority control}}
[[Category:African Americans]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups]]


[[Category:African-American society| ]]
[[ar:أمريكيون أفارقة]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in the United States]]
[[ca:Afroamericà]]
[[Category:History of civil rights in the United States]]
[[de:Afroamerikaner]]
[[Category:African-American culture| ]]
[[es:Afroamericano]]
[[Category:Ethnonyms of African Americans]]
[[fr:Afro-Américain]]
[[gl:Afroamericano]]
[[ko:아프리카계 미국인]]
[[id:Afrika-Amerika]]
[[he:אפרו-אמריקאים]]
[[nl:Afro-Amerikanen]]
[[ja:アフリカン・アメリカン]]
[[no:Afroamerikanere]]
[[sh:Afroamerikanci]]
[[sv:Afroamerikan]]
[[zh:非裔美国人]]

Latest revision as of 12:37, 5 June 2024

African Americans
Proportion of Black Americans in each county as of the 2020 U.S. 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, African-American Vernacular English)
Gullah Creole English
Black American Sign Language
Religion
Predominantly Protestant (71%) including Historically Black Protestant (53%), Evangelical Protestant (14%), and Mainline Protestant (4%);
significant[note 1] others include Catholic (5%), Jehovah's Witnesses (2%), Muslim (2%), and unaffiliated (18%).[2]

African Americans, also known as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa.[3][4] African Americans constitute the third largest racial or ethnic group in the U.S. after White Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans.[5] The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States.[6][7]

Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people within the boundaries of the present United States.[8][9] While some Black immigrants or their children may also come to identify as African American, the majority of first-generation immigrants do not, preferring to identify with their nation of origin.[10] Most African Americans are of West African and coastal Central African ancestry, with varying amounts of Western European and Native American ancestry.[11]

African-American history began in the 16th century, with Africans from West Africa and coastal Central Africa being sold to European slave traders and transported across the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere. After arriving in the Americas, they were sold as slaves to European colonists and put to work on plantations, particularly 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 Black people continued to be enslaved, being most concentrated in the American South, with four million enslaved only liberated during and at the end of the Civil War in 1865.[12] During Reconstruction, they gained citizenship and adult-males the right to vote; due to the widespread policy and ideology of White supremacy, they were largely treated as second-class citizens and found themselves soon disenfranchised in the South. These circumstances changed due to participation in the military conflicts of the United States, substantial migration out of the South, the elimination of legal racial segregation, and the civil rights movement which sought political and social freedom. However, racism against African Americans and racial socioeconomic disparity remains a problem into the 21st century. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first, and so far only African American to be elected president of the United States.[13]

African-American culture has had a significant influence on worldwide culture, making numerous contributions to visual arts, literature, the English language, philosophy, politics, cuisine, sports, and music. The African-American contributions to popular music is so profound that most American music, including jazz, gospel, blues, rock and roll, funk, disco, hip hop, R&B and soul, has its origins either partially or entirely in the African-American community.[14][15]

History

Colonial era

Major slave trading regions of Africa, 15th–19th centuries

The vast majority of those who were enslaved and transported in the transatlantic slave trade were people from several Central and West Africa ethnic groups, who had been captured directly by the slave traders in coastal raids,[16] or sold by other West Africans, or by half-European "merchant princes"[17] to European slave traders, who brought them to the Americas.[18]

The first African slaves arrived via 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.[19] 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 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.[19]

The marriage between Luisa de Abrego, a free Black domestic servant from Seville, and Miguel Rodríguez, a White Segovian conquistador in 1565 in St. Augustine (Spanish Florida), is the first known and recorded Christian marriage anywhere in what is now the continental United States.[20]

Slaves processing tobacco in 17th-century Virginia, illustration from 1670

The first recorded Africans in English America (including most of the future United States) were "20 and odd negroes" who came to Jamestown, Virginia via Cape Comfort in August 1619 as indentured servants.[21] As many Virginian settlers began to die from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers.[22]

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".[23] Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom.[24] They raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or European settlers.[25]

The first slave auction at New Amsterdam in 1655; illustration from 1895 by Howard Pyle[26]

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, a Negro, to lifetime servitude under his master Hugh Gwyn for running away.[27][28]

In the Spanish Florida some Spanish married or had unions with Pensacola, Creek or African women, both slave and free, and their descendants created a mixed-race population of mestizos and mulattos. The Spanish encouraged slaves from the colony of Georgia to come to Florida as a refuge, promising freedom in exchange for conversion to Catholicism. 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, but escaped slaves also reached Pensacola. St. Augustine had mustered an all-Black militia unit defending Spanish Florida as early as 1683.[29]

Reproduction of a handbill advertising a slave auction in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1769

One of the Dutch African arrivals, Anthony Johnson, would later own one of the first Black "slaves", John Casor, resulting from the court ruling of a civil case.[30][31]

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.[32]

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.[33][34]

By an act of 1699, Virginia ordered all free Blacks deported, virtually defining as slaves all people of African descent who remained in the colony.[35] In 1670, the colonial assembly passed a law prohibiting free and baptized Blacks (and Native Americans) from purchasing Christians (in this act meaning White Europeans) but allowing them to buy people "of their owne nation".[36]

1774 image of a fugitive slave in a New York newspaper, offering a $10 reward (equivalent to $279 in 2023). Slave owners, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, placed around 200,000 runaway slave adverts in newspapers across the U.S. before slavery ended in 1865.[37][38]

In the Spanish Louisiana although there was no movement toward abolition of the African slave trade, Spanish rule introduced a new law called coartación, which allowed slaves to buy their freedom, and that of others.[39] 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.[40]

First established in South Carolina in 1704, groups of armed White men—slave patrols—were formed to monitor enslaved Black people.[41] Their function was to police slaves, especially fugitives. Slave owners feared that slaves might organize revolts or slave rebellions, 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.[41]

The earliest African American congregations and churches were organized before 1800 in both northern and southern cities following the Great Awakening. By 1775, Africans made up 20% of the population in the American colonies, which made them the second largest ethnic group after English Americans.[42]

From the American Revolution to the Civil War

Crispus Attucks, the first "martyr" of the American Revolution. He was of 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.[43] Blacks played a role in both sides in the American Revolution. Activists in the Patriot cause included James Armistead, Prince Whipple, and Oliver Cromwell.[44][45] Around 15,000 Black Loyalists left with the British after the war, most of them ending up as free Black people in England[46] or its colonies, such as the Black Nova Scotians and the Sierra Leone Creole people.[47][48]

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, 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, 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.[40]

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. Because of Section 9, Clause 1, Congress was unable to pass an Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves until 1807.[49] Fugitive slave laws (derived from the Fugitive Slave Clause of the Constitution—Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3) were passed by Congress in 1793 and 1850, guaranteeing the right for a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave within the U.S.[38] Slave owners, who viewed slaves as property, made it a federal crime to assist those who had escaped slavery or to interfere with their capture.[37] 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 Dred Scott decision, and John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry.

Frederick Douglass, c. 1850

Prior to the Civil War, eight serving presidents owned slaves, a practice protected by the U.S. Constitution.[50] By 1860, there were 3.5 to 4.4 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)[51] across the country.[52] With legislated limits imposed upon them in addition to "unconquerable prejudice" from Whites according to Henry Clay,[53] some Black people who were not enslaved left the U.S. for Liberia in West Africa.[51] 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.[51]

The slaves not only constituted a large investment, they produced America's most valuable product and export: cotton. They helped build the United States Capitol, the White House and other Washington, D.C.-based buildings.[54]) Similar building projects existed in the slave states.

Slaves Waiting for Sale: Richmond, Virginia, 1853. Note the new clothes. The domestic slave trade broke up many families, and individuals lost their connection to families and clans.

By 1815, the domestic slave trade had become a major economic activity in the United States; it lasted until the 1860s.[55] Historians estimate nearly one million in total took part in the forced migration of this new "Middle Passage". The historian Ira Berlin called this forced migration of slaves the "central event" in the life of a slave between the American Revolution and the Civil War, writing that whether slaves were directly uprooted or lived in fear that they or their families would be involuntarily moved, "the massive deportation traumatized black people".[56] Individuals lost their connection to families and clans, and many ethnic Africans lost their knowledge of varying tribal origins in Africa.[55]

The 1863 photograph of Wilson Chinn, a branded slave from Louisiana, like the one of Gordon and his scarred back, served as two early examples of how the newborn medium of photography could encapsulate the cruelty of slavery.[57]

Slave trader's business on Whitehall Street Atlanta, Georgia, 1864 during the American Civil War with a Union corporal of the United States Colored Troops sitting by the door.

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.[58] 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.[58]

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.[59] Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation, with Texas being the last state to be emancipated, in 1865.[60]

Harriet Tubman, around 1869

Slavery in a few border states continued until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865.[61] While the Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U.S. citizenship to Whites only,[62][63] the 14th Amendment (1868) gave Black people citizenship, and the 15th Amendment (1870) gave Black men the right to vote.[64]

Reconstruction era and Jim Crow

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 disenfranchisement.[65] Segregation was now imposed with Jim Crow laws, using signs used to show Blacks where they could legally walk, talk, drink, rest, or eat.[66] For those places that were racially mixed, non-Whites had to wait until all White customers were dealt with.[66] Most African Americans obeyed the Jim Crow laws, to avoid racially motivated violence. To maintain self-esteem and dignity, African Americans such as Anthony Overton and Mary McLeod Bethune continued to build their own schools, churches, banks, social clubs, and other businesses.[67]

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 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.[68]

Great migration and civil rights movement

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.[69]

The desperate conditions of African Americans in the South sparked the Great Migration during the first half of the 20th century which led to a growing African American community in Northern and Western United States.[70] 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.[71] 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 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."[72] Within the housing market, stronger discriminatory measures were used in correlation to the influx, resulting in a mix of "targeted violence, restrictive covenants, redlining and racial steering".[73] 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.[74]

Rosa Parks being fingerprinted after being arrested for not giving up her seat on a bus to a White person

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.[75] Black Americans also found a new ground for political power in Northern cities, without the enforced disabilities of Jim Crow.[76][77]

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-whistled 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.[78] Vann R. Newkirk wrote "the trial of his killers became a pageant illuminating the tyranny of White supremacy".[78] The state of Mississippi tried two defendants, but they were speedily acquitted by an all-White jury.[79] 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."[80]

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963, shows civil rights leaders and union leaders

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 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.[81] 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.[82]

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 (equivalent to $58,532 in 2023), compared with $2,900 (equivalent to $30,311 in 2023) for non-White families. In 1965, 43 percent of all Black families fell into the poverty bracket, earning under $3,000 (equivalent to $29,005 in 2023) a year. The 1960s saw improvements in the social and economic conditions of many Black Americans.[83]

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 (equivalent to $26,285 in 2023) 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 1960s, the figure rose to 12.2 years, half a year behind the median for Whites.[83]

Post–civil rights era

Black Lives Matter protest in response to the fatal shooting of Philando Castile in July 2016

Politically and economically, African Americans have made substantial strides during the post–civil rights era. In 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American Supreme Court Justice. In 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress. In 1989, Douglas Wilder became the first African American elected governor in U.S. history. Clarence Thomas succeeded Marshall to become the second African American Supreme Court Justice in 1991. In 1992, Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois became the first African American woman elected to the 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.[84]

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.[85] On November 4, 2008, Democratic Senator Barack Obama defeated 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.[86][87] He also received overwhelming support from young and educated Whites, a majority of Asians,[88] and Hispanics,[88] picking up a number of new states in the Democratic electoral column.[86][87] Obama lost the overall White vote, although he won a larger proportion of White votes than any previous non-incumbent Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter.[89] Obama was reelected for a second and final term, by a similar margin on November 6, 2012.[90] 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.[91] In June 2021, Juneteenth, a day which commemorates the end of slavery in the US, became a federal holiday.[92]

Demographics

Black Americans (alone/single race) population pyramid in 2020
Proportion of African Americans in each U.S. state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States Census
Proportion of Black Americans (alone or in combination) in each county of the fifty states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States census
Proportion of Black Americans (alone) in each county of the fifty states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States census
U.S. Census map indicating U.S. counties with fewer than 25 Black or African American inhabitants
Graph showing the percentage of the African American population living in the American South, 1790–2010. Note the major declines between 1910 and 1940 and 1940–1970, and 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 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 Civil War, the African American population had increased to 4.4 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 "freemen". By 1900, the Black population had doubled and reached 8.8 million.[93]

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, as it was called, spanned the 1890s to the 1970s. From 1916 through the 1960s, more than 6 million Black people moved north. But in the 1970s and 1980s, that trend reversed, with more African Americans moving south to the Sun Belt than leaving it.[94]

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.

African Americans in the United States[95]
Year Number % of total
population
% Change
(10 yr)
Slaves % in slavery
1790 757,208 19.3% (highest)  – 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%  –  –
1880 6,580,793 13.1% 34.9%  –  –
1890 7,488,788 11.9% 13.8%  –  –
1900 8,833,994 11.6% 18.0%  –  –
1910 9,827,763 10.7% 11.2%  –  –
1920 10.5 million 9.9% 6.8%  –  –
1930 11.9 million 9.7% (lowest) 13%  –  –
1940 12.9 million 9.8% 8.4%  –  –
1950 15.0 million 10.0% 16%  –  –
1960 18.9 million 10.5% 26%  –  –
1970 22.6 million 11.1% 20%  –  –
1980 26.5 million 11.7% 17%  –  –
1990 30.0 million 12.1% 13%  –  –
2000 34.6 million 12.3% 15%  –  –
2010 38.9 million 12.6% 12%  –  –
2020 41.1 million 12.4% 5.6%  –  –

By 1990, the African American population reached about 30 million and represented 12% of the U.S. population, roughly the same proportion as in 1900.[96]

At the time of the 2000 U.S. census, 54.8% of African Americans lived in the South. In that year, 17.6% of African Americans lived in the Northeast and 18.7% in the Midwest, while only 8.9% lived in the 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 African Americans identified as Hispanic or Latino in origin,[97] many of whom may be of Brazilian, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban, Haitian, or other Latin American descent. The only self-reported ancestral groups larger than African Americans are the Irish and Germans.[98]

Band rehearsal on 125th Street in Harlem, the historic epicenter of African American culture. New York City is home by a significant margin to the world's largest Black population of any city outside Africa, at over 2.2 million. African immigration to New York City is now driving the growth of the city's Black population.[99]

According to the 2010 census, nearly 3% of people who self-identified as Black had recent ancestors who immigrated from another country. Self-reported non-Hispanic Black immigrants from the Caribbean, mostly from Jamaica and Haiti, represented 0.9% of the U.S. population, at 2.6 million.[100] Self-reported Black immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa also represented 0.9%, at about 2.8 million.[100] Additionally, self-identified Black Hispanics represented 0.4% of the United States population, at about 1.2 million people, largely found within the Puerto Rican and Dominican communities.[101] 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 people of mixed-race origin, about 13.5% of the U.S. population self-identified as Black or "mixed with Black".[102] 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.[103] Nigerian Americans and Ethiopian Americans were the most reported Sub-Saharan African groups in the United States.[104]

Historically, African Americans have been undercounted in the U.S. census due to a number of factors.[105][106] In the 2020 census, the African American population was undercounted at an estimated rate of 3.3%, up from 2.1% in 2010.[107]

Texas has the largest African American population by state. Followed by Texas is Florida, with 3.8 million, and Georgia, with 3.6 million.[108]

U.S. cities

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, 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 Charlotte, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Huntsville, Raleigh, Tampa, San Antonio, New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, Jacksonville, and so forth.[109] 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. The New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles metropolitan areas have the highest decline in African Americans, while Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston have the highest increase respectively.[109] Several smaller metro areas also saw sizable gains, including San Antonio;[110] Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C.; and Orlando.[111] Despite recent declines, as of 2020, the New York City metropolitan area still has the largest African American metropolitan population in the United States and the only to have over 3 million African Americans.[112][113]

Among cities of 100,000 or more, South Fulton, Georgia had the highest percentage of Black residents of any large U.S. city in 2020, with 93%. Other large cities with African American majorities include Jackson, Mississippi (80%), Detroit, Michigan (80%), Birmingham, Alabama (70%), Miami Gardens, Florida (67%), Memphis, Tennessee (63%), Montgomery, Alabama (62%), Baltimore, Maryland (60%), Augusta, Georgia (59%), Shreveport, Louisiana (58%), New Orleans, Louisiana (57%), Macon, Georgia (56%), Baton Rouge, Louisiana (55%), Hampton, Virginia (53%), Newark, New Jersey (53%), Mobile, Alabama (53%), Cleveland, Ohio (52%), Brockton, Massachusetts (51%), and Savannah, Georgia (51%).

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.[114] Other largely affluent and African American communities include Prince George's County (namely Mitchellville, Woodmore, Upper Marlboro) and Charles County in Maryland,[115] Dekalb County (namely Stonecrest, Lithonia, Smoke Rise) and South Fulton in Georgia, Charles City County in Virginia, Baldwin Hills in California, Hillcrest and Uniondale in New York, and Cedar Hill, DeSoto, and Missouri City in Texas. 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.[116]

Seatack, Virginia is currently the oldest African American community in the United States.[117] It survives today with a vibrant and active civic community.[118]

Education

Former slave reading, 1870

During slavery, anti-literacy laws were enacted in the U.S. that prohibited education for Black people. Slave owners saw literacy as a threat to the institution of slavery. As a North Carolina statute stated, "Teaching slaves to read and write, tends to excite dissatisfaction in their minds, and to produce insurrection and rebellion."[119]

When slavery was finally abolished in 1865, 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. By 1900, over a hundred programs at these schools provided training for Black professionals, including teachers. Many of the students at Fisk University, including the young W. E. B. Du Bois, taught school during the summers to support their studies.[120]

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.[121] 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.[122][123]

During World War II, demands for unity and racial tolerance on the home front provided an opening for the first Black history curriculum in the country.[124] For example, during the early 1940s, Madeline Morgan, a Black teacher in the Chicago public schools, created a curriculum for students in grades one through eight highlighting the contributions of Black people to the history of the United States. At the close of the war, Chicago's Board of Education downgraded the curriculum's status from mandatory to optional.[125]

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 million African American students were in such overwhelmingly minority schools, including 53% of Black students in school districts that were formerly under desegregation orders.[126][127]

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.[128]

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 and university entrance exams or on standardized tests and grades, African Americans have historically lagged behind Whites, but some studies suggest that the 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.[129]

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium

Between 1995 and 2009, freshmen college enrollment for African Americans increased by 73 percent and only 15 percent for Whites.[130] 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.[131][132] The average high school graduation rate of Blacks in the United States has steadily increased to 71% in 2013.[133] 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.[134] 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?] 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.[135] Foreign born Blacks, 9% of the Black population, made even greater strides. They exceed native born Blacks by 10 percentage points.[135]

College Board, which runs the official college-level advanced placement (AP) programs in American high schools, have has received criticism in recent years that its curricula have focused too much on Euro-centric history.[136] In 2020, College Board reshaped some curricula among history-based courses to further reflect the African diaspora.[137] In 2021, College Board announced it would be piloting an AP African American Studies course between 2022 and 2024. The course is expected to launch in 2024.[138]

Historically Black colleges and universities

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which were founded when segregated institutions of higher learning did not admit African Americans, continue to thrive and educate students of all races today. There are 101 HBCUs representing three percent of the nation's colleges and universities with the majority established in the Southeast.[139][140] HBCUs have been largely responsible for establishing and expanding the African American middle-class by providing more career opportunities for African Americans.[141][142]

Economic status

The economic disparity between the races in the U.S. has marginally improved since the end of slavery. In 1863, two years prior to emancipation, Black people owned 0.5 percent of the national wealth, while in 2019 it is just over 1.5 percent.[143] Racial disparity in poverty rates has narrowed since the civil rights era, with the poverty rate among African Americans decreasing from 24.7% in 2004 to 18.8% in 2020, compared to 10.5% for all Americans.[144][145] Poverty is associated with higher rates of marital stress and dissolution, physical and mental health problems, disability, cognitive deficits, low educational attainment, and crime.[146]

African Americans have a long and diverse history of business ownership. Although the first 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.[147]

This graph shows the real median US household income by race: 1967 to 2011, in 2011 dollars.[148]

African Americans had a combined buying power of over $1.6 trillion as of 2021, a 171% increase of their buying power in 2000 but lagging significantly in growth behind American Latinos and Asians in the same timer period (with 288% and 383%, respectively; for reference, US growth overall was 144% in the same period); however, African American net worth had shrunk 14% in the previous year despite strong growth in property prices and the S&P 500. In 2002, African American-owned businesses accounted for 1.2 million of the US's 23 million businesses.[149] As of 2011, African American-owned businesses account for approximately 2 million US businesses.[150] Black-owned businesses experienced the largest growth in number of businesses among minorities from 2002 to 2011.[150]

Twenty-five percent of Blacks had white-collar occupations (management, professional, and related fields) in 2000, compared with 33.6% of Americans overall.[151][152] In 2001, over half of African American households of married couples earned $50,000 or more.[152] 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.[152]

In 2006, the median earnings of African American men was more than Black and non-Black American women overall, and in all educational levels.[153][154][155][156][157] 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.[153][158]

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.[153][156][159] 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.[154][155][160]

The U.S. public sector is the single most important source of employment for African Americans.[161] During 2008–2010, 21.2% of all Black workers were public employees, compared with 16.3% of non-Black workers.[161] 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.[161] 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.[161]

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%,[162] while the nationwide rate was 6.5%.[163] In 2007, the average income for African Americans was approximately $34,000, compared to $55,000 for Whites.[164] African Americans experience a higher rate of unemployment than the general population.[165]

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.[144] 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.[116] In 2011, it was reported that 72% of Black babies were born to unwed mothers.[166] 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.[167]

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.[168] African Americans also have the highest level of Congressional representation of any minority group in the U.S.[169]

African American homeownership

The US homeownership rate according to race[170]

Homeownership in the U.S. is the strongest indicator of financial stability and the primary asset most Americans use to generate wealth. African Americans continue to lag behind other racial groups in becoming homeowners.[171] In the first quarter of 2021, 45.1% of African Americans owned their homes, compared to 65.3% of all Americans.[172] The African American homeownership rate has remained relatively flat since the 1970s despite an increase in anti-discrimination housing laws and protections.[173] The average White high school drop-out still has a slightly better chance of owning a home than the average African American college graduate usually due to unfavorable debt-to-income ratios or credit scores among most African American college graduates.[174][175] Since 2000, fast-growing housing costs in most cities have made it even more difficult for the U.S. African-American homeownership rate to significantly grow and reach over 50% for the first time in history. From 2000 to 2022, the median home price in the U.S. grew 160%, outpacing average annual household income growth in that same period, which only grew about 30%.[176][177][178] South Carolina is the state with the most African American homeownership, with about 55% of African Americans owning their own homes.[179][180]

Politics

Since the mid 20th century, a large majority of African Americans support the Democratic Party. In the 2020 Presidential election, 91% of African American voters supported Democrat Joe Biden, while 8% supported Republican Donald Trump.[181] 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.[182]

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 sectional interests of the North and South, respectively, rather than any specific ideology, and both conservative and 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.[183]

Black national anthem

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" being sung by the family of Barack Obama, Smokey Robinson and others in the White House in 2014

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" is often referred to as the Black national anthem in the United States.[184] In 1919, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had dubbed it the "Negro national anthem" for its power in voicing a cry for liberation and affirmation for African American people.[185]

Sexuality

According to a Gallup survey, 4.6% of Black or African Americans self-identified as LGBT in 2016,[186] while the total portion of American adults in all ethnic groups identifying as LGBT was 4.1% in 2016.[186] African Americans are more likely to identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender than any other racial or ethnic group in the United States.[187]

Health

General health

The life expectancy for Black men in 2008 was 70.8 years.[188] Life expectancy for Black women was 77.5 years in 2008.[188] 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.[188] In 1900, White men lived an average of 46.3 years and White women lived an average of 48.3 years.[188] African American life expectancy at birth is persistently five to seven years lower than European Americans.[189] Black men have shorter lifespans than any other group in the US besides Native American men.[190]

Black people have higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension than the U.S. average.[188] For adult Black men, the rate of obesity was 31.6% in 2010.[191] For adult Black women, the rate of obesity was 41.2% in 2010.[191] African Americans have higher rates of mortality than any other racial or ethnic group for 8 of the top 10 causes of death.[192] 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.[193] African Americans also have higher prevalence and incidence of Alzheimer's disease compared to the overall average.[194][195]

Violence is a major problem within the African American community.[196][197] 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".[198] The report also found that "94% of black victims were killed by blacks."[198] Of the nearly 20,000 recorded U.S. homicides in 2022, Blacks made up the majority of offenders and victims despite making up less than 20% of the population.[199] Black males age 15–44 are the only race/sex category for which homicide is a top-five cause of death.[190] Black women are 3 times more likely to be killed by an intimate partner than white women.[200] Black children are 3 times more likely to die due to parental abuse and neglect than white children.[201]

African-Americans are more likely than White Americans to die due to health-related problems developed by alcoholism. Alcohol abuse is the main contributor to the top 3 causes of death among African Americans.[202]

In December 2020, African Americans were less likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19 due to mistrust in the U.S. medical system. From 2021 to 2022, there was an increase in African Americans who became vaccinated.[203][204][205] Still, in 2022, COVID-19 complications became the third leading cause of death for African Americans.[206]

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, and 7.5 times the rate of gonorrhea.[207]

The disproportionately high incidence of HIV/AIDS among African Americans has been attributed to homophobic influences and lack of proper healthcare.[208] 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.[190]

Mental health

African Americans have several barriers for accessing mental health services. 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.[209]

Historically, many African American communities did not seek counseling because religion was a part of the family values.[210] 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.[209] 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.[211]

Most counseling approaches are 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.[209] 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.[209] More African Americans seek assistance when it is called counseling and not psychotherapy because it is more welcoming within the cultural and community.[212] Counselors are encouraged to be aware of such barriers for the well-being of African American clients. Without cultural competency training in health care, many African Americans go unheard and misunderstood.[209]

In 2021, African Americans had the third highest suicide rate trailing American Indians/Alaska Natives and White Americans. However, African Americans had the second highest increase of its suicide rate from 2011 to 2021, growing 58%.[213] And although suicide is a top-10 cause of death for American men overall, it is not a top-10 cause of death for African American men.[190]

Genetics

Genome-wide studies

Genetic clustering of 128 African Americans, by Zakharia et al. (2009). Each vertical bar represents an individual. The color scheme of the bar plot matches that in the PCA plot.[214]

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, 16.7%–24% European, and 0.8–1.2% Native American genetic ancestry, with large variation between individuals.[215][216][217] 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%.[218]

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). This can be understood as being the result of enslaved African American females being raped by White males.[219] 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 branches of the Niger-Congo (Niger-Kordofanian) family.[215][note 2]

Correspondingly, Montinaro et al. (2014) observed that around 50% of the overall ancestry of African Americans traces comes from a population similar to the Niger-Congo-speaking Yoruba of southern 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.[221] Zakharia et al. (2009) found a similar proportion of Yoruba-like ancestry in their African American samples, with a minority also drawn from Mandenka and Bantu populations. Additionally, the researchers observed an average European ancestry of 21.9%, again with significant variation between individuals.[214] 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.[215] An individual African American person can have over fifteen African ethnic groups in their genetic makeup alone due to the slave trade covering such vast areas.[222]

Altogether, genetic studies suggest that African Americans are a genetically diverse people. According to DNA analysis led in 2006 by 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 their forebears), 19.6 percent of African Americans have at least 25% European ancestry (equivalent to one European grandparent and their forebears), and 1 percent of African Americans have at least 50% European ancestry (equivalent to one European parent and their forebears).[11][223] 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 their forebears).[224][225] 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.[226]

Y-DNA

Africans bearing the E-V38 (E1b1a) likely traversed across the Sahara, from east to west, approximately 19,000 years ago.[227] E-M2 (E1b1a1) likely originated in West Africa or Central Africa.[228] According to a Y-DNA study by Sims et al. (2007), the majority (≈60%) of African Americans belong to various subclades of the 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 migrations. The next most frequent Y-DNA haplogroup observed among African Americans is the 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 (≈7%), which is also frequent in Northwestern Europe.[229]

mtDNA

According to an 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 L1b, L2b,c,d, and L3b,d and West-Central African haplogroups L1c and 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.[230]

Racism and social status

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."[63]

Although they have gained a greater degree of social equality since the civil rights movement, African Americans have remained stagnant economically, which has hindered their ability to break into the middle class and beyond. As of 2020, the racial wealth gap between Whites and Blacks remains as large as it was in 1968, with the typical net worth of a White household equivalent to that of 11.5 black households.[231] Despite this, African Americans have increased employment rates and gained representation in the highest levels of American government in the post–civil rights era.[232] However, widespread racism remains an issue that continues to undermine the development of social status.[232][233]

Economically, of all the racially Black ethnic groups on the globe, African Americans are the wealthiest and most successful, with one in every fifty African American families being millionaires.[234] This equates in 2023 to approximately 1.79 million African American millionaires in the United States,[235][236] which is more than the total amount of millionaires in any racially Black country, and many other countries, around the world.

Policing and criminal justice

In 2014, African Americans made up 12% of the U.S. population, while 40% of prison inmates were African American.[237] In the U.S., which has the largest per-capita prison population in the world, African Americans made up the second largest population of prison inmates (38%) in 2023, coming second to Whites who made up 57% of the prison population.[238] According to the National Registry of Exonerations, Blacks are roughly 7.5 times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder in the U.S. than Whites.[239] In 2012, the New York City Police Department detained people more than 500,000 times under the city's stop-and-frisk law. Of the total detained, 55% were African-Americans, while Black people made up 20% of the city's population.[237]

Al Sharpton led the Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks protest on August 28, 2020.

African American males are more likely to be killed by police when compared to other races.[240] This is one of the factors that led to the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013.[241] 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,[242][243] White women calling the police on Black people became widely publicized in 2020.[244][245] In African American culture there is a long history of calling a meddlesome White woman by a certain name, while The Guardian called 2020 "the year of Karen".[246]

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.[247][248] Even since the legalization of cannabis, there are still more arrests made for Black users than White, wasting taxpayer money, due to many of those cases being abandoned or dropped, with no charges being filed after the trivial, racially-biased arrests.[249][250]

Social issues

After over 50 years, marriage rates for all Americans began to decline while divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births have climbed.[251] These changes have been greatest among African Americans. After more than 70 years of racial parity Black marriage rates began to fall behind Whites.[251] 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.[252] In 2021, statistics show that over 80 percent marriages in the African American ethnic group marry within their ethnic group.[253]

Although the 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.[254] 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".[255] By the late 1800s, 38 US states had anti-miscegenation statutes.[254] By 1924, the ban on interracial marriage was still in force in 29 states.[254] 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.[256] 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.[256] Davis briefly married Black dancer Loray White in 1958 to protect himself from mob violence.[256] 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.[256] In 1958, officers in Virginia entered the home of Mildred and Richard 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.[254] In 1967 the law was ruled unconstitutional (via the 14th Amendment adopted in 1868) by the U.S. Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia.[254]

In 2008, Democrats overwhelmingly voted 70% against California Proposition 8, African Americans voted 58% in favor of it while 42% voted against Proposition 8.[257] 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%).[258]

Polls in North Carolina,[259] Pennsylvania,[260] Missouri,[261] Maryland,[262] Ohio,[263] Florida,[264] and Nevada[265] have also shown an increase in support for same sex marriage among African Americans. On November 6, 2012, Maryland, Maine, and Washington all voted for approve of same-sex marriage, along with Minnesota rejecting a 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.[266]

Black Americans hold far more conservative opinions on abortion, extramarital sex, and raising children out of wedlock than Democrats as a whole.[267] 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.[268]

Political legacy

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.

African Americans have fought in every war in the history of the United States.[269]

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 ..."[270]

The civil rights movement marked an enormous change in American social, political, economic and civic life. It brought with it boycotts, sit-ins, 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 disabled, the 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."[271][272]

African Americans were also involved in the drafting of laws in the United States, such as Frank L. Stanley Sr. who drafted the laws for the Human Rights Commission and the integration of Kentucky schools while his study of how African Americans were segregated was utilized by the government which led to the integration of the military.

Media and coverage

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,[273][274][275] or that the news media present distorted images of African Americans.[276]

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 rap and 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. According to Viacom, BET is now a global network that reaches households in the United States, Caribbean, Canada, and the United Kingdom.[277] 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, and world music.[278]

Another network targeting African Americans is 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 and Sister Circle. TV One is owned by Urban One, founded and controlled by 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.[279]

In June 2009, NBC News launched a new website named TheGrio[280] 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.[281]

Other Black-owned and oriented media outlets include:

  • The Africa Channel – Dedicated to programming representing the best in African culture.
  • 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 targeting African American women.
  • 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 – a music channel founded by Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs.
  • Soul of the South Network – a regional broadcast network.
  • VH1 – A female-oriented general entertainment channel owned by Viacom. Originally focused on light genres of music, the network's programming became slanted towards African American culture in recent years.[282]

Culture

A traditional soul food dinner consisting of 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 yams, peanuts, rice, okra, sorghum, grits, watermelon, indigo dyes, and cotton, can be traced to West African and African American influences. Notable examples include George Washington Carver, who created nearly 500 products from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and pecans.[283] 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 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 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.[284] However, fried chicken was generally a rare meal in the African American community and was usually reserved for special events or celebrations.[285]

Language

African-American English is a variety (dialect, ethnolect, and sociolect) of American English, commonly spoken by urban working-class and largely bi-dialectal middle-class African Americans.[286]

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 family).[287]

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.[287] Additionally, there are many literary uses of this variety of English, particularly in African American literature.[288]

Traditional names

African-American names are part of the cultural traditions of African Americans, most of these cultural names having no connection to Africa but strictly an African American cultural practice that developed in the United States during enslavement.[289] This new evidence became apparent by census records which show African Americans and White Americans, though they spoke the same language, chose to use different names even during times of enslavement, which is where and when the development of African American cultural names began.[289]

Prior to this newer information, it was only thought that before the 1950s, and 1960s, most African-American names closely resembled those used within European-American culture.[290] 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.[291]

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.[292]

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.[290][293][294]

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.[290]

Religion

Religious affiliation of African Americans in 2007[295]

  Other Christian (1%)
  Muslim (1%)
  Other religion (1%)
  Unaffiliated (11%)
  Atheist or agnostic (2%)
Mount Zion United Methodist Church is the oldest African American congregation in Washington, D.C.
Masjid Malcolm Shabazz in Harlem, New York City

The majority of African Americans are Protestant, many of whom follow the historically Black churches.[296] 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.[297] One of these early African American Christian cultural traditions in the Black Church is the Watchnight service, also called Freedom's Eve, where African American congregations all over the nation come together on New Year's Eve through New Years morning in remembrance of the eve and New Year of their emancipation, sharing testimonies, being baptized and partaking in praise and worship.[298]

According to a 2007 survey, more than half of the African American population are part of the historically Black churches.[299] The largest Protestant denomination among African Americans are the Baptists,[300] distributed mainly in four denominations, the largest being the National Baptist Convention, USA and the National Baptist Convention of America.[301] The second largest are the Methodists,[302] the largest denominations are the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.[301][303]

Pentecostals are distributed among several different religious bodies, with the Church of God in Christ as the largest among them by far.[301] About 16% of African American Christians are members of White Protestant communions,[302] these denominations (which include the United Church of Christ) mostly have a 2 to 3% African American membership.[304] There are also large numbers of Catholics, constituting 5% of the African American population.[299] Of the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses, 22% are Black.[296]

Some African Americans follow Islam. Historically, between 15 and 30% of enslaved Africans brought to the Americas were Muslims, but most of these Africans were converted to Christianity during the era of American slavery.[305] During the twentieth century, some African Americans converted to Islam, mainly through the influence of 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.[306][307] Prominent members included activist Malcolm X and boxer Muhammad Ali.[308]

Muhammad Ali converted to Islam in 1964

Malcolm X is considered the first person to start the movement among African Americans towards mainstream Islam, after he left the Nation and made the pilgrimage to Mecca.[309] 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 orthodox Islam.[310]

African American Muslims constitute 20% of the total U.S. Muslim population,[311] the majority are Sunni or orthodox Muslims, some of these identify under the community of W. Deen Mohammed.[312][313] The Nation of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan has a membership ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 members.[314]

There is also a small but growing group of African American Jews, making up less than 0.5% of African Americans or about 2% of the Jewish population in the United States. The majority of African-American Jews are Ashkenazi, while smaller numbers identify as Sephardi, Mizrahi, or other.[315][316][317] Many African-American Jews are affiliated with denominations such as the Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, or Orthodox branches of Judaism, but the majority identify as "Jews of no religion", commonly known as secular Jews. A significant number of people who identify themselves as "Black Jews" are affiliated with syncretic religious groups, largely the Black Hebrew Israelites, whose beliefs include the claim that African Americans are descended from the Biblical Israelites.[318] Jews of all races typically do not accept Black Hebrew Israelites as Jews, in part because they are usually not Jewish according to Jewish law,[319] and in part because these groups are sometimes associated with antisemitism.[320][321] African-American Jews have criticized the Black Hebrew Israelites, regarding the movement as primarily composed of Black non-Jews who have appropriated Black-Jewish identity.[322]

Confirmed atheists are less than one half of one percent, similar to numbers for Hispanics.[323][324][325]

Music

The King & Carter Jazzing Orchestra photographed in Houston, Texas, January 1921
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, R&B, funk, rock and roll, 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, ragtime, 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 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.[326]

Dance

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, is an African American tradition whose performance and competition has been formalized through the traditionally Black fraternities and sororities at universities.[327]

Literature and academics

Toni Morrison, recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature

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, 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 hieroglyphics from the Rosetta Stone.[328] Most slave inventors were nameless, such as the slave owned by the Confederate President Jefferson Davis who designed the ship propeller used by the Confederate navy.[329]

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,[330] and Elijah McCoy, who invented automatic lubrication devices for steam engines.[331] Granville Woods had 35 patents to improve electric railway systems, including the first system to allow moving trains to communicate.[332] Garrett A. Morgan developed the first automatic traffic signal and gas mask.[333]

Lewis Howard Latimer invented an improvement for the incandescent light bulb.[334] More recent inventors include Frederick McKinley Jones, who invented the movable refrigeration unit for food transport in trucks and trains.[335] Lloyd Quarterman worked with six other Black scientists on the creation of the atomic bomb (code named the Manhattan Project.)[336] Quarterman also helped develop the first nuclear reactor, which was used in the atomically powered submarine called the Nautilus.[337]

A few other notable examples include the first successful open heart surgery, performed by Daniel Hale Williams,[338] and the air conditioner, patented by Frederick McKinley Jones.[335] Mark Dean holds three of the original nine patents on the computer on which all PCs are based.[339][340][341] 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,[342] and Colonel 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.[343]

As part of the preservation of their culture, African Americans have continuously launched their own publications and publishing houses, such as Robert Sengstacke Abbott, founder of the Chicago Defender newspaper, and Carter G. Woodson, the founder of Black History Month who spent over thirty years documenting and publishing African American history in journals and books. The Johnson Publishing Company, founded by John H. Johnson in 1942, is a National Historic Landmark.[344]

Terminology

General

This parade float displayed the word "Afro-Americans" in 1911.

The term African American was popularized by Jesse Jackson in the 1980s,[345] although there are recorded uses from the 18th and 19th centuries,[346] for example, in post-emancipation holidays and conferences.[347][348] Earlier terms also used to describe Americans of African ancestry referred more to skin color than to ancestry. 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.[349]

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.

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.[350]

In the 1980s, the term African American was advanced on the model of, for example, German American or Irish American, to give descendants of American slaves, and other American Blacks who lived through the slavery era, a heritage and a cultural base.[349] 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.[349]

Surveys in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century showed that the majority of Black Americans had no preference for African American versus Black American,[351] although they had a slight preference for the latter in personal settings and the former in more formal settings.[352] By 2021, according to polling from Gallup, 58% of Black Americans expressed no preference for what their group should be called, with 17% each preferring Black and African-American. Among those with no preference, Gallup found a slight majority favored Black "if [they] had to choose."[353]

In 2020, the Associated Press updated its AP Stylebook to direct its writers to capitalize the first letter of Black when it is used "in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa."[354] The New York Times and other outlets made similar changes at the same time, to put "Black" on the same footing as other racial and ethnic terms, such as Latino, Asian, and African-American.[355]

In 2023, the government released a new more detailed breakdown due to the rise in racially Black immigration into the US, listing African American as a compound termed ethnicity, distinguished from other racially Black ethnicities such as Nigerian, Jamaican etc.[356]

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-Usonian, and variations of such, are more rarely used.[357][358]

Official identity

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 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."[359] Other federal offices, such as the U.S. Census Bureau, adhere to the Office of Management and Budget standards on race in their data collection and tabulation efforts.[360] In preparation for the 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.[361]

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.[362] 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 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, U.S. Department of Commerce, derived from the 1977 Office of Management and Budget classification.[363]

Admixture

Historically, "race mixing" between Black and White people was taboo in the United States. So-called anti-miscegenation laws, barring Blacks and Whites from marrying or having sex, were established in colonial America as early as 1691,[364] and endured in many Southern states until the 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.[365] Historian David Brion Davis notes the racial mixing that occurred during slavery was frequently attributed by the 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."[366] A famous example was Thomas Jefferson's mistress, Sally Hemings.[367] Although publicly opposed to race mixing, Jefferson, in his Notes on the State of Virginia published in 1785, wrote: "The improvement of the blacks in body and mind, in the first instance of their mixture with the whites, has been observed by every one, and proves that their inferiority is not the effect merely of their condition of life".[368]

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). After the Emancipation Proclamation, 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.[369] African slaves and their descendants have also had a history of cultural exchange and intermarriage with Native Americans,[370] although they did not necessarily retain social, cultural or linguistic ties to Native peoples.[371] 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).[372] According to author M.M. Drymon, many African Americans identify as having Scots-Irish ancestry.[373]

Racially mixed marriages have become increasingly accepted in the United States since the civil rights movement and up to the present day.[374] Approval in national opinion polls has risen from 36% in 1978, to 48% in 1991, 65% in 2002, 77% in 2007.[375] A Gallup poll conducted in 2013 found that 84% of Whites and 96% of Blacks approved of interracial marriage, and 87% overall.[376]

At the end of World War II, some African American military men who had been stationed in Japan married Japanese women, who then immigrated to the United States.[377]

Terminology dispute

In her book The End of Blackness, as well as in an essay for Salon,[378] author Debra Dickerson has argued that the term 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, is not Black.[378][379] 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."[378]

Similar viewpoints have been expressed by author Stanley Crouch in a New York Daily News piece, Charles Steele Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference[380] and African American columnist David Ehrenstein of the Los Angeles Times, who accused White liberals of flocking to Blacks who were Magic Negros, a term that refers to a Black person with no past who simply appears to assist the mainstream White (as cultural protagonists/drivers) agenda.[381] 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."[381]

The American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) movement coalesces around this view, arguing that Black descendants of American slavery deserve a separate ethnic category that distinguishes them from other Black groups in the United States.[382] Their terminology has gained popularity in some circles, but others have criticized the movement for a perceived bias against (especially poor and Black) immigrants, and for its often inflammatory rhetoric.[383][384][385] Politicians such as Obama and Harris have received especially pointed criticism from the movement, as neither are ADOS and have spoken out at times against policies specific to them.[386][387]

Many Pan-African movements and organizations that are ideologically Black nationalist, anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, and Scientific socialist like The All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP), have argued that African (relating to the diaspora) or New Afrikan should be used instead of African American.[388] Most notably, Malcolm X and Kwame Ture expressed similar views that African Americans are Africans who "happen to be in America", and should not claim or identify as being American if they are fighting for Black (New Afrikan) liberation. Historically, this is due to the enslavement of Africans during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, ongoing anti-black violence, and structural racism in countries like the United States.[389][390]

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 enslaved.[391] In response to the project of the American Colonization Society to transport free Blacks to the future Liberia, a project most Blacks strongly rejected, the Blacks at the time said they were no more African than White Americans were European, and referred to themselves with what they considered a more acceptable term, "colored Americans". The term was 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.[392][393] 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.[394] 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 music cultures and is used as part of an in-group lexicon and speech. It is not necessarily derogatory and, when used among Black people, the word is often used to mean "homie" or "friend".[395]

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.[396] 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.[397]

See also

Diaspora

Lists

Notes

  1. ^ Meaning "1% or more"
  2. ^ DNA studies of African-Americans have determined that they primarily descend from various Niger-Congo-speaking West/Central African ethnic groups: Akan (including the Ashanti and Fante subgroups), Balanta, Bamileke, Bamun, Bariba, Biafara, Bran, Chokwe, Dagomba, Edo, Ewe, Fon, Fula, Ga, Gurma, Hausa, Ibibio (including the Efik subgroup), Igbo, Igala, Ijaw (including the Kalabari subgroup), Itsekiri, Jola, Luchaze, Lunda, Kpele, Kru, Mahi, Mandinka (including the Mende subgroup), Naulu, Serer, Susu, Temne, Tikar, Wolof, Yaka, Yoruba, and Bantu peoples; specifically the Duala, Kongo, Luba, Mbundu (including the Ovimbundu subgroup) and Teke.[220]

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Further reading

  • Altman, Susan (2000). The Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage. Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-8160-4125-1.
  • 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, US, 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.
  • Hine, Darlene Clark, Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, Elsa Barkley Brown (eds), Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, (Indiana University Press 2005).
  • Ortiz, Paul (2018). An African American and Latinx History of the United States. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0807005934.
  • Horton, James Oliver, and Lois E. Horton. Hard Road to Freedom: The Story of African America, African Roots Through the Civil War. Vol. 1 (Rutgers University Press, 2002); Hard Road to Freedom: The Story of African America: Volume 2: From the Civil War to the Millennium (2002). online
  • 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 US, 1996.
  • Stewart, Earl L. (1998). African American Music: An Introduction. ISBN 978-0-02-860294-3.
  • Southern, Eileen (1997). The Music of Black Americans: A History (3rd ed.). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-97141-5.

External links