African-American culture

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African American culture or Black culture, in the United States, includes the various cultural traditions of African American communities. It is both part of, and distinct from American culture. The U.S. Census Bureau defines African Americans as "people having origins in any of the black race groups of Africa."[1] African American culture is indigenous to the descendants in the U.S. of survivors of the Middle Passage. It is rooted in Africa and is an amalgam of chiefly sub-Saharan African and Sahelean cultures.

Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of Africans in America to practice their cultural traditions, many practices, values and beliefs survived and over time have incorporated elements of European American culture. The result is a dynamic, creative culture that has had a profound and ongoing impact on mainstream American culture and on world popular culture as well. After Emancipation, these uniquely African American traditions continued to grow. They developed into distinctive traditions in music, art, literature, religion, food, holidays, amongst others. While for many years it was a common belief that African Americans had lost all cultural ties with Africa, every aspect of African American culture is, at its roots, African.

African American culture often developed separately from mainstream American culture because of the persistence of racial segregation in America. Consequently African American culture has become a significant part of American culture and yet, at the same time, remains a distinct culture apart from it. Many aspects of American culture derive influence from African American culture. Additionally, African American culture draws many of these same elements from other American ethnic groups and from African cultures.[2]

History

From the earliest days of slavery, slave owners sought to exercise control over their slaves by attempting to strip them of their African culture. The physical isolation and societal marginalization of African slaves and, later, of their free progeny, however, actually facilitated, among Africans in the New World generally, and in the U.S. in particular, the retention of significant elements of traditional African culture.

African culture and the experience of slavery, as well as broader American society, have shaped African American cultural expression. The imprint of Africa is evident in myriad ways, in language, music, hairstyles, fashion, dance, religion and mores, food and foodways. Music and oral traditions are strong elements of traditional African cultures. In the United States, the very legislation that was designed to strip slaves of culture and deny them education served in many ways to strengthen oral traditions.[3]

In turn, African American culture has had a pervasive, transformative impact on myriad elements of mainstream American culture, among them language, music, dance, religion, and agriculture.[2] Over time, the culture of African slaves and their descendants has been ubiquitous in its impact on not only the dominant American culture, but on world popular culture as well.

Oral tradition

Access to formal education was limited for African Americans. Slave owners limited access because they believed it might lead to revolts or escape plans. Hence, African American oral traditions became the primary means of preserving history, morals, and other cultural information. Many of these cultural elements have been passed from generation to generation through storytelling. These folktales provided African Americans the opportunity to inspire and educate one another.[3] Examples of African American folktales include trickster tales of Br'er Rabbit[4] and heroic tales such as that of John Henry.[5] The Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris helped to bring African American folk tales into mainstream adoption.[6] But Harris did not appreciate the complexity of the stories nor their potential for a lasting impact on society.[7] Characteristics of the African American oral tradition present themselves in a number of forms. African American preachers tend to perform rather than simply speak. The emotion of the subject is carried through the speaker's tone, volume, and movement which tend to mirror the rising action, climax, and descending action of the sermon. Often song, dance, verse and structured pauses are placed throughout the sermon. Techniques such as call-and-response are used to bring the audience into the presentation. In direct contrast to other American and Western cultures, it is an acceptable and common audience reaction to interrupt and affirm the speaker.[8] Spoken word is another example of how the African American oral tradition influences modern American popular culture. Spoken word artists employ the same techniques as African American preachers including movement, rhythm, and audience participation.[9] Rap music from the 1980's and beyond has been seen as an extension of oral culture.[3]

Harlem Renaissance

Zora Neale Hurston was a prominent literary figure during the Harlem Renaissance.
Main article: Harlem Renaissance

The first major explosion of African American culture occurred during the Harlem Renaissance. In the 1920s and 1930s, African American music, literature, and art gained wide notice. Authors such as Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larsen and poets such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen wrote works describing the African American experience. Jazz, swing, blues and other musical forms entered American popular music. African American artists such as William H. Johnson and Palmer Hayden created unique works of art featuring African Americans.

The Harlem Renaissance was also a time of increased political involvement for African Americans. Among the notable African American political movements founded in the early 20th century are the United Negro Improvement Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The Nation of Islam, a notable Islamic religious movement, also began in the early 1930s.[10]

Black cultural movement

See also: Black Power and Black Arts Movement

The Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s followed in the wake of the non-violent American Civil Rights Movement. The movement promoted racial pride and ethnic cohesion in contrast to the focus on integration of the Civil Rights Movement, and adopted a more militant posture in the face of racism.[11] It also spawned a resurgence in Black literary and artistic expression generally referred to as the Black Arts Movement.

The works of popular recording artists such as Nina Simone (Young, Gifted and Black) and The Impressions (Keep On Pushin'), as well as the poetry, fine arts and literature of the time, shaped and reflected the growing racial and political consciousness.[12] Among the most prominent writers of the Black Arts Movement were poet Nikki Giovanni;[13] poet and publisher Don L. Lee, who later became known as Haki Madhubuti; poet and playwright Leroi Jones, later known as Amiri Baraka; and Sonia Sanchez. Other influential writers were Ed Bullins, Dudley Randall, Mari Evans, June Jordan, Larry Neal and Ahmos Zu-Bolton.

Another major aspect of the Black Arts Movement was the return to a Black, or African, aesthetic, a return to a collective cultural sensibility and ethnic pride that was much in evidence during the Harlem Renaissance and in the celebration of Négritude among the artistic and literary circles in the U.S., Caribbean and the African continent nearly four decades earlier: the idea that Black is beautiful. During this time, there was a resurgence of interest in, and an embracement of, elements of African culture within African American culture that were often suppressed or devalued in Eurocentric America. Natural hairstyles such as the afro and African clothing, such as the dashiki, gained popularity. More importantly, the Black aesthetic encouraged personal pride and political awareness among African Americans.[14]

Music

Main article: African American music
Men playing the djembé, a traditional West African drum adopted into African American and American culture. The bags and the clothing of the man on the right are printed with traditional kente cloth patterns.

African American music is rooted in the typically polyrhythmic music of the ethnic groups of West and sub-Saharan Africa. and the Sahel. African oral traditions, nurtured in slavery, encouraged the use of music to pass on history, teach lessons, ease suffering, and relay messages. The African pedigree of African American music is evident in some common elements: call and response, syncopation, percussion, improvisation, swung notes, blue notes, the use of falsetto, melisma, and complex multi-part harmony.[3] During slavery, Africans in America blended traditional European hymns with African elements to create spirituals.[15]

Many African Americans sing Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing in addition to the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, or in lieu of it. Written by James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson in 1900 to be performed for the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the song was, and continues to be, a popular way for African Americans to recall past struggles and express ethnic solidarity, faith and hope for the future.[16] The song was adopted as the "Negro National Anthem" by the NAACP in 1919.[17] African American children are taught the song at school, church or by their families. Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing traditionally is sung immediately following, or instead of, The Star-Spangled Banner at events hosted by African American churches, schools, and other organizations.[18]

In the 1800s, as the result of the blackface minstrel show, African American music entered mainstream American society. By the early twentieth century, several musical forms with origins in the African American community had transformed American popular music. Aided by the technological innovations of radio and phonograph records, ragtime, jazz, blues, and swing also became popular overseas, and the 1920s became known as the Jazz Age.

File:Milesdavis3.jpg
Miles Davis

The early 20th century also saw the creation of the first Black Broadway shows, films such as King Vidor's Hallelujah!, and operas such as George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Rock and roll, doo wop, soul, and R&B developed in the mid 20th century. These genres became very popular in White audiences and were influences for other genres such as surf. The dozens, an urban African American tradition of using rhyming slang to put down your enemies (or friends) developed, through the smart-ass street jive of the early Seventies into a new form of music. In the South Bronx, the half speaking, half singing rhythmic street talk of 'rapping' grew into the hugely successful cultural force known as Hip Hop.[19] Hip Hop would become a multicultural movement. However, it is still important to many African Americans. The Black Cultural Movement of the 1960s and 1970s also fueled the growth of funk and later hip-hop forms such as rap, hip house, new jack swing and go go. African American music has experienced far more widespread acceptance in American popular music in the 21st century than ever before. In addition to continuing to develop newer musical forms, modern artists have also started a rebirth of older genres in the form of genres such as neo soul and modern funk-inspired groups.[20]

Dance

Main article: African American dance
File:Cakewalk Dance.jpg
The Cakewalk was the first African American dance to gain widespread popularity in the United States.[21]
File:H 4 ill 792495 alvin-ailey.jpg
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater


African American dance, like other aspects of African American culture, finds its earliest roots in the dances of the hundreds of African ethnic groups that made up Black slaves in the Americas as well as influences from European sources in the United States. Dance in the African tradition, and thus in the tradition of slaves, was a part of both every day life and special occasions. Many of these traditions such as get down, ring shouts, and other elements of African body language survive as elements of modern dance.[22]

In the 1800s, Black dance began to appear in minstrel shows. These shows often presented Blacks as caricatures for ridicule to large audiences. The first African American dance to become popular with White dancers was the cakewalk in 1891. Later dances to follow in this tradition include the Charleston, the Lindy Hop, and the Jitterbug. During the Harlem Renaissance, all Black Broadway shows such as Shuffle Along helped to establish and legitimize African American dancers. Black dance forms such as tap, a combination of African and European influences, gained widespread popularity thanks to dancers such as Bill Robinson and were used by leading White choreographers who often hired Black dancers.

Contemporary African American dance is descended from these earlier forms and also draws influence from African and Caribbean dance forms. Groups such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater have continued to contribute to the growth of this form. Modern popular dance in America is also greatly influenced by African American dance. American popular dance has also drawn many influences from African American dance most notably in the hip hop genre.[23]

Art

Main article: African American art
File:Sanddunes by tanner.jpg
Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City by Henry Ossawa Tanner 1859-1937

From its early origins in slave communities, through the end of the twentieth century, African-American art has made a vital contribution to the art of the United States.[24] During the period between the 1600s and the early 1800s art took the form of small drums, quilts, wrought-iron figures and ceramic vessels in the southern United States. These artifacts have similarities with comparable crafts in West and Central Africa. In contrast, black artisans like the New England–based engraver Scipio Moorhead and the Baltimore portrait painter Joshua Johnson created art that was conceived in a thoroughly western European fashion.[25]

During the 1800s, Harriet Powers made quilts in rural Georgia, United States that are now considered among the finest examples of nineteenth-century Southern quilting.[26] Later in the 20th century, the women of Gee’s Bend developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional African American quilts with a geometric simplicity reminiscent of Amish quilts and modern art. [27]

After the American Civil War, it became increasingly acceptable to display the work of African American artists in museums and galleries. Cultural expression in mainstream venues was still limited by the dominant European aesthetic and by racial prejudice. To increase the visibility of their work, many African American artists traveled to Europe where they had greater freedom. It was not until the Harlem Renaissance that African American art began to be noticed by whites in America.

File:Walker cut.jpg
Kara Walker, Cut, Cut paper and adhesive on wall, Brent Sikkema NYC.

During the 1920s, artists such as Raymond Barthé, Aaron Douglas,[28] Augusta Savage,[29], and photographer James Van Der Zee[30] became well known for their work. During the Great Depression, new opportunities arose for these and other black artists under the WPA. In later years, other programs and institutions, such as the New York City-based Harmon Foundation, helped to foster black artistic talent. Augusta Savage, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and others exhibited in museums and juried art shows and built reputations and followings for themselves.

In the 1950s and 1960s, there were very few widely accepted African American artists. Despite this, The Highwaymen, a loose association of 27 African American artists from Ft. Pierce, Florida, created idyllic, quickly realized images of the Florida landscape and peddled some 50,000 of them from the trunks of their cars. They sold their art directly to the public rather than through galleries and art agents. Rediscovered in the mid-1990s, today they are recognized as an important part of American folk history.[31][32]

The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, was another period of resurgent interest in African American art. During this period, several African-American artists gained national prominence, among them Lou Stovall, Ed Love, Charles White, and Jeff Donaldson. Donaldson and a group of African-American artists formed the Afrocentric collective AFRICOBRA, which remains in existence today.

Notable contemporary African American artists include David Hammons, Eugene J. Martin, Charles Tolliver, and Kara Walker.[33]

Literature

File:Langston Hughes by Nickolas Muray.jpg
Langston Hughes, a notable African American poet of the Harlem Renaissance.
Main article: African American literature

African American literature has its roots in the oral traditions of African slaves in America. The slaves used stories and fables in much the same way as they used music.[3] These stories influenced the earliest African American writers and poets in the 18th century such as Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano. These authors reached early high points by telling slave narratives. During the early 20th century the Harlem Renaissance saw a number of authors and poets such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Dubois, and Booker T. Washington engage on how to respond to discrimination in America. Authors during the Civil Rights era, such as Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about issues of racial segregation, oppression and other aspects of African American life. This tradition continues today with authors who have been accepted as an integral part of American literature with works such as Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Beloved by Toni Morrison and a series of works by Octavia Butler and Walter Mosley that have achieved both best-selling and/or award-winning status.[34]

Language

Generations of hardships imposed on the African American community created distinctive language patterns. Slave owners often intentionally mixed people who spoke different African languages to discourage communication in any language other than English. This, combined with prohibitions against education, led to the development of pidgins, simplified mixtures of two or more languages that speakers of different languages could use to communicate.[35] Examples of pidgins that became fully developed languages include Creole, common to Haiti,[36] and Gullah, common to the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia.[37]

African American Vernacular English is a type variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of the American English language closely associated with the speech of but is not exclusive to African Americans.[38] While AAVE is academically considered a legitimate dialect because of it's logical structure, many, regardless of race or ethnicity, consider it slang or the result of a poor command of Standard American English. These opinions often create educational difficulties for African American children.[39][40] It is common for many speakers of AAVE to code switch between AAVE and Standard American English depending on the setting.[41]

Fashion and aesthetics

A man weaving kente cloth in Ghana.

Attire

The cultural explosion of the 1960s saw the incorporation of surviving cultural dress with elements from modern fashion and West African traditional clothing to create a uniquely African American traditional style. Kente cloth is the best known African textile. These festive woven patterns, which exist in numerous varieties, were originally made by the Ashanti and Ewe peoples of Ghana and Togo. Kente fabric also appears in a number of Western style fashions ranging from casual t-shirts to formal bow ties and cummerbunds. Kente strips are often sewn into liturgical and academic robes or worn as stoles. Since the Black Arts Movement, traditional African clothing has been popular amongst African Americans for both formal and informal occasions.[42] Another common aspect of fashion in African American culture involves the appropriate dress for worship in the Black church. It is expected in most churches that an individual should present their best appearance for worship. African American women in particular are known for wearing vibrant dresses and suits. An interpretation of a passage from the Christian Bible, "..every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head...",[43] has led to the tradition of wearing elaborate Sunday hats, sometimes known as "crowns."[44][45]

Hair

Hair styling in African American culture is greatly varied. African hair is typically composed of tightly coiled curls. The predominant styles for women involve the straightening of the hair through the application of heat or chemical processes.[46] These treatments form the base for the most commonly socially acceptable hairstyles in the United States. Alternatively, the predominant and most socially acceptable practice for men is to leave one's hair natural. Oftentimes, as men age and begin to lose their hair, the hair is either closely cropped, or the head is shaved completely free of hair. However, since the 1960s, natural hairstyles, such as the afro, braids, and dreadlocks, have been growing in popularity. Although the association with radical political movements and their vast difference from mainstream Western hairstyles, the styles have not yet attained widespread social acceptance.[47]

Maintaining facial hair is more prevalent among African American men than in other male populations. In fact, the soul patch is so named because black men, particularly jazz musicians, popularized this style of wearing facial hair just below the bottom lip. The preference for facial hair among black men is due partly for style, but also because shaving coarse, curly facial hair often causes the hair follicles to turn inward and become ingrown, creating a condition known as pseudofolliculitis barbae, commonly referred to as razor bumps. Razor bumps are unsightly, can be painful, and may become infected as well. For those who prefer to be clean shaven, there are numerous razorless-shave products on the market catering to black men, and Gillette recently introduced its Gillette Mach III Turbo razor for black men and men with sensitive skin.

Body image

The European aesthetic has placed African American women in a unique situation. The African body form is often contrary to mainstream views on beauty. Because of this, African American women often find themselves under pressure to conform to European standards of beauty. Still, there are individuals and groups who are working towards raising the standing of the African aesthetic among African Americans and internationally as well. This includes efforts towards promoting as models those with clearly defined African features; the mainstreaming of natural hairstyles; and, in women, fuller, more voluptuous body types.[47][48]

Religion

While African Americans practice a number of religions, Protestant Christianity is by far the most popular.[49] Additionally, 14% of Muslims in the United States and Canada are African American.[50]

Christianity

A river baptism in New Bern, North Carolina near the turn of the 20th century.
Main article: Black church

The religious institutions of African American Christians commonly are referred to collectively as the Black church. During slavery, many slaves were stripped of their African belief systems and typically denied free religious practice. Slaves managed, however, to hang on to some practices by integrating them into Christian worship in secret meetings. These practices, including dance, shouts, African rhythms, and enthusiastic singing, remain a large part of worship in the Black church. Black churches taught that all people were equal in God's eyes and viewed the doctrine of obedience to one's master taught in White churches as hypocritical.[51] Instead the Black church focused on the message of equality and hopes for a better future. [52] Before and after emancipation, racial segregation in America prompted the development of organized Black denominations. The first of these was the AME Church founded by Richard Allen in 1787.[51] A Black church is not necessarily a separate denomination. Several predominantly Black churches exist as members of predominantly White denominations.[53] Black churches have served to provide Blacks with leadership positions and opportunities to organize that were denied in mainstream American society. Because of this Black pastors became the bridge between the Black and White communities and thus played a crucial role in the American Civil Rights Movement.[54]

Like many Christians, African American Christians sometimes participate in or attend a Christmas play. Black Nativity by Langston Hughes, is a re-telling of the classic Nativity story with gospel music.[55] Productions can be found a Black theaters and churches all over the country.[56]

Islam

A member of the Nation of Islam selling merchandise on a city street corner. Despite the popular assumption that the Nation represents all or most African American Muslims, less than 2% are members.[57]
Main article: Islam in the African diaspora

Generations before the advent of the Atlantic slave trade, Islam was a thriving religion in West Africa. Slaves in the Americas were often forcibly converted to Christianity, and while first-generation slaves were often able to retain their Muslim identity, their descendants were not. In the decades after slavery, Islam reemerged in the form of highly visible and sometimes controversial movements in the African American community. The first of these of note was the Moorish Science Temple of America, founded by Noble Drew Ali. Ali had a profound influence on Wallace Fard, who later founded the Black nationalist Nation of Islam in 1930. Elijah Muhammad became head of the organization in 1934. Much like Malcolm X, who left the Nation of Islam in 1964, many African American Muslims now follow traditional Islam.[58] A survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations shows that 30% of Sunni Mosque attendees are African Americans.[50] African American orthodox Muslims are often the victims of stereotypes, most notably the assumption that an African American Muslim is a member of the Nation of Islam. They are often viewed as less authentic than Muslims from the Middle East or South Asia. However, since 9-11 there have been a number of efforts to bridge the differences between African Americans and the rest of the American Islamic community.[59]

Other religions

Aside from Christianity and Islam, there are also African Americans who follow Judaism, Buddhism, and a number of other religions. The Black Hebrew Israelites are a collection of African American Jewish religious organizations. Amongst their varied teachings, they often include that Blacks are descended from the Biblical Hebrews sometimes with the stipulation that the Jewish people are not. [60] There is a small but growing number of African Americans who participate in African traditional religions such as vodou and santiria. These groups are often viewed negatively and are the victims of harassment because of their religious practices which may include loud music and animal sacrifice.[61]

Life events

For most African Americans, the observance of life events follows the pattern of mainstream American culture. There are some traditions which are unique to African Americans.

One such tradition observed by some African Americans is rights of passage. Pre-teen and teenage boys and girls take classes that prepare them for adulthood. They are typically taught spirituality, responsibility, and leadership. Most of these programs are modeled after traditional African ceremonies with the focus largely on embracing African ideologies rather than specific rituals.[62]

To this day, some African American couples choose to "jump the broom" as a part of their wedding ceremony. Although the practice, which can be traced back to Ghana,[63] fell out of favor in the African American community after the end of slavery, it has experienced a slight resurgence in recent years as some couples seek to reaffirm their African heritage.[64]

Funeral traditions tend to vary based on a number of factors including religion and location, but there are a number of commonalities. Probably the most important part of death and dying in the African American culture is the gathering of family and friends. Either in the last days before death or shortly after death, typically any friends and family members that can be reached are notified. This gathering helps to provide spiritual and emotional support, as well as assistance in making decisions and accomplishing everyday tasks. The spirituality of death is very important in African American culture. A member of the clergy or members of the religious community, or both, are typically present with the family through the entire process. Death is often viewed as transitory rather than final. Many services are called homegoings, instead of funerals, based on the belief that the person is going home to the afterlife.[65] The entire end of life process is generally treated as a celebration of life rather than a mourning of loss. This is most notably demonstrated in the New Orleans Jazz Funeral tradition where upbeat music, dancing, and food encourage those gathered to be happy and celebrate the homegoing of a beloved friend.[66]

Soul food

Main article: Soul Food
A traditional soul food dinner consisting of fried chicken, candied yams, collard greens, cornbread, and macaroni and cheese.

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 African influences. African American foods reflect creative responses to racial and economic oppression and poverty. Under slavery, African Americans were not allowed to eat better cuts of meat, and after emancipation many often were too poor to afford them. Soul food, a hearty cuisine commonly associated with African Americans in the South (but also common to African Americans nationwide), makes creative use of inexpensive products procured through farming and subsistence hunting and fishing. Pig intestines are boiled and sometimes battered and fried to make chitterlings, also known as "chitlins." Ham hocks and neck bones provide seasoning to soups, beans and boiled greens (turnip greens, collard greens, and mustard greens). Other common foods, such as fried chicken and fish, macaroni and cheese, cornbread and hoppin john (black-eyed peas and rice) are prepared simply. When the African American population was considerably more rural than it generally is today, rabbit, possum, squirrel, and waterfowl were important additions to the diet. Many of these food traditions are especially predominant in many parts of the rural South.[67]

Traditionally prepared soul food is often high in fat, sodium and starch. Highly suited to the physically demanding lives of laborers, farmhands and rural lifestyles generally, it is now is a contributing factor to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes in a population that has become increasingly more urban and sedentary. As a result, more health-conscious African-Americans are using alternative methods of preparation, eschewing trans fats in favor of natural vegetable oils and substituting smoked turkey for fatback and other, cured pork products, limiting the amount of refined sugar in desserts and emphasizing the consumption of more fruits and vegetables than animal protein. There is some resistance to such changes, however, as they involve deviating from centuries of culinary tradition.[68]

Holidays and observances

A woman wearing traditional West African clothing lighting the candles on a kinara for a Kwanzaa celebration.

As with other American racial and ethnic groups, African Americans observe ethnic holidays alongside traditional American holidays. Holidays observed in African American culture are not only observed by African Americans. The birthday of noted American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr has been observed nationally since 1983.[69] It is one of three federal holidays named for an individual.[70] Black History Month is another example of another African American observance that has been adopted nationally. Black History Month is an attempt to focus attention on previously neglected aspects of the African American experience. It is observed during the month of February to coincide with the founding of the NAACP and the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, a prominent African American abolitionist, and Abraham Lincoln, the United States president who signed the Emancipation Proclamation.[69]

Less widely observed outside of the African American community is Emancipation Day. The nature and timing of the celebration vary regionally. It is most widely observed as Juneteenth, in recognition of the official reading of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865 in Texas.[71] Another holiday not widely observed outside of the African American community is the birthday of Malcolm X. The day is observed on May 19 in American cities with a significant African American population including Washington, D.C..[72]

One of the most noted African American holidays is Kwanzaa. Like Emancipation Day, it is not widely observed outside of the African American community although it is growing in popularity within the community. African American scholar and activist "Maulana" Ron Karenga invented the festival of Kwanzaa in 1966, as an alternative to the increasing commercialization of Christmas. Derived from the harvest rituals of Africans, Kwanzaa is observed each year from December 26 through January 1. Participants in Kwanzaa celebrations affirm their African heritage and the importance of family and community by drinking from a unity cup; lighting red, black, and green candles; exchanging heritage symbols, such as African art; and recounting the lives of people who struggled for African and African American freedom.[73]

Names

See also: Slave name

African American names are often drawn from the same language groups as other popular names found in the United States. The practice of adopting neo-African or Islamic names did not gain popularity until the late Civil Rights era when greater efforts to recover African heritage inspired the selection of names with deeper cultural significance. Prior to this using African names was not practical for two reasons. First, many African Americans are several generations removed from the last ancestor to have an African name since slaves were often provided with European names. Second, a traditional American name helps an individual fit into American society.

Another African American naming practice that predates the use of African names is the use of "made-up" names. In an attempt to create their own identity, growing numbers of African American parents, starting in the post-World War II era, began creating new names based on sounds they found pleasing such as Marquon, Davon, LaTasha, or Shandra.[74]

Family

When slavery was practiced in the United States, it was not uncommon for families to be separated through sale. In the post-slavery years, however, the African American family became the backbone of the community. As late as 1960, 78% of African American families were headed by married couples. This number steadily declined over the latter half of the 20th century. A number of factors including attitudes towards education, gender roles, and poverty have created a situation where, for the first time since slavery, a majority of African American children live in a household with only one parent, typically the mother.[75] These figures appear to indicate a weak African American nuclear family structure, especially within a large patriarchal society. This apparent weakness is balanced by mutual aid systems established by extended family members to provide emotional and economic support. Older family members pass on social and cultural traditions such as religion and manners to younger family members. In turn, the older family members are cared for by younger family members when they are unable to care for themselves. These relationships exist at all economic levels in the African American community, providing strength and support both to the African American family and the community.[76]

Politics and social issues

See also: African American contemporary issues

Since the passing of the Voting Rights Act, African Americans are voting and being elected to public office in increasing numbers. As of January 2001 there were 9,101 Black elected officials in America.[77] African Americans are overwhelmingly Democratic. Only 11% of African Americans voted for George W. Bush in the 2004 Presidential Election.[78] Social issues such as racial profiling,[79] the racial disparity in sentencing,[80] higher rates of poverty,[81] institutional racism,[82] and lower access to health care[83] hold importance in the African American community. While the divide on racial and fiscal issues has remained consistently wide for decades, seemingly indicating a wide social divide, African Americans tend to hold the same optimism and concern for America as Whites. In the case of many moral issues such as religion, and family values, African Americans tend to be more conservative than Whites.[84] Another area where African Americans outstrip Whites in their conservatism is on the issue of homosexuality. Prominent leaders in the Black church have demonstrated against gay rights issues such as gay marriage. There are those within the community who take a more inclusive position most notably, the late Mrs. Coretta Scott King.[85]

See also

References

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External links

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