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{{Short description|Ethnic group in the United States}}{{pp-semi-indef}}{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}}{{Use American English|date=January 2023}}

factoids

14.2% of the total U.S. population (2020)41,104,200 (2020) (one race)12.4% of the total U.S. population (2020)Southern United States>South and urban areasAmerican English>American English dialects, African-American English)Gullah Creole EnglishProtestantism>Protestant (71%) including Black church (53%), Evangelicalism>Evangelical Protestant (14%), and Mainline Protestant (4%); {{longlinkMeaning "1% or more"}} others include Catholic Church (5%), Jehovah's Witnesses (2%), Islam in the United States>Muslim (2%), and Irreligion (18%).HTTPS://WWW.PEWFORUM.ORG/RELIGIOUS-LANDSCAPE-STUDY/COMPARE/RELIGIOUS-TRADITION/BY/RACIAL-AND-ETHNIC-COMPOSITION/ PUBLISHER = PEW RESEARCH CENTER >ACCESS-DATE = APRIL 5, 2019 ARCHIVE-URL = HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20150518010639/HTTPS://WWW.PEWFORUM.ORG/RELIGIOUS-LANDSCAPE-STUDY/COMPARE/RELIGIOUS-TRADITION/BY/RACIAL-AND-ETHNIC-COMPOSITION/, live, }}| related = }}{{African American topics sidebar}}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.weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20220301190109weblink">"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."African Americans Law & Legal Definition {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817202929weblink |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." African Americans constitute the third largest racial or ethnic group in the U.S. after White Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans.WEB, Measuring Racial and Ethnic Diversity for the 2020 Census,weblink 2023-04-23, The United States Census Bureau, EN-US, April 30, 2023,weblink live, The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States.BOOK, Martin, Carol Lynn,weblink Discovering Child Development, Fabes, Richard, 2008, Cengage Learning, 978-1111808112, 19, 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)., October 25, 2014, October 19, 2018,weblink live, BOOK, Locke, Don C.,weblink Increasing Multicultural Understanding, Bailey, Deryl F., SAGE Publications, 2013, 978-1483314211, 106, 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., March 7, 2018, August 18, 2018,weblink live, Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people within the boundaries of the present United States.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.BOOK, Rucker, Walter C.,weblink The River Flows On: Black resistance, culture, and identity formation in early America, LSU Press, 2006, 978-0-8071-3109-1, 126, 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.NEWS, Forson, Tracy Scott, February 21, 2018, Who is an 'African American'? Definition evolves as USA does, en-US, USA Today,weblink May 14, 2023, May 16, 2023,weblink live, Most African Americans are of West African and coastal Central African ancestry, with varying amounts of Western European and Native American ancestry.BOOK, Gates, Henry Louis Jr, In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past, 2009, New York: Crown Publishing, 20–21, Henry Louis Gates Jr., 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.NEWS, Harris, Paul, October 8, 2015, How the end of slavery led to starvation and death for millions of black Americans, The Guardian,weblink live,weblink Jan 16, 2023, 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 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.NEWS, Barack Obama to be America's first black president,weblink The Guardian, November 5, 2008, February 19, 2016, 0261-3077, Ewen, MacAskill, Suzanne, Goldenberg, Elana, Schor, March 1, 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160301125609weblink">weblink live, 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.WEB, Eaglin, Maya, Feb 21, 2021, The soundtrack of history: How Black music has shaped American culture through time,weblink live,weblink Apr 19, 2022, April 14, 2022, NBC News, en, WEB, Osei, Sarah, November 4, 2020, How Black People Created All Your Favorite Music,weblink April 14, 2022, Highsnobiety, en,

History

Colonial era

{{See also|Atlantic slave trade}}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,WEB,weblink The transatlantic slave trade, BBC, May 6, 2021, May 6, 2021,weblink live, or sold by other West Africans, or by half-European "merchant princes"WEB, Implications of the slave trade for African societies,weblink BBC, June 12, 2020, London, June 9, 2020,weblink live, to European slave traders, who brought them to the Americas.WEB, The capture and sale of slaves,weblink International Slavery Museum, October 14, 2015, Liverpool, December 29, 2019,weblink live, 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.JOURNAL, Robert Wright, Richard, Richard Robert Wright, 1941, Negro Companions of the Spanish Explorers, Phylon, 2, 4, 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.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.{{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/20180721163646weblink|url-status=dead}}(File:1670 virginia tobacco slaves.jpg|thumb|left|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.BOOK, Frank E. Jr., Grizzard, Frank E. Grizzard Jr., D. Boyd, Smith, Jamestown Colony: A Political, Social, and Cultural History, 2007, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, Calif., 978-1-85109-637-4, 198, As many Virginian settlers began to die from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers.BOOK, Betty, Wood, The Origins of American Slavery: Freedom and Bondage in the English Colonies, 1997, Hill and Wang, New York, 978-0-8090-1608-2, Tobacco Slaves: The Chesapeake Colonies, 68–93, File:First Slave Auction 1655 Howard Pyle.jpg|thumb|upright|The first slave auction at New Amsterdam in 1655; illustration from 1895 by Howard PyleWEB, New Netherland Institute :: Slave Trade,weblink newnetherlandinstitute.org, (New Netherland Institute]], July 8, 2019, July 8, 2019,weblink live, )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".MAGAZINE, Tim, Hashaw, The First Black Americans,weblink U.S. News & World Report, January 21, 2007, February 13, 2008, dead,weblink February 2, 2011, Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom.ENCYCLOPEDIA,weblink The shaping of Black America: forthcoming 400th celebration, Encyclopedia.com, June 26, 2006, January 20, 2011,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20080305014338weblink">weblink March 5, 2008, dead, They raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or European settlers.WEB,weblink The First Black Americans â€“ U.S. News & World Report, Usnews.com, January 29, 2007, January 20, 2011,weblink February 2, 2011, dead, 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.BOOK, White Over Black: American attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812, Winthrop, Jordan, University of North Carolina Press, 1968, 978-0807871416, BOOK, In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process: The Colonial Period, A. Leon, Higginbotham, Greenwood Press, 1975,weblink 9780195027457, File:Slave Auction Ad.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|left|Reproduction of a handbill advertising a slave auction in Charleston, South CarolinaCharleston, South CarolinaIn 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.{{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/20210110103703weblink|url-status=live}}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.John Henderson Russell, The Free Negro In Virginia, 1619–1865, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1913, pp. 29–30, scanned text online.BOOK, Frank W., Sweet, Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule,weblink July 2005, Backintyme, 978-0-939479-23-8, 117, June 16, 2015, January 7, 2024,weblink live, 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.{{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}}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.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/20191024221530weblink |date=October 24, 2019 }}, 41 Akron Law Review 799 (2008), Digital Commons Law, University of Maryland Law School. Retrieved April 21, 2009PBS. Africans in America: the Terrible Transformation. "From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070604113622weblink |date=June 4, 2007 }}." Accessed September 13, 2011.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.William J. Wood, "The Illegal Beginning of American Slavery" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107112637weblink |date=January 7, 2024 }}, ABA Journal, 1970, American Bar Association 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".JOURNAL, Colored Freemen as Slave Owners in Virginia, John H., Russell, Journal of Negro History, June 1916, 1, 3, 233–242, 10.2307/3035621, 3035621, free, File:Runaway slave advertisement 9-15-1774-NY.gif|thumb|right|1774 image of a 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.NEWS, RUNAWAY! How George Washington, Other Slave Owners Used Newspapers to Hunt Escaped Slaves,weblink August 30, 2022, Library of Congress, August 30, 2022,weblink live, )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.JOURNAL, Berquist, Emily, Early Anti-Slavery Sentiment in the Spanish Atlantic World, 1765–1817, Slavery & Abolition, June 2010, 31, 2, 181–205, 10.1080/01440391003711073, 145434799, 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.{{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/20180721134124weblink|archive-date=July 21, 2018|url-status=dead}}First established in South Carolina in 1704, groups of armed White men—slave patrols—were formed to monitor enslaved Black people. 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.WEB, July 10, 2019, Slave Patrols: An Early Form of American Policing,weblink June 16, 2020, National Law Enforcement Museum, en-US, June 9, 2020,weblink dead, 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.WEB,weblink Scots to Colonial North Carolina Before 1775, Dalhousielodge.org, n.d., April 20, 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120219045151weblink">weblink February 19, 2012, dead,

From the American Revolution to the Civil War

File:Crispus Attucks.jpg|thumb|upright|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.WEB,weblink African Americans in the American Revolution, Wsu.edu:8080, June 6, 1999, January 20, 2011, dead,weblink May 14, 2011, Blacks played a role in both sides in the American Revolution. Activists in the Patriot cause included James Armistead, Prince Whipple, and Oliver Cromwell.Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the American revolution (1961).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}} Around 15,000 Black Loyalists left with the British after the war, most of them ending up as free Black people in EnglandBOOK, Stephen, Braidwood, 1994, Black Poor and White Philanthropists: London's Blacks and the Foundation of the Sierra Leone Settlement, 1786–1791, Liverpool University Press, 978-0-85323-377-0, or its colonies, such as the Black Nova Scotians and the Sierra Leone Creole people.BOOK, Finkelman, Paul, 2012, Slavery in the United States: Persons or Property?, Allain, Jean, The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary, Oxford University Press, 105–134 [116], 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199660469.003.0007,weblink 978-0-19-174550-8, April 18, 2023, April 18, 2023,weblink live, BOOK, Walker, James W., 1992, Chapter Five: Foundation of Sierra Leone, The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783–1870, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 94–114,weblink registration, 978-0-8020-7402-7, Originally published by Longman & Dalhousie University Press (1976).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.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.WEB,weblink The Abolition of The Slave Trade, New York Public Library, 2007, August 30, 2021, Finkelman, Paul, October 9, 2018,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20181009202811weblink">weblink dead, 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 1793 and 1850, guaranteeing the right for a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave within the U.S.NEWS, Fugitive Slave Laws,weblink February 18, 2022, Encyclopedia Virginia, February 18, 2022,weblink live, 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. 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|1850}}Prior to the Civil War, eight serving presidents owned slaves, a practice protected by the U.S. Constitution.BOOK, Calore, Paul, The Causes of the Civil War: The Political, Cultural, Economic and Territorial Disputes between North and South, 2008, McFarland, 10, 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)"Background on conflict in Liberia", Friends Committee on National Legislation, July 30, 2003 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070214051143weblink |date=February 14, 2007 }} across the country.BOOK, Edmund Terence Gomez, Ralph, Premdas, Affirmative Action, Ethnicity and Conflict,weblink Routledge, 978-0-415-64506-5, 48, September 26, 2015, January 7, 2024,weblink live, With legislated limits imposed upon them in addition to "unconquerable prejudice" from Whites according to Henry Clay,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}} some Black people who were not enslaved left the U.S. for Liberia in West Africa. 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.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."Ending slavery in the District of Columbia {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119044541weblink |date=November 19, 2018 }}", consulted June 20, 2015.) Similar building projects existed in the 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 tradedomestic slave tradeBy 1815, the domestic slave trade had become a major economic activity in the United States; it lasted until the 1860s.Marcyliena H. Morgan (2002). Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107112637weblink |date=January 7, 2024 }}, p. 20. Cambridge University Press, 2002. 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".Berlin, Generations of Captivity, pp. 161–162. Individuals lost their connection to families and clans, and many ethnic Africans lost their knowledge of varying tribal origins in Africa.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.NEWS, Paulson Gage, Joan, Icons of Cruelty,weblink The New York Times, August 5, 2013, February 16, 2022, August 23, 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130823025616weblink">weblink live, 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.Taylor, Nikki M. Frontiers of Freedom: Cincinnati's Black Community, 1802–1868. Ohio University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-8214-1579-4}}, pp. 50–79. 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.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.WEB, The Emancipation Proclamation, Featured Documents, National Archives and Records Administration, June 7, 2007,weblinkweblink June 7, 2007, live, Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation, with Texas being the last state to be emancipated, in 1865.WEB,weblink History of Juneteenth, Juneteenth.com, 2005, June 7, 2007,weblink May 27, 2007, dead, File:Harriet Tubman c1868-69 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Harriet TubmanHarriet TubmanSlavery in a few border states continued until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865.Seward certificate {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721102957weblink |date=July 21, 2018 }} proclaiming the Thirteenth Amendment to have been adopted as part of the Constitution as of December 6, 1865. While the Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U.S. citizenship to Whites only,BOOK, Schultz, Jeffrey D., Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics: African Americans and Asian Americans,weblink 284, 2002, Oryx Press, October 8, 2015, 9781573561488, February 4, 2023,weblink live, Leland T. Saito (1998). "Race and Politics: Asian Americans, Latinos, and Whites in a Los Angeles Suburb". p. 154. University of Illinois Press the 14th Amendment (1868) gave Black people citizenship, and the 15th Amendment (1870) gave Black men the right to vote.NEWS, Black voting rights, 15th Amendment still challenged after 150 years,weblink November 19, 2020, USA Today, April 25, 2020,weblink live,

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.WEB, Creating Jim Crow: In-Depth Essay, Davis, Ronald L.F., The History of Jim Crow, New York Life Insurance Company, June 7, 2007,weblinkweblink dead, June 14, 2002, Segregation was now imposed with Jim Crow laws, using signs used to show Blacks where they could legally walk, talk, drink, rest, or eat.Leon Litwack, Jim Crow Blues, Magazine of History (OAH Publications, 2004) For those places that were racially mixed, non-Whites had to wait until all White customers were dealt with. 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.WEB,weblink Surviving Jim Crow, Davis, Ronald, The History of Jim Crow, New York Life Insurance Company, dead,weblink" title="archive.today/20120526204619weblink">weblink May 26, 2012, 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.Plessy v. Ferguson {{Ussc|163|537|1896}}

Great migration and 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.Moyers, Bill. "Legacy of Lynching" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829121124weblink |date=August 29, 2017 }}. PBS. Retrieved July 28, 2016.)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.WEB,weblink The Great Migration, October 22, 2007, African American World, PBS, 2002,weblink October 12, 2007, 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.Michael O. Emerson, Christian Smith (2001). "Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America". p. 42. Oxford University Press 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."BOOK, Annual Report of the Hampton Negro Conference, The Economic Aspect of the Negro Problem, Anderson, Matthew, Hampton bulletinno. 9–10, 12–16, Browne, Hugh, Kruse, Edwina, Moton, Walker, Thomas C., Robert Russa, Robert Russa Moton, Wheelock, Frederick D., Hampton Institute Press, Hampton, Virginia,weblink 2027/chi.14025588?urlappend=%3Bseq=43, 4, 1900, 39, November 19, 2020, January 7, 2024,weblink live, 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".JOURNAL, Tolnay, Stewart, The African American 'Great Migration' and Beyond, Annual Review of Sociology, 2003, 29, 218–221, 10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100009, 30036966, 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.BOOK, Seligman, Amanda, Block by block: neighborhoods and public policy on Chicago's West Side, 2005, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 978-0-226-74663-0, 213–14, 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 ParksRosa ParksDespite 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.BOOK, Ella Fitzgerald, 1989, Holloway House Publishing, 27, Black Americans also found a new ground for political power in Northern cities, without the enforced disabilities of Jim Crow.JOURNAL, Tolnay, Stewart, The African American 'Great Migration' and Beyond, Annual Review of Sociology, 2003, 29, 217, 10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100009, 30036966, MAGAZINE, Wilkerson, Isabel, September 2016, The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration,weblink Smithsonian Magazine, November 19, 2019, February 15, 2020,weblink live, 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.NEWS,weblink How 'The Blood of Emmett Till' Still Stains America Today, Newkirk II, Vann R., The Atlantic, July 29, 2017, July 28, 2017,weblink live, Vann R. Newkirk wrote "the trial of his killers became a pageant illuminating the tyranny of White supremacy". The state of Mississippi tried two defendants, but they were speedily acquitted by an all-White jury.Whitfield, Stephen (1991). A Death in the Delta: The story of Emmett Till. pp 41–42. JHU Press. 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."BOOK, The Assassination of Fred Hampton, Haas, Jeffrey, Chicago Review Press, 2011, 978-1569767092, Chicago, 17, File:March on washington Aug 28 1963.jpg|thumb|March on Washington for Jobs and FreedomMarch on Washington for Jobs and FreedomThe 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.WEB,weblink History of Federal Voting Rights Laws: The Voting Rights Act of 1965, United States Department of Justice, August 12, 2017, August 6, 2015, January 6, 2021,weblink live, 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.WEB,weblink The March On Washington, 1963, October 22, 2007, Abbeville Press,weblink October 12, 2007, dead, 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.The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II by William H. ChafeFrom 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.

Post–civil rights era

File:Crowd at JJ Hill - Philando Castile (27547111053).jpg|thumb|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.{{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}}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.NEWS, Roberts, Sam, February 21, 2005, More Africans Enter U.S. Than in Days of Slavery,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20050912203241weblink">weblink September 12, 2005, subscription, live, The New York Times, October 26, 2014, 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.NEWS,weblink Exit polls: Obama wins big among young, minority voters, November 4, 2008, CNN, June 22, 2010, August 10, 2010,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100810011229weblink">weblink live, WEB,weblink Exit polls: How Obama won, Kuhn, David Paul, November 5, 2008, Politico (newspaper), Politico, June 22, 2010, March 26, 2010,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100326033743weblink">weblink live, He also received overwhelming support from young and educated Whites, a majority of Asians,NEWS,weblink Exit polls, 2008, The New York Times, September 6, 2012, August 16, 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120816170447weblink">weblink live, and Hispanics, picking up a number of new states in the Democratic electoral column. 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.WEB, Noah, Timothy,weblink What We Didn't Overcome, Slate, November 10, 2008, January 20, 2011,weblink January 24, 2011, live, Obama was reelected for a second and final term, by a similar margin on November 6, 2012.NEWS, Barnes, Robert, Obama wins a second term as U.S. president,weblink The Washington Post, November 6, 2012, August 12, 2017, April 17, 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150417162701weblink">weblink live, 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.NEWS, Blood, Michael R., Riccardi, Nicholas, December 5, 2020, Biden officially secures enough electors to become president,weblink March 2, 2021, Associated Press, December 8, 2020,weblink live, In June 2021, Juneteenth, a day which commemorates the end of slavery in the US, became a federal holiday.WEB, June 17, 2021, President Biden Signs the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Into Law,weblink live,weblink December 11, 2021, YouTube, {{cbignore}}

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|Proportion of African Americans in each U.S. state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States Census)File:Black Americans by county.png|thumb|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 census2020 United States censusFile:Black_Americans_(alone).svg|thumb|Proportion of Black Americans (alone) in each county of the fifty states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States census2020 United States census(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 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.WEB,weblinkweblink 2022-10-09, live, We the Americans: Blacks, US Bureau of Census, May 3, 2019, 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.BOOK, Time: Almanac 2005, Time Incorporated Home Entertainment, 377,weblink registration, December 7, 2004, 9781932994414, 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 StatesThis 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.)! Year||Number||% of totalpopulation||% Change(10 yr)||Slaves||% in slavery|92%|89%|86%|87%|86%|87%|88%|89%| â€“| â€“| â€“| â€“| â€“| â€“| â€“| â€“| â€“| â€“| â€“| â€“| â€“| â€“| â€“| â€“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.WEB,weblink Time Line of African American History, 1881–1900, Lcweb2.loc.gov, n.d., April 20, 2012, May 19, 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120519110018weblink">weblink live, 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,WEB, American FactFinder, United States Census Bureau, United States â€“ QT-P4. Race, Combinations of Two Races, and Not Hispanic or Latino: 2000,weblink dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110606042749weblink">weblink June 6, 2011, January 20, 2011, 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.WEB,weblink c2kbr01-2.qxd, January 20, 2011, dead,weblink September 20, 2004, File:Harlem Street rehearsal (125th street).jpg|thumb|upright=1|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 the United States|African immigration to New York City]] is now driving the growth of the city's Black population.NEWS,weblink African and Invisible: The Other New York Migrant Crisis, Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, The New York Times, January 13, 2023, January 26, 2023, January 25, 2023,weblink live, )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.weblink" title="archive.today/20150118121537weblink">"Total Ancestry Reported", American FactFinder. Self-reported Black immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa also represented 0.9%, at about 2.8 million. 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."The Hispanic Population: 2010" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127044304weblink |date=January 27, 2018 }}, 2010 Census Briefs. U.S. Census Bureau, May 2011. 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".WEB,weblinkweblink" title="archive.today/20200212055927weblink">weblink dead, February 12, 2020, American FactFinder – Results, factfinder2.census.gov, 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.WEB, 2010 Census Planning Memoranda Series,weblinkweblink 2022-10-09, live, United States Census Bureau, November 3, 2014, Historically, African Americans have been undercounted in the U.S. census due to a number of factors and biases.WEB,weblink African Americans in the 2020 Census, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, July 30, 2022, July 30, 2022,weblink live, WEB,weblink Census Sampling is Dangerous, Edward, Glaeser, February 15, 2001, Brookings Institution, July 30, 2022, July 30, 2022,weblink live, In the 2020 census, the African American population was undercounted at an estimated rate of 3.3%, up from 2.1% in 2010.WEB,weblink Samuel, Benson, Census undercounted Black people, Hispanics and Native Americans in 2020, Politico, March 10, 2022, July 30, 2022, July 30, 2022,weblink live, File:Black Americans 1790 County.png|1790File:Black Americans 1800 County.png|1800File:Black American 1810 County.png|1810File:Black Americans 1820 County.png|1820File:Black Americans 1830 County.png|1830File:Black Americans 1840 County.png|1840File:Black Americans 1850 County.png|1850File:Black Americans 1860 County.png|1860File:Black Americans 1870 County.png|1870File:Black Americans 1880 County.png|1880File:Black Americans 1890 County.png|1890File:Black Americans 1880 County.png|1880File:Black Americans 1900 County.png|1900File:Black Americans 1910 County.png|1910File:Black Americans 1920 County.png|1920File:Black Americans 1930 County.png|1930File:Black Americans 1940 County.png|1940File:Black Americans 1970 County.png|1970File:Black Americans 1980 County.png|1980File:Black Americans 1990 County.png|1990File:Black Americans 2000 County.png|2000File:Black Americans 2010 County.png|2010File:Black Americans 2020 County.png|2020Texas has the largest African American population by state. Followed by Texas is Florida, with 3.8 million, and Georgia, with 3.6 million.WEB,weblink Key facts about the nation's 47.2 million Black Americans, Mark Hugo, Lopez, Mohamad, Moslimani, February 10, 2023, Pew Research Center, July 27, 2023, July 27, 2023,weblink live,

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, 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.Greg Toppo and Paul Overberg, "After nearly 100 years, Great Migration begins reversal" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210216191513weblink |date=February 16, 2021 }}, USA Today, Feb 2, 2015. 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. Several smaller metro areas also saw sizable gains, including San Antonio;NEWS, 2021-08-13, Latinos, Blacks Show Strong Growth in San Antonio as White Population Declines, San Antonio Express-News,weblink January 3, 2024, March 1, 2023,weblink live, O'Hare, By Peggy, Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C.; and Orlando.Felton Emmanuel (January 2022). 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.NEWS, Closson, Troy, Hong, Nicole, 2023-01-31, Why Black Families Are Leaving New York, and What It Means for the City, en-US, The New York Times,weblink 0362-4331, October 21, 2023, October 28, 2023,weblink live, WEB, Top Metropolitan Areas In The USA, By African American Population,weblink National Media Spots, 2020, October 20, 2023, October 21, 2023,weblink live, 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."10 of the Richest Black Communities in America" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801103620weblink |date=August 1, 2018 }}, Atlanta Black Star, January 3, 2014. Other largely affluent and African American communities include Prince George's County (namely Mitchellville, Woodmore, Upper Marlboro) and Charles County in Maryland,WEB,weblink Charles County Surpasses Prince George's as Wealthiest Black County in US: Post, July 8, 2022, January 7, 2023, January 7, 2023,weblink live, 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.Seatack, Virginia is currently the oldest African American community in the United States.WEB,weblink Video Gallery – U.S. Representative Scott Rigell, July 18, 2016, dead,weblink August 21, 2016, It survives today with a vibrant and active civic community.WEB,weblink Seatack Community Celebrates 200+ Years With Banquet, {{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Education

(File:Former Slave Reading.jpg|thumb|right|180px|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."BOOK, An Inquiry Into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization, and American Anti-slavery Societies, William Jay (jurist), William, Jay, 1835, 2nd, New York, Dudley Leavitt (publisher), Leavitt, Lord & Co.,weblink 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.JOURNAL, Fultz, Michael, Determination and Persistence: Building the African American Teacher Corps through Summer and Intermittent Teaching, 1860s–1890s, History of Education Quarterly, February 2021, 61, 1, 4–34, 10.1017/heq.2020.65, free, 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.BOOK, Anderson, James D., The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935, 1988, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC, 0-8078-1793-7, 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.BOOK, Span, Christopher M., From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse: African American Education in Mississippi, 1862–1875, 2009, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC, JOURNAL, Ladson-Billings, Gloria, Anderson, James D., Policy Dialogue: Black Teachers of the Past, Present, and Future, History of Education Quarterly, February 3, 2021, 61, 1, 94–102, 10.1017/heq.2020.68, free, 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.JOURNAL, Field, Sherry, Intercultural Education and Negro History during the Second World War, Journal of Midwest History of Education Society, 1995, 22, 75–85, 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.JOURNAL, Dennis, Ashley D., "The Intellectual Emancipation of the Negro": Madeline Morgan and the Mandatory Black History Curriculum in Chicago during World War II, History of Education Quarterly, May 2022, 62, 2, 136–160, 10.1017/heq.2022.2, 248406635, 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.Kozol, J. "Overcoming Apartheid", The Nation. December 19, 2005. p. 26 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130325161054weblink |date=March 25, 2013 }}NEWS,weblink Segregation Now, Hannah-Jones, Nikole, April 16, 2014, ProPublica, December 14, 2015, December 13, 2015,weblink live, 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.Public Information Office, U.S. Census Bureau. High School Completions at All-Time High, Census Bureau Reports {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327134138weblink |date=March 27, 2010 }}. September 15, 2000.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.WEB,weblink California, Closing the Achievement Gap, January 22, 2008, April 20, 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120428123215weblink">weblink April 28, 2012, dead, File:Neil deGrasse Tyson - NAC Nov 2005.jpg|thumb|upright|Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is director of New York City's Hayden PlanetariumHayden PlanetariumBetween 1995 and 2009, freshmen college enrollment for African Americans increased by 73 percent and only 15 percent for Whites.Michael A. Fletcher, "Minorities and whites follow unequal college paths, report says" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223225704weblink |date=December 23, 2015 }}, The Washington Post, July 31, 2013. 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.NEWS,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160604003454weblink">weblink June 4, 2016, limited, live, Black women become most educated group in US, June 3, 2016, July 18, 2016, WEB,weblink CPS October 2011 – Detailed Tables, December 10, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170118080151weblink">weblink January 18, 2017, dead, The average high school graduation rate of Blacks in the United States has steadily increased to 71% in 2013.Allie Bidwell, "Racial Gaps in High School Graduation Rates Are Closing" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706054212weblink |date=July 6, 2017 }}, U.S. News, March 16, 2015. 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.WEB, Alonso, Andres A., Black Male Graduation Rates,weblink blackboysreport.org, The Schott Foundation for Public Education, September 24, 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20141016154552weblink">weblink October 16, 2014, dead, 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.WEB, Ryan, Camille L., Educational Attainment in the United States,weblinkweblink 2022-10-09, live, census.gov, The United States Bureau Of Statistics, July 22, 2017, Foreign born Blacks, 9% of the Black population, made even greater strides. They exceed native born Blacks by 10 percentage points.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.WEB, African Diaspora Advanced Placement Course, Co-developed by Teachers College, Highlighted by Time,weblink columbia.edu, Columbia University, 7 July 2022, July 7, 2022,weblink live, In 2020, College Board reshaped some curricula among history-based courses to further reflect the African diaspora.NEWS, Gleibermann, Erik, New College Board curriculum puts the African diaspora in the spotlight,weblink The Washington Post, July 7, 2022, January 28, 2023,weblink live, 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.CONFERENCE, Teacher Information Guide AP African American Studies Pilot, Waters, Brandi, February 2022, College Board, Washington, DC,

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."Lists of Historical Black Colleges and Universities" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170702201350weblink |date=July 2, 2017 }}, The Network Journal.WEB,weblink TECH-Levers: FAQs About HBCUs, July 18, 2016, August 27, 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160827030310weblink">weblink live, HBCUs have been largely responsible for establishing and expanding the African American middle-class by providing more career opportunities for African Americans.NEWS,weblink The story of historically black colleges in the US – BBC News, BBC News, February 15, 2019, January 10, 2022, January 2, 2022,weblink live, NEWS,weblink Despite Obstacles, Black Colleges Are Pipelines to the Middle Class, Study Finds. Here's Its List of the Best., Marc, Parry, September 30, 2019, The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 2, 2022, January 2, 2022,weblink live,

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.NEWS, Why the racial wealth gap persists, more than 150 years after emancipation,weblink January 25, 2024, The Washington Post, 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.WEB, Creamer, John, September 15, 2020, Inequalities Persist Despite Decline in Poverty For All Major Race and Hispanic Origin Groups,weblink live, U.S. Census Bureau,weblink September 17, 2020, July 13, 2021, Poverty is associated with higher rates of marital stress and dissolution, physical and mental health problems, disability, cognitive deficits, low educational attainment, and crime.WEB,weblink Characteristics of African American Families, Oscar, Barbarin, University of North Carolina, September 23, 2006,weblink September 20, 2006, dead, 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.Juliet E.K. Walker, The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship (New York: Macmillan Library Reference, 1998)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.BOOK, Carmen, DeNavas-Walt, Bernadette D., Proctor, Jessica C., Smith, September 2012, Real Median Household Income by Race and Hispanic Origin: 1967 to 2010, 8, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2011,weblinkweblink 2022-10-09, live, U.S. Census Bureau, )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.weblink" title="www.webcitation.org/6AUOAL4XD?url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051030110726weblink">Minority Groups Increasing Business Ownership at Higher Rate than National Average, Census Bureau Reports U.S. Census Press Release {{as of|2011}}, African American-owned businesses account for approximately 2 million US businesses.WEB, Tozzi, John,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100719013730weblink">weblink dead, July 19, 2010, Minority Businesses Multiply But Still Lag Whites, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, July 16, 2010, April 20, 2012, Black-owned businesses experienced the largest growth in number of businesses among minorities from 2002 to 2011.Twenty-five percent of Blacks had white-collar occupations (management, professional, and related fields) in 2000, compared with 33.6% of Americans overall.WEB,weblinkweblink 2022-10-09, live, Occupations: 2000, Peter, Fronczek, Patricia, Johnson, United States Census Bureau, August 2003, October 24, 2006, WEB,weblinkweblink 2022-10-09, live, The Black Population in the United States: March 2002, Jesse, McKinnon, United States Census Bureau, April 2003, October 24, 2006, In 2001, over half of African American households of married couples earned $50,000 or more. 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.In 2006, the median earnings of African American men was more than Black and non-Black American women overall, and in all educational levels.WEB,weblink PINC-03-Part 131, Pubdb3.census.gov, August 29, 2006, January 20, 2011, dead,weblink May 15, 2011, WEB,weblink PINC-03-Part 254, Pubdb3.census.gov, August 29, 2006, January 20, 2011, dead,weblink May 9, 2011, WEB,weblink PINC-03-Part 259, Pubdb3.census.gov, August 29, 2006, January 20, 2011, dead,weblink May 11, 2011, WEB,weblink PINC-03-Part 135, Pubdb3.census.gov, August 29, 2006, January 20, 2011, dead,weblink May 9, 2011, WEB,weblink PINC-03-Part 253, Pubdb3.census.gov, August 29, 2006, January 20, 2011, dead,weblink May 9, 2011, 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.WEB,weblink PINC-03-Part 128, Pubdb3.census.gov, August 29, 2006, January 20, 2011, dead,weblink May 9, 2011, 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.WEB,weblink PINC-03-Part 133, Pubdb3.census.gov, August 29, 2006, January 20, 2011, dead,weblink May 11, 2011, 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.WEB,weblink PINC-03-Part 5, Pubdb3.census.gov, August 29, 2006, January 20, 2011, dead,weblink May 9, 2011, The U.S. public sector is the single most important source of employment for African Americans.WEB,weblink "Black Workers and the Public Sector", Dr Steven Pitts, University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor Research and Education, April 4, 2011, July 21, 2018,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140713001456weblink">weblink July 13, 2014, dead, During 2008–2010, 21.2% of all Black workers were public employees, compared with 16.3% of non-Black workers. 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. 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.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%,WEB,weblink BLS.gov, BLS.gov, January 7, 2011, January 20, 2011,weblink December 13, 2010, dead, while the nationwide rate was 6.5%.WEB,weblink BLS.gov, Data.bls.gov, January 20, 2011,weblink January 20, 2011, dead, In 2007, the average income for African Americans was approximately $34,000, compared to $55,000 for Whites.WEB,weblink OMHRC.gov, OMHRC.gov, October 21, 2009, January 20, 2011, dead,weblink August 13, 2009, African Americans experience a higher rate of unemployment than the general population.WEB,weblink Education Gaps Don't Fully Explain Why Black Unemployment Is So High, Gillian B., White, December 21, 2015, The Atlantic, July 3, 2016, May 22, 2021,weblink live, 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.WEB, Carmen, DeNavas-Walt, Bernadette D., Proctor, Cheryl Hill Lee,weblinkweblink 2022-10-09, live, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004, August 2005, United States Census Bureau, 60–229, 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.NEWS,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20061025143541weblink">weblink October 25, 2006, subscription, live, Black Incomes Surpass Whites in Queens, October 1, 2006, The New York Times, July 18, 2016, In 2011, it was reported that 72% of Black babies were born to unwed mothers.NEWS, Riley, Jason. L., For blacks, the Pyrrhic Victory of the Obama Era,weblink December 14, 2022, The Wall Street Journal, November 4, 2012, December 14, 2022,weblink live, 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.Ammunition for poverty pimps {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525114424weblink |date=May 25, 2017 }} Walter E. Williams, October 27, 2005.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.WEB,weblinkweblink 2022-10-09, live, Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2007, March 2006, May 30, 2007, African Americans also have the highest level of Congressional representation of any minority group in the U.S.WEB, Jonathan D., Mott,weblink The United States Congress Quick Facts, ThisNation.com, February 4, 2010, January 20, 2011,weblink March 5, 2011, dead,

African American homeownership

File:US Homeownership by Race 2009.png|thumb|The US homeownership rate according to raceWEB,weblink US Census Bureau, homeownership by race, October 6, 2006,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100327060251weblink">weblink March 27, 2010, dead, ]]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.WEB,weblink Black Families Fall Further Behind on Homeownership, October 13, 2022, March 8, 2023, March 8, 2023,weblink live, In the first quarter of 2021, 45.1% of African Americans owned their homes, compared to 65.3% of all Americans.WEB, RESIDENTIAL VACANCIES AND HOMEOWNERSHIP,weblinkweblink 2022-10-09, live, U.S. Census Bureau, July 13, 2021, The African American homeownership rate has remained relatively flat since the 1970s despite an increase in anti-discrimination housing laws and protections.WEB,weblink The Shocking Truth 50 Years After The 1968 Fair Housing Act: The Black Homeownership Paradox, John, Wake, Forbes, March 8, 2023, March 8, 2023,weblink live, 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.WEB,weblink Student Loan Debt A Barrier To Black Homeownership – NMP, March 8, 2023, March 8, 2023,weblink live, WEB,weblink Why do Black College Graduates Have a Lower Homeownership Rate Than White People Who Dropped Out of High School?, February 27, 2020, May 28, 2023, May 28, 2023,weblink live, 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%.NEWS,weblink What Gentrification Means for Black Homeowners, Jacquelynn, Kerubo, The New York Times, August 17, 2021, NYTimes.com, March 8, 2023, March 8, 2023,weblink live, NEWS,weblink Rising home prices: a timeline, Monique, Beals, The Hill, May 5, 2022, March 16, 2023, March 8, 2023,weblink live, WEB,weblink Average annual real wages U.S. 2021, Statista, March 8, 2023, March 8, 2023,weblink live, South Carolina is the state with the most African American homeownership, with about 55% of African Americans owning their own homes.WEB, 2023-02-22, South Carolina leads the U.S. in Black homeownership, but there are still a few gaps to close,weblink 2023-10-16, South Carolina Public Radio, en, October 18, 2023,weblink live, WEB, Bahney, Anna, 2023-03-02, 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/20231018185057weblink |url-status=live }}

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.NEWS, Staff, N. P. R., 2021-05-21, Understanding The 2020 Electorate: AP VoteCast Survey, en, NPR,weblink 2022-11-04, February 19, 2021,weblink live, 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.JOURNAL, American Society and the African American Foreign Policy Lobby: Constraints and Opportunities, David A., Dickson, Journal of Black Studies, 1996, 139–151, 27, 10.1177/002193479602700201, 2, 143314945, 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.BOOK, John Clifford, Green, Daniel J., Coffey, The State of the Parties: The Changing Role of Contemporary American Politics,weblink 2007, Rowman & Littlefield, 978-0-7425-5322-4, 29, June 16, 2015, January 7, 2024,weblink live,

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 HouseWhite House"Lift Every Voice and Sing" is often referred to as the Black national anthem in the United States.WEB, Jackson, Jabar, Martin, Jill, July 3, 2020, NFL plans to play Black national anthem before Week 1 games,weblink July 4, 2020, CNN, May 27, 2022,weblink live, 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.NEWS, Till Victory Is Won: The Staying Power Of 'Lift Every Voice And Sing', en, NPR.org,weblink February 22, 2022, May 31, 2022,weblink live,

Sexuality

{{See also|African-American LGBT community}}According to a Gallup survey, 4.6% of Black or African Americans self-identified as LGBT in 2016, while the total portion of American adults in all ethnic groups identifying as LGBT was 4.1% in 2016.NEWS,weblink In US, More Adults Identifying as LGBT, Gallup (company), Gallup, January 11, 2017, July 21, 2018, May 1, 2021,weblink live,

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

The life expectancy for Black men in 2008 was 70.8 years.WEB,weblink "Life expectancy gap narrows between blacks, whites", Rosie Mestel, The Los Angeles Times, June 5, 2012., Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2018,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170826131902weblink">weblink August 26, 2017, dead, June 5, 2012, Life expectancy for Black women was 77.5 years in 2008. 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. In 1900, White men lived an average of 46.3 years and White women lived an average of 48.3 years. African American life expectancy at birth is persistently five to seven years lower than European Americans.JOURNAL, LaVeist TA, Racial segregation and longevity among African Americans: an individual-level analysis, Health Services Research, 38, 6 Pt 2, 1719–33, December 2003, 14727794, 1360970, 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2003.00199.x, Black men have shorter lifespans than any other group in the US besides Native American men.JOURNAL, 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-032315-021556, free, Visible and Invisible Trends in Black Men's Health: Pitfalls and Promises for Addressing Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Inequities in Health, 2016, Gilbert, Keon L., Ray, Rashawn, Siddiqi, Arjumand, Shetty, Shivan, Baker, Elizabeth A., Elder, Keith, Griffith, Derek M., Annual Review of Public Health, 37, 295–311, 26989830, 6531286, Black people have higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension than the U.S. average. For adult Black men, the rate of obesity was 31.6% in 2010.WEB,weblinkweblink 2022-10-09, live, CDC 2012. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2010, p. 107, For adult Black women, the rate of obesity was 41.2% in 2010. African Americans have higher rates of mortality than any other racial or ethnic group for 8 of the top 10 causes of death.JOURNAL, Hummer RA, Ellison CG, Rogers RG, Moulton BE, Romero RR, 6053725, Religious involvement and adult mortality in the United States: review and perspective, Southern Medical Journal, 97, 12, 1223–30, December 2004, 15646761, 10.1097/01.SMJ.0000146547.03382.94, 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.WEB,weblink Cancer Rates by Race/Ethnicity and Sex, Cancer Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 21, 2016, February 24, 2017, February 25, 2017,weblink live, African Americans also have higher prevalence and incidence of Alzheimer's disease compared to the overall average.JOURNAL, 2020-03-10, 2020 Alzheimer's disease facts and figures, Alzheimer's & Dementia, en, 16, 3, 391–460, 10.1002/alz.12068, 32157811, 212666886, 1552-5260, free, JOURNAL, Mayeda, Elizabeth Rose, Glymour, M Maria, Quesenberry, Charles P, Whitmer, Rachel A, 2016-02-11, Inequalities in dementia incidence between six racial and ethnic groups over 14 years, Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 12, 3, 216–224, 10.1016/j.jalz.2015.12.007, 1552-5260, 4969071, 26874595, Violence has an impact upon African American life expectancy. A report from the U.S. Department of Justice states "In 2005, homicide victimization rates for blacks were 6 times higher than the rates for whites".Homicide trends in the U.S. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061212100248weblink |date=December 12, 2006 }}, U.S. Department of Justice The report also found that "94% of black victims were killed by blacks." Black boys and men age 15–44 are the only race/sex category for which homicide is a top-five cause of death.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.WEB,weblink African-Americans and Alcohol, November 23, 2023, November 23, 2023,weblink live, In December 2020, African Americans were less likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19 due to mistrust in the U.S. medical system related to decades of abuses and anti-black treatment. From 2021 to 2022, there was an increase in African Americans who became vaccinated.WEB, Johnson, Steven, January 24, 2022, Study: Black Americans Beat Back Vaccine Hesitancy Faster Than Whites,weblink March 2, 2022, U.S. News & World Report, March 2, 2022,weblink live, WEB,weblink Black Americans face higher COVID-19 risks, are more hesitant to trust medical scientists, get vaccinated, John, Gramlich, Cary, Funk, January 28, 2022, January 28, 2022,weblink live, WEB, Sweta, Haldar, February 2, 2022, Latest Data on COVID-19 Vaccinations by Race/Ethnicity,weblink March 2, 2022, KFF, en-US, March 2, 2022,weblink live, Still, in 2022, COVID-19 complications became the third leading cause of death for African Americans.WEB,weblink New Report States COVID-19 Is Third-Leading Cause of Death for Black Americans, January 28, 2022, January 28, 2022,weblink live, {{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, and 7.5 times the rate of gonorrhea.WEB, STDs in Racial and Ethnic Minorities,weblink Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2017, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 22, 2019, June 17, 2019, June 16, 2019,weblink live, The disproportionately high incidence of HIV/AIDS among African Americans has been attributed to homophobic influences and lack of proper healthcare.NEWS, Homophobia in Black Communities Means More Young Men Get AIDS, The Atlantic, November 22, 2013,weblink January 21, 2014, January 27, 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140127194146weblink">weblink live, 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.

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.JOURNAL, Thompson, Vetta L. Sanders, Bazile, Anita, Akbar, Maysa, 2004, African Americans' Perceptions of Psychotherapy and Psychotherapists., Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 35, 1, 19–26, 10.1037/0735-7028.35.1.19, 1939-1323, 10.1.1.515.2135, Historically, many African American communities did not seek counseling because religion was a part of the family values.JOURNAL, Turner, Natalie, Mental Health Care Treatment Seeking Among African Americans and Caribbean Blacks: What is The Role of Religiosity/Spirituality?, Aging and Mental Health, 23, 7, 905–911, 10.1080/13607863.2018.1453484, 29608328, 2018, 6168439,weblink July 12, 2019, April 29, 2019,weblink live, 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. 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.JOURNAL, Lukachko, Alicia, Myer, Ilan, Hankerson, Sidney, August 1, 2015, Religiosity and Mental Health Service Use Among African-americans, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 203, 8, 578–582, 10.1097/NMD.0000000000000334, 0022-3018, 4535188, 26172387, 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. 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. More African Americans seek assistance when it is called counseling and not psychotherapy because it is more welcoming within the cultural and community.WEB,weblink 'Don't Show Weakness:' Black Americans Still Shy Away from Psychotherapy, Leland, John, December 8, 2018, Newsweek, September 11, 2020, January 7, 2024,weblink live, 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.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%.WEB,weblink Suicide rates among Black Americans are increasing by double digits, September 11, 2023, November 24, 2023, November 24, 2023,weblink live, 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.

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.)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.JOURNAL, Katarzyna, Bryc, Eric Y., Durand, J. Michael, Macpherson, David, Reich, Joanna L., Mountain, The Genetic Ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans across the United States, The American Journal of Human Genetics, January 8, 2015, 96, 1, 37–53, 10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.11.010, 4289685, 25529636, JOURNAL, Soheil, Baharian, Maxime, Barakatt, Christopher R., Gignoux, Suyash, Shringarpure, Jacob, Errington, William J., Blot, Carlos D., Bustamante, Eimear E., Kenny, Scott M., Williams, Melinda C., Aldrich, Simon, Gravel, The Great Migration and African-American Genomic Diversity, PLOS Genetics, May 27, 2015, 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006059, 12, 5, e1006059, 27232753, 4883799, free, 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%.Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "Exactly How 'Black' Is Black America? {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814202953weblink |date=August 14, 2021 }}", The Root, February 11, 2013.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.JOURNAL, Micheletti, Steven J., etal, Genetic Consequences of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Americas, American Journal of Human Genetics, August 6, 2020, 107, 2, 265–277, 10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.06.012, 32707084, 7413858, 222230119, 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.JOURNAL, Katarzyna, Bryc, Adam, Auton, Matthew R., Nelson, Jorge R., Oksenberg, Stephen L., Hauser, Scott, Williams, Alain, Froment, Jean-Marie, Bodo, Charles, Wambebe, Sarah A., Tishkoff, Carlos D., Bustamante, Genome-wide patterns of population structure and admixture in West Africans and African-Americans, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, January 12, 2010, 107, 2, 786–791, 10.1073/pnas.0909559107, 20080753, 2818934, 2010PNAS..107..786B, free, {{NoteTag|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.WEB,weblink African Ethnicities and Their Origins, John, Thornton, John Thornton (historian), Linda, Heywood, October 1, 2011, The Root (magazine), The Root, January 2, 2017, January 3, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170103004156weblink">weblink live, }}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.JOURNAL, Francesco, Montinaro, George B.J., Busby, Vincenzo L., Pascali, Simon, Myers, Garrett, Hellenthal, Cristian, Capelli, Unravelling the hidden ancestry of American admixed populations, Nature Communications, March 24, 2015, 10.1038/ncomms7596, 6, 6596, 25803618, 4374169, 2015NatCo...6.6596M, 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.JOURNAL, Fouad, Zakharia, Analabha, Basu, Devin, Absher, Themistocles L., Assimes, Alan S., Go, Mark A., Hlatky, Carlos, Iribarren, Joshua W., Knowles, Jun, Li, Balasubramanian, Narasimhan, Steven, Sidney, Audrey, Southwick, Richard M., Myers, Thomas, Quertermous, Neil, Risch, Hua, Tang, Characterizing the admixed African ancestry of African Americans, Genome Biology, 2009, 10, R141, R141, 10.1186/gb-2009-10-12-r141, 20025784, 2812948, free, 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. 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.WEB, November 8, 2023, African American Ethnic Heritage,weblink November 8, 2023, Black Demographics, November 9, 2023,weblink live, 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).WEB, Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Michelle's Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy—and Yours,weblink Henry Louis Gates Jr., November 8, 2009, April 11, 2015, April 11, 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150411083013weblink">weblink live, 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).BOOK, The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Basci Civitas Books, WEB, 5 Things to Know About Blacks and Native Americans,weblink November 20, 2012, April 11, 2015, April 19, 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150419023648weblink">weblink live, 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.NEWS, Zimmer, Carl, Tales of African-American History Found in DNA,weblinkweblink January 1, 2022, limited, The New York Times, May 10, 2019, May 27, 2016, {{cbignore}}

Y-DNA

Africans bearing the E-V38 (E1b1a) likely traversed across the Sahara, from east to west, approximately 19,000 years ago.JOURNAL, Shrine, Daniel, Rotimi, Charles, Whole-Genome-Sequence-Based Haplotypes Reveal Single Origin of the Sickle Allele during the Holocene Wet Phase, American Journal of Human Genetics, 102, 4, 547–556, Am J Hum Genet, 5985360, 2018, 29526279, 10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.02.003, E-M2 (E1b1a1) likely originated in West Africa or Central Africa.JOURNAL, Trombetta, Beniamino, 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, Genome Biology and Evolution, 7, 7, 1940–1950, Genome Biol Evol, 4524485, 2015, 26108492, 10.1093/gbe/evv118, 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.JOURNAL, Lynn M., Sims, Dennis, Garvey, Jack, Ballantyne, Sub-populations within the major European and African derived haplogroups R1b3 and E3a are differentiated by previously phylogenetically undefined Y-SNPs, Human Mutation, January 2007, 28, 1, 97, 10.1002/humu.9469, 17154278, free,

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 (|access-date=January 20, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516005550weblink|archive-date=May 16, 2008|url-status=dead}}