History
Colonial era
The vast majority of those who were enslaved and transported in theFrom the American Revolution to the Civil War
During the 1770s, Africans, both enslaved and free, helped rebellious American colonists secure their independence by defeating the British in the American Revolutionary War. Blacks played a role in both sides in the American Revolution. Activists in the Patriot cause included James Armistead, Prince Whipple, and Oliver Cromwell. Around 15,000Reconstruction 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 andGreat migration and civil rights movement
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. 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. ThePost–civil rights era
Politically and economically, African Americans have made substantial strides during the post–civil rights era. In 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the List of African-American federal judges, first African-American Supreme Court Justice. In 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress, U.S. Congress. In 1989, Douglas Wilder became the first African American elected governor in U.S. history. Clarence Thomas succeeded Marshall to become the second African-American Supreme Court Justice in 1991. In 1992, Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois became the first African-American woman elected to the United States Senate, U.S. Senate. There were 8,936 Black officeholders in the United States in 2000, showing a net increase of 7,467 since 1970. In 2001, there were 484 Black mayors. 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. On November 4, 2008, Democratic Party (United States), Democratic United States Senator, Senator Barack Obama 2008 United States presidential election, defeated Republican Party (United States), Republican Senator John McCain to become the first African American to be elected president. At least 95 percent of African-American voters voted for Obama. He also received overwhelming support from young and educated Whites, a majority of Asian Americans, Asians, and Hispanic and Latino Americans, 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 nonincumbent Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter. Obama was 2012 United States presidential election, reelected for a second and term limit, final term, by a similar margin on November 6, 2012. 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.Demographics
In 1790, when the first United States Census, U.S. Census was taken, Africans (including slaves and free people) numbered about 760,000—about 19.3% of the population. In 1860, at the start of the 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 "Freedman, freemen". By 1900, the Black population had doubled and reached 8.8 million. 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, New Great Migration, that trend reversed, with more African Americans moving south to the Sun Belt than leaving it. 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. 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. At the time of the United States Census 2000, 2000 Census, 54.8% of African Americans lived in the Southern United States, South. In that year, 17.6% of African Americans lived in the Northeastern United States, Northeast and 18.7% in the Midwestern United States, Midwest, while only 8.9% lived in the Western United States, western states. The west does have a sizable Black population in certain areas, however. California, the nation's most populous state, has the fifth largest African-American population, only behind New York, Texas, Georgia, and Florida. According to the 2000 Census, approximately 2.05% of Black Hispanic and Latino Americans, African Americans identified as Hispanic or Latino in origin, many of whom may be of Afro-Brazilian, Brazilian, Afro-Puerto Rican, Puerto Rican, Dominican American, Dominican, Afro-Cuban, Cuban, Haitian Americans, Haitian, or other Afro-Latin American, Latin American descent. The only self-reported ''ancestral'' groups larger than African Americans are the Irish American, Irish and German Americans, Germans. According to the 2010 United States Census, 2010 U.S. Census, nearly 3% of people who self-identified as Black had recent ancestors who immigrated from another country. Self-reported West Indian American, non-Hispanic Black immigrants from the Caribbean, mostly from Jamaica and Haiti, represented 0.9% of the U.S. population, at 2.6 million."Total Ancestry Reported"U.S. cities
After 100 years of African Americans leaving the south in large numbers seeking better opportunities and treatment in the west and north, a movement known as the Great Migration, there is now a reverse trend, called the New Great Migration. As with the earlier Great Migration, the New Great Migration is primarily directed toward cities and large urban areas, such as Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte, Houston, Dallas, Raleigh, North Carolina, Raleigh, Tampa, San Antonio, Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis, Nashville, Jacksonville, and so forth.Greg Toppo and Paul OverbergEducation
During slavery, Anti-literacy laws in the United States, anti-literacy laws were enacted in the U.S. that prohibited education for Black people. Slave owners saw literacy as a threat to the institution of slavery. As a North Carolina statute stated, "Teaching slaves to read and write, tends to excite dissatisfaction in their minds, and to produce insurrection and slave rebellion, rebellion." In 1863, enslaved Americans became free citizens during a time when public educational systems were expanding across the country. By 1870, around seventy-four institutions in the south provided a form of advanced education for African American students, and by 1900, over a hundred programs at these schools provided training for Black professionals, including teachers. Many of the students at Fisk University, including W. E. B. Du Bois when he was a student there, taught school during the summers to support their studies. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. U.S. Census surveys showed that by 1998, 89 percent of African Americans aged 25 to 29 had completed a high-school education, less than Whites or Asians, but more than Hispanics. On many college entrance, standardized tests and grades, African Americans have historically lagged behind Whites, but some studies suggest that the Achievement gap in the United States, achievement gap has been closing. Many policy makers have proposed that this gap can and will be eliminated through policies such as affirmative action, desegregation, and multiculturalism. Between 1995 and 2009, freshmen college enrollment for African Americans increased by 73 percent and only 15 percent for Whites. 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. The average high school graduation rate of Blacks in the United States has steadily increased to 71% in 2013. 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. 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 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. 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, 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. In 2020, College Board reshaped some curricula among history-based courses to further reflect the African diaspora. 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.Historically Black colleges and universities
Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which were founded when Racial segregation in the United States, segregated institutions of higher learning did not admit African Americans, continue to thrive and educate students of all races today. There are 101 HBCUs representing three percent of the nation's colleges and universities with the majority established in the southeastern United States, Southeast. HBCUs have been largely responsible for establishing and expanding the African-American middle-class by providing opportunities not usually given to African Americans.Economic status
African Americans have benefited from the advances made during the civil rights era. The Racial inequality in the United States, racial disparity in poverty rates has narrowed. In the first quarter of 2021, 45.1% of African Americans owned their homes, compared to 65.3% of all Americans. The African-American poverty, poverty rate among African Americans has decreased from 24.7% in 2004 to 18.8% in 2020, compared to 10.5% for all Americans. African Americans have a combined buying power of over $892 billion currently and likely over $1.1 trillion by 2012. In 2002, African American-owned businesses accounted for 1.2 million of the US's 23 million businesses. African American-owned businesses account for approximately 2 million US businesses. 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 worker, white-collar occupations (management, professional, and related fields) in 2000, compared with 33.6% of Americans overall. 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. 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. 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. 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. The U.S. public sector is the single most important source of employment for African Americans. 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%, while the nationwide rate was 6.5%. 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. ''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. In 2011, it was reported that African-American family structure, 72% of Black babies were born to unwed mothers.WASHINGTON, J. (2010). Blacks struggle with 72 percent unwed mothers rate. 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. 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. African Americans also have the highest level of United States Congress, Congressional representation of any minority group in the U.S.Politics
Since the mid 20th century, a large majority of African Americans support the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. In the 2020 United States presidential election, 2020 Presidential election, 91% of African-American voters supported Democrat Joe Biden, while 8% supported Republican Donald Trump. 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. Many African Americans were excluded from electoral politics in the decades following the end of Reconstruction. For those that could participate, until the New Deal, African Americans were supporters of the Republican Party because it was Republican President Abraham Lincoln who helped in granting freedom to American slaves; at the time, the Republicans and Democrats represented the Sectionalism, sectional interests of the Northern United States, North and Southern United States, South, respectively, rather than any specific ideology, and both Conservatism in the United States, conservative and Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal were represented equally in both parties. The African-American trend of voting for Democrats can be traced back to the 1930s during the Great Depression, when Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program provided economic relief to African Americans. Roosevelt's New Deal coalition turned the Democratic Party into an organization of the working class and their liberal allies, regardless of region. The African-American vote became even more solidly Democratic when Democratic presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson pushed for civil rights legislation during the 1960s. In 1960, nearly a third of African Americans voted for Republican Richard Nixon.Black national anthem
"Lift Every Voice and Sing" is often referred to as the Black national anthem in the United States. 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.Sexuality
According to a Gallup survey, 4.6% of Black or African-Americans self-identified as LGBT rights in the United States, LGBT in 2016, while the total portion of American adults in all ethnic groups identifying as LGBT was 4.1% in 2016.Health
General
The life expectancy for Black men in 2008 was 70.8 years. 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. Black men have shorter lifespans than any other group in the US besides Native American men. 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. 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. 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. African Americans also have higher prevalence and incidence of Alzheimer's disease compared to the overall average. 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.Sexual health
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African Americans have higher rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) compared to Whites, with 5 times the rates of syphilis and Chlamydia infection, chlamydia, and 7.5 times the rate of gonorrhea. The disproportionately high incidence of HIV/AIDS in the United States, HIV/AIDS among African-Americans has been attributed to Homophobia in the African American community, homophobic influences and lack of access to proper healthcare. 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 Obstacles to receiving mental health services among African American youth, barriers for accessing mental health services. Mental health counselor, Counseling has been frowned upon and distant in utility and proximity to many people in the African American community. In 2004, a qualitative research study explored the disconnect with African Americans and mental health. The study was conducted as a semi-structured discussion which allowed the focus group to express their opinions and life experiences. The results revealed a couple key variables that create barriers for many African American communities to seek mental health services such as the stigma, lack of four important necessities; trust, affordability, cultural understanding and impersonal services. Historically, many African American communities did not seek counseling because religion was a part of the family values. 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. Most counseling approaches are Westernization, westernized and do not fit within the African American culture. African American families tend to resolve concerns within the family, and it is viewed by the family as a strength. On the other hand, when African Americans seek counseling, they face a social backlash and are criticized. They may be labeled "crazy", viewed as weak, and their pride is diminished. 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. Counselors are encouraged to be aware of such barriers for the well-being of African American clients. Without Cultural competence in healthcare, cultural competency training in health care, many African Americans go unheard and misunderstood. Although suicide is a top-10 cause of death for men overall in the US, it is not a top-10 cause of death for Black men.Genetics
Genome-wide studies
Recent surveys of African Americans using a genetic testing service have found varied ancestries which show different tendencies by region and sex of ancestors. These studies found that on average, African Americans have 73.2–82.1% West African people, West African, 16.7%–24% European, and 0.8–1.2% Native American genetic ancestry, with large variation between individuals. 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%. According to a genome-wide study by Bryc et al. (2009), the mixed ancestry of African Americans in varying ratios came about as the result of sexual contact between West/Central Africans (more frequently females) and Europeans (more frequently males). Consequently, the 365 African Americans in their sample have a genome-wide average of 78.1% West African ancestry and 18.5% European ancestry, with large variation among individuals (ranging from 99% to 1% West African ancestry). The West African ancestral component in African Americans is most similar to that in present-day speakers from the non-Bantu languages, Bantu branches of the Niger-Congo languages, Niger-Congo (Niger-Kordofanian) family. Correspondingly, Montinaro et al. (2014) observed that around 50% of the overall ancestry of African Americans traces back to the Niger-Congo-speaking Yoruba people, Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria and southern Benin, reflecting the centrality of this West African region in the Atlantic Slave Trade. The next most frequent ancestral component found among African Americans was derived from Great Britain, in keeping with historical records. It constitutes a little over 10% of their overall ancestry, and is most similar to the Northwest European ancestral component also carried by Barbadians. Zakharaia et al. (2009) found a similar proportion of Yoruba associated ancestry in their African-American samples, with a minority also drawn from Mandenka people, Mandenka and Bantu peoples, Bantu populations. Additionally, the researchers observed an average European ancestry of 21.9%, again with significant variation between individuals. 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. Altogether, genetic studies suggest that African Americans are a genetically diverse people. According to DNA analysis led in 2006 by Pennsylvania State University, Penn State geneticist Mark D. Shriver, around 58 percent of African Americans have at least 12.5% European ancestry (equivalent to one European great-grandparent and his/her forebears), 19.6 percent of African Americans have at least 25% European ancestry (equivalent to one European grandparent and his/her forebears), and 1 percent of African Americans have at least 50% European ancestry (equivalent to one European parent and his/her forebears). According to Shriver, around 5 percent of African Americans also have at least 12.5% Native American ancestry (equivalent to one Native American great-grandparent and his/her forebears). 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.Y-DNA
Africans bearing the Haplogroup E-V38, E-V38 (E1b1a) likely traversed across the Sahara, from East Africa, east to West Africa, west, approximately 19,000 years ago. Haplogroup E-M2, E-M2 (E1b1a1) likely originated in West Africa or Central Africa. According to a Y chromosome, Y-DNA study by Sims et al. (2007), the majority (≈60%) of African Americans belong to various subclades of the Haplogroup E-M2, E-M2 (E1b1a1, formerly E3a) paternal haplogroup. This is the most common genetic paternal lineage found today among West/Central African males, and is also a signature of the historical Bantu migrations. The next most frequent Y-DNA haplogroup observed among African Americans is the Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA), R1b clade, which around 15% of African Americans carry. This lineage is most common today among Northwestern European males. The remaining African Americans mainly belong to the paternal Haplogroup I-M170, haplogroup I (≈7%), which is also frequent in Northwestern Europe.mtDNA
According to an Mitochondrial DNA, mtDNA study by Salas et al. (2005), the maternal lineages of African Americans are most similar to haplogroups that are today especially common in West Africa (>55%), followed closely by West-Central Africa and Southwestern Africa (<41%). The characteristic West African haplogroups Haplogroup L1 (mtDNA), L1b, Haplogroup L2 (mtDNA), L2b,c,d, and Haplogroup L3 (mtDNA), L3b,d and West-Central African haplogroups Haplogroup L1 (mtDNA), L1c and Haplogroup L3 (mtDNA), L3e in particular occur at high frequencies among African Americans. As with the paternal DNA of African Americans, contributions from other parts of the continent to their maternal gene pool are insignificant.Social status
Formal political, economic and social discrimination against minorities has been present throughout American history. Leland T. Saito, Associate Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, writes, "Political rights have been circumscribed by race, class and gender since the founding of the United States, when the right to vote was restricted to White men of property. Throughout the history of the United States race has been used by Whites for legitimizing and creating difference and social, economic and political exclusion." Although they have gained a greater degree of social equality since the civil rights movement, African Americans have remained stagnant economically, which has hindered their ability to break into the middle class and beyond. As of 2020, the Racial inequality in the United States, racial wealth gap between Whites and Blacks remains as large as it was in 1968, with the typical net worth of a White household equivalent to that of 11.5 black households. Despite this, African Americans have increased employment rates and gained representation in the highest levels of American government in the post–civil rights era. However, widespread racism against African Americans, racism remains an issue that continues to undermine the development of social status.Economic issues
One of the most serious and long-standing issues within African-American communities is poverty. Poverty is associated with higher rates of marital stress and dissolution, physical disorder, physical and mental disorder, mental health problems, disability and poverty, disability, cognitive deficits, Achievement gap in the United States, low educational attainment, and crime. In 2004, almost 25% of African-American families lived below the poverty level. In 2007, the average income for African Americans was approximately $34,000, compared to $55,000 for Whites. African Americans experience a higher rate of unemployment than the general population. African Americans have a long and diverse history of African-American Businesses, business ownership. Although the first African-American Businesses, African-American business is unknown, slaves captured from West Africa are believed to have established commercial enterprises as peddlers and skilled craftspeople as far back as the 17th century. Around 1900, Booker T. Washington became the most famous proponent of African-American businesses. His critic and rival W. E. B. DuBois also commended business as a vehicle for African-American advancement.Policing and criminal justice
Forty percent of prison inmates are African American. African American males are more likely to be police use of deadly force in the United States, killed by police when compared to other races. This is one of the factors that led to the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013. A historical issue in the U.S. where women have weaponized their White privilege in the country by reporting on Black people, often instigating racial violence, White women calling the police on Black people became widely publicized in 2020. In African-American culture there is a long history of calling a meddlesome White woman by a certain name, while ''The Guardian'' called 2020 "the year of Karen (slang), Karen". Although in the last decade Black youth have had lower rates of cannabis (marijuana) consumption than Whites of the same age, they have disproportionately higher arrest rates than Whites: in 2010, for example, Blacks were 3.73 times as likely to get arrested for using cannabis than Whites, despite not significantly more frequently being users.Social issues
After over 50 years, marriage rates for all Americans began to decline while divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births have climbed. These changes have been greatest among African Americans. After more than 70 years of racial parity Black marriage rates began to fall behind Whites. Single parents in the United States, Single-parent households have become common, and according to U.S. census figures released in January 2010, only 38 percent of Black children live with both their parents. The first ever anti-miscegenation law was passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 1691, criminalizing interracial marriage. In a speech in Charleston, Illinois in 1858,Political legacy
Military history of African Americans, African Americans have fought in every war in the Military history of the United States, history of the United States. The gains made by African Americans in the civil rights movement and in the Black Power movement not only obtained certain rights for African Americans, but changed American society in far-reaching and fundamentally important ways. Prior to the 1950s, Black Americans in the South were subject to de jure discrimination, or Jim Crow laws. They were often the victims of extreme cruelty and violence, sometimes resulting in deaths: by the post World War II era, African Americans became increasingly discontented with their long-standing inequality. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., African Americans and their supporters challenged the nation to "rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed that all men are created equal..." The civil rights movement marked an enormous change in American social, political, economic and civic life. It brought with it boycotts, sit-ins, nonviolent demonstrations and marches, court battles, bombings and other violence; prompted worldwide media coverage and intense public debate; forged enduring civic, economic and religious alliances; and disrupted and realigned the nation's two major political parties. Over time, it has changed in fundamental ways the manner in which Blacks and Whites interact with and relate to one another. The movement resulted in the removal of codified, ''de jure'' racial segregation and discrimination from American life and law, and heavily influenced other groups and movements in struggles for civil rights and social equality within American society, including the Free Speech Movement, the Disability, disabled, the Feminist movement, women's movement, and migrant workers. It also inspired the Native American rights movement, and in King's 1964 book ''Why We Can't Wait'' he wrote the U.S. "was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race."Media and coverage
Some activists and academics contend that American news media coverage of African-American news, concerns, or dilemmas is inadequate, or that the news media present distorted images of African Americans. To combat this, Robert L. Johnson founded Black Entertainment Television (BET), a network that targets young African Americans and urban audiences in the United States. Over the years, the network has aired such programming as Hip hop music, rap and Contemporary R&B, R&B music videos, urban-oriented movies and television series, and some public affairs programs. On Sunday mornings, BET would broadcast Christian programming; the network would also broadcast non-affiliated Christian programs during the early morning hours daily. According to Viacom (2005–2019), Viacom, BET is now a global network that reaches households in the United States, Caribbean, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The network has gone on to spawn several spin-off channels, including BET Her (originally launched as ''BET on Jazz''), which originally showcasedCulture
From their earliest presence in North America, African Americans have significantly contributed literature, art, agricultural skills, cuisine, clothing styles, music, language, and social and technological innovation to American culture. The cultivation and use of many agricultural products in the United States, such as Sweet potato, yams, peanuts, rice, okra, sorghum, grits, watermelon, indigo dyes, and cotton, can be traced to West African and African-American influences. Notable examples include George Washington Carver, who created nearly 500 products from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and pecans. Soul food is a variety of cuisine popular among African Americans. It is closely related to the cuisine of the Southern United States. The descriptive terminology may have originated in the mid-1960s, when ''wikt:soul, soul'' was a common definer used to describe African-American culture (for example, soul music). African Americans were the first peoples in the United States to make fried chicken, along with Scottish people, Scottish immigrants to the South. Although the Scottish had been frying chicken before they emigrated, they lacked the spices and flavor that African Americans had used when preparing the meal. The Scottish American settlers therefore adopted the African-American method of seasoning chicken. However, fried chicken was generally a rare meal in the African-American community, and was usually reserved for special events or celebrations.Language
African-American English is a Variety (linguistics), variety (dialect, ethnolect, and sociolect) of American English, commonly spoken by urban working class, working-class and largely wikt:bidialectal, bi-dialectal middle class, middle-class African Americans. African-American English evolved during the antebellum period through interaction between speakers of 16th- and 17th-century English of Great Britain and Ireland and various West African languages. As a result, the variety shares parts of its grammar and phonology with the Southern American English dialect. African-American English differs from Standard American English (SAE) in certain pronunciation characteristics, tense usage, and grammatical structures, which were derived from West African languages (particularly those belonging to the Niger-Congo languages, Niger-Congo family). Virtually all habitual speakers of African-American English can understand and communicate in Standard American English. As with all linguistic forms, AAVE's usage is influenced by various factors, including geographical, educational and socioeconomic background, as well as formality of setting. Additionally, there are many literary uses of this variety of English, particularly in African-American literature.Traditional names
African-American names are part of the cultural traditions of African Americans. Prior to the 1950s, and 1960s, most African-American names closely resembled those used within European American culture. Babies of that era were generally given a few common names, with children using nicknames to distinguish the various people with the same name. With the rise of 1960s civil rights movement, there was a dramatic increase in names of various origins. By the 1970s, and 1980s, it had become common among African Americans to invent new names for themselves, although many of these invented names took elements from popular existing names. Prefixes such as La/Le, Da/De, Ra/Re and Ja/Je, and suffixes like -ique/iqua, -isha and -aun/-awn are common, as are inventive spellings for common names. The book ''Baby Names Now: From Classic to Cool—The Very Last Word on First Names'' places the origins of "La" names in African-American culture in . Even with the rise of inventive names, it is still common for African Americans to use biblical, historical, or traditional European names. Daniel, Christopher, Michael, David, James, Joseph, and Matthew were thus among the most frequent names for African-American boys in 2013. The name LaKeisha is typically considered American in origin, but has elements that were drawn from both French and West/Central African roots. Names such as LaTanisha, JaMarcus, DeAndre, and Shaniqua were created in the same way. Punctuation marks are seen more often within African-American names than other American names, such as the names Mo'nique and D'Andre.Religion
The majority of African Americans are Protestant, many of whom follow the historically Black churches.U.S.Religious Landscape SurveyMusic
African-American music is one of the most pervasive African-American cultural influences in the United States today and is among the most dominant in mainstream popular music. Hip hop music, Hip hop, R&B, funk, rock and roll, soul music, soul, blues, and other contemporary American musical forms originated in Black communities and evolved from other Black forms of music, including blues, doo-wop, Barbershop music, barbershop, ragtime, Bluegrass music, bluegrass,Dance
African Americans have also had an important role in American dance. Bill T. Jones, a prominent modern choreographer and dancer, has included historical African-American themes in his work, particularly in the piece "Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land". Likewise, Alvin Ailey's artistic work, including his "Revelations" based on his experience growing up as an African American in the South during the 1930s, has had a significant influence on modern dance. Another form of dance, Stepping (African-American), Stepping, is an African-American tradition whose performance and competition has been formalized through the traditionally Black fraternities and sororities at universities.Literature and academics
Many African-American authors have written stories, poems, and essays influenced by their experiences as African Americans. African-American literature is a major genre in American literature. Famous examples include Langston Hughes, James Baldwin (writer), James Baldwin, Richard Wright (author), Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou. African-American inventors have created many widely used devices in the world and have contributed to international innovation. Norbert Rillieux created the technique for converting sugar cane juice into white sugar crystals. Moreover, Rillieux left Louisiana in 1854 and went to France, where he spent ten years working with the Champollions deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs, Egyptian hieroglyphics from the Rosetta Stone. Most slave inventors were nameless, such as the slave owned by the Confederate States of America, Confederate President Jefferson Davis who designed the ship propeller used by the Confederate navy. By 1913, over 1,000 inventions were patented by Black Americans. Among the most notable inventors were Jan Matzeliger, who developed the first machine to mass-produce shoes, and Elijah McCoy, who invented automatic lubrication devices for steam engines. Granville Woods had 35 patents to improve electric railway systems, including the first system to allow moving trains to communicate. Garrett A. Morgan developed the first automatic traffic signal and gas mask. Lewis Howard Latimer invented an improvement for the incandescent light bulb. More recent inventors include Frederick McKinley Jones, who invented the movable refrigeration unit for food transport in trucks and trains. Lloyd Quarterman worked with six other Black scientists on the creation of the atomic bomb (code named the Manhattan Project.) Quarterman also helped develop the first nuclear reactor, which was used in the atomically powered submarine called the Nautilus. A few other notable examples include the first successful Cardiac surgery, open heart surgery, performed by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, and the air conditioner, patented by Frederick McKinley Jones. Dr. Mark Dean (computer scientist), Mark Dean holds three of the original nine patents on the computer on which all PCs are based. More current contributors include Otis Boykin, whose inventions included several novel methods for manufacturing electrical components that found use in applications such as guided missile systems and computers, and Colonel Frederick D. Gregory, Frederick Gregory, who was not only the first Black astronaut pilot but the person who redesigned the cockpits for the last three space shuttles. Gregory was also on the team that pioneered the microwave instrumentation landing system.Terminology
General
The term ''African American'', popularized by Jesse Jackson in the 1980s, carries important social implications. Earlier terms used to describe Americans of African ancestry referred more to skin color than to ancestry. Other terms (such as ''colored'', ''person of color'', or ''negro'') were included in the wording of various laws and legal decisions which some thought were being used as tools of White supremacy and oppression. A 16-page pamphlet entitled "A Sermon on the Capture of Lord Cornwallis" is notable for the attribution of its authorship to "An ''African American''". Published in 1782, the book's use of this phrase predates any other yet identified by more than 50 years. In the 1980s, the term ''African American'' was advanced on the model of, for example, German Americans, German American or Irish Americans, Irish American, to give descendants of Slavery in the United States, American slaves, and other American Blacks who lived through the slavery era, a Cultural heritage, heritage and a cultural base. The term was popularized in Black communities around the country via word of mouth and ultimately received mainstream use after Jesse Jackson publicly used the term in front of a national audience in 1988. Subsequently, major media outlets adopted its use. Surveys show that the majority of Black Americans have no preference for ''African American'' versus ''Black American'', although they have a slight preference for the latter in personal settings and the former in more formal settings. Many African Americans have expressed a preference for the term ''African American'' because it was formed in the same way as the terms for the many other ethnic groups currently living in the United States. Some argued further that, because of the historical circumstances surrounding the capture, enslavement, and systematic attempts to de-Africanize Blacks in the United States under chattel slavery, most African Americans are unable to trace their ancestry to any specific List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa, African nation; hence, the Africa, entire continent serves as a geographic marker. The term ''African American'' embraces pan-Africanism as earlier enunciated by prominent African thinkers such as Marcus Garvey, W. E. B. Du Bois, and George Padmore. The term ''Afro-Usonian'', and variations of such, are more rarely used.Official identity
Since 1977, in an attempt to keep up with changing social opinion, the Federal government of the United States, United States government has officially classified Black people (revised to ''Black'' or ''African American'' in 1997) as "having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa." Other federal offices, such as the U.S. Census Bureau, adhere to the Office of Management and Budget standards on race in their data collection and tabulation efforts. In preparation for the 2010 United States Census, 2010 U.S. Census, a marketing and outreach plan called ''2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign Plan'' (ICC) recognized and defined African Americans as Black people born in the United States. From the ICC perspective, African Americans are one of three groups of Black people in the United States. The ICC plan was to reach the three groups by acknowledging that each group has its own sense of community that is based on geography and ethnicity. The best way to market the census process toward any of the three groups is to reach them through their own unique communication channels and not treat the entire Black population of the U.S. as though they are all African Americans with a single ethnic and geographical background. The Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice categorizes Black or African American people as "[a] person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa" through racial categories used in the UCR Program adopted from the Statistical Policy Handbook (1978) and published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, United States Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Commerce, derived from the 1977 Office of Management and Budget classification.Admixture
Historically, "Miscegenation, race mixing" between Black and White people was taboo in the United States. So-called anti-miscegenation laws, barring Blacks and Whites from Interracial marriage in the United States, marrying or having sex, were established in colonial America as early as 1691, and endured in many Southern United States, Southern states until the Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional in ''Loving v. Virginia'' (1967). The taboo among American Whites surrounding White-Black relations is a historical consequence of the oppression and racial segregation of African Americans. Historian David Brion Davis notes the racial mixing that occurred during slavery was frequently attributed by the Plantations in the American South, planter class to the "lower-class White males" but Davis concludes that "there is abundant evidence that many slaveowners, sons of slaveowners, and overseers took black mistresses or in effect raped the wives and daughters of slave families." A famous example was Thomas Jefferson's mistress, Sally Hemings. Harvard University historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. wrote in 2009 that "African Americans…are a racially mixed or mulatto people—deeply and overwhelmingly so" (see #Genetics, genetics). After the Emancipation Proclamation, Chinese Americans, Chinese American men married African American women in high proportions to their total marriage numbers due to few Chinese American women being in the United States. African slaves and their descendants have also had a history of cultural exchange and Miscegenation, intermarriage with Native Americans, although they did not necessarily retain social, cultural or linguistic ties to Native peoples. There are also increasing intermarriages and offspring between non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics of any race, especially between Puerto Ricans and African Americans (American-born Blacks). According to author M.M. Drymon, many African Americans identify as having Scotch-Irish American, Scots-Irish ancestry. Racially mixed marriages have become increasingly accepted in the United States since the civil rights movement and up to the present day. Approval in national opinion polls has risen from 36% in 1978, to 48% in 1991, 65% in 2002, 77% in 2007. A Gallup poll conducted in 2013 found that 84% of Whites and 96% of Blacks approved of interracial marriage, and 87% overall. At the end of World War II, some African American military men who had been stationed in Japan married Women in Japan, Japanese women, who then immigrated to the United States.Terminology dispute
In her book ''The End of Blackness'', as well as in an essay for ''Salon.com, Salon'', author Debra Dickerson has argued that the term ''Black people, Black'' should refer strictly to the descendants of Africans who were brought to America as slaves, and not to the sons and daughters of Black immigrants who lack that ancestry. Thus, under her definition, President Barack Obama, who is the son of a Kenyan, is not Black. She makes the argument that grouping all people of African descent together regardless of their unique ancestral circumstances would inevitably deny the lingering effects of slavery within the American community of slave descendants, in addition to denying Black immigrants recognition of their own unique ancestral backgrounds. "Lumping us all together," Dickerson wrote, "erases the significance of slavery and continuing racism while giving the appearance of progress." Similar viewpoints have been expressed by author Stanley Crouch in a ''New York Daily News'' piece, Charles Steele Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and African-American columnist David Ehrenstein of the ''Los Angeles Times'', who accused White liberals of flocking to Blacks who were ''Magic Negros'', a term that refers to a Black person with no past who simply appears to assist the mainstream White (as cultural protagonists/drivers) agenda. Ehrenstein went on to say "He's there to assuage white 'guilt' they feel over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history." The American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) movement coalesces around this view, arguing that Black descendants of American slavery deserve a separate ethnic category that distinguishes them from other Black groups in the United States. Their terminology has gained popularity in some circles, but others have criticized the movement for a perceived bias against (especially poor and Black) immigrants, and for its often inflammatory rhetoric. Politicians such as Obama and Harris have received especially pointed criticism from the movement, as neither are ADOS and have spoken out at times against policies specific to them. Many Pan-Africanism, Pan-African movements and organizations that are ideologically Black nationalism, Black nationalist, Anti-imperialism, anti-imperialist, Anti-Zionism, anti-Zionist, and Scientific socialism, Scientific socialist like The All-African People's Revolutionary Party, All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP), have argued that African diaspora, African (relating to the diaspora) and/or Republic of New Afrika, New Afrikan should be used instead of African-American. Most notably, Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael, Kwame Ture expressed similar views that African-Americans are Africans who "happen to be in America," and should not claim or identify as being American if they are fighting for Black (New Afrikan) liberation. Historically, this is due to the enslavement of Africans during the Atlantic slave trade, Trans-Atlantic slave trade, ongoing anti-black violence, and structural racism in countries like the United States.Terms no longer in common use
Before the independence of theSee also
* African-American art * African American cinema * African-American middle class * African-American neighborhood * African-American upper class * Afrophobia * AP African American Studies * Black Belt in the American South * Black Hispanic and Latino Americans * Black Southerners * Civil rights movement (1865–1896) * Civil rights movement (1896–1954) * Juneteenth * National Museum of African American History and Culture * North Africans in the United States * Criollo people#Spanish colonial caste system, Society and Black people in the Spanish Colonial Americas * South African Americans * Stereotypes of African Americans * Timeline of the civil rights movement * West Indian AmericansDiaspora
* African Americans in Africa ** African Americans in Ghana ** Americo-Liberian people **Lists
* Index of articles related to African Americans * List of African-American neighborhoods * List of African-American newspapers and media outlets * List of historically black colleges and universities * List of African-American inventors and scientists * List of monuments to African Americans * List of populated places in the United States with African-American plurality populations * List of topics related to the African diaspora * Lists of African AmericansNotes
References
Further reading
* * Finkelman, Paul, ed. ''Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass'' (3 vol Oxford University Press, 2006). * Finkelman, Paul, ed. ''Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century'' (5 vol. Oxford University Press, USA, 2009). * John Hope Franklin, Alfred Moss, ''From Slavery to Freedom. A History of African Americans'', McGraw-Hill Education 2001, standard work, first edition in 1947. * Gates, Henry L. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (eds), ''African American Lives'', Oxford University Press, 2004 – more than 600 biographies. * Darlene Clark Hine, Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, Elsa Barkley Brown (eds), ''Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia'', Paperback Edition, Indiana University Press 2005. * Kranz, Rachel. ''African-American Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs'' (Infobase Publishing, 2004). * Salzman, Jack, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Afro-American culture and history'', New York City : Macmillan Library Reference USA, 1996. * *External links
* Richard Thompson For