 Proportion of Black Americans in each U.S. county, as of the 2020 U.S. census | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
Alone (one race): 41,104,200[1] 12.40% of the total U.S. populationIn combination (mixed race): 5,832,533[1] 1.76% of the total U.S. populationAlone or in combination: 46,936,733[1] 14.16% of the total U.S. population | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Predominantly the Southern United States and American urban centers, including: | |
 Texas | 3,552,997[1] |
 Georgia | 3,320,513[1] |
 Florida | 3,246,381[1] |
 New York | 2,986,172[1] |
 California | 2,237,044[1] |
| Languages | |
| American English (incl. African-American English and African-American Vernacular English) | |
| Religion | |
| Majority: Christianity (78%)[note 1] Other:[2] Irreligion (18%) Islam (2%) See: Religion of Black Americans | |
| Part of a series on |
| African Americans |
|---|
African Americans or Black Americans, formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial or ethnic group consisting of people who self-identity as having origins from Sub-Saharan Africa. They constitute the country's second largest racial group after White Americans.[3] The primary understanding of the term "African American" denotes a community of people descended from enslaved Africans, who were brought over during the colonial era of the United States.[4][5] As such, it typically does not refer to Americans who have partial or full origins in any of the North African ethnic groups, as they are instead broadly understood to be Arab or Middle Eastern, although they were historically classified as White in United States census data.
While African Americans are a distinct group in their own right,[6][7] some post-slavery Black African immigrants or their children may also come to identify with the community, but this is not very common; the majority of first-generation Black African immigrants identify directly with the defined diaspora community of their country of origin.[8][9] Most African Americans have origins in West Africa and coastal Central Africa, with varying amounts of ancestry coming from Western European Americans and Native Americans, owing to the three groups' centuries-long history of contact and interaction.[10]
African-American history began in the 16th century, with West Africans and coastal Central Africans being sold to European slave traders and then transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Western Hemisphere, where 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 by escaping, after which they founded independent communities before and during the American Revolution. When the United States was established as an independent country, most Black people continued to be enslaved, primarily in the American South. It was not until the end of the American Civil War in 1865 that approximately four million enslaved people were liberated, owing to the Thirteenth Amendment.[11] During the subsequent Reconstruction era, they were officially recognized as American citizens via the Fourteenth Amendment, while the Fifteenth Amendment granted adult Black males the right to vote; however, due to the widespread policy and ideology of White American supremacy, Black Americans were largely treated as second-class citizens and soon found themselves disenfranchised in the South. These circumstances gradually changed due to their significant contributions to United States military history, substantial levels of migration out of the South, the elimination of legal racial segregation, and the onset of the civil rights movement. Nevertheless, despite the existence of legal equality in the 21st century, racism against African Americans and racial socio-economic disparity remain among the major communal issues afflicting American society.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, immigration has played an increasingly significant role in the African-American community. As of 2022[update], 10% of Black Americans were immigrants, and 20% were either immigrants or the children of immigrants.[12] In 2009, Barack Obama became the first African-American president of the United States.[13] In 2020, Kamala Harris became the country's first African-American vice president.
The African-American community has had a significant influence on many cultures globally, making numerous contributions to visual arts, literature, the English language (African-American Vernacular English), philosophy, politics, cuisine, sports, and music and dance. The contribution of African Americans to popular music is, in fact, so profound that most American music—including jazz, gospel, blues, rock and roll, funk, disco, house, techno, hip hop, R&B, trap, and soul—has its origins, either partially or entirely, in the community's musical developments.[14][15]
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Race and Ethnicity in the United States". United States Census Bureau. August 12, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
- ^ "Religious tradition by race/ethnicity (2014)". The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
- ^ "Measuring Racial and Ethnic Diversity for the 2020 Census". The United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on April 30, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
- ^ Locke, Don C.; Bailey, Deryl F. (2013). Increasing Multicultural Understanding. Sage Publications. p. 106. ISBN 978-1483314211. Archived from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
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.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
wilkersonnytwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Gomez, Michael A: Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South, p. 29. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1998.
- ^ Rucker, Walter C. (2006). The River Flows On: Black resistance, culture, and identity formation in early America. LSU Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-8071-3109-1.
- ^ Forson, Tracy Scott (February 21, 2018). "Who is an 'African American'? Definition evolves as USA does". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 16, 2023. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
- ^ United States Census Bureau. "What Updates to OMB's Race/Ethnicity Standards Mean for the Census Bureau". Census.gov. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
- ^ Gates, Henry Louis Jr (2009). In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past. New York: Crown Publishing. pp. 20–21.
- ^ Harris, Paul (October 8, 2015). "How the end of slavery led to starvation and death for millions of black Americans". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 16, 2023.
- ^ "One-in-Ten Black People Living in the U.S. Are Immigrants | Immigration Research Library". www.immigrationresearch.org. Retrieved July 4, 2024.
- ^ MacAskill, Ewen; Goldenberg, Suzanne; Schor, Elana (November 5, 2008). "Barack Obama to be America's first black president". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on March 1, 2016. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
- ^ Eaglin, Maya (February 21, 2021). "The soundtrack of history: How Black music has shaped American culture through time". NBC News. Archived from the original on April 19, 2022. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
- ^ Osei, Sarah (November 4, 2020). "How Black People Created All Your Favorite Music". Highsnobiety. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
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