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1、 African American From Wikipedia,the free encyclopedia Jump to:navigation,search This article is about the U.S.population of Americans of African ancestry.For the population of recent African origins,see African immigration to the United States.For the African diaspora throughout the Americas,see Af

2、ro-American peoples of the Americas.African American Frederick Douglass Barack Obama Rosa Parks Condoleezza Rice M.L.King,Jr.Beyonc Knowles Malcolm X Oprah Winfrey Booker T.Washington Michael Jordan Harriet Tubman Muhammad Ali Total population African American 37,000,000 1(12%of the US population)No

3、n-Hispanic Black 36,701,103 1 Black Hispanic 884,947 1 Regions with significant populations Throughout the Southern United States,parts of the Northeast,the Midwest,and California Languages American English African American Vernacular English recent immigrants and its children speak Caribbean Englis

4、h Spanish French Brazilian Portuguese Haitian Creole African languages Religion Majority:Protestantism Minority:Catholicism Islam Judaism Related ethnic groups Other Afro-American peoples of the Americas(especially Anglophones)Americo-Liberian Sierra Leone Creole people Black British African America

5、ns in France view talk edit African Americans(also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans,and formerly as American Negroes)are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa.2 In the United States,the terms are generally used for Ameri

6、cans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry.Most African Americans are the direct descendants of captive Africans who survived the slavery era within the boundaries of the present United States,although some areor are descended fromimmigrants from African,Caribbean,Central American or So

7、uth American nations.3 As an adjective,the term is usually written as African-American.4 African-American history starts in the 17th century with indentured servitude in British America and progresses onto the election of Barack Obama as the 44th and current President of the United States.Between th

8、ose landmarks there were other events and issues,both resolved and ongoing,that were faced by African Americans.Some of these were slavery,reconstruction,development of the African-American community,participation in the great military conflicts of the United States,racial segregation,and the Civil

9、Rights Movement.African Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States and form the second largest racial group after whites in the United States.5 Contents hide 1 History o 1.1 Slavery era o 1.2 Reconstruction and Jim Crow o 1.3 Great Migration and Civil Rights Movement o

10、 1.4 Post-Civil Rights era 2 Demographics o 2.1 U.S.cities 3 Religion 4 Contemporary issues o 4.1 Politics and social issues o 4.2 News media and coverage o 4.3 Education o 4.4 Economic status o 4.5 Health o 4.6 Cultural influence in the United States o 4.7 Political legacy 5 The term African Americ

11、an o 5.1 Political overtones o 5.2 Who is African American?o 5.3 The African-American experience o 5.4 Terms no longer in common use 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links History Main article:African American history Slavery era An artists conception of Crispus Attucks(

12、17231770),the first martyr of the American Revolution.Main articles:Slavery in the United States and Atlantic slave trade The first recorded Africans in British North America(including most of the future United States)arrived in 1619 as indentured servants who settled in Jamestown,Virginia.As Englis

13、h settlers died from harsh conditions more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers.Africans for many years were similar in legal position to poor English indenturees,who traded several years labor in exchange for passage to America.6 Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purcha

14、se their freedom.7 They raised families,marrying other Africans and sometimes intermarrying with Native Americans or English settlers.8 By the 1640s and 1650s,several African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards.The popular conception of a race-based sl

15、ave system did not fully develop until the 18th century.The first black 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 e

16、thnic group after the English.9 During the 1770s,Africans,both enslaved and free,helped rebellious English colonists secure American Independence by defeating the British in the American Revolution.10 Africans and Englishmen fought side by side and were fully integrated.11 James Armistead,an African

17、 American,played a large part in making possible the 1781 Yorktown victory,which established the United States as an independent nation.12 Other prominent African Americans were Prince Whipple and Oliver Cromwell,who are both depicted in the front of the boat in George Washingtons famous 1776 Crossi

18、ng the Delaware portrait.By 1860,there were 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the United States due to the Atlantic slave trade,and another 500,000 African Americans lived free across the country.13 In 1863,during the American Civil War,President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Procl

19、amation.The proclamation declared that all slaves in states which had seceded from the Union were free.14 Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation with Texas being the last state to be emancipated in 1865.15 Reconstruction and Jim Crow Jesse Owens shook racial stereotypes both with Nazis and

20、 segregationists in the USA at the 1936 Berlin olympics.Main articles:Reconstruction era of the United States and Jim Crow laws African Americans quickly set up congregations for themselves,as well as schools,community and civic associations,to have space away from white control or oversight.While t

21、he post-war reconstruction era was initially a time of progress for African Americans,in the late 1890s,Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws to enforce racial segregation and disenfranchisement.16 Most African Americans followed the Jim Crow laws,using a mask of compliance to prevent becoming victi

22、ms of 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.17 In the last decade of the 19th century,racially discriminatory laws and rac

23、ial violence aimed at African Americans began to mushroom in the United States.These discriminatory acts included racial segregationupheld by the United States Supreme Court decision in Plessy v.Ferguson in 189618which was legally mandated by southern states and nationwide at the local level of gove

24、rnment,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.Great Migration and Civil Rights Movement A

25、n African American boy outside of Cincinnati,Ohio in the 1940s March on Washington,August 28,1963,shows civil rights and union leaders Main articles:Great Migration(African American)and African-American Civil Rights Movement(19551968)The desperate conditions of African Americans in the South that sp

26、arked the Great Migration of the early 20th century,19 combined with a growing African American community in the Northern United States,led to a movement to fight violence and discrimination against African Americans that,like abolitionism before it,crossed racial lines.The Civil Rights Movement fro

27、m 1954 to 1968 was directed at abolishing racial discrimination against African Americans,particularly in the Southern United States.The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the conditions which brought it into being are credited with putting pressure on President John F.Kennedy and Lyndon B

28、.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(1965),which expanded federal authority over states to ensure black political participation through protection of v

29、oter registration and elections.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.20 Post-Civil Rights era Main article:Post Civil Ri

30、ghts Era African-American history Politically and economically,blacks have made substantial strides during the post-civil rights era.In 1989,Douglas Wilder became the first African-American elected governor in U.S.history.There are currently two black governors serving concurrently;governor Deval Pa

31、trick of Massachusetts and governor David Paterson of New York.Clarence Thomas became the second African-American Supreme Court Justice.In 1992 Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois became the first black woman elected to the U.S.Senate.There were 8,936 black officeholders in the United States in 2000,sho

32、wing a net increase of 7,467 since 1970.In 2001 there were 484 black mayors.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.2122 He a

33、lso received overwhelming support from young and educated whites,a majority of Asians,Hispanics,23 and Native Americans24not in citation given picking up a number of new states in the Democratic electoral column.2122 Obama lost the overall white vote,although he won a larger proportion of white vote

34、s than any previous nonincumbent Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter.25 The following year Michael S.Steele was elected the first African-American chairman of the national Republican Party.26 Demographics African Americans as percent of population,2000.U.S.Census map indicating U.S.

35、counties with fewer than 25 black or African American inhabitants Further information:List of U.S.communities with African American majority populations and List of U.S.counties with African American majority populations In 1790,when the first U.S.Census was taken,Africans(including slaves and free

36、people)numbered about 760,000about 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 freem

37、en.By 1900,the black population had doubled and reached 8.8 million.In 1910,about 90%of African Americans lived in the South,but 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 wa

38、s 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.The following table of the African American population in the Unite

39、d States over time shows that the African American population,as a percent of the total population,declined until 1930 and has been rising since then.African Americans in the United States27 Year Number%of total population Slaves%in slavery 1790 757,208 19.3%(highest)697,681 92%1800 1,002,037 18.9%8

40、93,602 89%1810 1,377,808 19.0%1,191,362 86%1820 1,771,656 18.4%1,538,022 87%1830 2,328,642 18.1%2,009,043 86%1840 2,873,648 16.8%2,487,355 87%1850 3,638,808 15.7%3,204,287 88%1860 4,441,830 14.1%3,953,731 89%1870 4,880,009 12.7%1880 6,580,793 13.1%1890 7,488,788 11.9%1900 8,833,994 11.6%1910 9,827,7

41、63 10.7%1920 10.5 million 9.9%1930 11.9 million 9.7%(lowest)1940 12.9 million 9.8%1950 15.0 million 10.0%1960 18.9 million 10.5%1970 22.6 million 11.1%1980 26.5 million 11.7%1990 30.0 million 12.1%2000 36.6 million 12.3%By 1990,the African American population reached about 30 million and represented

42、 12%of the U.S.population,roughly the same proportion as in 1900.28 In current demographics,according to 2005 U.S.Censusdubious discuss figures,some 39.9 million African Americans live in the United States,comprising 13.8%of the total population.The World Factbook gives a 2006 figure of 12.9%29 Cont

43、roversy has surrounded the accurate population count of African Americans for decades.The NAACP believed it was under counted intentionally to minimize the significance of the black population in order to reduce their political power base.At the time of the 2000 Census,54.8%of African Americans live

44、d 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 nations most populous state,has the fifth largest African American pop

45、ulation,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,5 many of whom may be of Brazilian,Puerto Rican,Dominican,Cuban,Haitian,or other Latin American descent.The only self-reported ancest

46、ral groups larger than African Americans are Irishs and Germans.30 Because many African Americans trace their ancestry to colonial American origins,some simply self-identify as American.citation needed U.S.cities Further information:List of U.S.cities with large African American populations and List

47、 of U.S.metropolitan areas with large African-American populations Almost 58%of African Americans lived in metropolitan areas in 2000.With over 2 million black residents,New York City had the largest black urban population in the United States in 2000,overall the city has a 28%black population.Chica

48、go has the second largest black population,with almost 1.6 million African Americans in its metropolitan area,representing about 18 percent of the total metropolitan population.Among cities of 100,000 or more,Gary,Indiana had the highest percentage of black residents of any U.S.city in 2000,with 84%

49、(though it should be noted that the 2006 Census estimate puts the citys population below 100,000).Gary is followed closely by Detroit,Michigan,which was 82%African American.Other large cities with African American majorities include New Orleans,Louisiana (67%),Baltimore,Maryland(64%)Atlanta,Georgia(

50、61%),Memphis,Tennessee(61%),and Washington,D.C.(60%).The nations most affluent county with an African American majority is Prince Georges County,Maryland,with a median income of$62,467.Within that county,among the wealthiest communities are Glenn Dale,Maryland and Fort Washington,Maryland.Other affl