Back Afro-Amerikaners Afrikaans አፍሪካ አሜሪካውያን Amharic أمريكيون أفارقة Arabic امريكيين افارقه ARZ Afroamericanu d'Estaos Xuníos AST Afroamerikalılar Azerbaijani آفروآمریکالیلار AZB Afroamerikana BAR Афраамерыканцы Byelorussian Афраамэрыканцы BE-X-OLD
 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, also known as Black Americans, formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial or ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa.[3][4] African Americans constitute the second largest ethno-racial group in the US after White Americans.[5] The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States.[6][7]
Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people within the boundaries of the present United States.[8][9] 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.[10][11] Most African Americans are of West African and coastal Central African ancestry, with varying amounts of Western European and Native American ancestry.[12]
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, primarily concentrated in the American South, with four million enslaved people only liberated during and at the end of the Civil War in 1865.[13] During Reconstruction, they gained citizenship and adult-males the right to vote; however, 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 and racial socioeconomic disparity remain a problem into the 21st century.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, immigration has played an increasingly significant role in the African-American community. As of 2022, 10% of Black Americans were immigrants, and 20% were either immigrants or the children of immigrants.[14] In 2008, Barack Obama became the first, and so far only, African American to be elected president of the United States.[15] Kamala Harris became the nation's first African-American vice president in 2020.
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 contribution to popular music is 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 African-American community.[16][17]
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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 Archived August 17, 2018, at the Wayback Machine: "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."
- ^ "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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