African Americans in California

African Americans in California

California African American Museum, Los Angeles
Total population
July 2022: c. 2.5 million, not including partially African American individuals (6.5%)[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
Bakersfield and Fresno region • Greater Los Angeles (especially South Los Angeles, the South Bay, Compton, Inglewood, Long Beach and Moreno Valley) • Southeast San Diego • San Francisco Bay Area (esp. the East Bay, the Fillmore District and southern San Francisco) • Sacramento Valley • Stockton area • San Jose
Languages
California English, African-American Vernacular English;,[3] African languages, Caribbean languages spoken by the black Caribbean minority, Mexican Spanish, Jamaican Patois, Haitian Creole, Amharic, Ethiopian languages, Spanglish and Spanish spoken by Black Hispanics, Louisiana Creole
Religion
Christianity, Irreligion,[4] some practice Islam, Judaism, Haitian Voodoo, Louisiana Voodoo, Rastafari and Traditional African religions
Related ethnic groups
Non-Hispanic or Latino African Americans, , West Indian Americans, Black Hispanic and Latino Americans, Afro-Mexicans, Blaxicans in California, Blasians in California, African immigrants in California, Jamaicans in California, Ethiopians in California, Eritrean Americans, Haitian Americans, Jamaican Americans, South African Americans, Afro-Puerto Ricans

African American Californians or Black Californians are residents of the state of California who are of African ancestry. According to 2019 United States Census Bureau estimates, those identified solely as African American or Black constituted 5.8% or 2,282,144 residents in California. Including an additional 1.2% who identified as having partial African ancestry, the figure was 7.0% (2.8 million residents).^[5][6] As of 2021, California has the largest multiracial African American population by number in the United States.^[7] African Americans are the fourth largest ethnic group in California after Hispanics, Whites, and Asians. Asians outnumbered African Americans in the 1980s.^[8]

The Black community is prevalent in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, and Solano Counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento County, and San Joaquin County. In Southern California, the population is concentrated in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties.^{[9][better source needed]}

California also has a growing Afro-Caribbean and African immigrant population to the United States. Most African immigrants in California come from Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Many Ethiopians live in Little Ethiopia in West Los Angeles. California has one of the highest concentrations of black Africans in the Western United States. 41,249 Afro-Asians live in California.^[10] There is a Blaxican community in California.^[11] There is also a growing Blaxican population in Los Angeles.^[12] California claimed 113,255 African-born residents in 2000. The majority came from Ethiopia, Nigeria, and South Africa.^[13] There is also a sizable Jamaican, Haitian, Caribbean, Afro-Latino, and Belizean population in California.^[14] There is also a small Bahamian, Barbadian, Bermudan, British West Indian, Dutch West Indian, and Trinidadian population in California.^[14]

The earliest black residents were the first pioneers of Alta California and were Afro-Latino slaves (or mulatto) brought by the Spanish.^[15][16] African Americans (and Louisiana Creole) migrated from Southern states like Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas to California during the Second Great Migration (1940s–1970s).^[17][18]

The Black population in California has been declining since 2016, and moving out of the state along with Whites.^[19] Gentrification in California has caused some African Americans in California to become homeless and has pushed them out of historical urban centers like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and into new cheaper suburban regions, like East Contra Costa, Inland Empire, and Central Valley.^[20] For example, many blacks from Los Angeles have moved to desert areas such as Palmdale and Lancaster in the 1990s. The black population in Los Angeles County has been rapidly declining.^[21] The black population has also declined in San Francisco.^[22] African Americans have the second highest poverty rate in California, after Hispanics.^[23] This has caused many blacks from California to move back to cities in the Southern United States, such as Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Birmingham, Memphis, San Antonio and Jackson.^[24][25]

The black population has decreased in many neighborhoods and cities in California. Many areas such as Compton, Inglewood, and Watts that were once predominately black are now predominately Latino. Many Mexicans and Central Americans have displaced them in their historical areas.^[26][27][28] In 2019, African Americans were more likely to become homeless in California.^[29]

There is also a black foreign born population from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean in California. 3% of black people in California are noncitizens, and 4% are naturalized immigrants. African Americans mainly live in Los Angeles, the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento.^[30] Solano County has the highest black percentage by county.^[31] Cities with the largest black population in the San Francisco Bay Area are African Americans in the Bay Area are Oakland, Vallejo, Antioch, Suisun City and Richmond.^[32]