African Americans

I

Introduction

African Americans (American Blacks or Black Americans), racial group in the United States whose dominant ancestry is from sub-Saharan West Africa. Many African Americans also claim European, Native American, or Asian ancestors. A variety of names have been used for African Americans at various points in history. African Americans have been referred to as Negroes, colored, blacks, and Afro-Americans, as well as lesser-known terms, such as the 19th-century designation Anglo-African. The terms Negro and colored are now rarely used. African American, black, and to a lesser extent Afro-American, are used interchangeably today.

Recent black immigrants from Africa and the islands of the Caribbean are sometimes classified as African Americans. However, these groups, especially first- and second-generation immigrants, often have cultural practices, histories, and languages that are distinct from those of African Americans born in the United States. For example, Caribbean natives may speak French, British English, or Spanish as their first language. Emigrants from Africa may speak a European language other than English or any of a number of African languages as their first language. Caribbean and African immigrants often have little knowledge or experience of the distinctive history of race relations in the United States. Thus, Caribbean and African immigrants may or may not choose to identify with the African American community.

According to 2000 U.S. census, some 34.7 million African Americans live in the United States, making up 12.3 percent of the total population. 2000 census shows that 54.8 percent African Americans lived in the South. In that year, 17.6 percent of African Americans lived in the Northeast and 18.7 percent in the Midwest, while only 8.9 percent lived in the Western states. Almost 88 percent of African Americans lived in metropolitan areas in 2000. With over 2 million African American residents, New York City had the largest black urban population in the United States in 2000. Washington, D.C., had the highest proportion of black residents of any U.S. city in 2000, with African Americans making up almost 60 percent of the population.

II

The African American Experience

African American history is intertwined with that of blacks in Latin America and the Caribbean (see Blacks in Latin America). Like other blacks in the western hemisphere, the overwhelming majority of African Americans were brought to North America as slaves between the 1700s and the early 1800s (see Slavery in the United States). As slaves, they were considered the property of their owners and had no rights. African slaves could be found in all 13 of the British colonies, as well as the Spanish colony of Florida and the French colony of Louisiana.

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After the American Revolution (1775-1783), changing economic conditions resulted in the decline of slavery in the North. However, the spread of cotton cultivation encouraged the growth of slavery in the South. By 1860, 4 million slaves accounted for one-third of the total population of the southern states. About 500,000 free blacks lived throughout the United States, slightly more than half residing in the southern states. In the North, many free blacks became abolitionists, activists dedicated to ending slavery and bringing about black equality.

In 1863, during the American Civil War (1861-1865), U.S. president Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in the southern states at war with the North. The 13th amendment to the Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1865, outlawed slavery in the United States. In 1868 the 14th amendment granted full U.S. citizenship to African Americans. The 15th amendment, ratified in 1870, extended the right to vote to black males.

In the South, such rights were enforced only by the presence of Union troops, who occupied the region during the period known as Reconstruction. When Union troops withdrew from the South in 1877, white Southerners quickly reversed these advances. Racist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, used terrorism to keep blacks from voting, holding office, and enforcing labor contracts. Whites also began establishing a thorough system of segregation in the United States. Laws limiting blacks’ access to transportation, schools, restaurants, and other public facilities, sprang up throughout the South. Although legal systems of segregation were not established in the North or West, informal segregation was enforced in both of these regions.

Blacks responded to these setbacks by forming the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1910. The NAACP mounted legal challenges to segregation and lobbied legislatures on behalf of black Americans. African Americans also created an independent community and institutional life. They established schools, banks, newspapers, and small businesses to serve the needs of their community.

Between 1910 and 1950, in the largest internal migration in U.S. history, over 5 million African Americans moved from southern plantations to northern cities in hopes of finding better jobs and greater equality. In the 1920s the concentration of blacks in urban areas led to the cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, which used art, music, and literature to demonstrate the creative abilities of African Americans. A new generation of African American political leaders, such as black nationalist Marcus Garvey and union organizer A. Philip Randolph, also found support among urban African Americans.

In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. This decision led to the dismantling of legal segregation in all areas of southern life, from schools to restaurants to public restrooms. Energized by leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights movement in the United States gained new momentum in the mid-1950s. Civil rights groups organized nonviolent protests, such as marches and sit-ins, to rally the black community.

Many Southern whites attempted to hold onto segregation through continued violence. By the mid-1960s some African Americans began to question the effectiveness of nonviolent protest. More militant black leaders, such as Malcolm X of the Nation of Islam and Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panther Party, called for blacks to defend themselves, using violence if necessary. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, the Black Power movement urged African Americans to look to Africa for inspiration and emphasized African American solidarity rather than integration.

Responding to pressure from the civil rights movement, the U.S. government sought to open up political and economic opportunities for black Americans. The 1965 Civil Rights Act banned discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and labor unions. The 1965 Voting Rights Act, which brought equality to black voters throughout the South, was the capstone to more than a decade of major civil rights legislation.

III

Contemporary Issues

Politically and economically, blacks have made substantial strides in the post-civil rights era. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who ran for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, brought unprecedented support and leverage to blacks in politics. In 1989, Virginia became the first state in U.S. history to elect a black governor, Douglas Wilder. 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, showing a net increase of 7,467 since 1970. In 2001 there were 484 mayors and 38 members of Congress. The Congressional Black Caucus serves as a political bloc in Congress for issues relating to African Americans. The appointment of blacks to high federal offices—including Colin Powell (chairman of the U.S. Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1989-1993, and secretary of state, 2001-2005), Ron Brown (secretary of commerce, 1993-1996), and Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas—also demonstrates the increasing power of blacks in the political arena. Powell was followed by Condoleezza Rice, who succeeded him as secretary of state after serving as national security adviser.

Economically, blacks have also benefited from the advances made during the civil rights era. The racial disparity in poverty rates has narrowed slightly. The black middle class has grown substantially. In 2000, some 47 percent of African Americans owned their homes. However, African Americans are still underrepresented in government and employment. In 1999, median income of African American household was $27,910 compared to $44,366 of non-Hispanic whites. Approximately one-fourth of the African American population lives in poverty, a rate three times that of white Americans. In 2000, 19.1 percent of black population lived below poverty level as compared to 6.9 percent of white population. The unemployment gap between blacks and whites has grown. In 2000, the unemployment rate among African Americans was almost twice the rate for whites. The income gap between black and white families also continues to widen. Employed blacks earn only 77 percent of the wages of whites in comparable jobs, down from 82 percent in 1975. In 2000, Only 16.6 percent of 25 years and older blacks earned bachelor’s or higher degrees in contrast to 28.1 percent of whites. Although rates of births to unwed mothers among both blacks and whites have risen since the 1950s, the rate of such births among African Americans is three times the rate of whites.

Black Americans have shorter life expectancies than the national average. Blacks suffer disproportionately from heart disease, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), hypertension, stroke, and diabetes. Blacks’ lack of access to quality health care contributes to these problems.

Black experiences with and attitudes towards the criminal justice system differ markedly from whites. Although rates of violent crime are dropping among blacks, more than one million African American men are currently in jail or prison. Homicide remains the leading cause of death among black men between the ages of 15 and 34. African Americans distrust the criminal justice system much more than whites do. In 1991 the beating of an unarmed black motorist, Rodney King, by four Los Angeles police officers was captured on videotape. An all-white jury later acquitted the police officers, sparking riots in Los Angeles and protests around the country.

IV

Culture

African American culture is both part of and distinct from American culture. From their earliest presence in North America, Africans and African Americans have contributed literature, art, agricultural skills, foods, clothing styles, music, and language to American culture.