 African Americans are approximately 7 percent of the state population.The state percentage of African Americans has dropped in the 1990s and 2000s, though the state's overall "number" of African-Americans has increased in that time period.The black population in East and West Oakland and South Central Los Angeles - places where they held the majority for decades - has greatly decreased as the black middle class has relocated to nearby suburbs, including those in the Inland Empire and Antelope Valley in Southern California and the Sacramento metropolitan area in Northern California.