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African American

African Americans W. E. B. Du Bois • Martin Luther King, Jr. • Edward Brooke
Malcolm X • Rosa Parks • Sojourner TruthTotal population

African American
13.1% of the total U.S. population
Non-Hispanic Black
12.7% of the U.S. population
Black Hispanic
0.33% of the U.S. population

Regions with significant populations  United States
(predominantly Southern) 38,662,569 [3][4] Liberia
(called Americo-Liberians) 150,000
Languages American English, African American Vernacular English, minorities of Spanish, French, and indigenous African languages Religions Christianity (mostly Protestantism or Roman Catholicism), Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Atheism, and other religions Related ethnic groups

African-Native Americans  • Native Americans

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African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.[5] In the United States, the term is generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry. Most African Americans are the descendants of captive Africans who survived the slavery era within the boundaries of the present United States, although some are — or are descended from — voluntary immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, or elsewhere.[6] African Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States,[7] though Hispanics compose the largest ethnic minority.[8]



W. E. B. Du Bois, notable proponent of pan-Africanism, prominent intellectual leader and civil rights activist in the African-American community; co-founder of the Niagara Movement and the NAACP.
Main article: African American history

Africans arrived in British North America (the future United States) in 1619 as indentured servants. The first Africans settled in Jamestown and for many years were similar in legal position to poor English people who traded several years labor in exchange for passage to America.[9] Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom.[10] They raised families, marrying other Africans and sometimes intermarrying with Native Americans or English settlers.[11] 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 slave system did not fully develop until the 1700s. By 1860, there were 3.5 million enslaved Africans in the Southern United States due to the Atlantic slave trade, and another 500,000 Africans lived free across the country.[12] In 1863, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation declared all slaves in states that had seceded from the Union were free.[13] Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation with Texas being the last state to be emancipated in 1865.[14] While the 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.[15] Most African Americans followed the Jim Crow laws and assumed a posture of humility and servility to prevent becoming victims of racially motivated violence. To maintain self-esteem and dignity, middle-class African Americans created their own schools, churches, banks, social clubs, and other businesses.[16]



African Americans as percent of population, 2000.




Year Number  % of total population Slaves  % in slavery 1790 757,208 19.3% (highest) 697,681 92% 1800 1,002,037 18.9% 893,602 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 9,827,763 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 12% of the U.S. population, roughly the same proportion as in 1900.[21] In current demographics, according to 2005 U.S. Census figures, some 39.9 million African Americans live in the United States, comprising 13.8 percent of the total population. At the time of the 2000 Census, 54.8 percent of 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. The west does have a sizable black population in certain areas, however. California, the nation's most populous state, has the fifth largest African-American population, 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.[7] Many of whom may be of Brazilian, Dominican, Cuban, Haitian, or other Latin American descent.

The only self-reported ancestral groups larger than African Americans are Irish and German Americans.[22] Due to the fact that many African Americans trace their ancestry to colonial American origins, some simply self-report as "American".[citation needed]



Contemporary issues

Main article: African American contemporary issues


Economic status

Oprah Winfrey, the richest African American of the 20th century.[25][26][27]


In 2004, African-American workers had the second-highest median earnings of American minority groups after Asian Americans, and African Americans had the highest level of male-female income parity of all ethnic groups in the United States.[28] Also, among American minority groups, only Asian Americans were more likely to hold white collar occupations (management, professional, and related fields),[29] and African Americans were no more or less likely than European Americans to work in the service industry.[30] In 2001, over half of African-American households of married couples earned $50,000 or more.[30] Although in the same year African Americans were over-represented among the nation's poor, this was directly related to the disproportionate percentage of African-American families headed by single women; such families are collectively poorer, regardless of ethnicity.[30]

By 2006, gender continued to be the primary factor in income level, with the median earnings of African-American men more than those black and non-black American women overall and in all educational levels.[31][32][33][34][35] At the same time, among American men, income disparities were significant; the median income of African-American men was approximately 76 cents for every dollar of their European American counterparts, although the gap narrowed somewhat with a rise in educational level.[36][31] Overall, the median earnings of African-American men were 72 cents for every dollar earned of their Asian American counterparts, and $1.17 for every dollar earned by Hispanic men.[31][37][34] On the other hand by 2006, among American women with post-secondary education, African-American women have made significant advances; the median income of African-American women was more than those of their Asian-, European and Hispanic American counterparts with at least some college education.[32][38][33]


The income gap between black and white families is also significant. In 2005, employed blacks earned only 65% of the wages of whites in comparable jobs, down from 82% in 1975.[24] 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.[citation needed]

According to Forbes magazine's "wealthiest American" lists, a 2000 net worth of $800 million dollars made Oprah Winfrey the richest African American of the 20th century; by contrast, the net worth of the 20th century's richest American, Bill Gates, who is of European descent, briefly hit $100 billion in 1999. In Forbes' 2007 list, Gates' net worth decreased to $59 billion while Winfrey's increased to $2.5 billion,[39] making her the world's richest black person.[40][26] Winfrey is also the first African American to make Business Week's annual list of America's 50 greatest philanthropists.[41] BET founder Bob Johnson was also listed as a billionaire prior to an expensive divorce and has recently regained his fortune through a series of real estate investments. Although Forbes estimates his net worth at $1.1 billion, which makes him the only male African-American billionaire, Winfrey remains the only African American wealthy enough to rank among the country's 400 richest people.[39]


By 2003, sex had replaced race as the primary factor in life expectancy in the United States, with African-American females expected to live longer than European American males born in that year.[42] In the same year, the gap in life expectancy between American whites (78.0) and blacks (72.8) had decreased to 5.2 years, reflecting a long term trend of this phenomenon.[42] By 2004, "the trend toward convergence in mortality figures across the major race groups also continued," with white-black gap in life expectancy dropping to 5 years.[43] The current life expectancy of African Americans as a group is comparable to those of other groups who live in countries with a high human development index.

At the same time, the life expectancy gap is affected by collectively lower access to quality medical care. With no system of universal health care, access to medical care in the U.S. generally is mediated by income level and employment status. As a result, African Americans, who have a disproportionate occurrence of poverty and unemployment as a group, are more often uninsured than non Hispanic whites or Asians.[44] For a great many African Americans, healthcare delivery is limited, or nonexistent. And when they receive healthcare, they are more likely than others in the general population to receive substandard, even injurious medical care.[45] African Americans have a higher prevalence of some chronic health conditions.[46]



News media and coverage

News media coverage of African-American news, concerns or dilemmas is inadequate, some activists and academics contend.[47][48][49] Activists also contend that the news media present distorted images of African-Americans.[50]

Politics and social issues

Collectively, African Americans are more involved in the American political process than other minority groups in the US, indicated by the highest level of voter registration and participation in elections among these groups in 2004.[51] African Americans collectively attain higher levels of education than immigrants to the United States.[51]

Crime, particularly in impoverished, urban communities, is a serious and ongoing issue in America. The African-American population in many urban areas are disproportionately poor, a factor which resonate in the nation's crime statistics for metropolitan areas[citation needed].

Cultural influence in the United States

Two African American children.





Following the Civil War, the growth of industry in the United States was tremendous, and much of this was made possible with inventions by ethnic minorities. By 1913 over 1,000 inventions were patented by black Americans. Among the most notable inventors were Jan Matzeliger, who developed the first machine to mass-produce shoes, and Elijah McCoy, who invented automatic lubrication devices for steam engines. Granville Woods had 35 patents to improve electric railway systems, including the first system to allow moving trains to communicate. He even sued Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison for stealing his patents and won both cases. Garrett Morgan developed the first automatic traffic signal and gas mask.[54]



Political legacy

Barack Obama, the junior Senator from Illinois and presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee for the 2008 election.


