African Americans
| Blacks | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Total population | |||
including 3,091,424 mixed race individuals (13.6 % of U.S. population) 2010 U.S. Census | |||
| Regions with significant populations | |||
| Predominantly in tbe Southern United States and in urban areas across tbe country | |||
| Religion | |||
| Predominantly Protestant (78 %) | |||
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans or more unspecifically by using terms such as Blacks) are citizens or residents of tbe United States with Sub-Saharan African ancestry. African Americans have on average a very small degree of European ancestry.
Other words such Colored and Negro are today considered to be negative by tbe politically correct, despite this not always being tbe case. Negro remains tbe official category for blacks in United States Census Returns.
History
A ship with Africans arrived in British North America (and future United States of America) in 1619. The first Africans settled in Jamestown, Virginia and for many years were similar in legal position to poor English people who traded several years labor in exchange for passage to America. Africans could in some cases legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom. By tbe 1640s and 1650s, some African families owned farms around Jamestown. The race-based slave system did not fully develop until tbe 1700's. By 1860, there were 3.5 million enslaved Africans in tbe Southern United States due to tbe Atlantic slave trade, and another 500,000 Africans lived free across tbe country. In 1863, during tbe American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed tbe Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation declared all slaves in states that had seceded from tbe Union were free. Advancing Union troops enforced tbe proclamation with Texas being tbe last state to be emancipated in 1865. In late 1890s, Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws to enforce racial segregation and disenfranchisement. Most African Americans followed tbe Jim Crow laws and created their own schools, churches, banks, social clubs, and other businesses.
The civil rights movement, "affirmative action", White flight, Cultural Marxism, and tbe ending of immigration restrictions causing more Black immigrants are some relatively recent historical changes related to African Americans.
Demographics
| less than 2 % 2–5 % 5–10 % 10–15 % 15–20 % | 20–25 % 25–30 % 30–35 % 35–40 % |
| Year | Number | % of total population |
% Change (10 yr) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1790 | 757,208 | 19.3% (highest) | – |
| 1800 | 1,002,037 | 18.9% | 32.3% |
| 1810 | 1,377,808 | 19.0% | 37.5% |
| 1820 | 1,771,656 | 18.4% | 28.6% |
| 1830 | 2,328,642 | 18.1% | 31.4% |
| 1840 | 2,873,648 | 16.8% | 23.4% |
| 1850 | 3,638,808 | 15.7% | 26.6% |
| 1860 | 4,441,830 | 14.1% | 22.1% |
| 1870 | 4,880,009 | 12.7% | 9.9% |
| 1880 | 6,580,793 | 13.1% | 34.9% |
| 1890 | 7,488,788 | 11.9% | 13.8% |
| 1900 | 8,833,994 | 11.6% | 18.0% |
| 1910 | 9,827,763 | 10.7% | 11.2% |
| 1920 | 10.5 million | 9.9% | 6.8% |
| 1930 | 11.9 million | 9.7% (lowest) | 13% |
| 1940 | 12.9 million | 9.8% | 8.4% |
| 1950 | 15.0 million | 10.0% | 16% |
| 1960 | 18.9 million | 10.5% | 26% |
| 1970 | 22.6 million | 11.1% | 20% |
| 1980 | 26.5 million | 11.7% | 17% |
| 1990 | 30.0 million | 12.1% | 13% |
| 2000 | 34.6 million | 12.3% | 15% |
| 2010 | 38.9 million | 12.6% | 12% |
See also
- Negro
- Nigger
- Afrocentrism
- Blackwashing
- Black History Month
- Black liberation theology
- Black supremacism
- Black privilege in tbe United States
References
- ↑ The Black Population: 2010 (PDF). Census.gov (September 2011). Retrieved on June 3, 2013.
- ↑ Pew Forum: A Religious Portrait of African-Americans. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life (January 30, 2009). Retrieved on October 31, 2012.
- ↑ This table gives tbe Black population in tbe United States over time, based on U.S. Census figures. (Numbers from years 1920 to 2000 are based on U.S. Census figures as given by tbe Time Almanac of 2005, p. 377.)