Black and African Americans
Main articles:
African Americans and
Black Hispanic and Latino Americans
Black and African Americans are citizens and residents of the United States with origins in
Sub-Saharan Africa.
[33] According to the
Office of Management and Budget, the grouping includes individuals who self-identify as African American, as well as persons who emigrated from nations in the
Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa.
[34] The grouping is thus based on geography, and may contradict or misrepresent an individual's self-identification since not all immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa are "Black". Among these racial outliers are persons from
Cape Verde,
Madagascar, various
Arab states and
Hamito-Semiticpopulations in
East Africa and the
Sahel, and the
Afrikaners of
Southern Africa.
[33]
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, and formerly as American
Negroes) are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the
black populations of Africa.
[35] According to the 2009 American Community Survey, there were 38,093,725 Black and African Americans in the United States, representing 12.4% of the population. In addition, there were 37,144,530 non-Hispanic blacks, which comprised 12.1% of the population.
[36] This number increased to 42 million according to the
2010 United States Census, when including
Multiracial African Americans,
[34] making up 14% of the total U.S. population.
[a][38] Black and African Americans make up the second largest group in the United States, but the third largest group after White Americans and Hispanic or Latino Americans (of any race).
[39] The majority of the population (55%) lives in the
South; compared to the 2000 Census, there has also been a decrease of African Americans in the
Northeast and
Midwest.
[38]
Most African Americans are the direct descendants of captives from
West Africa, who survived the
slavery era within the boundaries of the present United States.
[40] As an adjective, the term is usually spelled
African-American.
[41] The first West African
slaves were brought to
Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. The English settlers treated these captives as
indentured servants and released them after a number of years. This practice was gradually replaced by the system of race-based slavery used in the
Caribbean.
[42] All the
American colonies had slavery, but it was usually the form of personal servants in the North (where 2% of the people were slaves), and field hands in plantations in the South (where 25% were slaves);
[43] by the beginning of the
American Revolutionary War 1/5th of the total population was enslaved.
[44] During the revolution, some would serve in the
Continental Army or
Continental Navy,
[45][46] while
others would serve the
British Empire in
Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, and other units.
[47] By 1804, the
northern states (north of the
Mason–Dixon line) had
abolished slavery.
[48] However, slavery would persist in the
southern states until the end of the
American Civil War and the passage of the
Thirteenth Amendment.
[49]Following the end of the
Reconstruction Era, which saw the first
African American representation in
Congress,
[50] African Americans became
disenfranchised and subject to
Jim Crow laws,
[51] legislation that would persist until the passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and
Voting Rights Act due to the
Civil Rights Movement.
[52]
According to US Census Bureau data, very few
African immigrants self-identify as African American. On average, less than 5% of African residents self-reported as "African American" or "Afro-American" on the 2000 US Census. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants (~95%) identified instead with their own respective ethnicities. Self-designation as "African American" or "Afro-American" was highest among individuals from West Africa (4%-9%), and lowest among individuals from Cape Verde, East Africa and Southern Africa (0%-4%).
[53] African immigrants may also experience conflict with African Americans.
[54]
Race and ethnicity in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia