African American
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2008-07-15T16:00:39Z
Korg
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Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/Pink!Teen|Pink!Teen]] ([[User talk:Pink!Teen|talk]]) to last version by OOODDD
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{{African American ethnicity}}
'''African Americans''' or '''Black Americans''' are citizens or residents of the [[United States]] who have origins in any of the [[Black people|black]] racial groups of [[Africa]].<ref name="censusblack">{{cite web |url=http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-5.pdf |first=Jesse |last=McKinnon |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |accessdate=2007-10-22 |format=PDF |title=The Black Population: 2000 United States Census Bureau}} </ref> In the United States, the term is generally used for Americans with at least partial [[Sub-Saharan Africa]]n ancestry. Most African Americans are the descendants of captive Africans who survived the [[Slavery in the United States|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mumford1.dyndns.org/cen2000/BlackWhite/BlackDiversityReport/black-diversity03.htm |title=The size and regional distribution of the black population |accessdate=2007-10-01 |publisher=Lewis Mumford Center}}</ref> African Americans make up the single largest [[Racial and ethnic demographics of the United States|racial minority in the United States]],<ref name = "tthqvu">[http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_QTP4&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-redoLog=false United States - QT-P4. Race, Combinations of Two Races, and Not Hispanic or Latino: 2000<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> though [[Hispanics in the United States|Hispanics]] compose the largest [[minority group|ethnic minority]].<ref>{{cite news
|last=El Nasser
|first=Haya
|title=39 million make Hispanics largest U.S. minority group
|publisher=USA Today
|date=[[2003-06-19]]
|url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2003-06-18-Census_x.htm
|accessdate=2008-03-01}}</ref>
==History==
[[Image:Crispus Attucks.jpg|thumb|left|An artist's conception of [[Crispus Attucks]], the first "marytr" of the [[American Revolution]].]]
{{main|African American history}}
Africans arrived in [[British North America]] (the future [[United States]]) in 1619 as indentured servants. The first Africans settled in [[Jamestown, Virginia|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.<ref>{{cite news |first=Tim |last=Hashaw |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The First Black Americans |url=http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070121/29african.htm |work= |publisher=[[U.S. News]] |date=2007-01-21 |accessdate=2008-02-13 }} </ref> Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom.<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-147667728.html?Q=Jamestown The shaping of Black America: forthcoming 400th celebration<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> They raised families, marrying other Africans and sometimes intermarrying with [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] or [[England|English]] settlers.<ref>[http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070121/29african.htm The First Black Americans - US News and World Report<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> 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. During the 1770s Africans, both enslaved and free, helped rebellious English colonists secure American Independence by defeating the British in the [[American Revolution]].<ref>http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/DIASPORA/REV.HTM</ref> By 1860, there were 3.5 million enslaved Africans in the United States due to the [[Atlantic slave trade]], and another 500,000 Africans lived free across the country.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa080601a.htm |last=Boddy-Evans |first=Alistair |title=The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade |work=African History |publisher=about.com |accessdate=2007-06-04}}</ref> In 1863, during the [[American Civil War]], [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] signed the [[Emancipation Proclamation]]. The proclamation declared all slaves in states that had seceded from the Union were free.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Emancipation Proclamation |work=Featured Documents |publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]] |accessdate=2007-06-07 |url=http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/}}</ref> Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation with Texas being the last state to be emancipated in 1865.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm |title=History of Juneteenth |publisher=Juneteenth.com |date=2005 |accessdate=2007-06-07}}</ref> While the post-war [[Reconstruction era of the United States|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 [[Disfranchisement after the Civil War|disenfranchisement]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Creating Jim Crow: In-Depth Essay |last=Davis |first=Ronald L.F., Ph. D. |work=The History of Jim Crow |publisher=[[New York Life]] |accessdate=2007-06-07 |url=http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm}}</ref> Most African Americans followed the Jim Crow laws and assumed a posture of [[humility]] and servility to prevent becoming victims of [[ethnic violence|racially motivated violence]]. To maintain self-esteem and dignity, [[middle-class]] African Americans created their own [[HBCU|schools]], [[Black church|churches]], [[bank]]s, [[social club]]s, and other businesses.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/surviving.htm |title=Surviving Jim Crow |last=Davis |first=Ronald, Ph. D |work=The History of Jim Crow |publisher=[[New York Life]]}}</ref>
In the last decade of the nineteenth century, racially discriminatory laws and racial violence aimed at African Americans began to mushroom in the United States. These discriminatory acts included [[racial segregation]] – upheld by the United States Supreme Court decision in [[Plessy v. Ferguson]] in 1896<ref>{{Findlaw us|163|537|Plessy v. Ferguson |link=Plessy v. Ferguson |year=1896}}</ref> - which was legally mandated by southern states and nationwide at the local level of government, voter suppression or disenfranchisement in the southern states, denial of economic opportunity or resources nationwide, and private acts of violence and mass racial violence aimed at African Americans unhindered or encouraged by government authorities. The desperate conditions of African Americans in the South that sparked the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] of the early 20th century,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/reference/articles/great_migration.html |title=The Great Migration |accessdate=2007-10-22 |work=African American World |publisher=[[PBS]] |year=2002}}</ref> combined with a growing African-American intellectual and cultural elite in the [[Northern United States]], led to a movement to fight [[violence]] and [[discrimination]] against African Americans that, like [[abolitionism]] before it, crossed racial lines. The [[Civil Rights Movement]] aimed at abolishing public and private acts of [[racial discrimination]] against African Americans between 1954 to 1968, particularly in the southern United States. By 1966, the emergence of the [[Black Power]] movement, which lasted from 1966 to 1975, expanded upon the aims of the [[Civil Rights Movement]] to include racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency, and freedom from white authority. The [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom]] and the conditions which brought it into being are credited with putting pressure on President John F. Kennedy and then Lyndon B. Johnson that culminated in the passage the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] that banned [[discrimination]] in public accommodations, employment, and [[labor unions]].<ref name="abbeville">{{cite web |url=http://www.abbeville.com/civilrights/washington.asp |title=The March On Washington, 1963 |accessdate=2007-10-22 |publisher=Abbeville Press}}</ref>
==Demographics==
[[Image:New 2000 black percent.gif|thumb|275px|right|African Americans as percent of population, 2000.]]
In 1790, when the first [[United States Census|U.S. Census]] was taken, Africans (including slaves and free people) numbered about 760,000—about 19.3% of the population. In 1860, at the start of the [[American Civil War]], the African-American [[population]] increased to 4.4 million, but the percentage rate dropped to 14% of the overall population of the [[country]]. The vast majority were slaves, with only 488,000 counted as "[[Freedman|freemen]]". By 1900, the black population had doubled and reached 8.8 million.
In 1910, about 90% of African Americans lived in the [[South]], but large numbers began migrating north looking for better job opportunities and living conditions, and to escape [[Jim Crow laws]] and racial violence. The [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]], as it was called, spanned the 1890s to the 1970s. From 1916 through the 1960s, more than 6 million black people moved [[north]]. But in the 1970s and 1980s, that trend reversed, with more African Americans moving south to the [[Sunbelt]] than leaving it.
The following gives the African-American population in the 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 the ''Time Almanac'' of 2005, p 377) The [[CIA World Factbook]] gives a 2006 figure of 12.9%<ref>{{CIA_World_Factbook_link|us|United States}}</ref> Controversy has surrounded the "accurate" population count of African Americans for decades. The NAACP believed it was under counted intentionally to minimize the significance of the black population in order to reduce their political power base.
{|class="prettytable" style="float:left; font-size:85%;"
! 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.<ref>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aap/timelin2.html Time Line of African American History, 1881-1900]</ref> 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 [[Southern United States|South]]. In that year, 17.6 percent of African Americans lived in the [[Northeastern United States|Northeast]] and 18.7 percent in the [[Midwest]], while only 8.9 percent lived in the western [[state]]s. 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.<ref name = "tthqvu"/> Many of whom may be of [[Afro-Brazilian|Brazilian]], [[Dominican Republic|Dominican]], [[Afro-Cuban|Cuban]], [[Haiti]]an, or other [[Afro-Latin American|Latin American]] descent.
The only self-reported ancestral groups larger than African Americans are Irish and German Americans.<ref>[http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf c2kbr01-2.qxd<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Due to the fact that many African Americans trace their ancestry to colonial American origins, some simply self-report as "American".{{Fact|date=January 2008}}
Almost 58 percent of African Americans lived in [[metropolitan area]]s in 2000. With over 2 million black residents, [[New York City]] had the largest black [[urban area|urban]] population in the [[United States]] in 2000, overall the city has a 28 percent black population. Chicago has the second largest black population, with almost 1.6 million African Americans in its metropolitan area, representing about 18 percent of the total metropolitan population. Among cities of 100,000 or more, [[Gary, Indiana|Gary]], [[Indiana]], had the highest percentage of black residents of any U.S. city in 2000, with 84 percent (though it should be noted that the 2006 Census estimate puts the city's population below 100,000.) Nonetheless, Gary is followed closely by [[Detroit, Michigan|Detroit]], [[Michigan]], which was 82 percent African American. Other large cities with African-American majorities include [[New Orleans, Louisiana]] (67 percent), [[Baltimore, Maryland]] (64 percent) [[Atlanta, Georgia]] (61 percent), [[Memphis, Tennessee]] (61 percent), and [[Washington, D.C.]] (60 percent).
The nation's most affluent county with an African-American majority is [[Prince George's County]], Maryland, with a median income of $62,467. Other affluent predominantly African-American counties include [[DeKalb County, Georgia|Dekalb County]] in Georgia, and [[Charles City County]] in Virginia. [[Queens County, New York]] is the only county with a population of 65,000 or more where African Americans have a higher median household income than European Americans.
==Contemporary issues==
{{main|African American contemporary issues}}
African Americans have improved their social economic standing significantly since the [[Civil Rights Movement]] and recent decades have witnessed the expansion of a robust, African-American middle class across the [[United States]]. Unprecedented access to higher education and employment has been gained by African Americans in the post-civil rights era. Nevertheless, due in part to the legacy of [[slavery]], [[racism]] and [[discrimination]], African Americans as a group remain at a pronounced [[economic]], [[educational]] and [[social]] disadvantage in many areas relative to European Americans. Persistent [[social]], [[economic]] and [[political]] issues for many African Americans include inadequate health care access and delivery; [[institutional racism]] and discrimination in housing, [[education]], policing, [[criminal justice]] and [[employment]]; [[crime]], [[poverty]] and [[substance abuse]]. One of the most serious and long standing issues within African-American communities is [[poverty]]. [[Poverty]] itself is a hardship as it is related to marital stress and dissolution, health problems, low educational attainment, deficits in psychological functioning, and crime.<ref name="CharacOfFam">{{cite web |url=http://ssw.unc.edu/RTI/presentation/PDFs/aa_families.pdf |title=Characteristics of African American Families |author=Oscar Barbarin, PhD |publisher=University of North Carolina |accessmonthday=September 23 |accessyear=2006 |format=PDF}}</ref> In 2004, 24.7% of African-American families lived below the poverty level.<ref name="DeNavas-Walt"/>
===Economic status===
[[Image:Oprah Winfrey (2004).jpg|thumb|200px|[[Oprah Winfrey]], the richest African American of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.africanecho.co.uk/business.html |title=Oprah Winfrey the richest black person in the world |journal=African Echo |volume=43 |date=[[2006-09-11]] |accessdate=2006-09-11}}</ref><ref name="roles"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/O0ZT.html |title=#562 Oprah Winfrey |work=Forbes Special Report: The World's Billionaires |date=2006 |accessdate=2006-09-11}}</ref>]]
Economically, African-Americans have benefited from the advances made during the [[African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)|Civil Rights era]], particularly among the educated, but not without the lingering effects of historical marginalization when considered as a whole. The racial disparity in poverty rates has narrowed. The black [[middle class]] has grown substantially. In 2000, 47% of African Americans owned their homes. The poverty rate among African Americans has dropped from 26.5% in 1998 to 24.7% in 2004.<ref name="DeNavas-Walt"/>
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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/acs-01.pdf |title=Incomes, Earnings, and Poverty from the 2004 American Community Survey |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|date=August 2005 |accessmonthday=October 24 |accessyear=2006 |format=PDF}}</ref> Also, among American [[minority groups]], only [[Asian Americans]] were more likely to hold [[white collar]] occupations (management, professional, and related fields),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-25.pdf |title=Occupations: 2000 |author=Peter Fronczek and Patricia Johnson |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |date=August 2003 |accessmonthday=October 24 |accessyear=2006 |format=PDF}}</ref> and African Americans were no more or less likely than European Americans to work in the service industry.<ref name="Black Pop-March 2002">{{cite web |url=http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p20-541.pdf |title=The Black Population in the United States: March 2002 |author=Jesse McKinnon |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |date=April 2003 |accessmonthday=October 24 |accessyear=2006}}</ref> In 2001, over half of African-American households of married couples earned $50,000 or more.<ref name="Black Pop-March 2002"/> 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.<ref name="Black Pop-March 2002"/>
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.<ref name = "census.gov-PINC03">[http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_131.htm PINC-03-Part 131<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name = "census.gov-254">[http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_254.htm PINC-03-Part 254<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name = "census.gov-259">[http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_259.htm PINC-03-Part 259<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name = "census.gov-135">[http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_135.htm PINC-03-Part 135<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_253.htm PINC-03-Part 253<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> 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.<ref>[http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_128.htm PINC-03-Part 128<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name = "census.gov-PINC03"/> 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.<ref name = "census.gov-PINC03"/><ref>[http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_133.htm PINC-03-Part 133<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name = "census.gov-135"/> 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.<ref name = "census.gov-254"/><ref>[http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new03_005.htm PINC-03-Part 5<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name = "census.gov-259"/>
However, African Americans are still underrepresented in government and employment. In 1999, the median income of African-American families was $33,255 compared to $53,356 of European Americans. In times of economic hardship for the nation, African Americans suffer disproportionately from job loss and underemployment, with the black underclass being hardest hit. The phrase "last hired and first fired" is reflected in the [[Bureau of Labor Statistics]] unemployment figures. Nationwide, the September 2004 unemployment rate for blacks was 10.3%, while their white counterparts were unemployed at the rate of 4.7%.{{Fact|date=August 2007}}
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.<ref name="DeNavas-Walt">{{cite journal |author=Carmen DeNavas-Walt, Bernadette D. Proctor, Cheryl Hill Lee |url=http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/p60-229.pdf |title=Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004 |date=August 2005 |publisher=[[U.S. Census Bureau]] |pages=P60–229 |format=PDF}}</ref> 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.{{Fact|date=August 2007}}
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 [[United States|American]], [[Bill Gates]], who is of [[European American|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,<ref name = "AP-forbes400">[http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070920/apfn_forbes_400_alphabetical_list.html]</ref> making her the world's richest black person.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2121670.ece |title=Oprah's £20m school proves she's not all talk |date=[[3 January]] [[2007]] |accessdate=2007-05-29}}</ref><ref name="roles">{{cite web |last=Malonson |first=Roy Douglas |url=http://www.aframnews.com/html/2006-05-10/publisher.htm |title=Condi and Oprah aren't good role models for Black motherhood |work=African-American News & Issues |date=[[2006-05-10]] |accessdate=2006-09-11}}</ref> Winfrey is also the first African American to make Business Week's annual list of America's 50 greatest philanthropists.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.urbanmecca.com/artman/publish/article_174.shtml |title=Oprah Winfrey Debuts as First African-American On BusinessWeek's Annual Ranking of 'Americas Top Philanthropists' |publisher=''BusinessWeek'' via ''PRNewsWire'' |date=[[November 19]], [[2004]] |accessdate=2006-10-01}}</ref> 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.<ref name = "AP-forbes400"/>
===Health===
By 2003, sex had replaced [[Race (classification of human beings)|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.<ref name="CDC2003Deaths">{{cite web |url=http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr53/nvsr53_15.pdf |title=Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2003 |author=Donna L. Hoyert, PhD.; Hsiang-Ching Kung, PhD.; Betty L. Smith, B.S. Ed. |publisher=Division of Vital Statistics, [[Center for Disease Control]]. |date=[[February 28]], [[2005]] |accessmonthday=September 23 |accessyear=2006 |format=PDF}}</ref> 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.<ref name="CDC2003Deaths"/> 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.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/prelimdeaths04/preliminarydeaths04.htm| title=Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2004| publisher=CDC|date=2004| accessdate=2007-09-20}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/002484.html |title=Income Stable, Poverty Up, Numbers of Americans With and Without Health Insurance Rise, Census Bureau Reports |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau News |date=[[2006-08-26]] |accessdate=2006-10-14}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nursingworld.org/readroom/position/ethics/etdisrac.htm |title=Ethics and Human Rights Position Statements: Discrimination and Racism in Health Care |publisher=American Nursing Association. |date=[[1998-03-06]] |accessdate=2006-10-14}}</ref> African Americans have a higher prevalence of some chronic health conditions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4726 |title=Risk Factors and Coronary Heart Disease |publisher=[[American Heart Association]] |accessdate=2006-09-23}}</ref>
African Americans are the American ethnic group most affected by [[HIV]] and [[AIDS]], according to the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]]. It has been estimated that "184,991 adult and adolescent HIV infections [were] diagnosed during 2001-2005" (1). More than 51 percent occurred among blacks than any other race. Between the ages of 25-44 years 62 percent were African Americans. Dr. Robert Janssen (2007) states, "We have rates of HIV/AIDS among blacks in some American cities that are as high as in some countries in Africa". The rate for African Americans with HIV/AIDS in Washington D.C. is 3 percent, based on cases reported. In a New York Times Article, about 50 percent of AIDS-related deaths were African-American woman, which accounted for 25 percent of the city's population. In many cases there are a higher proportion of black people being tested than any other racial group. Dr. Janssen goes on by saying "We need to do a better job of encouraging African Americans to test. Studies show that approximately one in five black men between the ages 40 to 49 living in the city is HIV-positive, according to the ''TIMES''. Research indicates that African Americans sexual behavior is no different than any other racial group. Dr. Janssen says "Racial groups tend to have [[sexual intercourse|sex]] with members of their own racial group.{{Fact|date=June 2007}}
[[Image:Malcolmxmartinlutherking.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Martin Luther King, Jr.]] (left) and [[Malcolm X]] (right) at the [[United States Capitol|U. S. Capitol]] on [[March 26]], [[1964]].]]
===News media and coverage===
[[News media]] coverage of African American news, concerns or dilemmas is inadequate, some activists and academics contend.<ref>blackandbrownnews.com Sharon Toomer, editor http://www.blackandbrownnews.com</ref><ref>[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4608039 Examining the Future of Black News Media : NPR<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4608042 How Will African Americans Get the News? : NPR<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Activists also contend that the news media present distorted images of African-Americans.<ref>Mikal Muharrar, "Media Blackface," "FAIR," Sept./ October 1998, http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1431</ref>
===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.<ref name="vote-nov2007">{{cite web |url=http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p20-556.pdf |title=Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2007 |date=March 2006 |accessdate=2007-05-30 |format=PDF}}</ref> African Americans collectively attain higher levels of education than immigrants to the United States.<ref name="vote-nov2007"/>
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{{Fact|date=September 2007}}.
===Cultural influence in the United States===
[[Image:Jazzing orchestra 1921.png|thumb|300px|The King & Carter Jazzing Orchestra photographed in Houston, Texas, January 1921]]
From their earliest presence in [[North America]], African Americans have contributed [[literature]], [[art]], agricultural skills, [[foods]], clothing styles, [[music]], [[language]], [[social]] and [[technological]] innovation to American culture.
The cultivation and use of many agricultural products in the U.S., such as [[yam (vegetable)|yams]], [[peanut]]s, [[rice]], [[okra]], [[sorghum]], [[grits]], [[watermelon]], [[indigo dye]]s, and [[cotton]], can be traced to African and African-American influences. A couple of notable examples include [[George Washington Carver]], who created 300 products from peanuts, 118 products from sweet potatoes, and 75 from pecans; and [[George Crum]], who invented the potato chip in 1853.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/black.shtml |title=African-American Inventors |accessdate=2007-05-30}}</ref>
[[African American music]] is one of the most pervasive African-American cultural influences in the United States today and is among the most dominant in mainstream popular music. [[Hip hop music|Hip hop]], [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]], [[funk]], [[rock music|rock and roll]], [[soul]], [[blues]], and other contemporary American musical forms originated in black communities and evolved from other black forms of music, including [[blues]], [[rag-time]], [[jazz]], and [[gospel music]]. African American-derived musical forms have also influenced and been incorporated into virtually every other popular musical genre in the world, including [[Country music|country]] and [[techno]]. African-American genres are the most important ethnic vernacular tradition in America, as they have developed independent of African traditions from which they arise more so than any other immigrant groups, including Europeans; make up the broadest and longest lasting range of styles in America; and have, historically, been more influential, interculturally, geographically, and economically, than other American vernacular traditions.<ref name="stewart">{{cite book |last=Stewart |first=Earl L. |date=1998 |title=African American Music: An Introduction |isbn=0-02-860294-3 |pages=p.3}}</ref>
African Americans have also had an important role in American dance. [[Bill T. Jones]], a prominent modern choreographer and dancer, has included historical African-American themes in his work, particularly in the piece "Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land". Likewise, [[Alvin Ailey]]'s artistic work, including his "Revelations" based on his experience growing up as an African American in the South during the 1930s, has had a significant influence on modern dance. Another form of dance, [[Stepping (African-American)|Stepping]], is an African-American tradition whose performance and competition has been formalized through the traditionally black fraternities and sororities at universities.{{Fact|date=May 2007}}
Many African-American authors have written stories, poems, and essays influenced by their experiences as African Americans. [[African American literature]] is a major genre in American [[literature]]. Famous examples include [[Langston Hughes]], [[James Baldwin (writer)|James Baldwin]], [[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]], [[Zora Neale Hurston]], [[Ralph Ellison]], Nobel Prize winner [[Toni Morrison]], and [[Maya Angelou]].
African-American [[inventor]]s have created many widely used devices in the world and have contributed to international [[innovation]]. [[Norbert Rillieux]] created the technique for converting sugar cane juice into white sugar crystals. Moreover, Rillieux left [[Louisiana]] in 1854 and went to [[France]], where he spent ten years working with the Champollions deciphering [[Egyptian hieroglyphics]] from the [[Rosetta Stone]]. Most slave inventors were nameless, such as the slave owned by the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] President Jefferson Davis who designed the ship propeller used by the Confederate [[navy]].
Following the [[American Civil War|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.<ref name="black-people-history">{{cite web |url=http://www.computerhealth.org/ebook/1865post.htm |title=Black People and Their Place in World History |accessdate=2007-05-30}}</ref>
[[Lewis Latimer]] created an inexpensive cotton-thread filament, which made electric light bulbs practical because Edison's original light bulb only burned for a few minutes. More recent inventors include McKinley Jones, who invented the movable refrigeration unit for food transport in trucks and trains. Lloyd Quarterman worked with six other black scientists on the creation of the atomic bomb (code named the [[Manhattan Project]].) Quarterman also helped develop the first nuclear reactor, which was used in the atomically powered [[submarine]] called the Nautilus.<ref name="black-people-history"/>
A few other notable examples include the first successful [[open heart surgery]], performed by Dr. [[Daniel Hale Williams]], the conceptualization and establishment of blood banks around the world by Dr. [[Charles Drew]], and the air conditioner, patented by [[Frederick M. Jones]]. Dr. [[Mark Dean]] holds three of the original nine patents on the computer on which all PCs are based. More current contributors include [[Otis Boykin]], whose inventions included several novel methods for manufacturing electrical components that found used in applications such as guided missile systems and computers, and Colonel [[Frederick D. Gregory| Frederick Gregory]], who was not only the first black [[astronaut]] pilot but the person who redesigned the cockpits for the last three space shuttles. Gregory was also on the team that pioneered the microwave instrumentation landing system. In 2000, Bendix Aircraft Company began a worldwide promotion of this microwave instrumentation landing system.<ref name="black-people-history"/>
===Political legacy===
[[Image:Barack Obama.jpg|thumb|[[Barack Obama]], the [[junior Senator]] from [[Illinois]] and [[presumptive nominee|presumptive]] [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] Presidential nominee for the [[United States presidential election, 2008|2008 election]].]]
African-Americans have [[Military history of African Americans|fought]] in every war in the [[Military history of the United States|history of the United States]].
The gains made by African Americans in the [[American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)|Civil Rights]] and Black Power movements not only obtained certain rights for African Americans, but changed American society in far-reaching and fundamentally important ways. Prior to the 1950s, Americans were still living in the shadow of slavery and [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow]]. In the words of [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]], African Americans and their supporters challenged the nation to "rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed that all men are created equal...."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/38.htm |title=Martin Luther King, Jr |accessdate=2007-05-30}}</ref>
The [[Civil Rights Movement]] marked a sea-change in American social, political, economic and civic life. It brought with it [[boycotts]], [[sit-ins]], demonstrations, court battles, bombings and other violence; prompted worldwide media coverage and intense public debate; forged enduring civic, economic and religious alliances; disrupted and realigned the nation's two major [[political parties]]. Over time it has changed in fundamental ways the manner in which blacks and whites interact with and relate to one another. The movement resulted in the removal of codified, ''de jure'' racial segregation and discrimination from American life and law, and heavily influenced the civil and social liberties that many Americans of varied cultural backgrounds expect for themselves. Reflecting on the success of the civil rights movement, [[Al Sharpton]] of the [[National Action Network]] said, "I think that part of the problem with a lot of civil rights leaders is that this is the first generation that actually lived to be gray. What do gray civil rights leaders do? Because in the era before us, they were all dead by now."<ref name=DS>[http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Al_Sharpton_speaks_out_on_race%2C_rights_and_what_bothers_him_about_his_critics Interview with Al Sharpton], David Shankbone, ''[[Wikinews]]'', December 3, 2007.</ref>
In 2008, [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] Sen. [[Barack Obama]] became the first African American to become the [[presumptive nominee|presumptive]] presidential nominee of a major American political party.
==The term "African American"==
===Political overtones===
[[Image:Jesse Jackson, half-length portrait of Jackson seated at a table, July 1, 1983.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[Jesse Jackson]]- an African-American [[politician]], professional [[civil rights]] [[activist]], and [[Baptist]] [[Minister (Christianity)|minister]]]]
The term African American carries important political overtones. Earlier terms used to identify Americans of African ancestry were conferred upon the group by Americans of European ancestry and were included in the wording of various laws and legal decisions which became tools of white supremacy and [[oppression]]{{Fact|date=April 2008}}. There developed among blacks in America a growing desire for a term of their own choosing.
With the political consciousness that emerged from the political and social ferment of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the term Negro fell into disfavor among many blacks. It had taken on a moderate, accommodationist, even [[Uncle Tom]], connotation. In this period, a growing number of blacks in the United States, particularly African-American youth, celebrated their blackness and their historical and cultural ties with the African continent. The Black Power movement defiantly embraced '''Black''' as a group identifier. It was a term social leaders themselves had repudiated only two decades earlier and a term often associated in English with things negative and undesirable, but they proclaimed, "[[Black is beautiful]]".
In this same period, a smaller number of people favored '''Afro-American'''. In the 1980s the term '''African American''' was advanced on the model of, for example, [[German American]]. [[Jesse Jackson]] popularized the term, and it was quickly adopted by major media. Many blacks in America expressed a preference for the term, as it was formed in the same way as names for others of the many ethnic groups. Some argued further that, because of the historical circumstances surrounding the capture, enslavement and systematic attempts to de-Africanize blacks in the United States under [[chattel slavery]], most African Americans are unable to trace their ancestry to a specific African nation; hence, the entire continent serves as a geographic marker.
For many, African American is more than a name expressive of [[cultural]] and [[historical]] roots. The term expresses pride in Africa and a sense of kinship and solidarity with others of the [[African diaspora]]— an embracing of the notion of pan-Africanism as earlier enunciated by prominent African thinkers such as [[Marcus Garvey]], [[W. E. B. Du Bois]], [[Haile Selassie]] of [[Ethiopia]] and, later, [[George Padmore]].
===Who is African American?===
{{African American topics (sidebar)}}
Since 1977, the United States officially categorized black people (revised to ''black'' or ''African American'' in 1997) are classified as ''A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.''<ref name="censusblack" /> Other Federal offices, such as the [[United States Census]] Bureau and the adheres to the OMB standards on race in its data collection and tabulations efforts.<ref name="OMB">{{cite web |url=http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/1997standards.html |title=Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity |date=1997 |publisher=Office of Management and Budget}}</ref> The U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation also categorizes black or African-American people as "A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa" through racial categories used in the UCR Program adopted from the Statistical Policy Handbook (1978) and published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce derived from the 1977 OMB classification.<ref name="FBIpop">{{cite web |url=http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/handbook/ucrhandbook04.pdf |title=Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook |publisher=U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation |pages=97 |date=2004}}</ref>
Due in part to a centuries-old history within the [[United States]], historical experiences pre- and post-slavery, and migrations throughout [[North America]], the vast majority of contemporary African Americans possess varying degrees of admixture with European and Native American ancestry.<ref>[http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v63n6/980409/980409.web.pdf Estimating African American Admixture Proportions by Use of Population-Specific Alleles]</ref><ref>[http://www.familytreedna.com/pdf/HammerFSIinpress.pdf Population structure of Y chromosome SNP haplogroups in the United States and forensic implications for constructing Y chromosome STR databases]</ref>
Some courts have called a person black if the person had any known African ancestry. It became known as the [[one-drop rule]], meaning that a single drop of "black blood" makes a person "black". Some courts have called it the traceable amount rule, and anthropologists used to call it the [[hypodescent]] rule, meaning that racially mixed persons were assigned the status of the subordinate group. Prior to the one-drop rule, different states had different laws regarding color; in [[Virginia]], for example, a person was legally black if he or she had at least one-sixteenth black ancestry. The one-drop rule was implemented by states in the southern United States during the early to mid-1880s {{Fact|date=March 2007}}. For African Americans, the one-drop system of [[pigmentocracy]] was a significant factor in ethnic solidarity. African Americans generally shared a common lot in society and, therefore, common cause — regardless of their [[multiracial]] admixture or social and economic stratification.
In the 1980s, parents of mixed-race children began to organize and lobby for the addition of a more inclusive term of racial designation that would reflect the heritage of their children. In recent decades, the [[multicultural]] climate of the United States has continued to expand. Although the terms mixed-race, biracial, and [[multiracial]] are increasingly used, it remains common for those who possess any visible traits of black heritage to identify or be identified solely as blacks or African Americans. As well, it is very common in the United States for people of mixed ancestry possessing any recent black heritage to self-identify demographically as African American while acknowledging both their African-American and other cultural heritages socially.
For example, 55% of European Americans classify [[United States Senate|Senator]] [[Barack Obama]] as biracial when they are told that he has a white mother, while 66% of African Americans consider him black.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://bbsnews.net/article.php/20061222014017231 |title=Williams/Zogby Poll: Americans' Attitudes Changing Towards Multiracial Candidates |date= [[2006-12-22]] |accessdate=2007-09-23 |publisher=BBSNews.com }}</ref> Obama describes himself as black<ref>''[http://www.sptimes.com/2007/04/15/Opinion/Shades_of_black.shtml Shades of black]'' By Eric Deggans. St. Petersburg Times. Published April 15, 2007</ref> and African American,<ref name="Obama60minutes">{{cite news|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/11/60minutes/printable2458530.shtml | title=Transcript excerpt: Senator Barack Obama on Sixty Minutes | publisher=CBS News |date=2007=02-11 | accessdate=2008-01-29}}</ref> using both terms interchangeably,<ref name="Obama60minutes" /> and is generally considered to be African American.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/h_multi_sections_and_teasers/Photo_Exhibit_African_American_Senators.htm |title=Breaking New Ground: African American Senators |accessdate=2007-07-22 |work=U.S. Senate Historical Office }}</ref>
Due to continued intermarriage between African-Americans and [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], some people who are considered African American can claim Native heritage, although since the 1980s many Native groups refuse to recognize those claims.<ref>[http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.09/seminoles_pr.html Wired 13.09: Blood Feud<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
===Terms no longer in common use===
The terms [[mulatto]] and [[colored]] were widely used until the second quarter of the 20th century, when they were considered outmoded and generally gave way to the use of ''negro''. By the 1940s, the term commonly was capitalized, but by the mid 1960s, it had acquired negative connotations. Today, the term is considered inappropriate and is now often used as a pejorative.{{Fact|date=September 2007}} ''Colored'' and ''Negro'', now largely defunct, survive in certain historical organizations such as the [[United Negro College Fund]], the [[National Council of Negro Women]], and the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]].
[[Negroid]] was a term used by [[anthropologists]] first in the 18th century to describe some indigenous Africans and their descendants throughout the [[African diaspora]]. As with most descriptors of race based on inconsistent, unscientific phenotypical standards,{{fact|date=July 2008}} the term is controversial and imprecise.{{fact|date=July 2008}} Growing numbers of blacks have substituted the term [[Africoid]], which, unlike ''Negroid'', encompasses the phenotypes of all [[indigenous peoples of Africa]].<ref>S.O.Y. Keita. History in Africa, Vol. 20, 1993 (1993), pp. 129-154</ref>
==See also==
{{col-begin}}{{col-2}}
* [[Affirmative action]]
* [[African and Native American interaction]]
* [[African American art]]
* [[African American British]]
* [[African American history]]
* [[African American literature]]
* [[African American National Biography Project]]
* [[Black Indians|African-Native Americans]]
* [[African American Vernacular English]]
* [[African Diaspora]]
* [[Afro-Latin American|Afro-Latino]]
* [[American Black Upper Class]]
* [[African immigration to the United States]]
* [[Americo-Liberian]]
* [[Black feminism]]
* [[Black Hispanic]]
* [[Black Loyalist]]
* [[Black nationalism]]
* [[Black people]]
* [[Definitions of black people]]
* [[Jamaican American]]
{{col-break}}
* [[Lists of African Americans]]
* [[List of African-American-related topics]]
* [[List of topics related to Black and African people]]
* [[List of U.S. cities with large African-American populations]]
* [[List of U.S. communities with African American majority populations]]
* [[List of U.S. counties with African American majority populations]]
* [[List of U.S. metropolitan areas with large African-American populations]]
* [[Military history of African Americans]]
* [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]]
* [[Native American tribe]]s
* [[Poverty]]
* [[Race (classification of human beings)|Race]]
* [[Racial segregation]]
* [[Racism]]
* [[Sierra Leone Creole people]]
* Terminology: [[Colored]], [[Creole peoples|Creole]], [[Negro]], [[Nigger]], [[Nigga]]
* [[White American]]
* [[United States foreign born per capita income]]
{{col-end}}
==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}
==References==
{{refbegin}}
*Brandon S. Centerwall, "''Race, Socioeconomic Status and Domestic Homicide'', Atlanta, 1971-72", 74 AM. J. PUB. HLTH. 813, 815 (1984)
*Darnell F. Hawkins, "''Inequality, Culture, and Interpersonal Violence''", 12 HEALTH AFFAIRS 80 (1993)
*Jerome A. Neapolitan, "''Cross-National Variation in Homicide; Is Race A Factor''?" 36 CRIMINOLOGY 139 (1998)
*Bohlen, C. "Does She Say the Same Things in her Native Tongue?" New York Times, [[May 18]], [[1986]]
*Felder, J. (1992) From the Statue of Liberty to the Statue of Bigotry. New York: Jack Felder.
*Felder, J. "Black Origins and Lady Liberty". Daily Challenge. [[July 16]], [[1990]]
*Sinclair, T. Was Original Statue a Tribute to Blacks? New York Voice, [[July 5]], [[1986]]
*The New York Post, "Statue of Liberty" [[June 17]], [[1986]].
*Altman, Susan "The Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage"
*''The Music of Black Americans: A History''. [[Eileen Southern]]. W. W. Norton & Company; 3rd edition, (1997). ISBN 0-393-97141-4
*Stewart, Earl L. (1998). ''African American Music: An Introduction''. ISBN 0-02-860294-3.
{{refend}}
==Further reading==
*Jack Salzman, ed., ''Encyclopedia of Afro-American culture and history'', New York, NY : Macmillan Library Reference USA, 1996
*''African American Lives'', edited by Henry L. Gates, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Oxford University Press, 2004 - more than 600 biographies
*''From Slavery to Freedom. A History of African Americans'', by [[John Hope Franklin]], Alfred Moss, McGraw-Hill Education 2001, standard work, first edition in 1947
*''Black Women in America - An Historical Encyclopedia'', Darlene Clark Hine (Editor), Rosalyn Terborg-Penn (Editor), Elsa Barkley Brown (Editor), Paperback Edition, Indiana University Press 2005
*van Sertima, Ivan "They Came Before Columbus"
*"The Politicization of Changing Terms of Self Reference Among American Slave Descendants", '' American Speech'', v 66, no.2, Summer 1991, p. 133-46
==External links==
{{Wiktionary}}
{{Commons|African Americans}}
{{portalpar|African American|AmericaAfrica.svg}}
*Richard Thompson Ford [http://www.slate.com/id/2106753/ Name Games], ''Slate'', [[September 16]], [[2004]]. Article discussing the problems of defining ''African American''.
*[http://armsandthelaw.com/archives/2006/04/don_kates_on_af.php "Of Arms & the Law: Don Kates on Afro-American Homicide Rates"]
*[http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa004&articleID=000C97BA-94E0-146C-944583414B7FFE9F ''Scientific American'' Magazine (June 2006) Trace Elements] Reconnecting African-Americans to an ancestral past.
*[http://www.blackbusinessplanet.com African American Business]
*[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/02/EDGT1ODJHH1.DTL&hw=slaves+african+american+obama&sn=002&sc=736 "The Definition of Political Absurdity"], ''San Francisco Chronicle'', [[March 2]], [[2007]]. Editorial discussing prominent Americans arguing whether presidential candidate Barack Obama qualifies as "black enough."
*[http://www.sonoma.edu/asc/publications/weweretheretoo/cooktoc.htm African American archaeology in Sacramento, California] pdf
* [http://www.sonoma.edu/asc/cypress/finalreport/index.htm African American archaeology in Oakland, California] - See Part III, Chap 10.
* [http://imslp.org/wiki/User:Clark_Kimberling/Historical_Notes_1 Melodies by African American composers,] including historical notes and biographical sketches
{{Aafooter}}
{{Demographics of the United States}}
{{2000USCensus}}
{{African diaspora}}
[[Category:African American]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in the United States]]
[[Category:History of civil rights in the United States]]
[[Category:Peoples of the African diaspora]]
[[Category:Southern United States]]
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