[[Imageimage:PatersonFreddouglas.jpg|225px|thumb|[[David A. PatersonFrederick Douglass]] = , historic [[Abolitionism|abolitionist]] activist, historic member of the first black governor [[Republican Party]] of New York)the United States.]]
'''African American''' is a [[politically correct]] term some use to describe the ethnic background of Americans with [[Africa]]n ancestry. The great majority of African Americans are descended from Africans brought to North America as [[slavery|slaves]] beginning four centuries ago. Others (like [[Colin Powell]]) were twentieth century immigrants from the [[West Indies]] or Africa. Many American [[conservative]]s believe that the use of terms such as "African-American" or "Mexican-American," collectively referred to as "[[hyphenated American|hyphenated Americanism]]," make the mistake of "putting America second" and emphasize racial differences over common national identity <ref>http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/on_becoming_an_unhyphenated_am.html</ref>
==Terms==
The preferred terminology changesconstantly. Currently "black" and "African American" are in favor, and "Afro-American" and "Negro" are out of favor. The situation before 1960 was just the reverse. "Colored" was popular until the 1950s, but now is generally out of favor except among some [[leftist]] groups.
==History==
==Politics==
Blacks tended to support the [[Republican Party]] from the 1860s to the 1960s, but few who lived in the South voted--some states even stopped people of African ancestry voting by the use of literacy tests, poll taxes and other measures. The [[New Deal]] provided large-scale relief for blacks during the [[Great Depression]]. Some black Republican organizations, as in Chicago, switched overnight to the [[Democrat]]s. This sudden change is often attributed to the leftist sentiments that were growing in the late twentieth century. The [[Voting Rights Act15th Amendment]] of 1965 allowed blacks to vote , but despite vigorous enforcement in the Southprior to the [[Voting Rights Act]], and has been vigorously enforcedminority voter registration was still much lower than white voter registration.<ref>Issacharoff, Samuel; Karlan, Pamela S.; Pildes, Richard H. (2012). ''The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process'' (4th ed.). New York, NY: Foundation Press. ISBN 1-59941-935-1, p. 514</ref><ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20040806055436/http://www.justice.gov/crt/voting/intro/intro_a.htm</ref> After the Voting Rights Act, black turnout increased substantially. Since 1964 , blacks have voted 85% to 95% for Democratic Democrat presidential candidates, with an occasional black Republican elected to state office.
==Religion==
Among African-Americans, religiosity is very high, and the standard practice since [[Reconstruction]] is for black ministers to be community spokespersons, and political power brokers; they often run for office. The great majority of African Americans are [[Protestant]]s, with their own [[Baptist]], [[Pentecostal]], and [[Methodist]] churches. A few are [[Muslim]]s.<ref>The Pluralism Project at Harvard University[http://www.pluralism.org/resources/statistics/tradition.php#Islam] Twenty-four percent of American Muslims are black, according to American Muslim Council's Zogby poll of August 2000.</ref>
==Racial registration and anti-miscegenation laws==
In the early 20th century some states, not only in the South, adopted racial registration policies and implemented laws against the mixing of black and white people. These "anti-miscegenation" laws were only finally ended in the federal case [[Loving v. Virginia]], when a mixed race couple successfully challenged all laws against mixed marriage in the states.
[[File:RosaParks.jpg|thumb|left|[[Rosa Parks]].]]
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==References==
==See also==
[[File:Richmond Garrick, Hope.jpg|thumb|Richmond Garrick, Hope, 2008.]]
* [[Black History]]
* [[Civil Rights]]
* [[Race]]
* [[Black Republican]]
* [[Black unemployment]]
[[category:Ethnicities]]