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Reverted edits by RATIONxALWIKIxISxACE (talk) to last revision by Karajou
#REDIRECT [[User:Aschlafly]]
[[Image:Paterson.jpg|thumb|[[David A. Paterson]], first black governor of New York (2008- )]]
'''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 changes. 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==
see [[Black history]]
Blacks were originally brought to America to serve as slaves in southeastern states on large-scale plantations. During the [[Civil War]], all slaves were freed by [[Abraham Lincoln]] though the [[Emancipation Proclamation]], the [[Thirteenth Amendment]], and some state actions. During [[Reconstruction]] the Freedmen (freed slaves) gained citizenship and civil and political rights, including the right to marry, move about, and keep their wages.
The system of [[Sharecropper|sharecropping]] instituted after the end of the war left most Freedmen poor, while the [[Jim Crow]] policies of racial [[segregation]] that were implemented after the end of [[Reconstruction]] limited their civic and political rights.
Blacks left the rural south in two waves, the first around 1915-20, the second coming after [[World War II]] when machinery ended the need for large numbers of people to pick cotton by hand. The migrants headed to the large cities of the North and West, and also in the South, moving from very poorly paid farm work to wage labor.
==Politics==
Blacks tended to support the [[Republican Party]] from the 1860s to the 1960s, but few who lived in the South voted. 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. The [[Voting Rights Act]] of 1965 allowed blacks to vote in the South, and has been vigorously enforced. Since 1964 blacks have voted 85% to 95% for Democratic presidential candidates, with an occasional black Republican elected to state office.
==Religion==
[[Image:President Barack Obama.jpg|thumb|150px|Barack Obama, the first black president (2009- )]]
Amoong 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>. .
==References==
<references/>
* [http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html National Survey of Religious Identification (NSRI)]
==See also==
* [[Black History]]
* [[Civil Rights]]
* [[Jim Crow]]
* [[Race]]
* [[Black Republican]]
[[category:Ethnicities]]
[[category:The South]]
[[category:Civil Rights]]
[[category:Black History]]