Black Americans are those persons in the United States who trace their ancestry to members of the Negroid race in Africa. They have at various times in United States history been referred to as African, colored, Negro, Afro-American, and African-American, as well as black. The vast majority of black Americans are descendants of people forcibly removed to North America as slaves. The black American population also includes more recent immigrants from black Africa, the West Indies, and Latin America. The black population of the United States has grown from three-quarters of a million in 1790 to nearly 30 million in 1990. As a percentage of the total population, blacks declined from 19.3 in 1790 to 9.7 in 1930. A modest percentage increase has occurred since that time. Exactly what portion of the black American population is of solely African ancestry is not known. Over the past 300 and more years in the United States, considerable racial mixture has taken place between persons of African descent and those with other racial backgrounds, mainly of white European or American Indian ancestry. Physical differences among black Americans are probably roughly equivalent in degree to those among members of other racial groups in the United States. Shades of skin color range from dark brown to ivory. In body type black Americans range from short and stocky to tall and lean. Nose shapes vary from aquiline to extremely broad and flat; hair color from medium brown to brown black; and hair texture from tightly curled to limp and straight. Historically, the predominant attitude toward racial group membership in the United States has been that persons having any black African ancestry are considered to be black. In some parts of the United States, especially in the antebellum South, laws were written to define racial group membership in this way, generally to the detriment of those who were not Caucasian. It is important to note, however, that ancestry and physical characteristics are only part of what has set black Americans apart as a distinct group. The concept of race, as it applies to the black minority in the United States, is as much a social and political concept as a biological one. BLACKS UNDER SLAVERY: 1600-1865 The first Africans in the New World arrived with Spanish and Portuguese explorers and settlers. By 1600 an estimated 275,000 Africans, both free and slave, were in Central and South America and the Caribbean area. Africans first arrived in the area that became the United States in 1619, when a handful of captives were sold by the captain of a Dutch man-of-war to settlers at \TJamestown\t. Others were brought in increasing numbers to fill the desire for labor in a country where land was plentiful and labor scarce. By the end of the 17th century, approximately 1,300,000 Africans had landed in the New World. From 1701 to 1810 the number reached 6,000,000, with another 1,800,000 arriving after 1810. Some Africans were brought directly to the English colonies in North America. Others landed as slaves in the West Indies and were later resold and shipped to the mainland. Slavery in America The earliest African arrivals were viewed in the same way as indentured servants from Europe. This similarity did not long continue. By the latter half of the 17th century, clear differences existed in the treatment of black and white servants. A 1662 Virginia law assumed Africans would remain servants for life, and a 1667 act declared that "Baptisme doth not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedome." By 1740 the \Tslavery\t system in colonial America was fully developed. A Virginia law in that year declared slaves to be "chattel personal in the hands of their owners and possessors . . . for all intents, construction, and purpose whatsoever." The principle by which persons of African ancestry were considered the personal property of others prevailed in North America for more than two-thirds of the three and a half centuries since the first Africans arrived there. Its influences increased even though the English colonies won independence and articulated national ideals directly in opposition to slavery. In spite of numerous ideological conflicts, however, the slavery system was maintained in the United States until 1865, and widespread antiblack attitudes nurtured by slavery continued thereafter. Prior to the American Revolution, slavery existed in all the colonies. The ideals of the Revolution and the limited profitability of slavery in the North resulted in its abandonment in northern states during the last quarter of the 18th century. At the same time the strength of slavery increased in the South, with the continuing demand for cheap labor by the tobacco growers and cotton farmers of the Southern states. By 1850, 92 percent of all American blacks were concentrated in the South, and of this group approximately 95 percent were slaves. Life on the plantations was hard, and no consideration was given to the cultural traditions of blacks. In the slave market men were separated from their wives, and frequently children were taken from their mothers. Family and tribal links were thus almost immediately cut. Fifty percent of the slaves were owned by 10 percent of the 385,000 slave owners. This concentration within a limited number of agricultural units had important consequences for the lives of most blacks. Under the plantation system gang labor was the typical form of employment. Overseers were harsh as a matter of general practice, and brutality was common. Punishment was meted out at the absolute discretion of the owner or the owner's agent. Slaves could own no property unless sanctioned by a slave master, and rape of a female slave was not considered a crime except as it represented trespassing on another's property. Slaves could not present evidence in court against whites. Housing, food, and clothing were of poor quality and seldom exceeded what was considered minimally necessary to maintain the desired level of work. Owners reinforced submissive behavior not so much by positive rewards as by severe punishment of those who did not conform. In most of the South it was illegal to teach a black to read or write. Opposition by Blacks All Southern states passed slave codes intended to control slaves and prevent any expression of opposition. Outbreaks of opposition did occur, however, including the Prosser and Bowler Revolt of 1800, the revolt led by Denmark \TVesey\t in 1822, Nat \TTurner\t's rebellion in 1831, and numbers of smaller uprisings. As a result, the substance and the enforcement of repressive laws against blacks became more severe. Blacks were forbidden to carry arms or to gather in numbers except in the presence of a white person. Free blacks, whether living in the North or South, were confronted with attitudes and actions that differed little from those facing Southern black slaves. Discrimination existed in most social and economic activities as well as in voting and education. In 1857 the \TDred Scott v. Sandford\t case of the U.S. Supreme Court placed the authority of the Constitution behind decisions made by states in the treatment of blacks. The Dred Scott decision was that black Americans, even if free, were not intended to be included under the word citizen as defined in the Declaration of Independence and could, therefore, claim none of the rights and privileges provided for in that document. Blacks responded to their treatment under slavery in a variety of ways. In addition to such persons as Prosser, Vesey, and Turner, who openly opposed the slave system, thousands of blacks escaped from slavery and moved to the northern United States or to Canada. Others sought ways to retain some sense of individuality and some vestige of their African heritage under difficult circumstances. Still others accepted the images of themselves that white America sought to project onto them. The result in some cases was the "Uncle Tom" or "Sambo" personality, the black who accepted his or her lowly position as evidence that whites were superior to blacks. In spite of the absence of legal status and the adverse effects of the domestic slave trade, the black family retained its traditional role in ordering the relations between adults and children. Much religious activity among slaves reflected the influences of African religious practices and served as a means by which slaves could develop and promote views of themselves different from those held by the slave owner. Outside the South, blacks established separate churches and, eventually, denominations within Protestantism, including many black Baptist churches. Another early denominational effort was the African Methodist Episcopal Church, initially called the Free African Society, which was founded (1787) in Philadelphia by Richard \TAllen\t. Civil War The issue of slavery appeared in national politics from the start of the nation. In 1820 it was the subject of the \TMissouri Compromise\t, a measure enacted by Congress to prohibit slavery north of the state of Missouri. In the 1850s the slavery issue further divided the nation along regional lines. For the most part, however, both proslavery and antislavery positions included antiblack attitudes. Except for the \Tabolitionists\t, most Northern opinion was more concerned with the dangers slavery posed to free labor than with the moral issue of the restrictions on the human rights of those held as slaves. When the South seceded (1860-61) because of the dangers to slavery it perceived in Lincoln's election, the North declared that it was not slavery but the act of secession that precipitated the \TCivil War\t. President Lincoln supported a Constitutional amendment that would have given federal protection to slavery in the Southern states. On his order slaves who escaped into the Union lines were returned to their owners by federal troops early in the war. Later, as the cost of the war in men and materials and national support for the abolitionists' position grew, President Lincoln shifted his position. In 1862 his \TEmancipation Proclamation\t declared slaves to be free if the areas in which they were held were still in revolt against the Union on Jan. 1, 1863. Slaves within the Union and in areas of the Confederacy under Union control, however, were initially excluded from the provisions of the proclamation. Thus at its inception, the proclamation functioned principally as military propaganda: slaves were declared free only in those areas where no real authority existed to free them. In those areas under federal authority, no action was taken. Nevertheless, the Emancipation Proclamation represented a point of no return on the issue of slavery. As the war moved into various parts of the South, activities by blacks demonstrated the falsehood of the Southern claim of a satisfied slave population. Information and provisions were turned over to the Union troops, and slaves fled into the lines of approaching Union armies in such numbers as to create logistical problems. Letters and diaries of slave owners and their families contain frequent references to increased difficulty in controlling slaves as the fighting neared. Beginning in 1862, provisions were made for enlisting blacks into the Union army. They were organized into all-black units referred to as the U.S. Colored Troops. Of the 209,000 blacks who entered service, 93,000 came from the area of the Confederacy. Units composed of soldiers from this area included the 1st and 3d Louisiana Native Guard and the 1st South Carolina Volunteers. The Confederacy at first refused to recognize blacks as soldiers. Unlike other Union troops who were captured, black soldiers were at first not allowed to surrender. Many were shot. The most infamous of such occurrences was at Fort Pillow, which fell to Confederate troops under Gen. Nathan B. \TForrest\t (later a founder of the \TKu Klux Klan\t). Blacks took part in more than 200 battles and skirmishes. In all, 68,178 died in battle or as the result of wounds or disease during the war. Lower pay for blacks and other forms of discrimination were common. In spite of this, desertion among blacks was more than 50 percent lower than for the Union army as a whole. RECONSTRUCTION AND ITS AFTERMATH: 1865-1915 During the period of \TReconstruction\t (1865-77), Union policy evolved to embrace the total abolition of slavery, as provided in the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1865. Government policy also moved toward equality of rights for blacks as reflected in the 14th Amendment (1868) and 15th Amendment (1870) and in related legislation. Opposition to equal rights for blacks was almost universal in the South and nearly so in the North, however. Passage of the 14th and 15th amendments had been primarily motivated by the desire of the Republican party to maintain political control in the former Confederacy. Participation by Blacks Blacks took an active part in all aspects of public life during Reconstruction. They voted in large numbers and were active in the conventions that formulated new state constitutions in the South. Many held political office at the local and state levels; 14 were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and two were elected to the U.S. Senate. Blacks pressed for and helped to establish systems of public education where none had previously existed. They established private schools and colleges with the assistance of the \TFreedmen\t's BUREAU, a federal agency, and Northern church groups. Legislation backed by federal troops made access to public accommodations possible. Many former slaves hoped that confiscated land of Confederate officials or land owned by the federal government might be divided into family farms and distributed among them. This was not done, however, and only a small number of blacks were able to purchase land, leaving the vast majority of Southern blacks economically dependent on former slave owners. Opposition by Whites The major attack on the rights of blacks came from Southern whites, many of whom insisted that federal policies under Reconstruction were oppressive and vindictive. High among their complaints was the erroneous claim that state governments were controlled by blacks. Many sought to remove blacks from participation in policies and to restore, as closely as possible, conditions that existed before the war. As the federal government restored suffrage to former Confederates, a variety of legal and extralegal means were used to accomplish these goals. The illegal activities of the Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations founded in the late 1860s, coupled with waning interest in the North in protecting the rights of black citizens, resulted in the gradual return of control of state governments into the hands of the Democratic party. This was effectively accomplished by 1877, when all federal troops were withdrawn from the South, and Reconstruction was officially ended. White rule of the Southern states was fully restored, and the rights of black citizens were once again in jeopardy. The Southern Race System As Reconstruction ended, an extremely difficult period began for black citizens. For protection of their civil rights, blacks were forced to rely on state governments controlled by persons who openly opposed the existence of those rights. The federal government increasingly withdrew from issues concerning the rights of blacks, and the executive and judicial branches tended to support the Southern white position. The disfranchisement of blacks that had begun in the South with illegal harassment and violence soon after the war was almost completed by the early years of the 20th century. Many Southern states instituted \Lpoll tax\les, literacy tests, and the so-called \Tgrandfather clause\t as a means of removing blacks from voting while allowing white suffrage to continue. The success of these efforts is attested to by the decline in registered black voters in Alabama from 181,471 in 1900 to 3,000 as a result of constitutional changes effected in 1901. Similar action in Louisiana reduced registered blacks from 130,334 in 1896 to 1,342 in 1904. The radical curtailment of black voting rights in the South facilitated the institutionalized separation of blacks from whites in various aspects of everyday life. Blacks were excluded from participation on juries and were refused service in hotels, restaurants, and amusement parks. They were forced to occupy separate sections in vehicles of public transportation and in public gathering places, and separate educational systems were provided for each race. By the outbreak of World War I, so-called \TJim Crow laws\t that legalized segregation of blacks and whites existed throughout the South. Jim Crow existed in other parts of the United States as well, either by law as in the South or by local practice. The judicial stamp of approval for Jim Crow came in 1896 with the case of \TPlessy v. Ferguson\t, whereby the U.S. Supreme Court declared constitutional a Louisiana law requiring separation by race on railroad coaches. The court held that enforcing such separation was a legitimate use of the police power of the states so long as equal facilities were provided. Such facilities for blacks were invariably inferior to those for whites, however. This inequality was perhaps most devastating in the area of education. As late as the start of World War II certain Southern school districts did not provide 12 years of public education for blacks. In addition, blacks frequently suffered discrimination in the distribution of tax moneys for support of schools. Publicly supported colleges in the South were likewise few and of poor quality. The powerlessness of blacks during the post-Reconstruction period is exemplified in the high incidence of lynchings (3,402) that occurred between 1882 and 1938. The several attempts to secure passage of a federal antilynching bill during this period were all unsuccessful. In spite of efforts by Southern whites to suppress blacks politically and to deny them social equality, the activities and efforts of blacks after Reconstruction to improve their economic condition and exercise their political rights met with some measure of success. In 1870, 80 percent of the black population over 10 years of age was illiterate; by 1900 illiteracy among blacks was reduced by almost 50 percent. Farm ownership, although still low, increased significantly; by 1901 about 25 percent of black farmers in the South owned their own land. Seven blacks were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for a cumulative total of 13 terms between 1877 and 1901, and Jim Crow legislation was challenged in the courts, albeit unsuccessfully. A variety of organizations sought to advance the rights of blacks, best known among them being the \TNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People\t (\TNAACP\t), founded 1909. One of its founders, William E. B. \TDu Bois\t, was the leading spokesperson for full and immediate rights for blacks. In spite of his and other efforts directed toward full racial equality for blacks during this period, historians have generally focused on the accommodation of blacks to post-Reconstruction racism. The accommodation espoused by some blacks was symbolized in the activities of the black educator Booker T. \TWashington\t, who cautioned blacks to be patient and to work hard toward attaining economic equality before striving for civil rights. His ideas fitted well with the views of many conservative whites but were opposed by many black leaders, among them Du Bois. PERIOD OF TRANSITION: 1915-45 World War I was a turning point in black American history. The trickle of blacks moving out of the South after 1877 increased enormously as war industries and the decline of European immigration combined to produce demands for labor in Northern cities. The coming together of large numbers of blacks in urban areas, the exposure of some blacks to European whites who did not hold the same racial attitude as American whites, and war propaganda to "make the world safe for democracy" combined to raise the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of blacks. Segregationists countered this optimism with an upsurge of lynchings, riots, and other antiblack violence after World War I, however. The Ku Klux Klan was revived and gained impetus in Northern as well as Southern states during the 1920s. These actions blunted the efforts of blacks in politics, but the changing attitudes among blacks found other forms of expression. During the 1920s notable productions of black literature, music, and art took place, and race consciousness increased. The latter is reflected in the writings of the influential black leader Marcus \TGarvey\t, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and an ardent proponent of \Tblack nationalism\t. In the 1930s blacks initially were less affected by the Depression than whites because the economy of the black community was already depressed. Before long, however, the worsening economic conditions hit blacks, as the group at the low end of the economic scale, the hardest. Reforms attempted by the New Deal almost exclusively concerned economic matters. No attack was made on problems suffered by blacks because of their racial minority group status. In New Deal efforts to aid the poor, however, blacks encountered the first assistance from government since Reconstruction. Franklin D. Roosevelt's sensitivity to the existence of racism, coupled with growing disaffection with the Republican party, caused more and more voting blacks to support the Democratic party. This was often an uncomfortable decision for blacks, because under the seniority practices followed by Congress, control by Democrats placed avowed segregationists in major positions of legislative leadership. The shift continued, however, and since the New Deal period blacks have increasingly voted for Democrats. With the outbreak of World War II, wholehearted black support was given to the war effort with the hope that the fight against Nazi racism would weaken racism in the United States. Of the 891,000 blacks who joined the military, approximately half a million served overseas. Black combat units included the 92d and 93d divisions and a small group of air force pilots. As in World War I the majority of blacks were organized into service units, and many were never trained in the use of basic weapons. In an attempt to encourage and improve job training for minority group workers in war industries, President Roosevelt established a national Fair Employment Practices Committee. The war ended, however, with no major attack on discrimination in employment and in labor unions, and Jim Crow practices persisted in many parts of both the North and the South. THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT Many things influenced the changes in U.S. race relations after World War II. The anti-Nazi propaganda generated during the war increased the realization by many Americans of the conflict between ideals and the reality of racism in their own country. The concentration of large numbers of blacks in cities of the North and West increased their potential for political influence. It also projected the problems related to race as national rather than regional. The establishment of the United Nations headquarters in the United States made American racial inequality more visible to a world in which the United States sought to give leadership during the Cold War with the \TUSSR\t. The growth of a white minority willing to speak out against racism provided allies for blacks. Most important in altering race relations in the United States, however, were the actions of blacks themselves. Legal Action Against Racism The first major attack by blacks on racism was through the courts. In a series of cases involving professional and graduate education, the Supreme Court required admission of blacks to formerly all-white institutions when separate facilities for blacks were clearly not equal. The major legal breakthrough came in 1954. In the case of \TBrown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas\t, the Supreme Court held that separate facilities are, by their very nature, unequal. In spite of this decision, more than a decade passed before significant school integration took place in the South. In the North, where segregated schools resulted from segregated housing patterns and from manipulation of school attendance boundaries, separation of races in public schools increased after 1954. A second major breakthrough in the fight against segregation grew out of the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott in 1955. The boycott began when Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. Her arrest resulted in a series of meetings of blacks in Montgomery and a boycott of buses on which racial segregation was practiced. The boycott, which lasted for more than a year, was almost 100 percent effective. Before the courts declared unconstitutional Montgomery's law requiring segregation on buses, Martin Luther \Tking\t, Jr., a Baptist minister, had risen to national prominence and had articulated a strategy of nonviolent direct action in the movement for \Tcivil rights\t. Nonviolent Direct Action Nonviolent direct action, born in the boycott, was taken up by blacks and white supporters throughout the country. It was applied at sit-ins and freedom rides, aimed at ending segregation in public places, and also at protest demonstrations of all kinds. Among these activities were the march on Washington of Aug. 28, 1963, in which more than 200,000 blacks and whites protested continued segregation and discrimination, and large-scale demonstrations in Birmingham, Ala. (April 1963), and Selma, Ala. (March 1965). These civil rights activities were directed by long-established groups such as the \TNAACP\t and CORE (the \TCongress of Racial Equality\t, founded 1942), by newly formed national groups such as the \TSouthern Christian Leadership Conference\t and \TSNCC\t (the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee), and by such local groups as the Dallas County (Ala.) Voters League and the Princeton (N.J.) Association for Human Rights. The response of segregationists to the demonstrations was to blame outside agitators for causing the trouble. Many law officials took strong, often brutal measures to halt demonstrations or else refused to protect the right of demonstrators to protest peacefully. Extremists took violent action against individuals connected with the protest and their property. Three civil rights workers were brutally murdered in Philadelphia, Miss., in 1964; four black children were murdered in the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963; and dozens of black churches throughout the South were burned or bombed. Two whites and one black were murdered during the 1965 demonstrations in Selma, Ala. Such violence against black and white civil rights activists was commonplace. In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., the recognized leader of the civil rights movement, was assassinated. The response to the violent reaction of segregationists was the passage of several new laws, the most important of which were enacted in 1964 and 1965. The \TCivil Rights Act\t (1964) undermined the remaining structure of Jim Crow laws and provided federal protection in the exercise of civil rights. The Voting Rights Act (1965) provided for federal action to put an end to actions by local governments and individuals that interfered with the right of blacks to register and vote. Both these laws were upheld in challenges before the U.S. Supreme Court. (See \Tintegration, racial\t.) Urban Unrest and Militant Protest During the middle and late 1960s, black leadership spoke increasingly of the limits of political successes, of the absence of accompanying economic change, and of the relationship between problems of race at home and affairs in which the United States was engaged abroad. Opposition also grew to the strategy of nonviolent resistance as its failure to alter significantly the lives of ghetto dwellers was perceived by some blacks. Unrest among urban blacks resulted in a series of riots beginning in the Watts section of Los Angeles in 1965. Attacks were mainly against the property of whites and the symbols of white authority in the ghetto. When Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in 1968, a new wave of riots spread across the country. A report by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, appointed by President Lyndon Johnson, identified more than 150 riots or major disorders between 1965 and 1968. In 1967 alone, 83 people were killed (most of them black), 1,800 were injured, and property valued at more than $100 million was destroyed. (See \Trace riots\t.) The growing black consciousness movement and the aggressive civil rights activism of the late 1960s resulted in what some have termed the white backlash. White supporters of moderate black organizations and activities declined. Harassment of some activists, especially the \TBlack Panther party\t and \TBlack Muslims\t, became common. Federal programs beneficial to poor ghetto youth were cut back, and the direction taken by the Supreme Court weakened the base for progress set under Chief Justice Earl \TWarren\t. Evidence began to leak out that the FBI had sought to discredit and destroy Martin Luther King, Jr., as a leader and had participated in efforts to reduce the effectiveness of some black organizations. Black Pride The riots, the white backlash, and new developments within the black community during the late 1960s brought to an end one phase of the civil rights movement. The chief characteristic of the black experience in the 1970s was the development of black consciousness and black pride. These values found renewed vigor as increasing numbers of blacks came to believe that the key to dealing with problems of race in the United States was the way they felt about themselves as individuals and as a group. The concept of black pride had been earlier articulated in such slogans as black is beautiful and black power. The latter term, introduced (1966) by Stokely Carmichael, the chairman at that time of \TSNCC\t, became the rallying cry for the more radical civil rights activists of the latter half of the 1960s. It found organizational expression in the Black Panther party, the Organization of Afro-American Unity, the Black Muslims, and other groups. Leading spokespersons of the concept of racial pride included \TMalcolm X\t, Imamu Amiri \TBaraka\t (formerly LeRoi Jones), Ron Karenga, and Huey Newton. This concept frightened some whites who claimed to see it as black racism. In recent years it has been viewed by some as a statement of pride in oneself, group unity, and an effort to control decision making in communities that are mainly black. Black Political Activity In the 1960s and '70s many blacks focused on political activity as a means of obtaining justice and equality of opportunity. During this Second Reconstruction, as the period has been called, a rapid increase occurred in the number of black registered voters, particularly in the South, followed by a marked increase in the number of black elected officials. Even before the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, black voters were influential in some Northern states, as in the election to the presidency of Democrat John Kennedy in 1960. In the presidential election of 1976 widespread black support for the Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter produced critical parts of his majorities in several Northern and Southern states. In 1984 the Rev. Jesse \TJackson\t, a civil rights activist in the 1960s, first campaigned in the primaries for the Democratic party presidential nomination. He won over 3 million primary votes (and about 75% of the black vote) but fell far short of winning enough convention delegates to gain the nomination. In 1988 his second failure to win the nomination was a history-making event--he ran second in the primary season, winning 6.6 million votes and about 30% of the delegates to become the first "serious" black contender for the presidency. Jackson attracted 92% of the black vote and 12% of the white. He addressed issues of interest to a wide public, did much to register new voters, and secured himself a prominent place in national politics. The increase in black government officials has taken place at all levels of government since the 1960s. In 1988 there were 6,680 black elected officials at all levels, from school boards to Congress. Thurgood \TMarshall\t became the first black Supreme Court justice in 1967, and was succeeded by Clarence \TThomas\t, a black American, following Marshall's retirement in 1991. In 1967, Edward W. \TBrooke\t of Massachusetts became the first black member of the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction. In 1984 21 blacks from 12 states served in the House of Representatives. These members of Congress included Major Owens, Charles Rangel, and Edolphus Towns of New York, John Conyers and George Crockett of Michigan, Ronald Dellums, Julian Dixon, Mervyn Dymally, and Augustus Hawkins of California, William Gray of Pennsylvania, and Lewis Stokes of Ohio. At the state level a total of 330 blacks sat as members of legislatures during this period. By 1984, there were more than 200 black mayors, compared to about 100 in 1974 and 80 in 1973. Black mayors of major cities included Tom Bradley in Los Angeles, Coleman Young in Detroit, and W. Wilson Goode in Philadelphia. BLACK AMERICAN CULTURE TODAY Blacks in the United States today are mainly an urban people. Their shift from the rural South to cities of the North and West during the 20th century constitutes one of the major migrations of people in U.S. history. This enormous shift of population has put severe strains on the fabric and social structure within both the old and new communities of migrating blacks. If one adds to this the problems of low income, high unemployment, poor education, and other problems related to racial discrimination, it could be said that the black community in the 20th century has existed in a perpetual state of crisis. The black community, however, has developed a number of distinctive cultural features that black Americans increasingly look upon with pride. Many of these features reflect the influence of cultural traditions that originated in Africa; others reflect the uniqueness of the black American in the United States. The unique features of black American culture are most noticeable in music, art and literature, and religion. They may also exist in speech, extended family arrangements, dress, and other features of life-style. Whether African ancestry or survival in the hostile environment of slavery and Jim Crow was more important in shaping existing cultural patterns of black American life is a question that requires further study. Music and the Arts Black American traditions in music reflect the mingling of African roots with the American experience. \Tblues\t and spirituals (see \Tgospel music\t) can be traced back to the African call-and-response chant, in which a solo verse line is alternated with a choral response of a short phrase or word. They also reflect the personal experiences of blacks and the difficult adjustments demanded in the American environment. The writings of James Weldon \TJohnson\t and the European and American tours of the Fisk University Jubilee singers brought black religious folk music to the nonblack community. Bessie \TSmith\t and W. C. \THandy\t stand out as major figures in the development of this form of music. \Tjazz\t, a direct descendant of blues, developed among blacks in New Orleans and spread with their migration. By 1920 it was popular throughout the country. The enduring popularity of Louis \TArmstrong\t and Duke \TEllington\t over several decades attests to its continuing attraction. The influence of jazz on other forms of popular music in America is clearly recognized. After World War II such popular performers as Nat King \TCole\t and Lena \THorne\t gained international acclaim. Later international audiences were won by Johnny \TMathis\t, Diana \TRoss\t, and Michael \TJackson\t. Paul \TRobeson\t and Marian \TAnderson\t paved the way for such black operatic singers as Leontyne \TPrice\t and Simon \TEstes\t. \Tblack American literature\t and art were slower to develop than was black music. Early artists and writers who were black dealt with themes that, in selection and approach, were indistinguishable from the works of whites. By the 1920s centers of artistic activity had developed, the best known being in New York. The \THarlem Renaissance\t, as this artistic outpouring was known, produced outstanding figures. Among them were poets Langston \THughes\t, Countee \TCullen\t, and James Weldon \TJohnson\t; writers Claude \TMcKay\t and Jean \TToomer\t; painters Aaron Douglas (1899-1979) and Laura Wheeler (1887-1948); sculptor Meta Warrick (1877-1967), and, in music, Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters, Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949), and Nathaniel Dett (1822-1943). The work of the Harlem Renaissance and writers such as Richard \TWright\t reflected the growing race consciousness among blacks and their opposition to the segregation encountered in all forms of life. These themes continue to be important in the work of such writers as James \TBaldwin\t, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn \TBrooks\t, Ralph \TEllison\t, Douglas Turner \TWard\t, and John A. \TWilliams\t. Religion Religion has traditionally been important to black American life. The first major denomination among blacks, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, grew from the church established by Richard Allen in Philadelphia in 1787. Others were created or derived from white denominational groups. Slave churches existed prior to the Civil War, often without denominational attachments and usually under the watchful eye of slave owners. Because of the religious connections of leaders of some slave revolts, these uprisings resulted in stricter controls of religious activity. With Emancipation, most former slaves joined Baptist or Methodist churches. These remain today as the church groups with the largest black memberships. Smaller numbers belong to other denominations and to independent churches of varying sizes. Among non-Christian religious groups that have attracted sizable followings are the Peace Mission of Father \TDivine\t and the Nation of Islam, often referred to as the Black Muslims. Both are urban in origin and date from the 1930s. The Peace Mission is strongly integrationist in teachings, a concept opposed by the Nation of Islam during most of its history. In recent years the racial character of leadership and members of the Peace Mission have become increasingly white. In 1985 the main Black Muslim group was unified with the Muslim community worldwide. Black ministers who have figured prominently in politics during the post-World War II period include Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Leon Sullivan, and Andrew \TYoung\t. The Family The black family through much of U.S. history has borne the strain of slavery and Jim Crow. These institutions limited the opportunity for the black male to fulfill his traditional role of head of household and protector of and provider for his family. Because women were often able to find domestic employment when no jobs were available to black men, women often provided more dependable and regular incomes. Statistically, black women are more frequently the head of families than is the case in nonblack families. In addition to problems of unemployment, urbanization produced strains of overcrowding, weakening of the extended family concept, and alienation. Nevertheless, relations among family members have traditionally been close. Many first-and second-generation city-dwelling blacks continue to think of home as the Southern place from which the family came. Education Until the post-World War II period, most blacks seeking higher education attended private \Tblack colleges\t located mainly in the South. Most of these had been started in the years immediately following the Civil War as a joint effort of blacks, Northern church groups, and the Freedmen's Bureau. Among these were Fisk University, Atlanta University, Talladega College, Morehouse College, and Spelman College. Late in the 19th century Tuskegee Institute was founded by Booker T. Washington, and a number of colleges were established by black church groups. Almost all blacks who received a college education before 1940 attended these institutions. In the 1940s some improvement was made in publicly supported institutions of higher education for blacks, and for the first time black students began to appear in colleges that had previously been all white. In the 1970s the percentage of blacks attending college increased markedly, but in the 1980s blacks lost ground. Although desegregation of the public schools in the South proceeded slowly for the first decade after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, by 1969 school districts in every state were at least in token compliance with the 1954 ruling. By that time all forms of de jure segregation had been struck down by the courts. De facto school segregation continued, however, in large part because the communities the schools served were segregated in their residential patterns. This was particularly true in large urban areas and more prevalent in the North than in the South. One method adopted to overcome such segregation was to bus children across school district lines in order to achieve racial balance in the schools. This caused major controversy and led to instances of violent opposition (see \Tbusing, school\t). The overwhelming majority of black children now attend formally integrated schools, although they may have little contact with white pupils even within the schools. The Press and Sports The black press is another of the institutions strongly influenced by urbanization. The major black papers, magazines, and radio stations exist because racial concentration in urban areas makes them a necessary and profitable activity. Among the oldest and most prominent black newspapers are the Baltimore Afro-American (founded 1892), The Chicago Daily Defender (1905), The New York Amsterdam News (1909), and The Atlanta Daily World (1928). During the past few decades a score or more new publications, mostly magazines, have appeared. Among the most successful are Jet and Ebony, both published by Johnson Publications of Chicago. In recent years the one area in which blacks and whites have most successfully competed on a basis of equality is sports. Before the 1940s competition seldom existed across racial lines except in boxing and track. On all black teams individual talent was recognized, but not until Jackie \TRobinson\t was hired by the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team in 1947 did major changes begin to occur. Today blacks appear in disproportionately large numbers in the college and professional team sports of basketball, baseball, and football, and in boxing and track. The proportion of blacks is even greater among those athletes classed in the superstar category. Outstanding sports players include boxing champions Joe \TLouis\t and Muhammad \TAli\t; track stars Jesse \TOwens\t and Carl \TLewis\t; Jim \TBrown\t, Walter \TPayton\t, and O. J. \TSimpson\t in football; Wilt \TChamberlain\t, Bill \TRussell\t, and Kareem \TAbdul-Jabbar\t in basketball; Arthur \TAshe\t in tennis; and baseball players Willie \TMays\t, Henry \TAaron\t, Frank \TRobinson\t, and Reggie \TJackson\t. Nonplaying leadership roles for blacks have been much slower to open up. There have been fewer than a dozen coaches and managers of major professional teams and a relatively small number of coaches of major college sports programs other than at historically black colleges. In the professional ranks these include Bill Russell and K. C. Jones of basketball and Frank Robinson of baseball. In the college ranks, John Thompson coached Georgetown University to the 1984 \TNCAA\t basketball title and then coached the U. S. team at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul; Lawrence Ellis, of Princeton University, coached the U. S. track and field team at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Other Contributions; Recent Concerns Black Americans have also made significant contributions in many other fields, despite the patterns of prejudice and inequality that historically have restricted their opportunities. Charles Drew's work in hematology leading to the establishment of the American Red Cross blood bank and Ralph \TBunche\t's appointment as undersecretary of the United Nations in 1950 are examples. The first black American in space was Air Force Lt. Col. Guion S. \TBluford\t, who took part in a 1983 space shuttle flight as a mission specialist. The second black American astronaut, Ronald E. McNAIR, was killed along with other six crew members in the 1986 \TSpace Shuttle\t Challenger disaster. In the 1980s the median income of blacks still remained significantly below that of whites. Although modest economic gains have been made, large numbers of blacks continue to live in poverty. Many blacks share concern that actions taken by the administration of President Ronald Reagan--withdrawing funds from programs to aid the poor and reducing support for affirmative action--will seriously harm their communities. These fears, coupled with growing interest in Third World affairs, have fueled the efforts of blacks to have a voice in federal, state, and local government proportionate with their numbers. The outpouring of support by black voters for Jesse Jackson's presidential candidacy in 1984 and 1988 can best be understood in this light. Henry Drewry Bibliography: Campbell, Mary, et al., Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America (1987); Cash, W., The Mind of the South (1968; repr. 1970); Clark, K.B., Dark Ghetto (1965); Drotning, Phillip T., Black Heroes in Our Nation's History (1969); Du Bois, W.E.B., Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 (1935; repr. 1966); Ernst, R.T., and Hugg, Lawrence, eds., Black America (1976); Fletcher, Marvin E., America's First Black General: Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., 1880-1970 (1989); Franklin, John Hope, From Slavery to Freedom, 6th ed. (1987), and as ed. with August Meier, Black Leaders of the Twentieth Century (1983); Frazier, E. Franklin, The Negro Church in America, rev. ed. (1974); Glatthaar, Joseph T., Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers (1990); Gutman, H.G., The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (1976); Hamilton, Charles V., The Black Experience in American Politics (1973); Hughes, Langston, Fight for Freedom (1962); Lemann, Nicholas, The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America (1991); Myrdal, Gunnar, et al., An American Dilemma, 2 vols., rev. ed. (1962; repr. 1975); Pinkney, Alphonso, The Myth of Black Progress (1984) and Black Americans, 3d ed. (1987); Woodward, C. Vann, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, 3d rev. ed. (1974) and American Counterpoint: Slavery and Racism in the North-South Dialogue (1983).