【正文】 million%––By 1990, the African American population reached about 30 million and represented 12% of the . population, roughly the same proportion as in 1900.[28] In current demographics, according to 2005 . Census[dubious – discuss] figures, some million African Americans live in the United States, prising % of the total population. The World Factbook gives a 2006 figure of %[29] 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.At the time of the 2000 Census, % of African Americans lived in the South. In that year, % of African Americans lived in the Northeast and % in the Midwest, while only % lived in the western states. The west does have a sizable black population in certain areas, however. California, the nation39。 governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and governor David Paterson of New York. Clarence Thomas became the second AfricanAmerican Supreme Court 1992 Carol MoseleyBraun of Illinois became the first black woman elected to the . Senate. There were 8,936 black officeholders in the United States in 2000, showing a net increase of 7,467 since 1970. In 2001 there were 484 black mayors.On November 4, 2008, Democratic Senator Barack Obama defeated Republican Senator John McCain to bee the first African American to be elected President. At least 95 percent of AfricanAmerican voters voted for Obama.[21][22] He also received overwhelming support from young and educated whites, a majority of Asians, Hispanics,[23] and Native Americans[24][not in citation given] picking up a number of new states in the Democratic electoral column.[21][22] Obama lost the overall white vote, although he won a larger proportion of white votes than any previous nonincumbent Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter.[25] The following year Michael S. Steele was elected the first AfricanAmerican chairman of the national Republican Party.[26]DemographicsAfrican Americans as percent of population, 2000.. Census map indicating . counties with fewer than 25 black or African American inhabitantsFurther information: List of . munities with African American majority populations 9 Further reading 5 The term African American o Political overtones o Who is African American? o The AfricanAmerican experience o Terms no longer in mon use 1 History o Slavery era o Reconstruction and Jim Crow o Great Migration and Civil Rights Movement o PostCivil Rights era M. L. King, Jr. Barack Obama KnowlesMalcolm X Booker T. WashingtonMichael Jordan Muhammad AliTotal populationAfrican American37,000,000 [1](~12% of the US population)NonHispanic Black36,701,103 [1]Black Hispanic884,947 [1]Regions with significant populationsThroughout the Southern United States, parts of the Northeast, the Midwest, and CaliforniaLanguagesAmerican English recent immigrants and its children speak Caribbean English French Haitian Creole Islam Sierra Leone Creole people Black British editAfrican Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or AfroAmericans, and formerly as American Negroes) are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa.[2] In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial SubSaharan African ancestry. Most African Americans are the direct descendants of captive Africans who survived the slavery era within the boundaries of the present United States, although some are—or are descended from—immigrants from African, Caribbean, Central American or South American nations.[3] As an adjective, the term is usually written as AfricanAmerican.[4]AfricanAmerican history starts in the 17th century with indentured servitude in British America and progresses onto the election of Barack Obama as the 44th and current President of the United States. Between those landmarks there were other events and issues, both resolved and ongoing, that were faced by African Americans. Some of these were slavery, reconstruction, development of the AfricanAmerican munity, participation in the great military conflicts of the United States, racial segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement. African Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States and form the second largest racial group after whites in the United States.[5]Contents[hide] 4 Contemporary issues o Politics and social issues o News media and coverage o Education o Economic status o Health o Cultural influence in the United States o Political legacy 8 References s famous 1776 Crossing the Delaware portrait.By 1860, there were million enslaved African Americans in the United States due to the Atlantic slave trade, and another 500,000 African Americans lived free across the country.[13] In 1863, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation declared that all slaves in states which had seceded from the Union were free.[14] Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation with Texas being the last state to be emancipated in 1865.[15]Reconstruction and Jim CrowJesse Owens shook racial stereotypes both with Nazis and segregationists in the USA at the 1936 Berlin olympics.Main articles: Reconstruction era of the United States and Jim Crow lawsAfrican Americans quickly set up congregations for themselves, as well as schools, munity and civic associations, to have space away from white control or oversight. While the postwar 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 disenfranchisement.[16] Most African Americans followed the Jim Crow laws, using