【正文】 a mask of pliance to prevent being victims of racially motivated violence. To maintain selfesteem and dignity, African Americans such as Anthony Overton and Mary McLeod Bethune continued to build their own schools, churches, banks, social clubs, and other businesses.[17]In the last decade of the 19th 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[18]—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.Great Migration and Civil Rights MovementAn African American boy outside of Cincinnati, Ohio in the 1940sMarch on Washington, August 28, 1963, shows civil rights and union leadersMain articles: Great Migration (African American) and AfricanAmerican Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)The desperate conditions of African Americans in the South that sparked the Great Migration of the early 20th century,[19] bined with a growing African American munity 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 from 1954 to 1968 was directed at abolishing racial discrimination against African Americans, particularly in the Southern United States. 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 Lyndon B. Johnson.Johnson put his support behind passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned discrimination in public acmodations, employment, and labor unions, and the Voting Rights Act (1965), which expanded federal authority over states to ensure black political participation through protection of voter registration and elections. 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 economic and political selfsufficiency, and freedom from white authority.[20]PostCivil Rights eraMain article: Post Civil Rights Era AfricanAmerican historyPolitically and economically, blacks have made substantial strides during the postcivil rights era. In 1989, Douglas Wilder became the first AfricanAmerican elected governor in . history. There are currently two black governors serving concurrently。% of total populationSlavesList of . metropolitan areas with large AfricanAmerican populationsAlmost 58% of African Americans lived in metropolitan areas in 2000. With over 2 million black residents, New York City had the largest black urban population in the United States in 2000, overall the city has a 28% black population. Chicago has the second largest black population, with almost 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 had the highest percentage of black residents of any . city in 2000, with 84% (though it should be noted that the 2006 Census estimate puts the city39。s Witnesses, 22% are black.[32]Malcolm Shabazz Mosque in Harlem, New York CitySome African Americans follow Islam. Historically, between 15 to 30% of enslaved Africans brought to the Americas were Muslims, but most of these Africans were converted to Christianity during the era of American slavery.[40] However during the 20th century, some African Americans converted to Islam, mainly through the influence of black nationalist groups that preached with distinctive Islamic practices。 although there are significant numbers of people who are part of nonmainstream Jewish groups, largely the Black Hebrew Israelites, whose beliefs include the claim that African Americans are descended from the Biblical Israelites.[52]Contemporary issuesHarmony, oil on canvas by Philippe Derome, Alabama, 1987African Americans have improved their social and 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 in addition to representation in the highest levels of American government has been gained by African Americans in the postcivil 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。s New Deal program provided economic relief to African Americans。 other, nonaffiliated Christian programs are also shown during the early morning hours daily. BET is now a global network that reaches 85 million viewers in the Caribbean, Canada, and the United Kingdom.[69]In addition to BET there is Centric, which is a spinoff cable television channel of BET, created originally as BET on Jazz to showcase jazz musicrelated programming, especially that of black jazz musicians. Programming since has been expanded to include a block of urban programs as well as some Ramp。 school stated,Working with students having the worst of backgrounds, those who were working far below grade level, and even those who had been labeled as 39。s endorsement of Barack Obama delivered one million votes for him in the close 2008 Democratic primaries.[87]Economically, African Americans have benefited f