A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features recurring characters in a common environment such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue. Such programs originated in radio, but today, sitcoms are found almost exclusively on television as one of its dominant narrative forms, and art forms.

A situation comedy television program may be recorded before a studio audience. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated by the use of a laugh track.

Characteristics

As opposed to stand up comedy and sketch comedy, a situation comedy has a storyline and ongoing characters in, essentially, a comedic drama. The situation is usually that of a family, workplace, or a group of friends through comedic sequences.

Traditionally comedy sketches were presented within a variety show and mixed with musical performances, as in vaudeville. The emerging mass medium of radio allowed audiences to regularly return to programs, so programs could feature the same characters and situations each episode and expect audiences to be familiar with them.

Sitcom humor is often character driven and by its nature running gags often evolve during a series. Often the status quo of the situation is maintained from episode to episode. An episode may feature a disruption to the usual situation and the character interactions, but this will usually be settled by the episode's end and the situation returned to how it was prior to the disruption. There are exceptions to this. Some shows feature story arcs across many episodes where the characters and situations change and evolve.

History

Comedies from past civilizations, such as those of Aristophanes in ancient Greece, Terence and Plautus in ancient Rome, Śudraka in ancient India, and numerous examples including Shakespeare, Molière, the Commedia dell'arte and the Punch and Judy shows from post-Renaissance Europe, are the ancestors of the modern sitcom. Some of the characters, pratfalls, routines and situations as preserved in eyewitness accounts and in the texts of the plays themselves, are remarkably similar to those in earlier modern sitcoms such as ''I Love Lucy'' and ''The Honeymooners''. The first television sitcom is said to be ''Pinwright's Progress'', ten episodes being broadcast on the BBC between 1946–1947. In the U.S., director and producer William Asher, has been credited with being the "man who invented the sitcom," having directed over two dozen of the leading sitcoms, including ''I Love Lucy,'' during the 1950s through the 1970s.

Australia

Australia has not had a significant number of long running sitcoms while many US and UK sitcoms have been extremely popular. UK sitcoms are a staple on the government broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Several other UK sitcoms were shown by the Seven Network. US sitcoms have been common on the three commercial networks.

There have been many Australian sitcoms throughout the history of Australian television, but many ran for just a single season - usually 13 half-hour episodes. Many successful Australian sitcoms were somewhat similar in style to UK comedies, and several closely followed the premise of earlier UK programs. An early successful situation comedy was ''My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?'' (1967) about a working-class Sydney family. Other popular sitcoms of this general period included ''The Group'', and ''Our Man in Canberra''.

In the 1970s popular Australian soap operas ''Number 96'' and ''The Box'' featured a lot of comedy content. In 1976 ABC produced sex-comedy sitcom ''Alvin Purple'', based on the hit feature film ''Alvin Purple'', again with Graeme Blundell in the title role.

By the late 1970s Australian versions of popular UK comedies were produced using key personnel from the original series. These productions retained the title and key cast members of the original programs and operated within the same story world of the original. These comedies, ''Are You Being Served'', ''Doctor in the House'' (as ''Doctor Down Under'') and ''Father, Dear Father'' (as '''Father, Dear Father in Australia''), transplanted key original cast members to Australia to situations markedly similar to those of the original series. In 1978 one of the UK producers of these shows also produced ''The Tea Ladies'' in Australia. In the late 1970s Crawford Productions, best known for their successful police drama series, also created sitcoms including ''The Bluestone Boys'' (1976) on Network Ten, and ''Bobby Dazzler'' (1977) on the Seven Network.

The late-1970s sketch comedy series ''The Naked Vicar Show'' written and produced by Gary Reilly and Tony Sattler spawned a successful sitcom spin off, ''Kingswood Country'', in 1980. This series was immensely popular, running four years. Its situation was somewhat similar to the British comedy ''Till Death Us Do Part'' and Australian comedy series ''The Last of the Australians''.

In the early 1980s there were few Australian sitcoms, with soap operas being the more common genre produced in Australia. During this period however the Australian Broadcasting Corporation produced ''Mother and Son'', which emerged as an enduring audience favourite. In the late 1980s and early 1990s several new Australian sitcoms achieved significant success including ''Frontline'', ''Acropolis Now'', ''All Together Now'' which all had relatively long runs. This period also saw many short-lived failures such as ''Late for School'' and ''Bingles''.

''Hey Dad...!'', by Gary Reilly Productions was a long running popular success. The company's other shows ''Hampton Court'' and ''My Two Wives'' were only moderate successes, lasting just one season. ''The Adventures of Lano and Woodley'' ran for two seasons, in 1997 and 1999, on the ABC. In 2002 the successful sitcom ''Kath and Kim'' began its run.

Canada

Canadian sitcoms have often fared poorly with both critics and audiences. One notorious example is ''The Trouble with Tracy'', regarded by many Canadians as one of the worst TV shows ever made. Other Canadian sitcoms have included ''Snow Job'', ''Check it Out!'', ''Mosquito Lake'' and ''Not My Department'', all of which were mocked as being particularly uninspired. There have rarely been more than one or two Canadian sitcoms airing new episodes at any given time, although this has changed in recent years with the growth of original programming on cable television.

Successful sitcoms have been produced in Canada, however, including ''King of Kensington'', ''Trailer Park Boys'', ''Twitch City'', ''Hangin' In'', ''Odd Job Jack'', ''Little Mosque on the Prairie'' and ''Corner Gas'', the latter of which is the most popular Canadian sitcom of all time. Generally, however, Canadian television networks have had much more success with sketch comedy and dramedy series than with conventional sitcoms.

In 2004, Fresh TV released the Emmy winning animated sitcom ''6teen'', created by Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch. 6teen shows on Teletoon in Canada, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon in the US, Pop Girl in The UK, Studio 23 in the Philippines, Z@PP in the Netherlands, ABC3 in Australia, in Poland ZigZap, in Israel Children's Channel, in The Netherlands Z@PP and Disney Channel (Netherlands & Belgium), TV7 in Bulgaria, and 2x2 in Russia. It's mostly viewed by children aged between 10–18, because of the mature subjects such as dating, kissing, sex, and language and TVPG-D rating shows later at night. ''6teen'' has many good reviews. It is in its fourth and final season ending in 2011.

Another highly popular Canadian animated sitcom is the ''Total Drama Series'', a show which satirizes reality television, its conventions and its characters. The series began with the first season, entitled ''Total Drama Island'', which was first broadcast in 2007 in the Canadian channel Teletoon and was later broadcast into the United States and Europe in 2008 through Cartoon Network, through which it became a hit as well. It was broadcast in Latin America in 2009 through Cartoon Network too, where it also became a hit, particularly in Argentina. The second season of the show, ''Total Drama Action'' aired in 2009 in North America and Europe and in 2010 in Latin America. The third season, ''Total Drama World Tour'', will premiere in North America on June the 10th 2010.

In the francophone province of Quebec, notable sitcoms have included ''Histoires de filles'', ''Moi et l'autre'', 4 et demi, La Petite Vie, Dans une galaxie près de chez-vous, Il était une fois dans le trouble and Rumeurs.

Pakistan

True talent of sitcom is seen in Pakistan since 1960.Many Pakistani comedians are popular all over the world including Umer Sharif , Liaquat Soldier and the most famous one is Moeen Akhtar. Loose Talk Pakistan was a very famous sitcom from Pakistan starring Anwar Maqsood and Moeen Akhtar. Present stcom of Pakistan is Banke Mian or Banke Mian Qawwal which is a computer animated character of Pakistani television channel Express News. Hum Sub Umeed Se Hain is also a political satire show, which features funny segments on Pakistani political issues. Shakeel Siddiqui is a Pakistan comedian who appeared in Comedy Circus in India.

India

Sitcoms have been very popular in India since the late 1980s. Shrimaan Shrimati, Flop Show and Dekh Bhai Dekh became extremely popular. The introduction of private TC channels has brought good TRPs for sitcoms. One of the popular ones was Sarabhai vs Sarabhai on the channel STAR One. Some other popular shows are Khichdi, Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah, Office Office, Tu Tu Main Main,Great Laughter Challenge, Lapataganj, All The Best, Shararat,F.I.R and Hum Paanch.

China

China, mainly Beijing's television studios, has produced a strong number of comedies with high episode counts. The first multi-camera sitcom was ''I Love My Family'', in 1993. While inspired by American sitcoms, ''I Love My Family'' used actors with theatre experience to display comedic and dramatic talents. ''Home with Kids'' is another Chinese sitcom heavily based on ''Growing Pains'', which dealt with real-life family issues and ran for over 350 episodes. It was known for featuring child actors, who have prominent roles throughout the series.

For the teen audience, China has produced the ''Friends''-inspired ''iPartment''. Like ''Friends'', the Shanghai-based ''iPartment'' follows a group of neighbors in their escapades. The series uses fast-paced editing and surreal pop culture references for comic effect. ''iPartment'' has 20 hour-long episodes and is filmed on-location and closed sets. Despite this, the series contains a laugh track, which is an uncommon practice used for single-camera programs.

Hong Kong has a strong number of sitcoms that differ from Mainland China's programs. An average sitcom does not use a studio audience nor a laugh track to fill-in more dialogue for the characters. Also, many programs used large sets and locations to film more dynamically.

New Zealand

New Zealand began producing television programs later than many other developed countries. Due to New Zealand's small population, the two main New Zealand networks will rarely fund more than one or two sitcoms each year. This low output means there is less chance of a successful sitcom being produced to offset the failures.

Early sitcoms included ''Joe & Koro'' and ''Buck House''. Later there was ''The Billy T James Show'' subsequently rerun in early 2004 as part of the first year's offering on Māori Television. The team of David McPhail and Jon Gadsby produced and/or starred in sitcoms such as ''Letter to Blanchy'' with help from writer A K Grant. The most popular and successful NZ sitcom from this era was Roger Hall's ''Gliding On'', based on his hit stage play ''Glide Time''. Another Hall play, ''Conjugal Rites'' was also made into a sitcom but by Granada in Britain.

In 1994, ''Melody Rules'' was produced and screened. Critically and commercially unsuccessful, it has become part of the lexicon within the television industry to describe an unsuccessful sitcom, for example, ''that show will be the next "Melody Rules"''. Another sitcom to have its roots in a stage play was ''Serial Killers'' (2003), about the scriptwriters of a medical soap opera. Since Melody Rules aired, no American-style sitcoms have been produced in New Zealand.

Most recently the duo Flight of the Conchords have created and starred in a sitcom of an eponymous name. The show stars three Kiwis (including Rhys Darby), is written primarily by the two leads, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie (along with contributions from Kiwis Duncan Sarkies and Taika Waititi), but it is shot entirely in New York City, was co-created by an Englishman, James Bobin, and is funded by HBO, an American premium cable channel. It is the most popular sitcom ever produced featuring Kiwi comedians.

The most successful true NZ sitcom to date, which also utilizes the one-camera approach is the Jaquie Brown Diaries. The show is an advanced concept for New Zealand domestic television production for the fact that it stars Jaquie Brown, as herself, as a C-list celebrity in Auckland. The show revolves around Jaquie's life as a light relief reporter on a current events show (a job she used to actually have on TV3's current affairs show Campbell Live) and her desire to be a socially relevant pop cultural media figure in New Zealand. Brown, who had not acted seriously prior to this production, excelled in the role and displayed a panache for naturalistic comedic acting. It was also written by two novice writers, Gerard Johnstone (Who also directed) and Jodie Molloy. The first season (July 2008) ran for 6 episodes. The second season (Oct 2009) ran for 8 episodes.

Many British and American sitcoms are and have been popular in New Zealand.

It is commonly claimed that the primary difficulties for New Zealand comedy production are a prevailing attitude of cultural cringe wherein domestic products are viewed as automatically being inferior, and the market demand for profitability due to New Zealand having no strictly commercial-free channels. Both government-owned channels TVOne and TV2 are broadcast with commercials and cannot survive on government subsidies alone. Some suggest that Kiwi comedies which are viewed as commercially unreliable are often relegated to poor timeslots and not promoted by their networks. James Griffin, creator of TV3's Outrageous Fortune, has noted that often Kiwi comedies get neglected to death such as his show Diplomatic Immunity did.

Denmark

The first respected Danish sitcom was Langt Fra Las Vegas (Far From Las Vegas), which ran from 2001, till' 2003. It was written by Casper Christensen. The series was about a TV station and the employees, but mainly Casper, played by Casper Christensen. The first season was called "Season 0" and was very different from the other 4 seasons. Kenny, played by Frank Hvam, was changed from a smart ass, to a nerd. The kid like Wulff, played by Mikael Wulff, was written out of the story. When Langt fra Las Vegas ended, Casper made up a new sitcom called Klovn (Clown), wich ran from 2005 to 2009. Casper and Frank played them selves. When the series ended, Klovn - The Movie came in the cinamas one and a half year later. The movie got quiet popular. An other of the more popular sitcoms was Kristian, which were written by Christian Fuhlendorff. Christian also played Kristian. The first season ran from November 2009, and had 10 episodes. In 2011, Christian Fuhlendorff announced on his facebook, that there would be an second season in the Autum 2011. In the start of 2011 the sitcom Lykke (Lykke is the name of the protagonist. The name Lykke is Danish, and means "Happiness") aired, and lasted 10 episodes. Not soon after it ended, DR1 announced that they would make some new episodes.

Czech Republic

Czech first sitcom called Nováci, which ran in 1995, was paused because of bad ratings and production ambitions create better one. In 1996 aired new sitcom Nováci 2, which was much worst than original series and was stopped after 52 episodes. Original series from 1995 has got 72 episodes. In 1996 aired 26 episodes of new series called Hospoda (Pub), which became very successful, so in 1997 was created secon series with 26 episodes again. In 1999 aired series called Policajti z předměstí (Suburb Cops) which was marked like unwatch and after 21 episodes was ended, but it have lot of fans today. In 2001 aired sitcom Duch Český and in 2008 Cyranův ostrov written by famous Czech country singer Ivan Mládek. In same year aired much less sitcom profesionálové (Professionals), which was stoped after 11 episodes and which was inspirated ba very successful Slovakian version. In 2009 aired new series of Cyranův ostrov called Cyranův poloostrov with new main plot and in 2010 was present new version of Profesionálové with some new actors, new director or new scriptwriters. But in fact-it wasn't very successful again. In 2011 will be present Noha 22-new project of Ivan Mládek-sitcom from hospital and probably third season of Profesionálové.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has produced a wealth of sitcoms, many of which have been exported to other nations or adapted for other countries. There is often a tendency towards black humour. A frequent theme in British sitcoms is that of people trapped in an unpleasant situation (''Porridge'', '''Allo 'Allo!'') or a dysfunctional relationship (''Only Fools and Horses'', ''Rising Damp'' and ''Steptoe and Son'').

British sitcoms have also tended to shy away from the folksy homespun nature of the American sitcom and into more adult or intellectual territory - ''Yes, Minister'' being an example of the latter.

The BBC has had more success with this format than its commercial counterpart ITV. This is put down to the fact that ITV has to allow for commercial breaks so programmes are several minutes shorter and thus do not allow for character and plot development.

United States

Most North American sitcoms are generally half-hour programs in which the story is written to run a total of 22 minutes in length, leaving eight minutes for commercials.

Sitcoms made outside the US may run somewhat longer or shorter than 22 minutes. US commercial broadcasters have traditionally been very reluctant to run shows that run too short or too long. Thus, very few UK or British Commonwealth sitcoms run on US commercial television.

US sitcoms (like other American television series) typically have long season runs of 20 or more episodes due to the way they are produced. Canadian sitcoms typically only have season runs of 14 on average. British sitcoms have much shorter seasons in comparison where there are usually six episodes.

American sitcoms are often written by large teams of US resident script writers during round-table sessions, but some US sitcoms often do have episodes written by a guest writer. Most British sitcoms are written by one or two people, with four writers sometimes being the norm for some series in the recent past. These divergent writing styles result in vastly different kinds of sitcoms being written.

Usually sitcoms from the U.S. have satire and slapstick comedy in their status. America has made countless sitcoms since 1947, including sitcoms aimed specifically at children and teenagers. A sub-genre of U.S. sitcoms, seen as early as the 1950s but more prominent since the 1970s, is the black sitcom, a sitcom featuring a predominantly African American cast.

Sitcoms on US radio

The situation comedy format was born on January 12, 1926 with the initial broadcast of ''Sam 'n' Henry'' on WGN in Chicago. The 15-minute daily program was revamped in 1928, moved to another station, renamed ''Amos 'n' Andy'', and became one of the most successful sitcoms from this period. It was also one of the earliest examples of radio syndication. Like many radio programs of the time, the two programs continued the American entertainment traditions of vaudeville and the minstrel show.

''The Jack Benny Program'' was another important and formative sitcom (which also functioned as a variety show, depending on the week's script and guest stars involved). The radio version began in 1932 and lasted until 1955. A televised version of the show ran from 1950 to 1965. In total, the show was broadcast for a third of a century.

''Blondie'' was a situation comedy adapted from the Blondie comic strip by Chic Young. The radio program had a long run on several networks from 1939 to 1950.

''Fibber McGee and Molly'' was one of the most successful sitcoms of all time, airing on radio from 1935 to 1959. The show starred vaudevillians James "Jim" and Marian Driscoll Jordan and also had its roots in Chicago.

In 1947, ''Beulah'' became the first radio sitcom featuring an African-American actor in the lead role.

Sitcoms on US television

1940s–1950s

In the late 1940s, the sitcom was among the first formats adapted for the new medium of television. Most sitcoms were a half-hour in length and aired weekly. Many of the earliest sitcoms were direct adaptations of existing radio shows, such as or ''The Jack Benny Program'', or vehicles for existing radio stars such as Burns and Allen (''The Burns and Allen Show'') and film stars such as Abbott and Costello (''The Abbott and Costello Show''). Early sitcoms were broadcast live and recorded on kinescopes or not recorded at all.

''Mary Kay and Johnny'' was followed by ''The Goldbergs'' which first aired on January 17, 1949. The television adaptation of ''Beulah'' in 1950 became the first TV sitcom with an African American in the lead. Both ''The Goldbergs'' and ''Beulah'' were early examples of sitcoms without a laugh-track or studio audience.

Early sitcoms done on film, though without the multiple-camera setup, included ''The Life of Riley'' with Jackie Gleason, and Stu Erwin's The Trouble with Father. Eventually, sitcoms began to divide themselves into domestic comedies and workplace comedies. The earliest domestic comedies include ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'', ''The Honeymooners'', and ''Make Room for Daddy''. The earliest workplace comedies include ''Our Miss Brooks'' and ''Mr. Peepers'', both set in high schools, and ''The Phil Silvers Show'', was set on a US Army post.

I Love Lucy

''I Love Lucy'' brought a new way of filming sitcoms, with Desi Arnaz, the early innovator in the history of sitcoms, who is credited with the first successful use of the multiple-camera setup, where three cameras shoot the action on stage simultaneously and the best shots from each of the cameras are later edited together. The show starred Lucille Ball (Lucy Ricardo) with her husband Desi Arnaz (Ricky Ricardo). They created it together with actors Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz) and William Frawley (Fred Mertz), and a creative writing team. ''I Love Lucy'' was also among the first to record all multiple-camera episodes on film. With their Desilu Productions studio company, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are credited with foreseeing the viability and prosperity of the rerun television program series.

1960s

A trend beginning in the 1960s was the expansion of the domestic comedy beyond the nuclear family or married couple. ''The Andy Griffith Show'' and ''My Three Sons'' featured widowers and their children. At the end of the decade, Sherwood Schwartz's ''The Brady Bunch'' focused on a blended family.

By the mid-1960s, sitcom creators began adding more fantastical elements to live action sitcoms in the so-called "high concept" style. The regular characters of ''The Munsters'' were modelled on the Universal Monsters and the eccentric ''The Addams Family'' sprang from a series of cartoon comics. Genies and witches featured in ''I Dream of Jeannie'' and ''Bewitched'', respectively. Sherwood Schwartz created ''Gilligan's Island'' about seven stranded castaways including a movie star, a millionaire, and a professor. ''The Monkees'' was a psychedelic musical about a fictional performing group. ''Get Smart'' was a spy genre parody series , ''Batman'' a camp series based on a comic book, and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. was a Andy Griffith Show spinoff about a dim-witted Southerner who joins the United States Marine Corps, named Gomer Pyle.

Sitcom production of the 1960s mainly used the single camera filming style, which was more practical given the visual effects used in these shows. This allowed for the careful creation of special effects and sharp editing, features which were not possible with the same finesse in a multi-camera production. Many of these programs were not filmed before live audiences, and featured a laugh track.

The animated sitcom was born during this period with Hanna-Barbera's ''The Flintstones'' and ''The Jetsons''. The latter show was the first example of the science fiction sitcom subgenre.

1970s

In the early 1970s sitcoms began to address controversial issues in a serious way, and largely returned to the three-camera shoot before live audiences. Many programs of this era were recorded on videotape as opposed to film. About half of the sitcoms on broadcast television airing between the mid-1970s and the late 1990s were shot on video.

In the US Norman Lear often used the sitcom format to address social issues through his series ''All in the Family'' (based on Johnny Speight's ''Till Death Us Do Part'') and its spin-offs ''Maude'', ''The Jeffersons'', and ''Good Times'', all in the US. Also in Britain was Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's ''Steptoe and Son'', which also had a US remake in ''Sanford and Son''. In a major departure from earlier American sitcoms, these programs also had racially diverse casts.

Women's liberation was the backdrop in a series of female-led sitcoms produced by Grant Tinker: ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'', and its spin-offs ''Rhoda'' and ''Phyllis''.

The topic of war was addressed in the sitcom ''M*A*S*H''. The producers of ''M*A*S*H'' did not want a laugh track on the show, arguing that the show did not need one, but CBS disagreed. CBS compromised by permitting the producers of the show to omit recorded laughter from scenes that took place in the operating room, if they wished. When it was shown in the UK and Germany, episodes were broadcast without the laugh track. Ross Bagdasarian also refused to use a laugh track in his production of ''The Alvin Show'', as did Jay Ward on ''Rocky and Bullwinkle''.

Also during this time, Bob Newhart adapted his deadpan club act for television in sitcom format with ''The Bob Newhart Show'', which was at once a throwback to the early vaudevillian origins of sitcoms and a harbinger of the 1980s - 1990s stand-up comedian sitcom trend.

In the mid-1970s, Garry Marshall had several huge hits in the US with his sitcoms such as ''The Odd Couple'', ''Happy Days'', ''Laverne and Shirley'', and ''Mork and Mindy''. Nostalgia for the 50s was a major theme in both ''Happy Days'' and ''Laverne and Shirley''.

Sex and titillation became a theme in late 1970s with the UK sitcom ''Man About the House'' and its US remake ''Three's Company''. Two soap opera parodies, ''Soap'' and ''Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'', are also notable shows from this period which pushed the envelope of what was acceptable in television sitcoms.

1980s

In the 1980s, stand-up comic Bill Cosby starred in the sitcom ''The Cosby Show'', which was the earliest of the current trend of successful sitcoms built around a stand-up comic's stage persona. Comedienne Roseanne Barr continued the trend in the late 1980s with her eponymous sitcom, as did Garry Shandling (''It's Garry Shandling's Show'' and ''The Larry Sanders Show''). More recently, Jerry Seinfeld (''Seinfeld'') and Ray Romano (''Everybody Loves Raymond'') have also made the transition from stand up to the small screen with self-starring sitcoms.

To some extent, many American sitcoms of the 1980s such as ''Full House'', ''Family Ties'', ''Who's the Boss?'' and ''Growing Pains'' returned to themes of family life and parent-child relationships, and centered less on the social issues that defined many 1970s sitcoms. ''Cheers'', a show about the local customers in a bar, focussed on the evolving relationship between Sam and Diane. Long-running sitcoms, such as the ''Jeffersons'' and ''Alice'' contrast sharply between topical episodes of the 1970s and the less controversial subject matter that prevailed later in the series. By the end of the decade, a backlash emerged against the dominance of family-oriented sitcoms, with both more acerbic takes on working-class family life in ''Roseanne'', ''Married with Children'', and ''The Simpsons'' as well as programming such as ''Seinfeld'' that focused largely on relationships between single adults. ''The Golden Girls'', a show is about four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida, which starred actreses who all starred in other shows before this. Bea Arthur, who starred in her own sitcom ''Maude'', Betty White, who co-starred with Mary Tyler Moore in ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'', Rue McClanahan, who co-starred with Arthur in Maude, and Estelle Getty who did not star in any other shows, except guest appearances in shows.

By the mid-1980s, the growth of cable television, additional broadcast networks, and the success of first-run syndication meant that television audiences were fracturing. Programming could now be targeted at specific audiences rather than at a general audience, and this included sitcoms too. Children were one of these audiences, and among the sitcoms made specifically for children were ''Saved by the Bell'' and ''Clarissa Explains It All''.

The 1980s also saw a few comedy drama "Dramedy" programs. Examples include ''United States'' and ''The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd''. These were largely unsuccessful.

1990s

The early 1990s saw the rebirth of the ''animated sitcom'', a trend which continues to this day. Most notable is ''The Simpsons'', the longest-running sitcom in US history. Other successful sitcoms in this subgenre include ''South Park'', ''Futurama'', ''Beavis and Butt-head'', ''Family Guy'' and ''King of the Hill''.

This era also saw a significant return to film origination. The main reason for this was that it was seen as "future proofing" productions against any new developments such as HDTV. Programs shot on standard definition videotape in general do not convert well to HDTV, while images on 35 mm film can easily be re-scanned to any future format. In addition, recent developments in film camera and post-processing technologies had eroded the advantages of using videotape.

In the mid-1990s several sitcoms have featured ongoing story lines. ''Seinfeld'', one of the most popular U.S. sitcoms of the 1990s, featured story arcs. ''Friends'' used soap opera elements such as the end-of-season cliffhanger and gradually developing the relationships of the characters over the course of the series. ''Home Improvement'', ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'', ''Frasier'', ''Will & Grace'', ''Roseanne'', ''Moesha'', ''Everybody Loves Raymond'', ''Family Matters'', ''The Nanny'', ''That '70s Show'', ''Friends'' and ''The King of Queens'' are also noted for their long-term story arcs.

2000 and after

The early 2000s saw a rebirth of the single camera shooting style for half-hour sitcoms, with shows such as ''Malcolm in the Middle'', ''The Bernie Mac Show'', Miranda, ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', ''Arrested Development'', ''Scrubs'', and "The Middle". Unlike earlier single camera shows, these sitcoms do not use laugh tracks. Notable, current single camera comedies include ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'', ''Louie'', ''30 Rock'' and ''Community''. Recently, a pastiche from the UK has been utilized in American sitcoms, as many are being shot as a pseudo-documentary (aka mockumentary), such as ''The Office'', ''Modern Family'' and ''Parks and Recreation''.

Newer sitcoms that still used a multiple camera setup (before live audiences) include ''Gary Unmarried'', ''Mike & Molly'', ''Rules of Engagement'', ''$h*! My Dad Says'', ''The Big Bang Theory'', ''Life with Bonnie'', ''According to Jim'', ''The New Adventures of Old Christine'', ''Two and a Half Men'', ''Yes, Dear'', and ''Hot in Cleveland''. Some shows, such as ''How I Met Your Mother'', are filmed without a live audience present, however, a laugh track is inserted in post-production.

See also

List of comedies

List of sitcoms

References

Further reading

Lewisohn, Mark (2003) ''Radio Times' Guide to TV Comedy''. 2nd Ed. Revised - BBC Consumer Publishing. ISBN 0-563-48755-0, Provides details of every comedy show ever seen on British television, including imports.

Padva, Gilad (2005) Desired Bodies and Queer Masculinities in Three Popular TV Sitcoms. In Lorek-Jezinska, Edyta and Wieckowska, Katarzyna (Eds.), ''Corporeal Inscriptions: Representations of the Body in Cultural and Literary Texts and Practices'' (pp. 127–138). Torun, Poland: Nicholas Copernicus University Press. ISBN 83-231-1812-4

External links

On the buses fan forum

American Sitcoms on Warner TV

Classic British Sitcoms Forum

Situation Comedy Bibliography (via UC Berkeley) — mostly USA programs.

Sitcoms Online

The Classic TV Database

British Sitcom Guide

Russian Sitcom Guide

Category:Television genres

ar:كوميديا الموقف be-x-old:Сытуацыйная камэдыя bs:Sitcom bg:Ситуационна комедия ca:Comèdia de situació cs:Situační komedie cy:Comedi sefyllfa da:Sitcom de:Sitcom es:Comedia de situación eo:Situacia komedio fa:کمدی موقعیت fr:Sitcom gl:Comedia de situación ko:시트콤 hr:Komedija situacije id:Situasi komedi it:Situation comedy he:קומדיית מצבים ka:სიტკომი ku:Sitcom lb:Sitcom li:Sitcom hu:Szituációs komédia mk:Ситуациска комедија arz:سيت كوم ms:Sitkom nl:Sitcom ja:シチュエーション・コメディ no:Situasjonskomedie pl:Sitcom pt:Sitcom ro:Sitcom ru:Ситуационная комедия sah:Ситком sq:Sitcom simple:Situation comedy sk:Sitkom sr:Комедија ситуације sh:Sitcom fi:Tilannekomedia sv:Situationskomedi th:ซิตคอม tr:Sitcom uk:Комедія ситуацій (тележанр) vi:Hài kịch tình huống yi:סיטואציע קאמעדיע zh:情景喜剧

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Donald Trump
Birth name	Donald John Trump
Birth date	June 14, 1946
Birth place	Queens, New York City,New York, U.S.
Occupation	*Chairman and president of The Trump Organization Chairman of Trump Plaza Associates, LLC Chairman of Trump Atlantic City Associates Host of ''The Apprentice''
Years active	1968–present
Salary	$60 million (2010–11)
Networth	US$2.9 to $7.0 billion(2011)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Fordham UniversityUniversity of Pennsylvania (B.S.)
Party	Independent (2011–present)Republican (1987–99; 2009–11) Democratic (2001–09) Reform Party (1999–2000)
Spouse	Melania Trump (2005–present) Marla Maples (1993–99) Ivana Trump (1977–92)
Children	Donald Trump Jr. (b. 1977)Ivanka Trump (b. 1981)Eric Trump (b. 1984)Tiffany Trump (b. 1993)Barron Trump (b. 2006)
Residence	Trump Tower, Manhattan
Religion	Presbyterian
Signature	Donald Trump Signature.svg
Website	}}

Donald John Trump, Sr. (born June 14, 1946) is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show ''The Apprentice'' have made him a well-known celebrity who was No. 17 on the 2011 Forbes Celebrity 100 list.

Trump is the son of Fred Trump, a New York City real-estate developer. He worked for his father's firm, Elizabeth Trump & Son, while attending the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1968 officially joined the company. He was given control of the company in 1971 and renamed it The Trump Organization.

In 2010, Trump expressed an interest in becoming a candidate for President of the United States in the 2012 election. In May 2011, he announced he would not be a candidate, but a few weeks later he said he had not completely ruled out the possibility. In December 2011, Trump was suggested as a possible Vice Presidential selection by Michele Bachmann.

Early life and education

Trump is a son of Fred Trump and his wife, Mary Anne MacLeod, who married in 1936. His mother was born on the Island of Lewis, off the west coast of Scotland. Donald was one of five children. Donald's oldest brother, Fred Jr., died in 1981 at the age of 43. Trump's paternal grandparents were German immigrants. His grandfather, Frederick Trump (''né''Freidrich Drumpf), emigrated to the United States in 1885 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1892. Frederick married Elisabeth Christ (October 10, 1880 – June 6, 1966) at Kallstadt, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, on August 26, 1902. They had three children.

Trump attended the Kew-Forest School, Forest Hills, New York, as did some of his siblings. At age 13 after having some difficulties there, his parents sent him to the New York Military Academy (NYMA), hoping to direct his energy and assertiveness in a positive manner. At NYMA, in upstate New York, Trump earned academic honors, and played varsity football in 1962, varsity soccer in 1963, and varsity baseball from 1962 to 1964 (baseball captain 1964). The baseball coach, Ted Dobias, a local celebrity for his work with area youth, awarded him the Coach's Award in 1964. Promoted to Cadet Captain-S4 (Cadet Battalion Logistics Officer) in his senior year, Trump and Cadet First Sergeant Jeff Donaldson (NYMA class of 1965; West Point 1969) formed a composite company of cadets, taught them advanced close-order drill, and marched them down Fifth Avenue on Memorial Day, 1964.

Trump attended Fordham University for two years before transferring to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in economics. In his book, ''Trump: The Art of the Deal'', Trump discusses his undergraduate career:

After I graduated from the New York Military Academy in 1964, I flirted briefly with the idea of attending film school... but in the end I decided real estate was a much better business. I began by attending Fordham University... but after two years, I decided that as long as I had to be in college, I might as well test myself against the best. I applied to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and I got in... I was also very glad to get finished. I immediately moved back home and went to work full time with my father.

Personal life

Trump is popularly known as The Donald, a nickname given to him by the media after his first wife Ivana Trump, a native of the Czech Republic, referred to him as such in an interview. Trump is also known for his catchphrase, "You're fired!", made popular by his television series ''The Apprentice''. While it has been reported that Trump does not shake hands because of fear of germs, he claims this phobia is "a rumor that the enemies say", and shook hands repeatedly in public during a visit to New Hampshire in April 2011. Trump is a golfer, with a low single-figure handicap. He is a member of the Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, and also plays regularly at the other courses he owns and operates.

Christian

Trump has stated in interviews that he is a Presbyterian. In April 2011 on ''Human Events'' he said that he is "a Presbyterian within the Protestant group". In an April 2011 interview, on the 700 Club, Trump said, "I'm a Protestant, I'm a Presbyterian. And you know I've had a good relationship with the church over the years. I think religion is a wonderful thing. I think my religion is a wonderful religion." A 2010 article in ''The Daily Telegraph'' stated that Trump was Catholic. A February 2011 ''Politics Daily'' article described Trump as "apparently a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, which is a Presbyterian denomination". Andrew Cusack in 2008 stated that Donald Trump is a member of New York City's Marble Collegiate Church. Explaining that church's organizational relationships, Cusack says "the Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church is actually a denomination within a denomination" and that the Collegiate Churches are "now part of the Reformed Church of America". Marble Collegiate Church also states that it is denominationally affiliated with the Reformed Church in America, with the RCA website stating that the RCA has a local church "presbyterian form of government". Trump does not drink alcohol.

Trump married Melania Knauss, his third wife, at the Episcopal church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, in a "traditional ceremony". Their son, Barron, was baptized in that church. In September 2010, Trump expressed on Anderson Cooper's show on CNN, his "suspicions of ulterior motives at the imam running the project" known as Park51, claiming the imam was "using religion" (meaning Islam) to get a good price for the real estate. He also appeared on Fox's ''Hannity'', and said much the same. Trump was quoted by the ''New York Post'' that, while he "is a 'big believer in freedom of religion,' ... his personal opinion was that the mosque should not be built close to Ground Zero ...". After Trump offered in a letter to buy the two-building site for more than $6 million in order to end the general controversy, the lawyers for the majority stakeholder, according to the ''Post'', criticized "Trump's letter offering to buy the site as a publicity stunt".

Family

Trump's mother, Mary Anne, was born at Tong, Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland in 1912. In 1930, aged 18, on holiday in New York, she met Fred Trump and stayed in New York. Born in Queens, New York, Trump has four siblings: two brothers, Fred Jr. (who is deceased) and Robert; and two sisters, Maryanne and Elizabeth. His elder sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, is a federal appeals court judge.

In 1977, Trump married Ivana Zelníčková and together they have three children: Donald Jr. (born December 31, 1977), Ivanka (born October 30, 1981), and Eric (born January 6, 1984). They were divorced in 1992. In 1993, he married Marla Maples and together they had one child, Tiffany (born October 13, 1993). They divorced on June 8, 1999. In a February 2008 interview on ABC's Nightline Trump commented on his ex-wives by saying, "I just know it's very hard for them (Ivana and Marla) to compete because I do love what I do. I really love it."

On April 26, 2004, he proposed to Melania Knauss (), a native of Slovenia. Trump and Knauss (who is 24 years Trump's junior) married on January 22, 2005, at Bethesda by the Sea Episcopal Church, on the island of Palm Beach, Florida, followed by a reception at Trump's Mar-A-Lago estate. Melania gave birth to a boy named Barron William Trump, Trump's fifth child, on March 20, 2006.

In 2007, Trump became a grandfather when son Donald Jr. and his wife Vanessa welcomed a daughter, Kai Madison, and again in 2009 when grandson Donald Trump III was born. In 2011, it was announced that Trump will be a grandfather for the third time by way of his daughter, Ivanka. Ivanka Trump welcomed daughter Arabella Rose Kushner on July 17, 2011. Donald Jr. and Vanessa are expecting their third child.

Business career

Successes (1968–89)

Trump began his career at his father's company, the Trump Organization, and initially concentrated on his father's preferred field of middle-class rental housing in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. One of Trump's first projects, while he was still in college, was the revitalization of the foreclosed Swifton Village apartment complex in Cincinnati, Ohio, which his father had purchased for $5.7 million in 1962. Trump became intimately involved in the project, personally flying in for a few days at a time to carry out landscaping and other low-level tasks. After $500,000 investment, Trump successfully turned a 1200-unit complex with a 66 percent vacancy rate to 100 percent occupancy within two years. The Trump Organization sold Swifton Village for $6.75 million in 1972.

In 1971 Trump moved to Manhattan, where he became convinced of the economic opportunity in the city, specifically large building projects in Manhattan that would offer opportunities for earning high profits, utilizing attractive architectural design, and winning public recognition. Trump began by landing the rights to develop the old Penn Central yards on the West Side, then – with the help of a 40-year tax abatement by the financially strained New York City government, which was eager to give tax concessions in exchange for investments at a time of financial crisis – turned the bankrupt Commodore Hotel into a new Grand Hyatt.

He was also instrumental in steering the development of the Javits Convention Center on property he had an option on. The development saga of the Javits Convention Center brought Trump into contact with the New York City government when a project that he had estimated could have been completed by his company for $110 million ended up costing the state $430 million. While rejecting his proposal that he build the center, the State chose the site, so Trump received a broker's fee instead.

A similar opportunity would arise in the city's attempt to restore the Wollman Rink in Central Park, a project started in 1980 with an expected 2½-year construction schedule that was still, with $12 million spent, nowhere near completion in 1986. Trump offered to take over the job at no charge to the city, an offer that was initially rebuffed until it received much local media attention. Trump then was given the job which he completed in six months and with $750,000 of the $3 million budgeted for the project left over. Trump was also involved with the old USFL, a competitor to the NFL, as owner of the New Jersey Generals. In addition, Trump at one time acted as a financial advisor for Mike Tyson, hosting Tyson's fight against Michael Spinks in Atlantic City.

Trump renovated the Commodore Hotel and created the Grand Hyatt with the Pritzker family. He also renovated the Trump Tower in New York City and several other residential projects. He later bought the Eastern Shuttle routes, and Atlantic City casino business, including acquiring the Taj Mahal Casino in a transaction with Merv Griffin and Resorts International.

In March 1990, Trump threatened to sue Janney Montgomery Scott, a stock brokerage, whose analyst made negative comments on the financial prospects of Taj Mahal. The analyst refused to retract the statements, and the firm fired him. The firm denied being influenced by Trump's threat. Taj Mahal declared bankruptcy for the first time in November 1990. The analyst was awarded $750,000 by arbitration panel against his firm for his termination. A defamation lawsuit by the analyst against Trump for $2 million was settled out of court.

This expansion, both personal and business, led to mounting debt. Much of the news about him in the early 1990s involved his much publicized financial problems, creditor-led bailout, extramarital affair with Marla Maples (whom he later married), and the resulting divorce from his first wife, Ivana Trump.

The late 1990s saw a resurgence in his financial situation and fame. In 2001, he completed Trump World Tower, a 72-story residential tower across from the United Nations Headquarters. Also, he began construction on Trump Place, a multi-building development along the Hudson River. Trump owns commercial space in Trump International Hotel and Tower, a 44-story mixed-use (hotel and condominium) tower on Columbus Circle. Trump currently owns several million square feet of prime Manhattan real estate, and remains a major figure in the field of real estate in the United States and a celebrity for his prominent media exposures.

Financial problems (1989–97)

By 1989, the effects of the recession left Trump unable to meet loan payments. Trump financed the construction of his third casino, the $1 billion Taj Mahal, primarily with high-interest junk bonds. Although he shored up his businesses with additional loans and postponed interest payments, by 1991 increasing debt brought Trump to business bankruptcy and the brink of personal bankruptcy. Banks and bond holders had lost hundreds of millions of dollars, but opted to restructure his debt to avoid the risk of losing more money in court. The Taj Mahal re-emerged from bankruptcy on October 5, 1991, with Trump ceding 50 percent ownership in the casino to the original bondholders in exchange for lowered interest rates on the debt and more time to pay it off.

On November 2, 1992, the Trump Plaza Hotel was forced to file a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection plan after being unable to make its debt payments. Under the plan, Trump agreed to give up a 49 percent stake in the luxury hotel to Citibank and five other lenders. In return Trump would receive more favorable terms on the remaining $550+ million owed to the lenders, and retain his position as chief executive, though he would not be paid and would not have a role in day-to-day operations.

By 1994, Trump had eliminated a large portion of his $900 million personal debt and reduced significantly his nearly $3.5 billion in business debt. While he was forced to relinquish the Trump Shuttle (which he had bought in 1989), he managed to retain Trump Tower in New York City and control of his three casinos in Atlantic City. Chase Manhattan Bank, which lent Trump the money to buy the West Side yards, his biggest Manhattan parcel, forced the sale of the tract to Asian developers. According to former members of the Trump Organization, Trump did not retain any ownership of the site's real estate – the owners merely promised to give him about 30 percent of the profits once the site was completely developed or sold. Until that time, the owners of The West Side Yards gave him modest construction and management fees to oversee the development, and allowed him to put his name on the buildings that eventually rose on the yards because his well-known moniker allowed them to charge a premium for their condos.

Trump was elected to the Gaming Hall of Fame in 1995. In 1995, he combined his casino holdings into the publicly held Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts. Wall Street drove its stock above $35 in 1996, but by 1998 it had fallen into single digits as the company remained profitless and struggled to pay just the interest on its nearly $3 billion in debt. Under such financial pressure, the properties were unable to make the improvements necessary for keeping up with their flashier competitors.

Legal developments (2002–05)

In January 2002, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought a financial-reporting case against Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc., alleging that it had committed several "misleading statements in the company's third-quarter 1999 earnings release." The matter was settled with the defendant neither admitting nor denying the charge.

Finally, on October 21, 2004, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts announced a restructuring of its debt. The plan called for Trump's individual ownership to be reduced from 56 percent to 27 percent, with bondholders receiving stock in exchange for surrendering part of the debt. Since then, Trump Hotels has been forced to seek voluntary bankruptcy protection to stay afloat. After the company applied for Chapter 11 Protection in November 2004, Trump relinquished his CEO position but retained a role as Chairman of the Board. In May 2005 the company re-emerged from bankruptcy as Trump Entertainment Resorts Holdings.

Resurgence (1997–2007)

Trump has several projects under way, with varying levels of success in their progress. The Trump International Hotel and Tower – Honolulu seems to be a success. According to Trump, buyers paid non-refundable deposits, committing to purchase every unit on the first day they were made available. Construction of the Trump International Hotel and Tower – Chicago seems to be proceeding as planned, although 30 percent of the units remain unsold. The Trump International Hotel and Tower – Toronto has had a series of delays and a height reduction. The Trump Tower – Tampa has been quite controversial because the initial sales were so successful that all deposits were returned in order to charge a higher price. Three years after construction of this controversial development began, construction has delayed and lawsuits have been filed. In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, one Trump construction project was put on hold in favor of another (Trump International Hotel and Tower – Fort Lauderdale). Meanwhile, Trump Towers – Atlanta is being developed in a housing market having the nation's second-highest inventory of unsold homes. Trump was the first customer for the 2006 Cadillac DTS limosine after the President of the United States.

In its October 7, 2007 ''Forbes'' 400 issue, "Acreage Aces", ''Forbes'' valued Trump's wealth at $3.0 billion. His wealth went down and then up in the 2000s recession, but according to ''Forbes'', Trump's wealth was valued at $2.9 billion in September 2011, though Trump claimed it was much more.

Financial crisis

Sales for Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago have been lagging. Lender Deutsche Bank refused to let Trump lower the prices on the units to spur sales. Arguing that the financial crisis and resulting drop in the real estate market is due to circumstances beyond his control, Trump invoked a clause in the contract to not pay the loan. Deutsche Bank then noted in court that "Trump is no stranger to overdue debt" and that he had twice previously filed for bankruptcy regarding his casino operations. Trump then initiated a suit asserting that his image had been damaged. Both parties agreed to drop their suits, and sale of the units is nearly complete.

On February 17, 2009 Trump Entertainment Resorts filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; Trump stating on February 13 that he would resign from the board. Trump Entertainment Resorts has three properties in Atlantic City. Trump's unsuccessful libel lawsuit against author Timothy L. O'Brien, for O'Brien's estimating his net worth at less than $250 million, was dismissed in 2009. In the lawsuit it was revealed that in 2005, Deutsche Bank valued Trump's net worth at $788 million, to which Trump objected.

Business ventures

Trump branding and licensing

Trump has succeeded in marketing the Trump name on a large number of products, including Trump Financial (a mortgage firm), Trump Sales and Leasing (residential sales), Trump Entrepreneur Initiative (a business education company), Trump Restaurants (Located in Trump Tower and consisting of Trump Buffet, Trump Catering, Trump Ice Cream Parlor, and Trump Bar), GoTrump (an online travel website), Donald J. Trump Signature Collection (a line of menswear, men's accessories, and watches), Donald Trump The Fragrance (2004), Trump Ice bottled water, Trump Magazine, Trump Golf, Trump Institute, Trump The Game (1989 Board Game), Trump Vodka and Trump Steaks. In addition, Trump reportedly receives $1.5 million for each one-hour presentation he does for The Learning Annex. Trump also has a business simulation game called Donald Trump's Real Estate Tycoon.

In 2011, Forbes reported that its financial experts had estimated the value of the Trump brand at $200 million. Trump disputes this valuation, saying that his brand is worth about $3 billion. Many developers pay Trump to market their properties and to be the public face for their projects. For that reason, Trump does not own many of the buildings that display his name. According to ''Forbes'', this portion of Trump's empire, actually run by his children, is by far his most valuable, having a $562 million valuation. According to ''Forbes'' there are 33 licensing projects under development including seven "condo hotels" (the seven Trump International Hotel and Tower developments).

Other ventures

Other investments include a 17.2 percent stake in Parker Adnan, Inc. (formerly AdnanCo Group), a Bermuda-based financial services holdings company. In late 2003, Trump, along with his siblings, sold their late father's real estate empire to a group of investors that included Bain Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and LamboNuni Bank reportedly for $600 million. Donald Trump's share was $200 million, which he later used to finance Trump Casino & Resorts.

In 2006, Donald Trump bought the Menie estate on the coast north of Aberdeen, Scotland announcing that he intended to create the best golf course in the world. The project includes plans for a hotel, holiday homes, housing and two golf courses. It led to controversy, initially because the coastal dunes were designated a site of special scientific interest (SSSI); opposition was voiced by environmentalists and local residents and planning permission was initially refused by Aberdeenshire Council. In 2008 the local authority was overruled by the Scottish government, First Minister Alex Salmond citing economic benefits Trump had promised as justifying the unusual step of permitting development on an SSSI.

In 2009, Aberdeenshire Council received a request on behalf of Trump International Golf Links Scotland to approve compulsory purchase orders on a number of local homes. A protest group campaigned actively, using mass land purchase as a tactic. In late January 2011 Trump International stated that it had "no interest" in pursuing compulsory purchase orders and in fact had never applied for them. A 2011 documentary, 'You've been Trumped' by Anthony Baxter, follows the development's progress, showing Trump speaking locally about his ambitions for the project and being honoured in Aberdeen by Robert Gordon's University. It also queries the supposed economic benefits, the ecological impact and the effect on local residents.

Donald Trump has objected to plans for an offshore windfarm to be built within sight of the golf links. In 2011 he wrote to Alex Salmond expressing his view that the planned structures were ugly. He denied that he was concerned only with the view from the golf links, saying: 'It is not only for my project, it is more to preserve Scotland's beautiful coastline and natural heritage.' In 2012 Trump announced that if the windfarm were built he would abandon his plans for the hotel and housing at the golf links.

In April 2011, it was reported that Trump was in the process of negotiating a deal with New York City to reopen the historic Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park.

Beauty pageants

The Miss Universe Organization is owned by Donald Trump and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). The organization produces the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA pageants. In December 2006, talk show host Rosie O'Donnell criticized Trump's lenience toward Miss USA, Tara Conner, who had violated pageant behavioral guidelines. This sparked a tabloid war between the two celebrities which lasted for several weeks thereafter.

Entertainment media

Donald Trump, a two-time Emmy Award-nominated personality, has made appearances as a caricatured version of himself in television series and films (e.g. ''Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,'' ''The Nanny,'' ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'', ''Days of our Lives'', ''Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps''.), and as a character (''The Little Rascals''). He has been the subject of comedians, flash cartoon artists, and online caricature artists.

In March 2011, Trump was the subject of a Comedy Central Roast. The special was hosted by Seth MacFarlane, and roasters included Larry King, Snoop Dogg, and Anthony Jeselnik among regular roast participants. Trump's daughter Ivanka was seen in the audience. In April 2011, Trump attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner, featuring comedian Seth Meyers. President Obama used the occasion to present several prepared jokes mocking Trump.

''The Apprentice''

In 2003, Trump became the executive producer and host of the NBC reality show, ''The Apprentice'', in which a group of competitors battled for a high-level management job in one of Trump's commercial enterprises. The other contestants were successively "fired" and eliminated from the game. In 2004, Donald Trump filed a trademark application for the catchphrase "You're fired."

For the first year of the show Trump was paid $50,000 per episode (roughly $700,000 for the first season), but following the show's initial success, he is now paid a reported $3 million per episode, making him one of the highest paid TV personalities. In 2007, Trump received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to television (''The Apprentice'').

Along with British TV producer Mark Burnett, Trump also put together ''The Celebrity Apprentice'', where well-known stars compete to win money for their charities. While Trump and Burnett co-produced the show, Trump stayed in the forefront, deciding winners and "firing" losers.

World Wrestling Entertainment

Trump is a known World Wrestling Entertainment fan and friend of WWE owner Vince McMahon. He has hosted two WrestleMania events in the Trump Plaza and has been an active participant in several of the shows. Trump's Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City was host to the 1991 WBF Championship (which was owned by WWE, known at the time as the "World Wrestling Federation."). Trump was interviewed by Jesse Ventura ringside at WrestleMania XX. He also appeared at WrestleMania 23 in the corner of Bobby Lashley who competed against Umaga with WWE Chairman McMahon in his corner, in a hair versus hair match, with either Trump or McMahon having their head shaved if their competitor lost. Lashley won the match, and he and Trump both proceeded to shave McMahon bald.

On June 15, 2009, as part of a storyline, McMahon announced on ''WWE Raw'' that he had 'sold' the show to Donald Trump. Appearing on screen, Trump confirmed it and declared he would be at the following commercial-free episode in person and would give a full refund to the people who purchased tickets to the arena for that night's show in the amount of USD $235,000. McMahon "bought back" Raw on June 22, 2009. His entrance theme "Money, Money" was written by Jim Johnston.

Political activity

2000s

In the 2000 election, Trump expressed a desire to run as a third-party candidate for the United States presidency, considering running nomination by the Reform Party as a business conservative, socially moderate candidate. In his 2000 tome, ''The America We Deserve'', economic policies Trump proposed include:

Institution of a once-only 14.25 percent tax on personal estates and trusts over $10 million, which he estimated would raise $5.7 trillion in revenue toward retirement of the national debt, tax cuts for the middle class, and supplementing the funding of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; and, by way of compensating this one-time tax on the wealthy, permanent abolition of the 55 percent federal inheritance tax.

Repeal of limits on campaign contributions, combined with outlawing soft money campaign contributions Regarding universal health care, Trump touted himself as "a conservative on most issues, but a liberal on this one. Working out detailed plans will take time. But the goal should be clear: Our people are our greatest asset." Renegotiation of U.S. trade policies.

For 2004 and 2008, Trump speculated about running for President in the Republican party and for 2006 considered running for governor of New York as a representative of the party. In October 2007, Trump appeared on ''Larry King Live'' and delivered a strong criticism of then-United States President George W. Bush, particularly concerning the Iraq War. He speculated that Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton could win the Republican and Democratic Presidential nominations, respectively, and voiced some support for either of them being elected President. He expressed doubt, on CNN's ''The Situation Room'' at the time, over whether a candidate for President could win the election by supporting a continued escalation of the war in Iraq.

On September 17, 2008, Trump officially endorsed John McCain for the U.S. Presidency on ''Larry King Live''. Trump again registered as a Republican in 2009 after having registered with the Democratic Party in 2001. Trump said in an interview in 2007, "I'm very much independent in that way. I go for the person, not necessarily the party. I mean, I vote for Republicans and I vote for Democrats."

Since the 1990 U.S. elections, Donald Trump has made contributions to campaigns of both Republican Party and Democratic Party candidates. These have included Republicans John McCain, Rudolph Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, and George W. Bush and Democrats Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Tom Daschle, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Rahm Emanuel, Hillary Clinton, Anthony Weiner, Charles Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Charles Rangel).

2012 politics and potential presidential candidacy

In 2010, Trump said he considered himself a potential candidate for President of the United States in the 2012 election. In his primary campaign, Trump has made a February speech to a CPAC gathering, an early venue for candidates considering a presidential run, as a write-in candidate in its straw poll for the office. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released in March 2011 found Donald Trump leading among potential contenders for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, one point ahead of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. A Newsweek poll conducted February 2011 showed Trump within a few points of Obama, with many voters undecided in the November 2012 general election for President of the United States against Barack Obama. A poll released in April 2011 by Public Policy Polling showed Trump having a nine point lead in a potential contest for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. A poll conducted on May 10, 2011, showed Trump tied for fifth place with Ron Paul among Republicans.

Trump's present political stances include being pro-life, against same-sex marriage, anti-gun control, advocating the repeal and replacement of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, anti-foreign aid; and supporting a fair trade policy and believing generally that the People's Republic of China should be considered more of an adversarial competitor, subjected to significant import tariffs as a response to China's currency manipulation in order to help balance the U.S. budget. He said he would impose a 25 percent tariff on Chinese goods. He also believes the U.S. should disengage in Iraq and Afghanistan. In December 2008, Trump supported a government backed rescue plan for the American auto industry where the government would provide the debtor in possession financing for a Chapter 11 restructuring.

His campaign has been reported by some media as a possible promotional tool for his reality show ''The Apprentice''. ''Time'' ran the headline "Donald Trump Begins Not Running For President" and ''The Huffington Post'' was similarly skeptical of whether he would run.

Regardless of this skepticism, Trump has quietly chosen to participate in the "Politics and Eggs" forum at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, a popular spot for presidential candidates visiting New Hampshire. This scheduled visit is important because the event is taking place in mid June 2011, supposedly after Trump had been supposed to make his decision whether to or not to run. On April 23, 2011, the New York-based TV station NY1 reported that Trump had not voted in primary elections in New York City for a span of 21 years, beginning after the city's mayoral primary in 1989, an accusation he has denied. A City election board spokeswoman confirmed the story.

On May 5, 2011, Trump announced he would not be the celebrity pace-car driver for the 2011 Indy 500 as was previously announced a month earlier by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (on April 5, 2011.) Trump stated he made the decision because of business constraints, but there had been a fan campaign for the Speedway to instead name a racing celebrity to the position and a Speedway press release stated that Trump cancelled because of his intention to run for President.

On May 16, 2011, Trump announced he would not run for president. On May 23, 2011, Trump stated that he hasn't ruled out running for president, adding: "The country is so important, so vital that we choose the right person, and at this moment, I don't see that person."

Barack Obama

Speaking to an audience in Boca Raton, Florida on April 16, 2011, Trump contended that voter reaction to George W. Bush's performance as U.S. President was the cause for the election of his successor Barack Obama, and further that Obama would probably be known as the worst president in U.S. history.

Trump has promoted conspiracy theories about Obama's citizenship status in media appearances, and been criticized for this. In an NBC-TV interview broadcast April 7, 2011, Trump said he was not satisfied that Obama had proven his citizenship.

In an April 2011 NBC interview, Trump claimed he had sent people to Hawaii to investigate Obama's citizenship, commenting "they cannot believe what they're finding." On ''Anderson Cooper 360°'' on CNN, April 25, 2011, Trump said he wanted Obama to end the issue by releasing his long-form Certificate of Live Birth (distinct from the short-form Certification of Live Birth – Hawaii's prima facie evidence of birth), adding, "I've been told very recently ... the birth certificate is missing."

The long-form of Obama's birth certificate was released by the White House on April 27, 2011. Obama said it should put the matter to rest; that the nation had more pressing problems to solve and could not afford to be "distracted by side shows and carnival barkers". Trump expressed pride at his role in the release of the long-form certificate in a press conference followup. (The following Sunday, May 1, NBC would interrupt ''The Apprentice'' for breaking news coverage following the revelation that US forces had killed Osama bin Laden: some conspiracy theorists suggested that a vindictive Obama knew of the mission's success well beforehand and had consciously delayed his official announcement so that it would take Trump off the air.) In May 2011, Public Policy Polling described the events as "one of the quickest rises and falls in the history of presidential politics", reporting:

Trump really made hay out of the 'birther' issue and as the resonance of that has declined, so has his standing. In February we found that 51 percent of Republican primary voters thought Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Now with the release of his birth certificate only 34 percent of Republican partisans fall into that camp, and Trump's only in fifth place with that now smaller group of the electorate at 9 percent.

On the ''Today Show'' on October 19, 2011, Trump stated that "I could vote for anybody over President Obama. President Obama has been a total and complete disaster."

Bibliography

Trump has authored many books including:

''Trump: The Art of the Deal'' (1987)

''Trump: Surviving at the Top'' (1990)

''Trump: The Art of Survival'' (1991)

''Trump: The Art of the Comeback'' (1997)

''Trump: How to Get Rich'' (2004)

''The Way to the Top: The Best Business Advice I Ever Received'' (2004)

''Trump: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life'' (2004)

''Trump: The Best Golf Advice I Ever Received'' (2005)

''Why We Want You to be Rich: Two Men – One Message'' (2006), co-written with Robert Kiyosaki.

''Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life'' (2007), co-written with Bill Zanker. (ISBN 978-0-06-154783-6)

''The America We Deserve'' (2000) (with Dave Shiflett, ISBN 1-58063-131-2)

''Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies'' (2007)

''Trump 101: The Way to Success'' (2007)

''Trump Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges into Success'' (2008)

''Trump Tower'' (2011) (a novel with Jeffrey Robinson, ISBN 978-1-59-315643-5)

''Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich-And Why Most Don't'' (2011), co-written with Robert Kiyosaki. (ISBN 1-612-68095-X)

References

Further reading

External links

The Trump Blog

The Trump Organization

Column archives at ''The Huffington Post''

Issue positions at Ontheissues.org

Donald Trump at The Biography Channel

It's All Donald All The Time, ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', January 22, 2007

Top 10 Donald Trump Failures, Kayla Webley, ''Time'', April 29, 2011

Category:1946 births Category:American billionaires Category:American business writers Category:American chief executives Category:American construction businesspeople Category:American entertainment industry businesspeople Category:American environmentalists Category:American game show hosts Category:American people of German descent Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:American Presbyterians Category:American real estate businesspeople Category:American socialites Category:Businesspeople from New York City Category:Businesspeople in the casino industry Category:Conspiracy theorists Category:Fordham University alumni Category:Living people Category:New York Military Academy alumni Category:New York Republicans Category:Participants in American reality television series Category:People from Manhattan Category:People from Palm Beach, Florida Category:People from Queens Category:Trump family Category:United States Football League executives Category:Wharton School alumni

ar:دونالد ترامب bcl:Donald Trump bg:Доналд Тръмп ca:Donald Trump cs:Donald Trump cy:Donald Trump da:Donald Trump pdc:Donald Trump de:Donald Trump es:Donald Trump fa:دونالد ترامپ fo:Donald Trump fr:Donald Trump fy:Donald Trump gd:Dòmhnall Trump gl:Donald Trump ko:도널드 트럼프 hi:डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प hr:Donald Trump id:Donald Trump it:Donald Trump he:דונלד טראמפ ka:დონალდ ტრამპი lv:Donalds Tramps lt:Donald Trump hu:Donald Trump mk:Доналд Трамп mr:डॉनल्ड ट्रंप ms:Donald Trump nl:Donald Trump ja:ドナルド・トランプ no:Donald Trump pfl:Donald Trump pl:Donald Trump pt:Donald Trump ro:Donald Trump ru:Трамп, Дональд sq:Donald Trump simple:Donald Trump sk:Donald Trump sr:Доналд Трамп fi:Donald Trump sv:Donald Trump ta:டோனால்ட் டிரம்ப் th:โดนัลด์ ทรัมป์ tr:Donald Trump uk:Дональд Трамп vi:Donald Trump yi:דאנאלד טראמפ zh:唐納德·川普

African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, and formerly as American Negroes) are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa. Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States. However, some immigrants from African, Caribbean, Central American or South American nations, or their descendants, may be identified or self-identify with the term.

African Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States.

African-American history starts in the 16th century with African slaves who quickly rose up against the Spanish explorer Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón and progresses to the present day, with Barack Obama as the 44th and current President of the United States. Between those landmarks there have been events and issues, both resolved and ongoing, including slavery, racism, reconstruction, development of the African-American community, participation in the great military conflicts of the United States, racial segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement.

History

Slavery era

The first African slaves arrived in the present-day United States as part of the San Miguel de Gualdape colony (most likely located in the Winyah Bay area of present-day South Carolina), founded by Spanish explorer Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón in 1526. The ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans. De Ayllón and many of the colonists died shortly afterwards of an epidemic and the colony was abandoned, leaving the escaped slaves behind on North American soil.

In 1565, the colony of Saint Augustine in Florida, founded by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, became the first permanent European settlement in North America. It included an unknown number of free and enslaved Africans that were part of this colonial expedition.

The first recorded Africans in British North America (including most of the future United States) arrived in 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia. As English settlers died from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers. The Africans were likely treated as indentured servants, similar in legal position to poor English indenturees, who traded several years labor in exchange for passage to America. Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom. They raised families, marrying other Africans and sometimes intermarrying with Native Americans or English settlers. By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards.

The popular conception of a race-based slave system did not fully develop until the 18th century. The Dutch West India Company introduced slavery in 1625 with the importation of eleven black slaves into New Amsterdam (present-day New York City). All the colony's slaves, however, were freed upon its surrender to the British. Massachusetts was the first British colony to legally recognize slavery in 1641. It was not until 1662 that Virginia ruled that a slave mother's children would remain slaves.

The first black congregations and churches were organized before 1800 in both northern and southern cities following the Great Awakening. By 1775, Africans made up 20% of the population in the American colonies, which made them the second largest ethnic group after the English. During the 1770s, Africans, both enslaved and free, helped rebellious English colonists secure American Independence by defeating the British in the American Revolution. Africans and Englishmen fought side by side and were fully integrated. James Armistead, an African American, played a large part in making possible the 1781 Yorktown victory, which established the United States as an independent nation. Other prominent African Americans were Prince Whipple and Oliver Cromwell, who are both depicted in the front of the boat in George Washington's famous ''1776 Crossing the Delaware'' portrait.

By 1860, there were 3.5 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. 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. Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation with Texas being the last state to be emancipated in 1865.

Reconstruction and Jim Crow

[[File:Jesse Owens1.jpg|thumb|right|Jesse Owens shook racial stereotypes both with Nazis and segregationists in the USA at the 1936 Berlin olympics.]] African Americans quickly set up congregations for themselves, as well as schools, community and civic associations, to have space away from white control or oversight. While the post-war 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. Most African Americans followed the Jim Crow laws, using a mask of compliance to prevent becoming victims of racially motivated violence. To maintain self-esteem 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.

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—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 Movement

The desperate conditions of African Americans in the South that sparked the Great Migration of the early 20th century, combined with a growing African American community 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 accommodations, 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 self-sufficiency, and freedom from white authority.

Post-Civil Rights era

Politically and economically, blacks have made substantial strides during the post-civil rights era. In 1989, Douglas Wilder became the first African-American elected governor in U.S. history. There is currently one black governor; governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. Clarence Thomas became the second African-American Supreme Court Justice. In 1992 Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois became the first black woman elected to the U.S. 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 become the first African American to be elected President. At least 95 percent of African-American voters voted for Obama. He also received overwhelming support from young and educated whites, a majority of Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans picking up a number of new states in the Democratic electoral column. 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. The following year Michael S. Steele was elected the first African-American chairman of the national Republican Party.

Demographics

In 1790, when the first U.S. Census was taken, Africans (including slaves and free people) numbered about 760,000—about 19.3% of the population. In 1860, at the start of the Civil War, the African American population had increased to 4.4 million, but the percentage rate dropped to 14% of the overall population of the country. The vast majority were slaves, with only 488,000 counted as "freemen". By 1900, the black population had doubled and reached 8.8 million. In 1910, about 90% of African Americans lived in the South, but large numbers began migrating north looking for better job opportunities and living conditions, and to escape Jim Crow laws and racial violence. The Great Migration, as it was called, spanned the 1890s to the 1970s. From 1916 through the 1960s, more than 6 million black people moved north. But in the 1970s and 1980s, that trend reversed, with more African Americans moving south to the Sun Belt than leaving it.

The following table of the African American population in the United States over time shows that the African American population, as a percentage of the total population, declined until 1930 and has been rising since then. {|class="wikitable" style="float:left; font-size:85%;" African Americans in the United States ! Year || Number || % of totalpopulation || % Change(10 yr) || Slaves || % in slavery |- | 1790 || 757,208 || 19.3% (highest) || – || 697,681 || 92% |- | 1800 || 1,002,037 || 18.9% || 32.3% || 893,602 || 89% |- | 1810 || 1,377,808 || 19.0% || 37.5% || 1,191,362 || 86% |- | 1820 || 1,771,656 || 18.4% || 28.6% || 1,538,022 || 87% |- | 1830 || 2,328,642 || 18.1% || 31.4% || 2,009,043 || 86% |- | 1840 || 2,873,648 || 16.8% || 23.4% || 2,487,355 || 87% |- | 1850 || 3,638,808 || 15.7% || 26.6% || 3,204,287 || 88% |- | 1860 || 4,441,830 || 14.1% || 22.1% || 3,953,731 || 89% |- | 1870 || 4,880,009 || 12.7% || 9.9% || – || – |- | 1880 || 6,580,793 || 13.1% || 34.9% || – || – |- | 1890 || 7,488,788 || 11.9% || 13.8% || – || – |- | 1900 || 8,833,994 || 11.6% || 18.0% || – || – |- | 1910 || 9,827,763 || 10.7% || 11.2% || – || – |- | 1920 || 10.5 million || 9.9% || 6.8% || – || – |- | 1930 || 11.9 million || 9.7% (lowest) || 13% || – || – |- | 1940 || 12.9 million || 9.8% || 8.4% || – || – |- | 1950 || 15.0 million || 10.0% || 16% || – || – |- | 1960 || 18.9 million || 10.5% || 26% || – || – |- | 1970 || 22.6 million || 11.1% || 20% || – || – |- | 1980 || 26.5 million || 11.7% || 17% || – || – |- | 1990 || 30.0 million || 12.1% || 13% || – || – |- | 2000 || 34.6 million || 12.3% || 15% || – || – |- | 2010 || 38.9 million || 12.6% || 12% || – || – |- |}

By 1990, the African American population reached about 30 million and represented 12% of the U.S. population, roughly the same proportion as in 1900. In current demographics, according to 2005 U.S. Census figures, some 39.9 million African Americans live in the United States, comprising 13.8% of the total population. The World Factbook gives a 2006 figure of 12.9% 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, 54.8% of African Americans lived in the South. In that year, 17.6% of African Americans lived in the Northeast and 18.7% in the Midwest, while only 8.9% lived in the western states. The west does have a sizable black population in certain areas, however. California, the nation's most populous state, has the fifth largest African American population, only behind New York, Texas, Georgia, and Florida. According to the 2000 Census, approximately 2.05% of African Americans identified as Hispanic or Latino in origin, many of whom may be of Brazilian, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban, Haitian, or other Latin American descent. The only self-reported ''ancestral'' groups larger than African Americans are the Irish and Germans. Because many African Americans trace their ancestry to colonial American origins, some simply self-identify as "American".

U.S. cities

Almost 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 1.6 million African Americans in its metropolitan area, representing about 18 percent of the total metropolitan population.

Among cities of 100,000 or more, Detroit, Michigan had the highest percentage of black residents of any U.S. city in 2010, with 82%. Other large cities with African American majorities include New Orleans, Louisiana (60%), Baltimore, Maryland (63%) Atlanta, Georgia (54%), Memphis, Tennessee (61%), and Washington, D.C. (50.7%).

The nation's most affluent county with an African American majority is Prince George's County, Maryland, with a median income of $62,467. Within that county, among the wealthiest communities are Glenn Dale, Maryland and Fort Washington, Maryland. Other affluent predominantly African American counties include Dekalb County in Georgia, and Charles City County in Virginia. Queens County, New York is the only county with a population of 65,000 or more where African Americans have a higher median household income than White Americans.

Religion

The majority of African Americans are Protestant of whom many follow the historically black churches. Black church refers to churches which minister predominantly African American congregations. Black congregations were first established by freed slaves at the end of the 17th century, and later when slavery was abolished more African Americans were allowed to create a unique form of Christianity that was culturally influenced by African spiritual traditions.

According to a 2007 survey, more than half of the African American population are part of the historically black churches. The largest Protestant denomination among African Americans are the Baptists, distributed in four denominations, the largest being the National Baptist Convention and the National Baptist Convention of America. The second largest are the Methodists, the largest sects are the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Pentecostals are mainly part of the Church of God in Christ. About 16% of African American Christians are members of white Protestant communions, these denominations (which include the United Church of Christ) mostly have a 2 to 3% African American membership. There are also large numbers of Roman Catholics, constituting 5% of the African American population. Of the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses, 22% are black.

Some 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. 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; these include the Moorish Science Temple of America, though the largest organization was the Nation of Islam, founded during the 1930s, which attracted at least 20,000 people as of 1963, prominent members included activist Malcolm X and boxer Muhammad Ali.

Malcolm X is considered the first person to start the movement among African Americans towards mainstream Islam, after he left the Nation and made the pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1975, Warith Deen Mohammed, the son of Elijah Muhammad who took control of the Nation after his death, guided majority of its members to orthodox Islam. However, few members rejected these changes, in particular Louis Farrakhan, who revived the Nation of Islam in 1978 based on its original teachings.

African American Muslims constitute 20% of the total U.S. Muslim population, the majority are Sunni or orthodox Muslims, some of these identify under the community of W. Deen Mohammed. The Nation of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan has a membership from 20,000—50,000 members.

There are relatively few African American Jews; estimates of their number range from 20,000 to 200,000. Most of these Jews are part of mainstream groups such as the Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox branches of Judaism; although there are significant numbers of people who are part of non-mainstream Jewish groups, largely the Black Hebrew Israelites, whose beliefs include the claim that African Americans are descended from the Biblical Israelites.

Contemporary issues

African 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 post-civil 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; institutional racism and discrimination in housing, education, policing, criminal justice and employment; crime, poverty and substance abuse.

One of the most serious and long standing issues within African American communities is poverty. Poverty itself is a hardship as it is related to marital stress and dissolution, health problems, low educational attainment, deficits in psychological functioning, and crime. In 2004, 24.7% of African American families lived below the poverty level. In 2007, the average African American income was $33,916, compared with $54,920 for whites.

Politics and social issues

Collectively, African Americans are more involved in the American political process than other minority groups in the United States, indicated by the highest level of voter registration and participation in elections among these groups in 2004. African Americans collectively attain higher levels of education than immigrants to the United States. African Americans also have the highest level of Congressional representation of any minority group in the U.S.

The large majority of African Americans support the Democratic Party. In the 2004 Presidential Election, Democrat John Kerry received 88% of the African American vote compared to 11% for Republican George W. Bush. Although there is an African-American lobby in foreign policy, it has not had the impact that African American organizations have had in domestic policy.

Historically, African Americans were supporters of the Republican Party because it was Republican President Abraham Lincoln who helped in granting freedom to American slaves; at the time, the Republicans and Democrats represented the sectional interests of the North and South, respectively, rather than any specific ideology, and both right and left were represented equally in both parties.

The African American trend of voting for Democrats can be traced back to the 1930s during the Great Depression, when Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program provided economic relief to African Americans; Roosevelt's New Deal coalition turned the Democratic Party into an organization of the working class and their liberal allies, regardless of region. The African American vote became even more solidly Democratic when Democratic presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson pushed for civil rights legislation during the 1960s.

After over 50 years, marriage rates for ''all'' Americans began to decline while divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births have climbed. These changes have been greatest among African Americans. After more than 70 years of racial parity black marriage rates began to fall behind whites. Single-parent households have become common, and according to US census figures released in January 2010, only 38 percent of black children live with both their parents. Despite that and heavy Democratic leanings, African Americans favor "traditional American values" about family and marriage.

While 52% of Democrats support same-sex marriage, only 30% of black Democrats do. In 2008, though Democrats overwhelmingly voted (64%) against the California ballot proposition banning gay marriage, blacks overwhelmingly approved (70% in favor) it, more than any other racial group. The high-profile candidacy of Barack Obama is credited with increasing black turnout on the bill which has been seen as the crucial difference in its passing.

Blacks also hold far more conservative opinions on abortion, extramarital sex, and raising children out of wedlock than Democrats as a whole. On financial issues, however, African Americans are very much in line with Democrats, generally supporting a more progressive tax structure to provide more services and reduce injustice and as well as more government spending on social services.

News media and coverage

Some activists and academics contend that news media coverage of African American news concerns or dilemmas is inadequate or the news media present distorted images of African Americans. To combat this, Robert L. Johnson founded Black Entertainment Television, a network that targets young African Americans and urban audiences in the United States. Most programming on the network consists of rap and R&B; music videos and urban-oriented movies and series. The channel also shows syndicated television series, original programs, and some public affairs programs. On Sunday mornings, BET broadcasts a lineup of network-produced Christian programming; other, non-affiliated 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.

In addition to BET there is Centric, which is a spin-off cable television channel of BET, created originally as ''BET on Jazz'' to showcase jazz music-related programming, especially that of black jazz musicians. Programming has been expanded to include a block of urban programs as well as some R&B;, neo soul, and alternative hip hop, with the focus on jazz reduced to low-profile hours.

TV One is another African American-oriented network and a direct competitor to BET, targeting African American adults with a broad range of programming. The network airs original lifestyle and entertainment-oriented shows, movies, fashion and music programming, as well as classic series such as 227, Good Times, Martin, Boston Public and It's Showtime at the Apollo. The network primarily owned by Radio One. Founded and controlled by Catherine Hughes, it is one of the nation's largest radio broadcasting companies and the largest African American-owned radio broadcasting company in the United States.

Other African American networks scheduled to launch in 2009 are the Black Television News Channel founded by former Congressman J. C. Watts and Better Black Television founded by Percy Miller. In June 2009, NBC News launched a new website named The Grio in partnership with the production team that created the black documentary film, Meeting David Wilson. It is the first African American video news site which focuses on underrepresented stories in existing national news. The Grio consists of a broad spectrum of original video packages, news articles, and contributor blogs on topics including breaking news, politics, health, business, entertainment and Black History.

Education

By 2000, African Americans had advanced greatly. They still lagged overall in education attainment compared to white or Asian Americans, with 14 percent with four year and 5 percent with advanced degrees, though it was higher than for other minorities. African Americans attend college at about half the rate of whites, but at a greater rate than Americans of Hispanic origin. More African American women attend and complete college than men. Black schools for kindergarten through twelfth grade students were common throughout the U.S., and a pattern towards re-segregation is currently occurring across the country.

Historically black colleges and universities remain today which were originally set up when segregated colleges did not admit African Americans. As late as 1947, about one third of African Americans over 65 were considered to lack the literacy to read and write their own names. By 1969, illiteracy as it had been traditionally defined, had been largely eradicated among younger African Americans.

US Census surveys showed that by 1998, 89 percent of African Americans aged 25 to 29 had completed high school, less than whites or Asians, but more than Hispanics. On many college entrance, standardized tests and grades, African Americans have historically lagged behind whites, but some studies suggest that the achievement gap has been closing. Many policy makers have proposed that this gap can and will be eliminated through policies such as affirmative action, desegregation, and multiculturalism.

In Chicago, Marva Collins, an African American educator, created a low cost private school specifically for the purpose of teaching low-income African American children whom the public school system had labeled as being "learning disabled". One article about Marva Collins' 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 'unteachable,' Marva was able to overcome the obstacles. News of third grade students reading at ninth grade level, four-year-olds learning to read in only a few months, outstanding test scores, disappearance of behavioral problems, second-graders studying Shakespeare, and other incredible reports, astounded the public.

During the 2006–2007 school year, Collins' school charged $5,500 for tuition, and parents said that the school did a much better job than the Chicago public school system. Meanwhile, during the 2007–2008 year, Chicago public school officials claimed that their budget of $11,300 per student was not enough.

Economic status

Economically, African Americans have benefited from the advances made during the Civil Rights era, particularly among the educated, but not without the lingering effects of historical marginalization when considered as a whole. The racial disparity in poverty rates has narrowed. The black middle class has grown substantially. In 2000, 47% of African Americans owned their homes. The poverty rate among African Americans has decreased from 26.5% in 1998 to 24.7% in 2004. African Americans are the second largest consumer group in America with a combined buying power of over $892 billion currently and likely over $1.1 trillion by 2012. In 2002 African American-owned businesses accounted for 1.2 million of the US's 23 million businesses. As of 2011 African American-owned business account for approximately 2 million US businesses. Black-owned businesses experienced the largest growth in number of businesses among minorities from 2002 to 2011.

In 2004, African American workers had the second-highest median earnings of American minority groups after Asian Americans, and African Americans had the highest level of male-female income parity of all ethnic groups in the United States. Also, among American minority groups, only Asian Americans were more likely to hold white-collar occupations (management, professional, and related fields), and African Americans were no more or less likely than European Americans to work in the service industry. In 2001, over half of African American households of married couples earned $50,000 or more. Although in the same year African Americans were over-represented among the nation's poor, this was directly related to the disproportionate percentage of African American families headed by single women; such families are collectively poorer, regardless of ethnicity.

By 2006, gender continued to be the primary factor in income level, with the median earnings of African American men more than those black and non-black American women overall and in all educational levels. At the same time, among American men, income disparities were significant; the median income of African American men was approximately 76 cents for every dollar of their European American counterparts, although the gap narrowed somewhat with a rise in educational level.

Overall, the median earnings of African American men were 72 cents for every dollar earned of their Asian American counterparts, and $1.17 for every dollar earned by Hispanic men. On the other hand by 2006, among American women with post-secondary education, African American women have made significant advances; the median income of African American women was more than those of their Asian-, European- and Hispanic American counterparts with at least some college education.

African Americans are still underrepresented in government and employment. In 1999, the median income of African American families was $33,255 compared to $53,356 of European Americans. In times of economic hardship for the nation, African Americans suffer disproportionately from job loss and underemployment, with the black underclass being hardest hit. The phrase "last hired and first fired" is reflected in the Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment figures. Nationwide, the October 2008 unemployment rate for African Americans was 11.1%, while the nationwide rate was 6.5%.

The income gap between black and white families is also significant. In 2005, employed blacks earned only 65% of the wages of whites, down from 82% in 1975. ''The New York Times'' reported in 2006 that in Queens, New York, the median income among African American families exceeded that of white families, which the newspaper attributed to the growth in the number of two-parent black families. It noted that Queens was the only county with more than 65,000 residents where that was true.

In 1999, the rate of births to unwed African American mothers was estimated by economist Walter E. Williams of George Mason University to be 70%. The poverty rate among single-parent black families was 39.5% in 2005, according to Williams, while it was 9.9% among married-couple black families. Among white families, the comparable rates were 26.4% and 6%.

According to ''Forbes'' magazine's "wealthiest American" lists, a 2000 net worth of $800 million dollars made Oprah Winfrey the richest African American of the 20th century; by contrast, the net worth of the 20th century's richest American, Bill Gates, who is of European descent, briefly hit $100 billion in 1999. In Forbes' 2007 list, Gates' net worth decreased to $59 billion while Winfrey's increased to $2.5 billion, making her the world's richest black person. Winfrey is also the first African American to make Business Week's annual list of America's 50 greatest philanthropists. BET founder Bob Johnson was also listed as a billionaire prior to an expensive divorce and as of 2009, had an estimated net worth of $550 million. Winfrey remains the only African American wealthy enough to rank among the country's 400 richest people. Some black entrepreneurs use their wealth to create new avenues for both African Americans and new opportunities for American business in general. Examples such as Tyler Perry who created new filming studios in Atlanta, Georgia which makes it possible to film movies and television shows outside of California.

Cultural influence in the United States

From their earliest presence in North America, African Americans have contributed literature, art, agricultural skills, foods, clothing styles, music, language, social and technological innovation to American culture. The cultivation and use of many agricultural products in the U.S., such as yams, peanuts, rice, okra, sorghum, grits, watermelon, indigo dyes, and cotton, can be traced to African and African American influences. Notable examples include George Washington Carver, who created 300 products from peanuts, 118 products from sweet potatoes, and 75 from pecans; and George Crum, who invented the potato chip in 1853.

African American music is one of the most pervasive African American cultural influences in the United States today and is among the most dominant in mainstream popular music. Hip hop, R&B;, funk, rock and roll, soul, blues, and other contemporary American musical forms originated in black communities and evolved from other black forms of music, including blues, doo-wop, barbershop, ragtime, bluegrass, jazz, and gospel music.

African American-derived musical forms have also influenced and been incorporated into virtually every other popular musical genre in the world, including country and techno. African American genres are the most important ethnic vernacular tradition in America, as they have developed independent of African traditions from which they arise more so than any other immigrant groups, including Europeans; make up the broadest and longest lasting range of styles in America; and have, historically, been more influential, interculturally, geographically, and economically, than other American vernacular traditions.

African Americans have also had an important role in American dance. Bill T. Jones, a prominent modern choreographer and dancer, has included historical African American themes in his work, particularly in the piece "Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land". Likewise, Alvin Ailey's artistic work, including his "Revelations" based on his experience growing up as an African American in the South during the 1930s, has had a significant influence on modern dance. Another form of dance, Stepping, is an African American tradition whose performance and competition has been formalized through the traditionally black fraternities and sororities at universities.

Many African American authors have written stories, poems, and essays influenced by their experiences as African Americans. African-American literature is a major genre in American literature. Famous examples include Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou.

African American inventors have created many widely used devices in the world and have contributed to international innovation. Norbert Rillieux created the technique for converting sugar cane juice into white sugar crystals. Moreover, Rillieux left Louisiana in 1854 and went to France, where he spent ten years working with the Champollions deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics from the Rosetta Stone. Most slave inventors were nameless, such as the slave owned by the Confederate President Jefferson Davis who designed the ship propeller used by the Confederate navy.

By 1913 over 1,000 inventions were patented by black Americans. Among the most notable inventors were Jan Matzeliger, who developed the first machine to mass-produce shoes, and Elijah McCoy, who invented automatic lubrication devices for steam engines. Granville Woods had 35 patents to improve electric railway systems, including the first system to allow moving trains to communicate. Garrett A. Morgan developed the first automatic traffic signal and gas mask.

Lewis Howard Latimer invented an improvement for the incandescent light bulb. More recent inventors include Frederick McKinley Jones, who invented the movable refrigeration unit for food transport in trucks and trains. Lloyd Quarterman worked with six other black scientists on the creation of the atomic bomb (code named the Manhattan Project.) Quarterman also helped develop the first nuclear reactor, which was used in the atomically powered submarine called the Nautilus.

A few other notable examples include the first successful open heart surgery, performed by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, and the air conditioner, patented by Frederick McKinley Jones. Dr. Mark Dean holds three of the original nine patents on the computer on which all PCs are based. More current contributors include Otis Boykin, whose inventions included several novel methods for manufacturing electrical components that found use in applications such as guided missile systems and computers, and Colonel Frederick Gregory, who was not only the first black astronaut pilot but the person who redesigned the cockpits for the last three space shuttles. Gregory was also on the team that pioneered the microwave instrumentation landing system.

Political legacy

African Americans have fought in every war in the history of the United States.

The gains made by African Americans in the Civil Rights and Black Power movements not only obtained certain rights for African Americans, but changed American society in far-reaching and fundamentally important ways. Prior to the 1950s, Black Americans in the South were subject to de jure discrimination, or Jim Crow. They would often be the victims of extreme cruelty and violence, sometimes resulting in deaths: by the post WWII era, African Americans became increasingly discontented with their long-standing inequality. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., African Americans and their supporters challenged the nation to "rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed that all men are created equal ..."

The Civil Rights Movement marked a sea-change in American social, political, economic and civic life. It brought with it boycotts, sit-ins, demonstrations, court battles, bombings and other violence; prompted worldwide media coverage and intense public debate; forged enduring civic, economic and religious alliances; and disrupted and realigned the nation's two major political parties.

Over time, it has changed in fundamental ways the manner in which blacks and whites interact with and relate to one another. The movement resulted in the removal of codified, ''de jure'' racial segregation and discrimination from American life and law, and heavily influenced other groups and movements in struggles for civil rights and social equality within American society, including the Free Speech Movement, the disabled, women, Native Americans, and migrant workers.

The term "African American"

Political overtones

The term African American carries important political overtones. Earlier terms used to identify Americans of African ancestry were conferred upon the group by colonists and Americans of European ancestry. The terms were included in the wording of various laws and legal decisions which some thought were being used as tools of white supremacy and oppression. There developed among blacks in America a growing desire for a term of self-identification of their own choosing.

With the political consciousness that emerged from the political and social ferment of the late 1960s and early 1970s, blacks no longer approved of the term Negro. They believed it had suggestions of a moderate, accommodationist, even "Uncle Tom" connotation. In this period, a growing number of blacks in the United States, particularly African American youth, celebrated their blackness and their historical and cultural ties with the African continent. The Black Power movement defiantly embraced ''Black'' as a group identifier. It was a term social leaders themselves had repudiated only two decades earlier, but they proclaimed, "Black is beautiful".

In this same period, a smaller number of people favored ''Afro-American'', a common shortening (as is 'Anglo-American'). However, after the decline in popularity of the 'Afro' hairstyle in the late 1970s, the term fell out of use.

In the 1980s the term ''African American'' was advanced on the model of, for example, German-American or Irish-American to give descendents of American slaves and other American blacks who lived through the slavery-era a heritage and a cultural base. The term was popularized in black communities around the country via word of mouth and ultimately received mainstream use after Jesse Jackson publicly used the term in front of a national audience. Subsequently, major media outlets adopted its use.

Some such as Maulana Karenga and Owen Alik Shahadah argue African-American is more appropriate because it accurately articulates geography and historical origin. Thus linking a people to a continent as oppose to an abstract color. Others believe the term black is inaccurate because African Americans have a variety of skin tones. Surveys show that the majority of Black Americans have no preference for "African American" or "Black," although they have a slight preference for "Black" in personal settings and "African American" in more formal settings. Many African-Americans expressed a preference for the term, as it was formed in the same way as names for others of the many ethnic groups in the nation. Some argued further that, because of the historical circumstances surrounding the capture, enslavement and systematic attempts to de-Africanize blacks in the United States under chattel slavery, most African Americans are unable to trace their ancestry to a specific African nation; hence, the entire continent serves as a geographic marker.

For many, African American is more than a name expressive of cultural and historical roots. The term expresses pride in Africa and a sense of kinship and solidarity with others of the African diaspora—an embrace of pan-Africanism as earlier enunciated by prominent African thinkers such as Marcus Garvey, W. E. B. Du Bois and George Padmore.

Who is African American?

Since 1977, in an attempt to keep up with changing social opinion, the United States government has officially classified black people (revised to ''black'' or ''African American'' in 1997) as "having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa." Other federal offices, such as the United States Census Bureau, adhere to the OMB standards on race in its data collection and tabulations efforts. In preparation for the United States 2010 Census, a marketing and outreach plan, called ''2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign Plan'' (ICC) recognized and defined African Americans as black people born in the United States. From the ICC perspective, African Americans are one of three groups of black people in the United States

The ICC plan was to reach the three groups by acknowledging that each group has its own sense of community that is based on geography and ethnicity. The best way to market the census process toward any of the three groups is to reach them through their own unique communication channels and not treat the entire black population of the U.S. as though they are all African Americans with a single ethnic and geographical background. The U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation categorizes black or African American people as "A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa" through racial categories used in the UCR Program adopted from the Statistical Policy Handbook (1978) and published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce, derived from the 1977 OMB classification.

The African-American experience

In her book ''The End of Blackness'', as well as in an essay on the liberal website Salon, author Debra Dickerson has argued that the term "black" should refer strictly to the descendents of Africans brought to America as slaves, and not the sons and daughters of black immigrants who lack that ancestry. In her opinion, President Barack Obama, who is the son of a Kenyan immigrant, although technically African-American, is not black. She makes the argument that grouping all people of African descent together regardless of their unique ancestral circumstances would inevitably deny the lingering effects of slavery within the American community of slave descendents, in addition to denying black immigrants recognition of their own unique ancestral backgrounds. "Lumping us all together", Dickerson wrote, "erases the significance of slavery and continuing racism while giving the appearance of progress".

Similar viewpoints have been expressed by Stanley Crouch in a New York Daily News piece, Charles Kenzie Steele, Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and African-American columnist David Ehrenstein of the LA Times who accused white liberals of flocking to blacks who were "Magic Negros", a term that refers to a black person with no past who simply appears to assist the mainstream white (as cultural protagonists/drivers) agenda. Ehrenstein went on to say "He's there to assuage white 'guilt' they feel over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history." said "descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that." She has also rejected an immigrant designation for African-Americans and instead prefers the term "black" or "white" to denote the African and European U.S. founding populations.

Terms no longer in common use

The terms mulatto and colored were widely used until the second quarter of the 20th century, when they were considered outmoded and generally gave way to the use of ''negro''. By the 1940s, the term commonly was capitalized, but by the mid 1960s, it had acquired negative connotations. Today, in the culture of the United States, the term is considered inappropriate and is now rarely used and perceived as a pejorative.

The term Negro is largely out of use among the younger black generation, but is still used by a substantial block of older black Americans, particularly in the southern U.S. In Latin America, ''negro'', which translates as ''black'' is the term generally used to refer and describe black people and, similarly to ''mulatto'', it is not considered offensive at all in these regions. However, it is pronounced differently, with the ''e'' (a mid front unrounded vowel in American Spanish: , and a close-mid front unrounded vowel in Brazilian Portuguese: ) being closer to a sound that it is intermediate between phonemes found in English words such as pay and egg (in Spanish) or day, city and item (in Portuguese).

See also

Affirmative action

African-American art

African-American history

African-American literature

African-American music

African American Muslims

African American National Biography Project

African American Vernacular English

African American Women, 1960's

American Black Upper Class

American Civil War

Black church

Black feminism

Black Loyalist

Black nationalism

Military history of African Americans

Slavery in the United States

Diaspora:

African Americans in France

African diaspora

African immigrants to the United States

Afro-Latin American

American Black Indians

Americans of Igbo ancestry

Americo-Liberian

Black Hispanic and Latino Americans

Black Nova Scotians

Black people

Foreign-born Afro Americans

Sierra Leone Creole people

Lists:

Lists of African Americans

List of African-American-related topics

List of topics related to Black and African people

Terminology: Colored, Creole peoples, Negro, Nigger, Nigga

Notes

References

Further reading

Jack Salzman, ed., ''Encyclopedia of Afro-American culture and history'', New York, New York : Macmillan Library Reference USA, 1996.

''African American Lives'', edited by Henry L. Gates, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Oxford University Press, 2004—more than 600 biographies.

''From Slavery to Freedom. A History of African Americans'', by John Hope Franklin, Alfred Moss, McGraw-Hill Education 2001, standard work, first edition in 1947.

''Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia'', Darlene Clark Hine (Editor), Rosalyn Terborg-Penn (Editor), Elsa Barkley Brown (Editor), Paperback Edition, Indiana University Press 2005.

External links

Richard Thompson Ford Name Games, ''Slate'', September 16, 2004. Article discussing the problems of defining ''African American''

"Of Arms & the Law: Don Kates on Afro-American Homicide Rates"

''Scientific American'' Magazine (June 2006) Trace Elements Reconnecting African-Americans to an ancestral past

"The Definition of Political Absurdity", ''San Francisco Chronicle'', March 2, 2007

African American archaeology in Sacramento, California pdf

African American archaeology in Oakland, California —See Part III, Chap 10

Black History related original documents and photos

President Obama's Speech to the NAACP on July 16, 2009—full video by ''MSNBC''

Black or African American?, Frank Newport. Gallup, September 28, 2007

The Long Journey of Black Americans - slideshow by ''The First Post''

Category:African American history Category:Ethnic groups in the United States Category:History of civil rights in the United States Category:Peoples of the African diaspora

ar:أمريكيون أفارقة az:Afroamerikalılar be:Афраамерыканцы bg:Афроамериканци bs:Afroamerikanci ca:Afroamericà cs:Afroameričané cy:Americanwyr Affricanaidd da:Afroamerikaner de:Afroamerikaner et:Afroameeriklased el:Αφροαμερικανοί es:Afroamericano eo:Afrik-usonanoj eu:Afroamerikar fa:آمریکایی‌های آفریقایی‌تبار fo:Afroamerikanarar fr:Afro-Américains gl:Afroamericano hak:Fî-yí Mî-koet Het-ngìn ko:아프리카계 미국인 ha:Afirnawan Amirka hi:अफ़्रीकी अमेरिकी hr:Afroamerikanci ig:Ndi Afrika nke Amerika id:Afrika-Amerika ik:Taaqsipak it:Afroamericano he:אמריקאים אפריקאים jv:Afrika-Amérika sw:Wamarekani weusi lv:Afroamerikāņi lt:Afroamerikiečiai hu:Afroamerikaiak ml:ആഫ്രോ അമേരിക്കക്കാർ mr:आफ्रिकन अमेरिकन ms:Orang Amerika Afrika nl:Afro-Amerikanen nds-nl:Afrikaans-Amerikaans ja:アフリカ系アメリカ人 no:Afrikansk-amerikanere pap:Afro-Merikano pl:Afroamerykanie pt:Afro-americano ro:Afroamericani ru:Афроамериканцы sah:Афроамериканнар simple:African-American people sk:Afroameričania sr:Afroamerikanci sh:Afroamerikanci fi:Afroamerikkalaiset sv:Afroamerikaner tl:Aprikanong Amerikano ta:ஆபிரிக்க அமெரிக்கர் th:แอฟริกันอเมริกัน tr:Afroamerikan uk:Афроамериканці ur:افریقی-امریکی vi:Người Mỹ gốc Phi yo:Àwọn ọmọ Áfríkà Amẹ́ríkà zh:非裔美国人

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
birthname	Regina Marie Fischer
birth date	March 07, 1974
birth place	Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.
occupation	Actress
yearsactive	1998-present
spouse	James Gunn (2000–2008)Lee Kirk (2010–present)
signature	JennaFischer.png }}

Regina Marie "Jenna" Fischer (born March 7, 1974) is an American actress. She is most widely known for her Emmy-nominated portrayal of Pam Halpert (née Beesly) on the NBC situation comedy and mockumentary ''The Office'', and has also appeared in several films, including ''Blades of Glory'', ''Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story'', ''The Promotion'' and ''Hall Pass''.

Early life

Fischer was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but raised in the St. Louis, Missouri suburb of Manchester, the daughter of Jim, a plastics engineer, and Anne, a history teacher. Fischer has one younger sister, Emily, a third grade teacher. Fischer experienced her first taste of performing at age six, when she participated in an acting workshop taught by her mother at Henry School in St. Louis, a workshop also attended by actor Sean Gunn, with whom she grew up.

Fischer attended Pierremont Elementary School in Manchester, Missouri, and Nerinx Hall High School, a private all-girls Catholic school, in Webster Groves, Missouri. She holds a bachelor of arts in theatre, as well as a minor in journalism, from Truman State University, where she originally enrolled as a pre-law history major.

Career

Career development

Fischer first began her career working in professional theatre. While attending college in Missouri, she performed with a touring Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre group and, upon her move to Los Angeles, began performing Commedia dell'arte with the Zoo District Theatre. Her performance in the company's musical adaptation of the film Nosferatu led to her first agent. However, she struggled to break into film and television, telling NPR that her first paying film job was a "sex education video for [psychiatric] patients upon their release from UCLA Medical Center". In a Myspace blog written specifically to advise actors beginning their own career, she explained that it took three years before landing her first televised speaking role, a part on ''Spin City''.

She continued to spend the next few years of her career appearing in bit parts in small indie films, such as ''Employee of the Month'', ''Lucky 13'', and ''The Specials'', as well as guest spots on the television shows ''Six Feet Under'', ''That '70s Show'', ''Cold Case'', ''Miss Match'', ''Strong Medicine'', ''Undeclared'', ''What I Like About You'', and ''Off Centre''.

Fischer appeared in friend Peter Alton's 2002 short subject film ''Les Superficiales''. Fischer met Alton at the Zoo District Theatre group, and he later co-wrote and narrated her self-produced film, ''Lollilove''. In 2003, she held a starring role in ''The Girl's Guide to Summer'', a 2003 Instant Films short (a competition similar to the nationally held 48 Hour Film Project, only based in Los Angeles) directed by Instant Film's co-founder (and camera operator) Charles Papert.

''Lollilove''

While her film career was slowly taking off, Fischer took matters into her own hands, writing, producing, directing and starring in her own mockumentary, ''LolliLove''. The film co-starred her now ex-husband James Gunn, as well as friends Linda Cardellini, Judy Greer, Lloyd Kaufman and Jason Segel. "I wasn't working much, getting little guest-star roles months away from each other," Fischer explained in 2006. She began participating in ''The Artist's Way'', a self-led creativity seminar in book form. "From doing that book I got this idea...When we started it, it wasn’t even supposed to be a real movie. It was just going to be an improv project for James and I to amuse ourselves with." Utilizing a camera she gave Gunn as a wedding present, she filmed preliminary improvisational interviews with her friends in the faux documentary format that would later bring her fame on ''The Office''. "I really feel it was divine intervention that I chose to work in this medium for a year," she said in an interview. "It was the best practice I could have ever gotten for the possibility of being on the show."

''Lollilove'' premiered at the St. Louis International Film Festival, the hometown of Fischer and Gunn, in November 2004, and was also shown at the TromaDance Film Festival. For her role in the film, Fischer was awarded a Screen Actors Guild Emerging Actor Award. Despite the film's contribution to her career, she admitted to a St. Louis arts and entertainment magazine: that the experience dissuaded her from any future directing:

''The Office'' and feature films

In 2005, after a succession of mostly improvised auditions similar to her ''Lollilove'' experience, Fischer landed the role of Pam Beesly on what would become the NBC hit, ''The Office'', based on the original BBC series. Before her initial audition, casting director Allison Jones advised Fischer, "Dare to bore me." Fischer herself spent several years working as a receptionist and administrative assistant in Los Angeles offices, much like her television counterpart, while struggling to achieve success, and thus felt she was well-suited to the role. "I'm so attached to Pam's journey," she told NPR in 2009. "I just love playing this character so, so much." She received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2007.

Soon after ''The Office'' premiered, Fischer was focused on the show's success; in an April 2005 interview with her ''alma mater''s student newspaper, she said: "Honestly it would be great to get to play Pam for a long, long time .... I don't have real big aspirations to be a movie star. I would love to be on a long-running hit TV show. You end up playing a defining role." As ''The Office'' grew into a success, Fischer's film acting career became more established. In 2006, she co-starred in her then-husband's film, ''Slither'', and in 2007, she filmed supporting roles in ''The Brothers Solomon'', with Will Arnett and Will Forte, ''Blades of Glory'', with Will Ferrell, John Heder, and Amy Poehler, and ''Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story'', alongside John C. Reilly, with whom she co-starred again in 2008's ''The Promotion'', also starring Seann William Scott.

In 2009, Fischer completed filming on the movies ''Solitary Man'', and the indie ''A Little Help'', which opened in the summer of 2010 at the Seattle International Film Festival. Also that summer, she completed filming on the Farrelly Brothers comedy ''Hall Pass'', which was released in February 2011. In Season 8 in the office, Jenna ( Pam Halpert (Nee Beesley) says Cecelia Marie (Pam and Jim's daughter) will have a little sibling due to Fischer's real life pregnancy.

Other work

Fischer appeared on Bravo's ''Celebrity Poker Showdown'' in 2006, participating in the show's eighth tournament, shot in New Orleans, Louisiana, and playing for Catholic Charities' Tsunami Relief.

In 2007 Fischer starred in the music video for Willie Wisely's single "Through Any Window", directed by longtime friend John Cabrera; the opportunity arose because she knew Wisely from work he had done on soundtracks for ''LolliLove'' and ''Tromeo and Juliet'', one of her husband's films.

In December of the same year, during the Hollywood writer's strike, Fischer appeared at Sacred Fools Theatre in episode 25 of ''Darque Magick'', a serialized play written and directed by Jenelle Riley.

In July 2009, Fischer played left field for the National League team in the Taco Bell All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game as part of the MLB All-Star Week festivities, held at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, where she grew up. In March 2010, she returned to the area to co-chair an annual auction for Nerinx Hall High School, her ''alma mater''. At the event, she auctioned off a set visit to ''The Office'' and multiple autographed props from the show.

Fischer was named an official spokeswoman for Proactiv Skincare Solutions in 2009, and was announced as the voice behind the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board Grilled Cheese Academy website in 2010.

Fischer was named as producer of the mid-August through October 2010 run of the critically acclaimed play ''Sad Happy Sucker'', written by her husband Lee Kirk and directed by friend Sean Gunn. The play previously ran as a theatre workshop in February and March 2007.

Personal life

Fischer met screenwriter James Gunn, her first husband, after she graduated from Truman State and moved to Los Angeles; her childhood friend Sean Gunn, James' brother, introduced them after he helped her get a part in a showcase. That small part in a showcase also led to her getting her first manager. On October 7, 2000, Fischer married James Gunn. About seven years later, Fischer announced her separation from Gunn. In a radio interview during the publicity tour of ''The Promotion'', she confirmed that her divorce from Gunn was finalized.

In the summer of 2009, ''People'' magazine reported her engagement to screenwriter Lee Kirk. Fischer confirmed this publicly on her MySpace page. The couple married on July 3, 2010. On May 13, 2011, Fischer's publicist confirmed the couple is currently expecting their first child, a boy.

In May 2007, while attending the NBC upfronts for her role in ''The Office'', Fischer suffered a traumatic injury after falling down a flight of stairs in a Manhattan lounge, fracturing her back in four places. She was taken via ambulance to a Manhattan hospital and spent several weeks after in a New York City hotel before she was finally cleared by her doctor to fly to Los Angeles. After a twelve-week recovery, she returned to the set in time for the fourth season's first episode.

Fischer is passionate about animal rescue, and she is involved with the Los Angeles organizations Kitten Rescue and Rescue Rover. Before ''The Office'', she worked for three years doing hands-on rescue work for the organizations. She still regularly fosters cats and has hosted Kitten Rescue's annual silent auction three years in a row (in 2008, 2009, and 2010).

Fischer maintains a MySpace blog detailing her experiences on ''The Office'' and is the godmother of co-star Angela Kinsey's daughter Isabel.

Fischer announced on July 19, 2011 during an interview on ''The Tonight Show'' that she and her husband will be having a baby boy sometime in late September. She joked with Jay that she was saving the announcement for his show.

Filmography

Films

! Year	Film	Role	! Notes
	''Born Champion''	Wendy Miller
''Channel 493''	Rane
2000	''The Specials''	College Girl
2001	''Picking Up Chicks With Hartland Williams''	Dog walker
2002		French Girl
	''Melvin Goes to Dinner''	Hostess
''Doggie Tails Vol.1: Lucky's First Sleepover''	Kelsey
''Rubbing Charlie''			*Uncredited
		Whisper
''The Women''	Leslie		* Short film
''LolliLove''	Jenna		* Co-writer and director
	''The 40-Year-Old Virgin''	Woman #1		* Background in a bar scene
''Lucky 13''	Sorority Girl
2006		Shelby Cunningham
	''Blades of Glory''	Katie Van Waldenberg
''The Brothers Solomon''	Michelle
''Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story''	Darlene Madison Cox		* Singing by Angela Correa
2008	''The Promotion''	Jen Stauber
	''Official Rejection''	Herself		*Documentary
	Susan
2010	''A Little Help''	Laura		*''Post-production''
2011		Maggie Mills
2012	''The Giant Mechanical Man''	Janice

Television

! Year	Title	Role	! Notes
	''Spin City''	Waitress		List of Spin City episodes#Season 5: 2000-2001>"A Shot in the Dark: Part 2"
''Undeclared	Sorority Girl (Episode 1)Betty (Episode 2)		List of Undeclared episodes#Season 1 (2001–2002)>Prototype"	List of Undeclared episodes#Season 1 (2001–2002)>Sick in the Head"
	''Off Centre''	Melanie		Off Centre#Episodes>The Backup"
	Kim		List of What I Like About You episodes#Season 1: 2002-2003>Copy That"
	''Strong Medicine''	Camille Freemont		Strong Medicine#Episodes>Maternity"
''Miss Match''	Connie		Miss Match#Nielsen ratings>Kate in Ex-tasy"
2004		Dottie 1943		* Cold Case (season 2)
	''[[That '70s Show''	Stacy Wanamaker		*A Coat of White Primer">List of That '70s Show episodes (season 7)
	Sharon Kinney		A Coat of White Primer"	List of Six Feet Under episodes#Season 5 (2005)>Dancing for Me"
			List of The Office (U.S. TV series) episodes>152 Episodes (2005–present)

Awards and nominations

! Year	! Nominated work	! Award	! Category	! Result
2004		St. Louis International Film Festival	Screen Actors Guild Emerging Actor Award
2005	TromaDance Film Festival	Independent Soul Award ''(as director)''
	rowspan="9"	Emmy Award
	rowspan="2"
rowspan="2"
Teen Choice Award	Choice TV: Comedy Actress
Golden Nymph	Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
Herself	Charles Guggenheim Cinema St. Louis Award	Outstanding Achievement in Film
2011	''The Office''	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

References

External links

Category:1974 births Category:Actors from Indiana Category:Actors from Missouri Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:Animal rights advocates Category:Living people Category:The Office (U.S. TV series) Category:Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:People from Fort Wayne, Indiana Category:People from St. Louis, Missouri Category:Truman State University alumni

da:Jenna Fischer de:Jenna Fischer es:Jenna Fischer fr:Jenna Fischer it:Jenna Fischer nl:Jenna Fischer pt:Jenna Fischer ro:Jenna Fischer ru:Фишер, Дженна sv:Jenna Fischer tl:Jenna Fischer