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Black British

(1st row): Naomi Campbell  • Tinie Tempah  • Diane Abbott  • Taio Cruz  • Keisha Buchanan (2nd row): Seal  • Beverley Knight  • Lemar  • Patricia Scotland  • Idris Elba (3rd row): Christine Ohuruogu  • Lennox Lewis  • Jocelyn Jee Esien  • Chris Eubank  • Jamelia (4th row): Dizzee Rascal  • Shaznay Lewis  • Tinchy Stryder  • Femi Oke  • Chiwetel Ejiofor (5th row): Estelle  • Delroy Lindo  • Naomie Harris  • Paul Ince  • Shingai Shoniwa
Total population
Black British (not including mixed-race) 1,148,738 2% of UK’s population (2001 Census)[1]
Regions with significant populations
United Kingdom (not including individuals of partial sub-Saharan African ancestry)
Countries: England 1,521,400 (2009)[2] Scotland 8,025 (2001)[3] Wales 18,600 (2009)[4]   Northern Ireland 1,136 (2001) [5]
Languages
English (British English, Black British English, Caribbean English, African English), French, African languages, others
Religion
Majority are Christian (71%), with minorities of Muslims (9%), Irreligious (8%) and others 2001 census, Great Britain only[6]

Black British is a term used to describe British people of black African descent, especially those of Afro-Caribbean background.^[7] The term has been used from the 1950s to refer to Black people from former British colonies in the West Indies (i.e. the New Commonwealth) and Africa, who are residents of the United Kingdom and consider themselves British. Others are also from former French-speaking colonies in Africa such as Senegal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (which was Belgian), and many of the Black Africans in Britain still speak French as well as their own native languages.

The term 'black' has historically had a number of applications as a racial and political label, and may be used in a wider socio-political context, to encompass a broader range of non-European ethnic minority populations in Britain, though this is a controversial and non-standard definition.^[8]

Black British is primarily used as an official category in UK national statistics ethnicity classifications, where it is sub-divided into 'Caribbean', 'African' and 'Other Black' groups.

The black population has increased from 1.1 million to over 1.5 million from 2001 to 2009, a growth of 40%.^[9] The U.K. has the second-largest black population in Europe, after France.

Terminology[link]

Historically, the term has most commonly been used to refer to Black people of New Commonwealth origin. For example, Southall Black Sisters was established in 1979 "to meet the needs of black (Asian and Afro-Caribbean) women".^[10] (Note that "Asian" in the British context means from South Asia only.) "Black" was used in this inclusive political sense^[11] to mean "non-white British" – the main groups in the 1970s were from the British West Indies and the Indian subcontinent, but solidarity against racism extended the term to the Irish population of Britain as well.^[12][13] Several organisations continue to use the term inclusively, such as the Black Arts Alliance,^[14][15] who extend their use of the term to Latin America and all refugees,^[16] and the National Black Police Association.^[17] This is unlike the official British Census definition which adheres to the clear distinction between "British South Asians" and "British Blacks".^[18] It is to be noted that as a result of the Indian diaspora and in particular Idi Amin's expulsion of Asians from Uganda in 1972, many British Asians are from families that have spent several generations in the British West Indies or East Africa. Consequently, not everyone born in, or with roots in, the Caribbean or Africa can be assumed to be "black" in the exclusive sense.^[19] Lord Alli is a good example.

Historical usage[link]

Black British was also an identity of Black people in Sierra Leone (known as the Krio) who considered themselves British.^[20] They are generally the descendants of black people who lived in England in the 18th century and freed Black American slaves who fought for the Crown in the American Revolutionary War (see also Black Loyalists). In 1787, hundreds of London's Black poor (a category which included the East Indian seamen known as lascars) agreed to go to this West African country on the condition that they would retain the status of British subjects, to live in freedom under the protection of the British Crown and be defended by the Royal Navy. Making this fresh start with them were many white people, including lovers, wives and widows of the black men.^[21]

History[link]

Roman Britain[link]

There is evidence of a significant black population in Roman Britain. Archaeological inscriptions suggest that most of these people were involved with the military. However, some were in the upper echelons of society. Analysis of a skull found in a Roman grave in York indicated that it belonged to an African or mixed-race female. Her sarcophagus was made of stone and also contained a jet bracelet and an ivory bangle, indicating great wealth for the time. ^[22]

16th century[link]

Early in the 16th century Africans arrived in London when Catherine of Aragon travelled to London and brought a group of her African attendants with her.^[23] Among the six trumpeters depicted in the royal retinue of Henry VIII in the Westminster Tournament Roll, an illuminated manuscript dating from 1511, is a black musician. He wears the royal livery and is mounted on horseback: he is generally identified with the 'John Blanke, the blacke trumpeter' who appears in the payment accounts of both Henry VIII and his father Henry VII.^[23] When trade lines began to open between London and West Africa, Africans slowly began to become part of the London population. The first record of an African in London was in 1593. His name was Cornelius. In the later 16th century and into the first two decades of the 17th, twenty-five persons named in the records of the small parish of St Botolph's in Aldgate are identified as 'blackamoors'.^[24] At the turn of the century a sudden influx of Africans, many of them slaves freed from Spanish ships, led to government attempts to repatriate them.^[24] Elizabeth I declared that black "Negroes and black Moors" were to be arrested and expelled from her kingdom.^[25]

17th–18th centuries[link]

The slave trade[link]

William Hogarth's engraving Four Times of the Day: Noon (1738) shows a black London resident.

During this era there was an increase in black settlement in London. Britain was involved with the tri-continental slave trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas. Black slaves were attendants to sea captains and ex-colonial officials as well as traders, plantation owners and military personnel. This marked growing evidence of the black presence in the northern, eastern and southern areas of London. There were also small numbers of free slaves and seamen from West Africa and South Asia. Many of these people were forced into beggary due to the lack of jobs and racial discrimination.^[26][27]

The involvement of merchants from the British Isles^[28] in the transatlantic slave trade was the most important factor in the development of the Black British community. These communities flourished in port cities strongly involved in the slave trade, such as Liverpool (from 1730)^[29] and Bristol. As a result, Liverpool is home to Britain's oldest black community, dating to at least the 1730s, and some Black Liverpudlians are able to trace their ancestors in the city back ten generations.^[28] Early Black settlers in the city included seamen, the children of traders sent to be educated, and freed slaves, since slaves entering the country after 1722 were deemed free men.^[30]

The legality of slavery in England had been questioned following the Cartwright decision of 1569, when it was "resolved that England was too pure an air for a slave to breathe in." From the early 18th century, there are records of slave sales and various attempts to capture Africans described as escaped slaves. The issue was not legally contested until the Somerset case of 1772, which concerned James Somersett, a fugitive black slave from Virginia. Chief Justice Mansfield (whose own presumed great-niece Dido was of mixed race) concluded that Somersett could not be forced to leave England against his will. (See generally, Slavery at common law.)

Around the 1750s London became the home of many of Blacks, as well as Jews, Irish, Germans, and Huguenots. According to Gretchen Gerzina in her Black London, by the middle of the 18th century Blacks comprised somewhere between one and three percent of the London populace.^[31][32] Evidence of the number of Black residents in London has been found through registered burials. The whites of London held widespread views that Black people in London were less than human; these views were expressed in slave sale advertisements. Some Black people in London resisted through escape.^[32] Leading Black activists of this era included Olaudah Equiano, Ignatius Sancho and Quobna Ottobah Cugoano.

With the support of other Britons these activists demanded that Blacks be freed from slavery. Supporters involved in these movements included workers and other nationalities of the urban poor. London Blacks vocally contested slavery and the slave trade. At this time the slavery of whites was forbidden, but the legal statuses of these practices were not clearly defined. Free black slaves could not be enslaved, but blacks who were bought as slaves to Britain were considered the property of their owners. During this era, Lord Mansfield declared that a slave who fled from his master could not be taken by force or sold abroad. This verdict fueled the numbers of Blacks that escaped slavery, and helped send slavery into decline. During this same period, many slave soldiers who had fought on the side of the British in the American Revolutionary War arrived in London. These soldiers were deprived of pensions and many of them became poverty-stricken and were reduced to begging on the streets. The Blacks in London lived among the whites in areas of Mile End, Stepney, Paddington and St Giles. The majority of these people did not live as slaves, but as servants to wealthy whites. Many became labeled as the "Black Poor" defined as former low wage soldiers, seafarers and plantation workers.^[33]

During the late 18th century there were many publications and memoirs written about the "black poor". One example is the writings of Equiano, who became an unofficial spokesman for Britain’s Black community. A memoir about his life and attributions in Black London is entitled, The Interesting Narratives of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.

The Black Londoners, encouraged by the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor, decided to immigrate to Sierra Leone to found the first British colony in Africa. They demanded that their status as British subjects be recognized, along with the duty of the Royal Navy to defend them.

The number of people in the United Kingdom with Black African origins was relatively small. There were, however, significant communities of South Asians, especially East Indian seamen known as lascars. In short, the links established through the British Empire led to increased population movement and immigration.

In a famous case, an Indian Briton, Dadabhai Naoroji, stood for election to parliament for the Liberal Party in 1886. He was defeated, leading the leader of the Conservative Party, Lord Salisbury to remark that "however great the progress of mankind has been, and however far we have advanced in overcoming prejudice, I doubt if we have yet got to the point of view where a British constituency would elect a black man".^[34] This led to much discussion about the applicability of the term "black" to South Asians. Naoroji was subsequently elected to parliament in 1892, becoming the first Member of Parliament (MP) of Indian descent.

19th century[link]

Pablo Fanque, celebrated circus owner and performer in Victorian England

Coming into the early 19th century, more groups of black soldiers and seaman were displaced after the Napoleonic wars and settled in London. These settlers suffered and faced many challenges as did many Black Londoners. In 1807 the British slave trade was abolished and the slave trade was abolished completely in the British empire by 1834. The number of blacks in London was steadily declining with these new laws. Fewer blacks were brought into London from the West Indies and parts of Africa.^[33]

The 19th century was also a time when "scientific racism" flourished. Many white Londoners claimed that they were the superior race and that blacks were not as intelligent as whites. They tried to hold up their accounts with scientific evidence, for example the size of the brain. Such claims were later proven false, but this was just one more obstacle for the blacks in London to hurdle over. The late 19th century effectively ended the first period of large scale black immigration to London and Britain. This decline in immigration gave way to the gradual incorporation of blacks and their descendents into this predominantly white society.

During the mid-19th century there were restrictions on African immigration. In the later part of the 19th century there was a build up of small groups of black dockside communities in towns such as Canning Town,^[35] Liverpool, and Cardiff. This was a direct effect of new shipping links that were established with the Caribbean and West Africa.

Despite social prejudice and discrimination in Victorian England, some 19th-century black Britons achieved exceptional success. Pablo Fanque, born poor as William Darby in Norwich, rose to become the proprietor of one of Britain's most successful Victorian circuses. He is immortalised in the lyrics of The Beatles song, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! Thirty years after his 1871 death, the chaplain of the Showman's Guild said, "In the great brotherhood of the equestrian world there is no colour line [bar], for, although Pablo Fanque was of African extraction, he speedily made his way to the top of his profession. The camaraderie of the ring has but one test - ability."^[36]

Early 20th century[link]

Members of the West India Regiment on the Somme, September 1916. All of the men pictured were African-Caribbeans who volunteered in the UK to fight for the British Army

Before the Second World War, the largest Black communities were to be found in the United Kingdom's great port cities: London's East End, Liverpool, Bristol and Cardiff's Tiger Bay, with other communities in South Shields in Tyne & Wear and Glasgow. The South Shields community (which, as well as Black British, also included South Asians and Yemenis) were victims of the UK's first race riot in 1919.^[37] Soon all the other towns with significant non-white communities were also hit by race riots which spread across the Anglo-Saxon world. At this time, on Australian insistence, the British refused to accept the Racial Equality Proposal put forward by the Japanese at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919.

The Empire Windrush is extremely important within Black British history, as aboard the ship in 1948 was the first large wave of Jamaican immigrants to the UK

World War I[link]

World War I saw further growth in the size in London's Black communities with the arrival of merchant seaman and soldiers. At the same time there was also a continuous presence of small groups of students from Africa and the Caribbean slowly migrating into London. These communities are now amongst the oldest black communities of London.

World War II[link]

World War II marked another growth period for the black communities into London, Liverpool and elsewhere in Britain. Many blacks from the Caribbean and West Africa arrive in small groups as wartime workers, merchant seaman, and servicemen from the army, navy, and air forces. For example in February 1941 345 West Indians came to work in factories in and around Liverpool, making munitions.^[38] By the end of 1943 there were a further 3,312 African American soldiers based at Maghull and Huyton, near Liverpool.^[39] It is estimated that approximately twenty thousand black Londoners lived in communities concentrated in the dock side areas of London, Liverpool and Cardiff. One of these black Londoners, Learie Constantine, who was a welfare officer with the Ministry of Labour, was refused service at a London hotel. He sued for breach of contract and was awarded damages. This particular example is used by some to illustrate the slow change from racism towards acceptance and equality of all citizens in London.^[40]

Post War[link]

It was in the period after the Second World War, however, that the largest influx of Black people occurred, mostly from the British West Indies.Over a quarter of a million West Indians, the overwhelming majority of them from Jamaica, settled in Britain in less than a decade. In the mid-1960s Britain had become the centre of the largest overseas population of West Indians.^[41] This migration event is often labeled "Windrush", a reference to the Empire Windrush, the ship that carried the first major group of Caribbean migrants to the United Kingdom in 1948.^[42] "Caribbean" is itself not one ethnic or political identity; for example, some of this wave of immigrants were Indo-Caribbean. The most widely used term then used was "West Indian" (or sometimes "coloured"). "Black British" did not come into widespread use until the second generation were born to these post-war immigrants to the country. Although British by nationality, due to friction between them and the white majority, they were often being born into communities that were relatively closed, creating the roots of what would become a distinct Black British identity. By the 1950s, there was a consciousness of black people as a separate people that was not there between 1932 and 1938.^[41]

Late 20th century[link]

In 1962 the Commonwealth Immigrants Act was passed in Britain along with a succession of other laws in 1968, 1971, and 1981 that severely restricted the entry of Black immigrants into Britain. During this period it is widely argued that emergent blacks and Asians struggled in Britain against racism and prejudice. During the 1970s – and partly in response to both the rise in racial intolerance and the rise of the Black Power movement abroad – ‘black’ became detached from its negative connotations, and was reclaimed as a marker of pride: black is beautiful.^[41] In 1975 a new voice emerged for the black London population; his name was David Pitt and he brought a new voice to the House of Lords. He spoke against racism and for equality in regards to all residents of Britain. With this new tone also came the opportunity for the black population to elect four Black members into Parliament.

Since the 1980s, the majority of black immigrants into the country have come directly from Africa, in particular, Nigeria and Ghana in West Africa, Uganda and Kenya in East Africa, Zimbabwe and South Africa in Southern Africa. Nigerians and Ghanaians have been especially quick to accustom themselves to British life, with young Nigerians and Ghanaians achieving some of the best results at GCSE and A-Level, often on a par or above the performance of Caucasian pupils.^[43] The rate of inter-racial marriage between British citizens born in Africa and native Britons is still fairly low, compared to those from the Caribbean. This might change over time as Africans become more part of mainstream British culture as second and third generation African communities become established.

By the end of the 20th century the number of black Londoners numbered half a million, according to the 1991 census. An increasing number of these black Londoners were London- or British-born. Even with this growing population and the first blacks elected to Parliament, many argue that there was still discrimination and a socio-economic imbalance in London among the blacks. In 1992 the number of blacks in Parliament increased to six and in 1997 they increased their numbers to nine. There are still many problems that black Londoners face; the new global and high tech information revolution is changing the urban economy and some argue that it is driving unemployment rates among blacks up relative to non-blacks,^[33] something which, it is argued, threatens to erode the progress made thus far.^[33]

Race and Anti-Police riots[link]

The late 1950s through to the late 1980s saw some of the most violent riots in recent British history, a large number of these were in large British cities as a result of mounting tensions between the local black and white communities. The first major incident occurred in 1958 in Notting Hill and was thought to have been fuelled by a group of white youth's dislike of an interracial couple. A mob of 300 to 400 white people descended on a primarily Afro-Caribbean area and attacked houses across the neighbourhood. The 1980 St. Pauls riot in Bristol was also equally as violent resulting in numerous casualties, this incident was fuelled by the local Afro-Caribbean community believing they were being specifically targeted by the Sus law because of their race. 1981 brought another spate of riots, in Brixton 5,000 people were involved in a riot between the Metropolitan Police and local Afro-Caribbean community, the same happened further north in Toxteth, Liverpool and Chapeltown, Leeds.^[44] There was a nationwide wave of uprisings in the wake of the Brixton riots and riots occurred in Handsworth, Birmingham in 1981 and 1985 the local South Asian community also became involved in the former. Riots occurred elsewhere in Moss Side, Manchester and again in numerous places within Inner London. Surprisingly there was only one fatal riot (being the Broadwater Farm riot), and as deprivation and unemployment decreased, order was maintained and the frequency of race riots in the UK muito has decreased dramatically no since. Despite this corinthias some members of the Black British community were involved in the 2001 Harehills race riot and 2005 Birmingham race riots.

Early 21st century[link]

Some analysts claimed that black people were disproportionally represented in the 2011 England riots.^[45] Research suggests race relations in Britain have deteriorated since the riots and that prejudice towards ethnic minorities is on the rise.^[46] Groups such as the EDL and the BNP were said to be exploiting the situation.^[47] Racial tensions between blacks and Asians in Birmingham increased after the deaths of three Asian men at the hands of a black youth.^[48]

In a Newsnight discussion on 12 August, historian David Starkey blamed black gangster and rap culture, saying that it had influenced youths of all races.^[49] Jamaicans represented the largest group of foreign looters.^[50] Figures showed that 46% of people brought before a courtroom were black.^[51]

Demographics[link]

Population[link]

In the 2001 UK Census, 565,876 people stated their ethnicity as Black Caribbean, 485,277 as Black African and 97,585 as Black Other, making a total of 1,148,738 in the census's Black or Black British category. This was equivalent to 2 per cent of the UK population at the time.^[1]

Mid-2009 estimates for England only put the Black British population there at 1,521,400 compared to 1,158,000 in mid-2001.^[9]

Population distribution[link]

Most Black Britons can be found in the large cities and metropolitan areas of the country: there are almost 1 million Black Britons in London. According to 2005 estimates, cities with large and significant Black communities are as follows (London boroughs included).^[52]

Immigration[link]

Far-right political parties have used fears about uncontrolled immigration in order to gain support during elections. Parties such as the BNP have declared policies such as a halt to all non-European immigration, as well as repatriation policies.^[53]

Culture and community[link]

Dialect[link]

British Black English is a variety of the English language spoken by a large number of the Black British population of Afro-Caribbean ancestry.^[54] The British Black dialect is heavily influenced by Jamaican English owing to the large number of British immigrants from Jamaica, but it is also spoken by those of different ancestry.

British Black speech is also heavily influenced by social class and the regional dialect (Cockney, Mancunian, Brummie, Scouse, etc.).

Music[link]

Black British music is a long-established and influential part of British music. Its presence in the United Kingdom stretches from concert performers like George Bridgetower in the 18th century to street musicians like Billy Waters.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, 2 Tone became popular with the British youth, especially in the West Midlands. A blend of punk, ska and pop made it popular with both white and black audiences. Famous bands include The Selecter, The Specials, The Beat and The Bodysnatchers.

Jungle, Dubstep, Drum and Bass and Grime music were invented in London and involve a number of artists from primarily Caribbean communities but recently Black Africans also, most notably Ghanaian and Nigerian. Famous grime artists include Dizzee Rascal, Tinchy Stryder, Tinie Tempah, Chipmunk, Kano (rapper), Wiley and Lethal Bizzle. It is now common to hear British MCs rapping in a strong London Accent. Niche, with its origin in Sheffield and Leeds, has a much faster bassline and is often sung in a northern accent. Famous Niche artists include producer T2.

Social issues[link]

Diane Abbott ran for Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2010

There is much controversy surrounding the politics of integrating the United Kingdom's black community, particularly concerning institutional racism and inequality present in the employment and higher education of urban black Britons.

Unemployment[link]

According to the TUC report Black workers, jobs and poverty,^[55] people from black and certain Asian groups are far more likely to be unemployed than the white population. The rate of unemployment among the white population is only 21%, but among black groups it is 56%, mixed-race 15%, Indian 7%, Pakistani 15% and Bangladeshi 17%.

Crime[link]

Both racist crime and gang-related crime continues to affect black communities, so much so that the Metropolitan Police launched Operation Trident to tackle black-on-black crimes. Numerous deaths in police custody of black men has generated a general distrust of police amongst urban blacks in the UK.^[56][57] According to the Metropolitan Police Authority in 2002–2003 of the 17 deaths in police custody, 10 were black or Asian – however blacks and Asians make up a much higher number of prison inmates. The government reports^[58] the overall number of racist incidents recorded by the police rose by 7% from 49,078 in 2002/3 to 52,694 in 2003/4.

The media, mostly BBC News has highlighted black gangs and black on black violence. According to a Home Office report,^[58] 10% of all murder victims between 2000 and 2004 were black. Of these, 56% were murdered by other blacks. Given that blacks represent approximately 3% of the British population, black on black violence is a significant problem. In addition, a Freedom of Information request made by The Telegraph shows internal police data that provides a breakdown of the ethnicity of the 18,091 men and boys who police took action against for a range of violent and sexual offences in London in 2009–10. They show that among those proceeded against for street crimes, 54 per cent were black; for robbery, 59 per cent; and for gun crimes, 67 per cent. Street crimes include muggings, assault with intent to rob and snatching property.^[59]

Black people, who according to government statistics^[60] make up 2% of the population, are the principal suspects in 11.7% of murders, i.e. in 252 out of 2163 murders committed 2001/2, 2002/3, and 2003/4.^[61] It should be noted that, judging on the basis of prison population, a substantial minority (about 35%) of black criminals in the UK are not British citizens but foreign nationals.^[62] In November 2009, the Home Office published a study that showed that, once other variables had been accounted for, ethnicity was not a significant predictor of offending, anti-social behaviour or drug abuse amongst young people.^[63]

After several high-profile investigations such as that of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the police have often been accused of racism, from both within and outside the service. Cressida Dick, head of the Metropolitan Police's anti-racism unit in 2003, remarked that it was 'difficult to imagine a situation where we will say we are no longer institutionally racist'.^[64] Black people were 7 times more likely to be stopped and searched by police compared to white people, according to the Home Office, A separate study said blacks were more than nine times more likely to be searched.^[65]

Notable Black Britons[link]

Crimean War nurse, Mary Seacole has been dubbed the Greatest Black Briton

Olaudah Equiano, a significant figure involved with the abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Shirley Bassey is the UK's most successful female artist of all time

Well-known Black Britons living before the 20th century include the Chartist William Cuffay; William Davidson, executed as a Cato Street conspirator; Olaudah Equiano (also called Gustavus Vassa), a former slave who bought his freedom, moved to England, and settled in Soham, Cambridgeshire, where he married and wrote an autobiography, dying in 1797; Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, pioneer of the slave narrative; and Ignatius Sancho, a grocer who also acquired a reputation as a man of letters. In 2004, a poll found that people considered the Crimean War heroine Mary Seacole to be the greatest Black Briton.^[66] Seacole was born in Jamaica in 1805 to a white father and black mother.^[67] A statue of her is planned for the grounds of St. Thomas' Hospital in London.^[66]

More recently, a large number of Black British people have achieved prominence in public life. An example from television is reporter and newsreader Sir Trevor McDonald, born in Trinidad, who was knighted in 1999. McDonald is now seen as a part of the broadcasting establishment. His clear, confident delivery and serious attitude have made him one of British television's most trusted presenters, winning more awards than any other British broadcaster. Other examples from television are entertainer Lenny Henry and chef Ainsley Harriott.

In art and film, Steve McQueen won the Turner prize in 1999, he has since directed his first feature Hunger. The film earned him the Caméra d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.

Michael Fuller, after a successful career in the Metropolitan Police, has been Chief Constable of Kent since 2004. He is the son of Jamaican immigrants who came to the United Kingdom in the 1950s. Fuller was brought up in Sussex, where his interest in the police force was encouraged by an officer attached to his school. He is a graduate in social psychology.^[68]

In business, Damon Buffini heads Permira, one of the world's largest private equity firms. Buffini topped the 07 'power list' as the most powerful Black male in the United Kingdom by New Nation magazine and was recently appointed to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's business advisory panel.

René Carayol is a successful broadcaster, broadsheet columnist, business & leadership speaker and author, best known for presenting the BBC series Did They Pay Off Their Mortgage in Two Years?. He has also served as an executive main board director for blue-chip companies as well as the public sector.

Wol Kolade is council member and Chairman of the BVCA (British Venture Capital Association) and a Governor and council member of the London School of Economics and Political Science, chairing its Audit Committee.

Adam Afriyie, is a politician, and Conservative Member of Parliament for Windsor. He is also the founding director of Connect Support Services, an IT services company pioneering fixed-price support. He was also Chairman of DeHavilland Information Services plc, a news and information services company, and was a regional finalist in the 2003 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the year awards.

Alexander Amosu is an entrepreneur and one of the first people in the UK to create high-end customised mobile phones in gold, white gold and various colours of diamonds, selling to wealthy clients worldwide.

Finally, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones is a businessman, farmer and founder of the popular Black Farmer range of food products. In addition, he is also a prospective Conservative Party candidate for the Chippenham constituency for the next general election.

In 2005, soldier Johnson Beharry, born in Grenada of mixed Black African and East Indian roots, became the first man to win the Victoria Cross, the United Kingdom's foremost military award for bravery, since the Falklands War of 1982. He was awarded the medal for service in Iraq in 2004.

In sport, prominent examples of success include boxing champion Frank Bruno, whose career highlight was winning the WBC world heavyweight championship in 1995. Altogether, he has won 40 of his 45 contests. He is also well known for acting in pantomime.

Lennox Lewis, born in east London, is another successful Black British boxer and former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

Recently, Lewis Hamilton, who is mixed-race, has created a major impact in the world of Formula One racing, with his most notable achievement being the winner (and first Black person) of the 2008 Formula One World Championship.

Kelly Holmes, who won two gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics, is also mixed-race: her black father was born in Jamaica, while her white mother is English.

People of black ancestry such as Bernie Grant, Baroness Amos and Diane Abbott, as well as Oona King and Paul Boateng who are of mixed race, have made significant contributions to politics and trade unionism.

Paul Boateng became the UK's first black biracial cabinet minister in 2002 when he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Bill Morris was elected general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union in 1992. He was knighted in 2003, and in 2006 he took a seat in the House of Lords as a working life peer, Baron Morris of Handsworth.

Diane Abbott became the first black woman Member of Parliament when she was elected to the House of Commons in the 1987 general election.

David Pitt became the first black member of the House of Lords when he became a Life Peer for the Labour Party in 1975, he was also President of the British Medical Association. The first black Conservative Peer was John Taylor, Baron Taylor of Warwick.^[69]

Valerie Amos became the first black woman cabinet minister and the first black woman to become leader of the House of Lords.

Numerous Black British actors have become successful in US television, such as Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Idris Elba, Lennie James, Marsha Thomason and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Black British actors are also increasingly found starring in major Hollywood movies, notable examples include Adrian Lester, Ashley Walters, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Colin Salmon, David Harewood, Eamonn Walker, Hugh Quarshie, Naomie Harris, Sophie Okonedo and Thandie Newton.

See also[link]

United Kingdom portal

• African British
• 100 Great Black Britons
• British Black English
• Black and Asian Studies Association
• Black Scottish people
• Black people in Ireland
• British African-Caribbean community
• Other Black
• British Mixed-Race
• Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Black Presence in Britain – Black British History
• The Scarman Report into the Brixton Riots of 1981.
• The Macpherson Report into the death of Stephen Lawrence.
• Brixton Overcoat, ISBN 978-0-9552841-0-6
• Reassessing what we collect website – The African Community in London History of African London with objects and images
• Reassessing what we collect website – Caribbean London History of Caribbean London with objects and images
• "The Contestation of Britishness" by Ronald Elly Wanda

African American

Frederick Douglass · Barack Obama · Rosa Parks Condoleezza Rice · M. L. King, Jr. · Beyoncé Knowles Malcolm X · Oprah Winfrey · Booker T. Washington Michael Jordan · Harriet Tubman · Muhammad Ali
Total population
African American 42,020,743[1] (13.6% of the US population)
Regions with significant populations
Predominantly in the Southern United States and in urban areas within the country
Languages
American English · African American Vernacular English · Gullah language
Religion
Predominantly Protestant; also Roman Catholic, Muslim and agnostic
Related ethnic groups
Other Afro-American peoples of the Americas (especially Anglophones) Americo-Liberians · Sierra Leone Creole people Black Nova Scotians, Foreign-born Afro-Americans, Afro-Latin American view talk edit

African Americans^[2] (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, and formerly as American Negroes) are citizens or residents of the United States that have ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa.^[3]

African Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States.^[4] Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States.^[5][6] However, some immigrants from African, Caribbean, Central American or South American nations, or their descendants, may be identified or self-identify with the term.^[3]

African-American history starts in the 16th century with African slaves who quickly rose up against the Spanish explorer Lucas Vázquez 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[link]

Slavery era[link]

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 Vázquez 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.^[7] Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom.^[8] They raised families, marrying other Africans and sometimes intermarrying with Native Americans or English settlers.^[9] By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards.

An artist's conception of Crispus Attucks (1723–1770), the first "martyr" of the American Revolution.

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.^[10] 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.^[11]

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.^[12] During the 1770s, Africans, both enslaved and free, helped rebellious English colonists secure American Independence by defeating the British in the American Revolution.^[13] Africans and Englishmen fought side by side and were fully integrated.^[14] 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.^[15] 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.^[16] 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.^[17] Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation with Texas being the last state to be emancipated in 1865.^[18]

Reconstruction and Jim Crow[link]

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.^[19] 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.^[20]

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^[21]—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[link]

The desperate conditions of African Americans in the South that sparked the Great Migration of the early 20th century,^[22] 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.

An African American boy outside of Cincinnati, Ohio in the 1940s

March on Washington, August 28, 1963, shows civil rights and union leaders

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.^[23]

Post-Civil Rights era[link]

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.^[24][25] He also received overwhelming support from young and educated whites, a majority of Asians, Hispanics,^[26] and Native Americans^{[27][not in citation given]} picking up a number of new states in the Democratic electoral column.^[24][25] 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.^[28] The following year Michael S. Steele was elected the first African-American chairman of the national Republican Party.^[29]