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African-American culture, also known as Black American culture or Black culture in American English, refers to the cultural expressions of African Americans, either as part of or distinct from mainstream American culture. African-American/Black-American culture has been influential on American and global culture. Black-American/African American culture primarily refers to the distinct cultural expressions, traditions, and contributions of people who are descendants of those enslaved in the United States, as well as free people of color who lived in the country before 1865. This culture is rooted in a specific ethnic group and is separate from the cultures of more recent melanated (dark-skinned) immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, or Afro-Latinos.
African American culture is not simply defined by race or historical struggleWesley Lowery (2025). 9780316312493, Back Bay Books : Little, Brown and Company. . ISBN 9780316312493Mehrsa Baradaran (2025). 9780674237476, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674237476 but is deeply rooted in shared practices, identity, and community. African American culture encompasses many aspects, including Black church, social customs, lifestyles, and worldviews. When blended together these have allowed African Americans to create successes and excel in the areas of literature, media, cinema, music, , art, politics, and business, as well as Soul food marriage, and family.
A relatively unknown aspect of African American culture is the significant impact it has had on both science and industry. Some elements of African American culture come from within the community, others from the interaction of African Americans with the wider diaspora of people of African origin displaced throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, and others still from the inner social and cultural dynamics of the community. In addition, African American culture is influenced by Indigenous African culture and Native American culture.
Before the Civil Rights Movement, religious and spiritual life dominated many aspects of African American culture, deeply influencing cultural expression. Since the Movement, which was a mere 60 years ago—effectively just two generations—African Americans have built on the foundation of resilience and advocacy established during that era. This legacy has catalyzed significant progress, enabling African Americans to achieve success across every field of American life.
African-Americans have faced racial biases, including but not limited to enslavement, oppressive legislation like discriminatory Jim Crow laws, and societal segregation, as well as overt denial of basic human civil rights. Racism has caused many African-Americans to be excluded from many aspects of American life during various points throughout American history, and these experiences have profoundly influenced African-American culture,Michael Angelo Gomez (1998). 9780807861714, University of North Carolina Press. . ISBN 9780807861714 and how African Americans choose to interact with the broader American society.
Most African Americans are the descendants of enslaved people who lived within the boundaries of the present United States. In addition, African Americans that are American Descendants of Slaves (ADOS) are primarily of and coastal ancestry, with varying amounts of and Native American ancestry.
Roughly one-in-five Black people in the U.S. are immigrants or children of Black immigrants. While some Black immigrants or their children may also come to identify with African Americans, Black immigrants to the U.S. are not part of the African American ethnic group. The majority of first-generation immigrants from Africa prefer to identify with their nation of origin. There is some recent research which shows that some Black immigrants to the US resist assimilation to reduce exposure to racial discrimination faced by native-born African Americans.
Various African traditions provided a foundation for the spiritual practices of enslaved individuals, who blended ancestral beliefs with Christianity to create various forms of worship. This cultural resilience was evident in slave rebellions, which challenged the institution of slavery and fostered a sense of community and shared identity among African Americans. The civil rights movement emerged as a powerful continuation of this struggle. This historical legacy influenced contemporary African-American families and shaped their values, community structures, and approaches to political engagement, with the enduring economic impacts of systemic inequality driving a commitment to empowerment and social change.
The imprint of Africa is evident in politics, economics, language, music, hairstyles, fashion, dance, religion, cuisine, and worldview. Throughout all of this, African Americans created their own culture and history in the United States. In turn, African-American culture has had a pervasive and transformative impact on many elements of mainstream American culture. This process of mutual creative exchange is called creolization. Over time, the culture of African slaves and their descendants has had a ubiquitous impact on the dominant American culture and on world culture.Geneviève Fabre, Robert G. O'Meally (1994). History and Memory in African-American Culture. Oxford University Press. pp. 12–208.
Modernity and migration of African-American communities to the North has had a history of placing strain on the retention of African-American cultural practices and traditions. The urban and radically different spaces in which black culture was being produced raised fears in and sociologists that the southern African-American folk aspect of black popular culture were at risk of being lost within history. (2013). 9781439909423, Temple University Press. ISBN 9781439909423
Other aspects of African-American oral tradition include the dozens, signifying, trash talk, rhyming, semantic inversion and word play, many of which have found their way into mainstream American popular culture and become international phenomena.Michael L. Hecht, Ronald L. Jackson, Sidney A. Ribeau (2003). African American Communication: Exploring Identity and Culture? Routledge. pp. 3–245. During slavery, African Americans adapted these linguistic traditions as a form of covert resistance and survival. Spoken word is another example of how the African-American oral tradition has influenced modern popular culture. Spoken-word artists employ the same techniques as African-American preachers including movement, rhythm, and audience participation. Rap music from the 1980s and beyond has been cited as an extension of African oral culture.
The Harlem Renaissance was also a time of increased political involvement for African Americans. Among the notable African-American political movements founded in the early 20th century are the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The Nation of Islam, a notable quasi- religious movement, also began in the early 1930s.
The works of popular music recording artists such as Nina Simone ("Young, Gifted and Black") and The Impressions ("Keep On Pushing"), as well as the poetry, fine arts, and literature of the time, shaped and reflected the growing racial and political consciousness. Among the most prominent writers of the African-American Arts Movement were poet Nikki Giovanni; poet and publisher Don L. Lee, who later became known as Haki Madhubuti; poet and playwright Leroi Jones, later known as Amiri Baraka; and Sonia Sanchez.
During the African American cultural Movement, Melvin Charles and Gleason T Jackson created the Black American Heritage Flag (also known as the African American Heritage Flag) in 1967 for Black Americans. It is used today as an ethnic flag that represents the African American people.
Another major aspect of the African-American Arts Movement was the infusion of the African aesthetic, a return to a collective cultural sensibility and ethnic pride that was much in evidence during the Harlem Renaissance and in the celebration of Négritude among the artistic and literary circles in the US, Caribbean, and the African continent nearly four decades earlier: the idea that "black is beautiful". During this time, there was a resurgence of interest in elements of African culture within African-American culture that had been suppressed or devalued to conform to Eurocentric America. , such as the afro, and African clothing, such as the dashiki, gained popularity. More importantly, the African-American aesthetic encouraged personal pride and political awareness among African Americans.
The tradition of call-and-response, which originated in African and African-American spirituals, is a key feature in many genres, including Gospel music, jazz, and hip-hop. The dynamic interaction between performer and audience blurs the line between the two and invites the entire community to participate. In jazz, for instance, improvisation between musicians can be viewed as a form of musicking where the performers engage in a musical dialogue that often involves audience feedback and interaction. Similarly, early hip-hop culture emphasized the participatory nature of musicking, with community members engaging through freestyle rap battles, breakdancing, and DJing. These musicking practices emphasize the active role of music as a social connector, shape cultural identity, and foster communal bonds.
African-American music is rooted in the typically polyrhythmic music of the of Africa, specifically those in the West Africa, , and Central and Southern regions. African oral traditions, nurtured in slavery, encouraged the use of music to pass on history, teach lessons, ease suffering, and relay messages. The pedigree of African-American music is evident in some common elements: call and response, syncopation, percussion, improvisation, , , the use of falsetto, melisma, and complex multi-part harmony. During slavery, Africans in America blended traditional European with African elements to create spirituals. The banjo was the first African derived instrument to be played and built in the United States. Slaveholders discovered African-American slaves used drums to communicate.
As far back as the 1700s, after drums were outlawed after the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina, African Americans created Juba dance, patting their bodies in order to make their music.
Many African Americans sing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" in addition to the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner", or in lieu of it. Written by James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson in 1900 to be performed for the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the song was, and continues to be, a popular way for African Americans to recall past struggles and express ethnic solidarity, faith, and hope for the future. The song was adopted as the "Negro National Anthem" by the NAACP in 1919. Many African-American children are taught the song at school, church or by their families. "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" traditionally is sung immediately following, or instead of, "The Star-Spangled Banner" at events hosted by African-American churches, schools, and other organizations.
In the 19th century, as the result of the blackface minstrel show, African-American music entered mainstream American society. By the early 20th century, several musical forms with origins in the African-American community had transformed American popular music. Aided by the technological innovations of radio and phonograph records, ragtime, jazz, blues, and swing music also became popular overseas, and the 1920s became known as the Jazz Age. The early 20th century also saw the creation of the first African-American , films such as King Vidor's Hallelujah!, and operas such as George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.
In the 21st century, African-American music has achieved unprecedented levels of mainstream acceptance and influence in American popular music. This is evident from its dominant performance on the Billboard charts, where genres such as hip-hop and R&B, deeply rooted in African-American culture, have surpassed pop in terms of streaming and sales.Nielsen, 2018 The impact of African-American artists on contemporary music, fashion, and cultural trends is significant, with figures like Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, and Drake shaping the industry and reflecting its broad appeal across diverse audiences.Billboard, 2020
Furthermore, the integration of African-American musical styles into mainstream media has been highlighted by high-profile collaborations and genre-blending successes, such as Lil Nas X’s "Old Town Road," which achieved historic chart success by merging hip-hop with country music.Billboard, 2019 Streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music also show the substantial engagement and commercial success of African-American music across various demographics.Rolling Stone, 2021
In addition to continuing to develop newer musical forms, modern artists have also started a rebirth of older genres in the form of genres such as neo soul and modern funk-inspired groups.
As of November 2018, the leading music genre listened to by African Americans is rhythm and Blues (62%), Hip Hop (39%), Gospel (26%) Rap (21%) Soul/Funk (19%), and Jazz (18%).
In the 19th century, African-American dance began to appear in . These shows often presented African Americans as caricatures for ridicule to large audiences. The first African-American dance to become popular with White people dancers was the cakewalk in 1891. Later dances to follow in this tradition include the Charleston, the Lindy Hop, the Jitterbug and the swing. Ballroom, Boogie, Shimmy Sham, Shake: A Social and Popular Dance Reader. Julie Malnig. Edition: illustrated. University of Illinois Press. 2009, pp. 19–23.
During the Harlem Renaissance, African-American such as Shuffle Along helped to establish and legitimize African-American dancers. African-American dance forms such as tap dance, a combination of African and European influences, gained widespread popularity thanks to dancers such as Bill Robinson and were used by leading white choreographers, who often hired African-American dancers.
Contemporary African-American dance is descended from these earlier forms and also draws influence from African and Caribbean dance forms. Groups such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater have continued to contribute to the growth of this form. Modern popular dance in America is also greatly influenced by African-American dance. American popular dance has also drawn many influences from African-American dance most notably in the hip-hop genre.
One of the uniquely African-American forms of dancing, turfing, emerged from social and political movements in the East Bay in the San Francisco Bay Area.Bragin, Naomi Elizabeth. "Black Street Movement: Turf Dance, YAK Films and Politics of in Oakland, California". "Collected Birmingham, Ala: Society of Dance History Scholars, 2012, pp. 51–57. Turfing is a hood dance and a response to the loss of African-American lives, police brutality, and race relations in Oakland, California."Shot and Captured". Tdr-The Drama Review-The Journal of Performance Studies, vol. 58, no. 2, n.d., pp. 99–114. The dance is an expression of Blackness, and one that integrates concepts of solidarity, social support, peace, and the discourse of the state of black people in our current social structures. "From Streets To Stage, Two Dance Worlds See Harmonization And Chaos" . Weekend Edition Saturday, January 23, 2016. Literature Resource Center.Simms, Renee. "Immortal Dance in the Age of Michael Brown". Southwest Review, no. 1, 2017, p. 74."Conscious Quiet as a Mode of Black Visual Culture". Black Camera: The New Series, vol. 8, no. 1, Fall 2016, pp. 146–154.
Twerking is an African-American dance similar to dances from Africa in Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Somalia and the Congo.
During the 19th century, Harriet Powers made quilts in rural Georgia, United States that are now considered among the finest examples of 19th-century Southern quilting. Later in the 20th century, the women of Gee's Bend developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional African-American quilts with a geometric simplicity that developed separately but was like that of Amish quilts and modern art.
After the American Civil War, museums and galleries began more frequently to display the work of African-American artists. Cultural expression in mainstream venues was still limited by the dominant European aesthetic and by racial prejudice. To increase the visibility of their work, many African-American artists traveled to Europe where they had greater freedom. It was not until the Harlem Renaissance that more European Americans began to pay attention to African-American art in America.Southern, Eileen. Music of Negro Americans: A History. New York: Norton, 1997, pp. 404–409.
During the 1920s, artists such as Richmond Barthé, Aaron Douglas, Augusta Savage, and photographer James Van Der Zee became well known for their work. During the Great Depression, new opportunities arose for these and other African-American artists under the WPA. In later years, other programs and institutions, such as the New York City-based Harmon Foundation, helped to foster African-American artistic talent. Augusta Savage, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and others exhibited in museums and juried art shows, and built reputations and followings for themselves.
In the 1950s and 1960s, there were very few widely accepted African-American artists. Despite this, The Highwaymen, a loose association of 27 African-American artists from Ft. Pierce, Florida, created idyllic, quickly realized images of the Florida landscape and peddled some 50,000 of them from the trunks of their cars. They sold their art directly to the public rather than through galleries and art agents, thus receiving the name "The Highwaymen". Rediscovered in the mid-1990s, today they are recognized as an important part of American folk history. Their artwork is widely collected by enthusiasts and original pieces can easily fetch thousands of dollars in auctions and sales. Painting by a Florida Highwayman
The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s was another period of resurgent interest in African-American art. During this period, several African-American artists gained national prominence, among them Lou Stovall, Ed Love, Charles White, and Jeff Donaldson. Donaldson and a group of African-American artists formed the Afrocentric collective AfriCOBRA, which remains in existence today. The sculptor Martin Puryear, whose work has been acclaimed for years, was being honored with a 30-year retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in November 2007. Notable contemporary African-American artists include Willie Cole, David Hammons, Eugene J. Martin, Mose Tolliver, Reynold Ruffins, the late William Tolliver, and Kara Walker.
Symbolisms from Africa may have served as identity markers for enslaved African-American creators of stoneware. For example, David Drake's signature marks (e.g., an "X", a slash) and well as Landrum crosses, which were developed by enslaved African Americans and appear similar to , are such examples from Edgefield County, South Carolina.
During the early 20th century Harlem Renaissance, numerous authors and poets, such as Langston Hughes, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington, grappled with how to respond to discrimination in America. Authors during the Civil Rights Movement, such as Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about issues of racial segregation, oppression, and other aspects of African-American life. This tradition continues today with authors who have been accepted as an integral part of American literature, with works such as by Alex Haley, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Beloved by Nobel Prize-winning Toni Morrison, and fiction works by Octavia Butler and Walter Mosley. Such works have achieved both best-selling and/or award-winning status.Jerry W. Jr. Ward (1998). 041591695X, Routledge. 041591695X
Black athletes have achieved disproportionate success in some sports, and at the professional level, they constitute the majority of NFL and NBA athletes.
African Americans played a significant role in desegregating American society through sports. For example, baseball was segregated in the aftermath of the Civil War until Jackie Robinson broke the MLB color line in 1947. In modern times, sports have been pursued by the poorer sections of the community as a way out of economic struggle.
Hand games that trickled from Africa are also prominent in Black American culture. Double This, Double That, Mama Mama Can't You See, Slide Baby, Miss Mary Mack, Down, Down Baby, Rockin' Robin (Tweet), Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky, and Shame, Shame, Shame are Proprioception games enjoyed predominantly by young Black girls.
Other prominent African-American museums include Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, established in 2003 as part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
The native speakers of these and other languages were forced to quickly find a way to agree upon new words and phrases as a matter of survival, while also learning and integrating various dialects of American English which varied by region. Over time a divergent form of English emerged. Over the 246 years of chattel slavery in the southern US and societal segregation in the northern states, varied forms of English took root within the African American culture. An additional century of forced segregation and Jim Crow between 1865 and 1965 extended the period when African Americans, still not fully immersed in the broader society, did not experience the traditional process of adopting the dominant society's language.
Generations of hardships created by the compounded institutions of slavery imposed upon the African-American community prevented the majority of them from learning to read or write English, despite this, enslaved Africans continued to carry their language systems and culture, creating distinct language patterns. Filtering the English they heard through their language systems and culture.
While traditionally understood to be generally factual that European owners of enslaved Africans often intentionally mixed Africans who spoke different languages to discourage communication in any language other than English, the truth is that Africans were strategically placed in certain types of settings. West Africans were primarily (not exclusively) placed in non-field work in the upper southern colonies and West Central/Central Africans were primarily (not exclusively) placed in field based work in the lower southern colonies.
Africans in primarily non-field work typically had extensive interaction with Europeans in the early period, with cultural influence being bi-directional. Colonies typically preferred certain African ethnic groups, some very selective (South Carolina for example), others a bit more loose but still maintained a level of preference (Virginia for example). West Central and Central Africans brought with them a homogenous culture that superseded West African culture early on in establishing African-American culture, at a later point in history, West African influence displays itself in African-American culture.
Interaction between West Africans and West Central/Central Africans did occur, creating a lingua franca, however the culture of African Americans was heavily affected by the homogeneity and relatively isolated Bantu imported population. Later influence from West Africa presents itself in African-American culture. African-American speech however is heavily based (but not exclusively, includes West Africa to some extent) in Bantu culture, as such, it is responsible for African Americans' language patterns, combining an African substrate with the topical usage of primarily non-African words.
African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is touted to be a variety (dialect, ethnolect, and sociolect) of the American English language; however, mainstream non-AAL/V linguists have traditionally and intentionally ignored or dismissed African language systems and culture, missing key associations and connections. AAVE has its roots in the historical experiences of African Americans and plays a crucial role in cultural identity and expression. It has also significantly influenced mainstream American English, particularly through music, literature, and media. Linguists and speakers of AAL (African American Language) have shown that the grammatical structure of AAL is Niger-Congo and that the cultural/relational patterns within the language that are of African origin characterize or color it.
While AAVE is academically considered a legitimate dialect because of its logical structure, some of both whites and African Americans consider it slang or the result of a poor command of American English, none of which is true; they are differences in languages. Many African Americans who were born outside the American South still speak with hints of AAVE or southern dialect. Inner-city African-American children who are isolated by speaking only AAVE sometimes have more difficulty with standardized testing and, after school, moving to the mainstream world for work. It is common for many speakers of AAVE to Code-switching between AAVE and Standard American English depending on the setting.
Another common aspect of fashion in African-American culture involves the appropriate dress for worship in the Black church. It is expected in most churches that an individual present their best appearance for worship. African-American women in particular are known for wearing vibrant dresses and suits. An interpretation of a passage from the Christian Bible, "every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head", has led to the tradition of wearing elaborate Sunday hats, sometimes known as "crowns".
Hip hop fashion is popular with African Americans. Grillz were made popular by African-American rapper Nelly. Sagging pants was a part of African-American culture. Air Jordan, a shoe brand named after former African-American basketball player Michael Jordan, is very popular among the African-American community.
African-American fashion designers include Sean Combs, Kimora Lee Simmons, Virgil Abloh and Kanye West.
Often, as men age and begin to lose their hair, the hair is either closely cropped, or the head is shaved completely free of hair. However, since the 1960s, , such as the afro, braids, waves, Hi-top fade, and , have been growing in popularity. Despite their association with radical political movements and their vast difference from mainstream Western hairstyles, the styles have attained considerable, but certainly limited, social acceptance.
Maintaining facial hair is more prevalent among African-American men than in other male populations in the US.Lacy, D. Aaron. "The Most Endangered Title VII Plaintiff?: African-American Males and Intersectional Claims" . Nebraska Law Review, Vol. 86, No. 3, 2008, pp. 14–15. Retrieved November 8, 2007. In fact, the soul patch is so named because African-American men, particularly jazz musicians, popularized the style.Green, Penelope. "Ranting; Stubble trouble" . The New York Times Magazine, November 8, 2007. Retrieved November 8, 2007. The preference for facial hair among African-American men is due partly to personal taste, but also because they are more prone than other ethnic groups to develop a condition known as pseudofolliculitis barbae, commonly referred to as razor bumps, many prefer not to shave.
African-American churches taught the belief that all people were equal in God's eyes, and they also believed that the doctrine of obedience to one's master which was taught in white churches was Hypocrisy—yet they accepted and propagated internal hierarchies and supported the corporal punishment of children among other things. Slave and master teachings were taught out of context by slave masters through the use of a Slave Bible where slave holders would remove pages and whole books of biblical scriptures, such as Exodus and others, that were heavily against ill-treatment of slaves or laborers, against kidnapping and selling of people, and that they felt could cause a rebellion. Instead, the African-American church focused on the message of equality and hopes for a better future. Before and after emancipation, racial segregation in America prompted the development of organized African-American denominations. The first of these was the AME Church founded by Richard Allen in 1787.
After the Civil War, the merger of three smaller Baptists groups formed the National Baptist Convention. This organization is the largest African-American Christian Denomination and it is also the second largest Baptist denomination in the United States. An African-American church is not necessarily a separate denomination. Several predominantly African-American churches exist as members of predominantly white denominations. African-American churches have served to provide African-American people with leadership positions and opportunities to organize that were denied to them by mainstream American society. Because of this, African-American pastors became the bridge between the African-American and European American communities, a leadership position which enabled them to play a crucial role during the Civil Rights Movement.
Like many Christians, African-American Christians sometimes participate in or attend a Christmas play. Black Nativity by Langston Hughes is a re-telling of the classic Nativity story with gospel music. Productions can be found in African-American theaters and churches all over the country.
Many former members of the Nation of Islam converted to Sunni Islam when Warith Deen Mohammed took control of the organization after his father's death in 1975 and taught its members the traditional form of Islam based on the Quran. A survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations shows that 30% of Sunni Mosque attendees are African Americans. In fact, most African-American Muslims are Orthodox Judaism Muslims, as only 2% are of the Nation of Islam.
In the last 10 to 15 years, studies have shown that there has been a major increase in the number of African-Americans who identify themselves as being Jewish. Rabbi Capers Funnye, the first cousin of Michelle Obama, says in response to skepticism by some on people being African-American and Jewish at the same time, "I am a Jew, and that breaks through all color and ethnic barriers."Niko Koppel, "Black Rabbi Reaches Out to Mainstream of His Faith" , The New York Times, March 16, 2008.
Some African Americans have created new rites of passage that are linked to African traditions. Some pre-teen and teenage boys and girls take classes to prepare them for adulthood. These classes tend to focus on spirituality, responsibility, and leadership. Many of these programs are modeled after traditional African ceremonies, with the focus largely on embracing African cultures.
To this day, some African-American couples choose to "jump the broom" as a part of their wedding ceremony. Some sources claim that this practice can be traced back to Ghana. However, other sources argue that the African-American tradition of "jumping the broom" is far more similar to the tradition in England. Although, this tradition largely fell out of favor in the African-American community after the end of slavery, it has experienced a slight resurgence in recent years as some couples seek to reaffirm their African heritage.
Funeral traditions tend to vary based on a number of factors, including religion and location, but there are a number of commonalities. Probably the most important part of death and dying in the African-American culture is the gathering of family and friends. Either in the last days before death or shortly after death, typically any friends and family members that can be reached are notified. This gathering helps to provide spiritual and emotional support, as well as assistance in making decisions and accomplishing everyday tasks.
The spirituality of death is very important in African-American culture. A member of the clergy or members of the religious community, or both, are typically present with the family through the entire process. Death is often viewed as transitory rather than final. Many services are called homegoings or homecomings, instead of funerals, based on the belief that the person is going home to the afterlife; "Returning to God" or the earth. The entire end of life process is generally treated as a celebration of the person's life, deeds and accomplishments—the "good things" rather than a mourning of loss. This is most notably demonstrated in the New Orleans jazz funeral tradition where upbeat music, dancing, and food encourage those gathered to be happy and celebrate the homegoing of a beloved friend.
The cultivation and use of many agricultural products in the United States, such as Sweet Potato, , rice, okra, sorghum, , and cotton, can be traced to African influences. African-American foods reflect creative responses to racial and economic oppression and poverty. Soul food blends African, European, and Native American influences. Dishes like fried chicken, collard greens, and cornbread are staples that have become integral components of American cuisine. Under slavery, African Americans were not allowed to eat better cuts of meat, and after emancipation many were often too poor to afford them. During slavery, many African Americans would take these sorts of leftover ingredients from their white owners, often less desirable cuts of meats and vegetables, and prepare them into a dish that has consistency between stew and soup. By sharing this food in churches with a gathering of their people, they also shared experience, feelings, attachment, and a sense of unity that brings the community together.
Soul food, a hearty cuisine commonly associated with African Americans in the South (but also common to African Americans nationwide), makes creative use of inexpensive products procured through farming and subsistence hunting and fishing. Pig intestines are boiled and sometimes battered and fried to make chitterlings, also known as "chitlins". and neck bones provide seasoning to soups, and boiled Leaf vegetable.
Other common foods, such as fried chicken and fried fish, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, and hoppin' john ( and rice) are prepared simply. When the African-American population was considerably more rural than it generally is today, rabbit, Virginia opossum, squirrel, and waterfowl were important additions to the diet. Many of these food traditions are especially predominant in many parts of the rural South.
Traditionally prepared soul food is often high in fat, sodium, and starch. Highly suited to the physically demanding lives of laborers, farmhands and rural lifestyles generally, it is now a contributing factor to obesity, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes in a population that has become increasingly more urban and sedentary. As a result, more health-conscious African Americans are using alternative methods of preparation, eschewing in favor of refined vegetable oils and substituting smoked turkey for fatback and other, cured pork products; limiting the amount of refined sugar in desserts; and emphasizing the consumption of more fruits and vegetables than animal protein. There is some resistance to such changes, however, as they involve deviating from long culinary tradition.
Other soul foods African Americans cook are chicken and waffles and desserts like banana pudding, peach cobbler, red velvet cake and sweet potato pie. Kool-Aid is considered a soul food beverage.
Okra came from Ethiopia and Eritrea. Rice, common to Lowcountry region of South Carolina and Georgia, was imported from the island of Madagascar. Soul food is similar to gypsy cooking in Europe. The roots of soul food are spread up and down the West Coast of Africa, including countries like Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Cameroon, Gabon, Nigeria and Angola, as well as in Western European countries such as Scotland, but the fruits can be found across America.
Black History Month is another example of another African-American observance that has been adopted nationally and its teaching is even required by law in some states. Black History Month is an attempt to focus attention on previously neglected aspects of the American history, chiefly the lives and stories of African Americans. It is observed during the month of February to coincide with the founding of the NAACP and the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, a prominent African-American abolitionist, and Abraham Lincoln, the United States president who signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
On June 7, 1979, President Jimmy Carter decreed that June would be the month of black music. Black Music Month is observed through various events urging citizens to revel in various genres of music, including gospel and hip-hop. African-American musicians, singers, and composers are acknowledged for their contributions to the nation's history and culture.
Less-widely observed outside of the African-American community is Emancipation Day popularly known as Juneteenth or Freedom Day, in recognition of the official reading of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865, in Texas. Juneteenth is a day when African Americans reflect on their unique history and heritage. It is one of the fastest growing African-American holidays with observances in the United States. Juneteenth was recognized as federal holiday in 2021, and was first observed as such on June 19, 2021.
In addition, other holidays celebrated were African American Day in Louisiana along with African American Emancipation Day across the United States in the 19th century after the abolition of slavery.
Another holiday not widely observed outside of the African-American community is the birthday of Malcolm X. The day is observed on May 19 in American cities with a significant African-American population, including Washington, D.C.
Another noted African-American holiday is Kwanzaa. Like Emancipation Day, it is not widely observed outside of the African-American community, although it is growing in popularity with both African-American and African communities. African-American scholar and activist Ron Karenga invented the festival of Kwanzaa in 1966, as an alternative to the increasing commercialization of Christmas. Derived from the harvest rituals of Africans, Kwanzaa is observed each year from December 26 through January 1. Participants in Kwanzaa celebrations affirm their African heritage and the importance of family and community by drinking from a unity cup; lighting red, black, and green candles; exchanging heritage symbols, such as African art; and recounting the lives of people who struggled for African and African-American freedom.
African-American names have origins in many languages including French language, Latin, English language, Arabic language, and African languages. One very notable influence on African-American names is the Muslim religion. Islamic names entered the popular culture with the rise of The Nation of Islam among Black Americans with its focus on civil rights. The popular name "Aisha" has origins in the Quran. Despite the origins of these names in the Muslim religion and the place of the Nation of Islam in the civil rights movement, many Muslim names such as Jamal and Malik entered popular usage among Black Americans simply because they were fashionable, and many Islamic names are now commonly used by African Americans regardless of their religion. Names of origin began to crop up as well. Names like Ashanti, Tanisha, Aaliyah, Malaika have origins in the continent of Africa.
By the 1970s and 1980s, it had become common within the culture to invent new names, although many of the invented names took elements from popular existing names. Prefixes such as or and suffixes such as and are common, as well as inventive spellings for common names.
Even with the rise of creative names, it is also still common for African Americans to use biblical, historic, or European names.
Others, separated from blood kin, formed close bonds based on fictive kin; play relations, play aunts, cousins, and the like. This practice, a holdover from African oral traditions such as sanankouya, survived Emancipation, with non-blood family friends commonly accorded the status and titles of blood relations. This broader, more African concept of what constitutes family and community, and the deeply rooted respect for elders that is part of African traditional societies, may be the genesis of the common use of the terms like "cousin" (or "cuz"), "aunt", "uncle", "brother", "sister", "Mother", and "Mama" when addressing other African-American people, some of whom may be complete strangers.
76% of African Americans have said they have spoken with their relatives to learn about their family history.
This apparent weakness is balanced by mutual-aid systems established by extended family members to provide emotional and economic support. Older family members pass on social and cultural traditions such as religion and manners to younger family members. In turn, the older family members are cared for by younger family members when they cannot care for themselves. These relationships exist at all economic levels in the African-American community, providing strength and support both to the African-American family and the community.
African Americans are less likely to own a pet.
Interracial marriages have increased for African Americans since Loving Vs. Virginia.
More than half (51.2%) of African-American children lived with a single parent in 2022, compared with about one in five (21.3%) of white American children.
Social issues such as racial profiling, racial disparities in sentencing, higher rates of poverty, lower access to health care and institutional racism in general are important to the African-American community.
African-Americans may express political and social sentiments through hip-hop culture, including graffiti, Breakdancing, rapping, and more.Richardson, Elaine and Gwendolyn Pough. "Hiphop Literacies and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture". Social Identities, vol. 22, no. 2, Mar. 2016, pp. 129–132.Nelson, Angela M. "Black Popular Culture (US)". Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, edited by Patrick L. Mason, 2nd ed., vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2013, pp. 275–284.Dodds, Sherril. "Hip Hop Battles and Facial Intertexts". Dance Research, vol. 34, no. 1, May 2016, pp. 63–83. This cultural movement makes statements about historical, as well as present-day topics like street culture and incarceration, and oftentimes expresses a call for change.Kitwana, Bakari. The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture. New York: Basic Civitas, 2002, 2002.Porfilio, Brad J.1, et al. "Ending the 'War against Youth:' Social Media and Hip-Hop Culture as Sites of Resistance, Transformation and (Re) Conceptualization". Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (JCEPS), vol. 11, no. 4, November 2013, pp. 85–105. Hip-hop artists play a prominent role in activism and in fighting social justice, and have a cultural role in defining and reflecting on political and social issues.
Prominent leaders in the Black church have demonstrated against gay-rights issues such as gay marriage. This stands in stark contrast to the down-low phenomenon of covert male–male sexual acts. Some within the African-American community take a different position, notably the late Coretta Scott King and the Reverend Al Sharpton. Sharpton Pledges Fight Against Homophobia Among Blacks , The New York Sun, August 3, 2005. "Rev. Sharpton has pledged to jumpstart a grassroots movement that would address the issue of homophobia in the black community. ... Al Sharpton was the only presidential candidate last year who unapologetically supported gay marriage, surprising critics who have tried to label him as a one-issue activist. ... Rev. Sharpton, who marched in the Gay Pride Parade this year for the first time, is perhaps the very person who can make a dent in the rampant homophobic views so entrenched in the African-American community." Sharpton, when asked in 2003 whether he supported gay marriage, replied that he might as well have been asked if he supported black marriage or white marriage.
One of the most well known social and political organizations of Black culture is the Black Panther Party, a now-defunct African-American socialist organization. Black Culture also utilizes cultural slogans for social and political standing such as Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud, Black Card, and even "It's a Black Thing, You Wouldn't Understand", a popular slogan that was born inside of Black American culture, referring to their culture, not race.
Black LGBT first started to be visible during the Harlem Renaissance when a subculture of LGBTQ African-American artists and entertainers emerged. This included people like Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Wallace Thurman, Richard Bruce Nugent, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Moms Mabley, Mabel Hampton, Alberta Hunter, and Gladys Bentley. Places like Savoy Ballroom and the Rockland Palace hosted Ball culture extravaganzas with prizes awarded for the best costumes. Langston Hughes depicted the balls as "spectacles of color". Historian George Chauncey, author of , wrote that during this period "perhaps nowhere were more men willing to venture out in public in drag than in Harlem".
Although African-American neighborhoods may suffer from civic disinvestment,"Root shock: The consequences of African American dispossession" Journal of Urban Health. Springer, New York. Volume 78, Number 1, March 2001. with lower-quality schools, less-effective policingDouglas A. Smith, "The Neighborhood Context of Police Behavior", Crime and Justice, Vol. 8, Communities and Crime (1986), pp. 313–341. and fire protection, there are institutions such as Black church and museums and political organizations that help to improve the physical and social capital of African-American neighborhoods. In African-American neighborhoods the Black church may be important sources of social cohesion."Church Culture as a Strategy of Action in the Black Community", Mary Pattillo-McCoy, American Sociological Review, Vol. 63, No. 6 (December 1998), pp. 767–784. For some African Americans, the kind spirituality learned through these churches works as a protective factor against the corrosive forces of racism."'Gathering the Spirit' at First Baptist Church: Spirituality as a Protective Factor in the Lives of African American Children" by Wendy L. Haight; Social Work, Vol. 43, 1998. Museums devoted to African-American history are also found in many African-American neighborhoods.
Many African-American neighborhoods are located in inner city, and these are the mostly residential neighborhoods located closest to the central business district. The built environment is often or brownstones, mixed with older single-family homes that may be converted to multi-family homes. In some areas there are larger apartment buildings. are an important part of the built environment of some southern African-American neighborhoods. The houses consist of three to five rooms in a row with no hallways. This African-American house design is found in both rural and urban southern areas, mainly in African-American communities and neighborhoods. "Black architecture still standing, the Shotgun House" , The Great Buildings Collection on CD-ROM Kevin Matthews. African American Registry.
Some of the most prominent institutions of Black Culture are the historically Black Colleges and Universities, known as HBCUs. There are over 100 HBCUs in the United States of America.
Before the American Civil War, the literature primarily consisted of memoirs by people who had escaped from enslavement the genre of slave narratives included accounts of life in enslavement and the path of justice and redemption to freedom. There was an early distinction between the literature of freed slaves and the literature of free blacks born in the North. Free blacks expressed their oppression in a different narrative form. Free blacks in the North often spoke out against enslavement and racial injustices by using the spiritual narrative. The spiritual addressed many of the same themes of enslaved people narratives but has been largely ignored in current scholarly conversation.
Judaism
There are 150,000 African Americans in the United States who practice Judaism.Rachel Pomerance, Judaism Drawing More Black Americans , The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 18, 2008. Some of these are members of mainstream Jewish groups like the Reform Judaism, Conservative, or Orthodox Judaism branches of Judaism; others belong to non-mainstream Jewish groups like the Black Hebrew Israelites. The Black Hebrew Israelites are a collection of African-American religious organizations whose practices and beliefs are partially derived from Judaism. Their varied teachings often include the belief that African Americans are descended from the biblical Israelites.
Other religions
Aside from Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, there are also African Americans who practice Buddhism and a number of other religions. There is a small but growing number of African Americans who participate in Syncretic Religions, such as Voodoo, Santería, Ifá and diasporic traditions like the Rastafari movement. Many of them are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants from the Caribbean and South America, where these are practiced. Because of religious practices, such as animal sacrifice, which are no longer common among the larger American religions, these groups may be negatively viewed and they are sometimes the victims of harassment. It must be stated, however, that since the Supreme Court judgement that was given to the Lukumi Babaluaye church of Florida in 1993, there has been no major legal challenge to their right to function as they see fit.
Spirituality
Spirituality is an important aspect of African American culture. Hoodoo is a set of spiritual traditions with multiple aspects that include: Southern cultural practices from the Antebellum South, rootwork and conjure, ancestor veneration, and rituals. These traditions were created as a means for enslaved Africans in the United States to understand the new world around them, with some elements having origins across various Central Africa and West Africa ethnic groups. Hoodoo incorporates beliefs from traditional African religions, such as the Kongo religion, as well as Islam, Christianity, and Indigenous American botanical traditions.
Irreligious beliefs
In a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 12% of African Americans described themselves as being Irreligion (11%), agnostic (1%), or atheist (<0.5%).
Life events
For most African Americans, the observance of life events follows the pattern of mainstream American culture. While African Americans and whites often lived to themselves for much of American history, both groups generally had the same perspective on American culture. There are some traditions that are unique to African Americans.
Cuisine
In studying of the African-American culture, food cannot be left out as one of the media to understand their traditions, religion, interaction, and social and cultural structures of their community. Observing the ways they prepare their food and eat their food ever since the enslaved era reveals about the nature and identity of African-American culture in the United States.Hicks, Derek S. "An Unusual Feast: Gumbo and the Complex Brew of Black Religion". In Religion, Food, and Eating in North America, edited by Benjamin E. Zeller, Marie W. Dallam, Reid L. Neilson, and Nora L. Rubel, 134-154. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014. Derek Hicks examines the origins of "gumbo", which is considered a soul food to many African Americans, in his reference to the intertwinement of food and culture in the African-American community. No written evidence is found historically about the gumbo or its recipes, so through the African-American nature of orally passing their stories and recipes down, gumbo came to represent their truly communal dish. Gumbo is said to be "an invention of enslaved Africans and African Americans" in Louisiana.Hicks, Derek S. "An Unusual Feast: Gumbo and the Complex Brew of Black Religion". In Religion, Food, and Eating in North America, edited by Benjamin E. Zeller, Marie W. Dallam, Reid L. Neilson, and Nora L. Rubel, 136. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.
Holidays and observances
As with other American racial and ethnic groups, African Americans observe ethnic holidays alongside traditional American holidays. Holidays observed in African-American culture are also widely considered to be American holidays. The birthday of noted American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. has been observed nationally since 1983. It is one of four federal holidays named for an individual.
Names
Although many African-American names are common among the larger population of the United States, distinct naming trends have emerged within African-American culture. Prior to the 1950s and 1960s, most African-American names closely resembled those used within European American culture. A dramatic shift in naming traditions began to take shape in the 1960s and 1970s in America. With the rise of the mid-century Civil Rights Movement, there was a dramatic rise in names of various origins. The practice of adopting neo-African or Islamic names gained popularity during that era. Efforts to recover African heritage inspired selection of names with deeper cultural significance. Before this, using African names was uncommon because African Americans were several generations removed from the last ancestor to have an African name, as slaves were often given the names of their enslavers, which were of European origin.
Family
When slavery was practiced in the United States, it was common for family to be separated through sale. Even during slavery, however, many African-American families managed to maintain strong familial bonds. Free African men and women, who managed to buy their own freedom by being hired out, who were emancipated, or who had escaped the slave holder, often worked long and hard to buy the members of their families who remained in bondage and send for them.
African-American family structure
When African Americans were taken from their homes and forced into slavery, they were separated from mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers and were torn apart from extensive kinship networks. Immediately after slavery, African-American families struggled to reunite and rebuild what had been taken. As late as 1960, when most African Americans lived under some form of segregation, 78 percent of African-American families were headed by married couples. This number steadily declined during the latter half of the 20th century. For the first time since slavery, a majority of African-American children live in a household with only one parent, typically the mother.
Politics and social issues
Since the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, African Americans are voting and being elected to public office in increasing numbers. the United States had approximately 10,000 African-American elected officials.
African Americans overwhelmingly associate with the Democratic Party. Only 11% of African Americans supported for George W. Bush in the 2004 Presidential Election. In 2016, only 8% of African Americans voted for Republican Donald Trump while 88% of African Americans voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
African-American LGBT culture
The Black LGBT community refers to the African-American (Black) population who are members of the LGBT community, as a community of marginalized individuals who are further marginalized within their own community. Surveys and research have shown that 80% of African Americans say gays and lesbians endure discrimination compared to the 61% of whites. Black members of the community are seen as "other" due to their race and their sexuality, so they had to combat both racism and homophobia.
Population centers
African-American neighborhoods are types of found in many cities in the United States. The formation of African-American neighborhoods is closely linked to the history of segregation in the United States, either through formal laws, or as a product of social norms. Despite this, African-American neighborhoods have played an important role in the development of nearly all aspects of both African-American culture and broader American culture.
The population centers of communities are Atlanta Baltimore Birmingham Chicago Charleston Charlotte Cleveland D.C Detroit Houston Jackson Los Angeles Memphis Miami New York New Orleans Oakland Philadelphia Richmond
Ghettos
Due to segregated conditions and widespread poverty, some African-American neighborhoods in the United States have been called "ghettos". The use of this term is controversial and, depending on the context, potentially offensive. Despite mainstream America's use of the term "ghetto" to signify a poor urban area populated by ethnic minorities, those living in the area often used it to signify something positive. The African-American ghettos did not always contain dilapidated houses and deteriorating projects, nor were all of its residents poverty-stricken. For many African Americans, the ghetto was "home", a place representing authentic "blackness" and a feeling, passion, or emotion derived from the rising above the struggle and suffering of being of African descent in America.Smitherman, Geneva. Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.
Flag
The Black American Heritage Flag is an ethnic flag that represents the culture and history of Black American ethnic group. The flag was created in 1967 by Melvin Charles and Gleason T. Jackson. According to the designers, "the elements of the flag include the color black to represent pride and pigmentation and race; red, to remind us of the rich blood black men have shed for freedom, equality, justice and human dignity throughout the world; and gold, to represent intellect, prosperity, and peace.
Social networks
There are African-American social networking websites such as BlackPlanet. Social media is an important political outlet for African Americans. African-American teenagers are the biggest users of Instagram and Snapchat. TikTok, Facebook and YouTube are also popular among African Americans.
Herbalism
African Americans have used various herbs such as black walnut, elderberry, sage, mullein, cotton, sassafras, basil leaf and wormwood. Slave women used cotton seeds, bark and roots for menstrual issues and to prevent pregnancies.
Cultural appropriation
are white people who appropriate black culture. White people such as Eminem have utilized, used, adopted, and appropriated elements of African American culture as a means to articulate their own dissent. In 2015, Rachel Dolezal went viral for pretending to be black.
Education
African Americans have valued education since slavery. African-American communities have worked together to firm and finance public schools. Even when they were barred from accessing education, Black Americans worked together with their supporters to build black colleges for black people. Education for black slaves was heavily prohibited. Enslaved black children and black adults had to take extreme measures to gain literacy, including having to attend underground schools. White Southern slaveholders generally opposed slave literacy in the Southern United States.
Literature
African-American literature emerged in the 18th century, with Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved author, being the first African American to have written published books of poetry.Gates, Jr., Henry Louis, Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers, Basic Civitas Books, 2010, p. 5. For example, in the name of the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA in Washington, D.C., where "Phyllis" is etched into the name over its front door (as can be seen in photos and corresponding text . Other prominent authors include W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Alice Walker.
Folklore
Historically, African-American folklore revolved around the storytelling and oral history of enslaved African Americans. Prevalent themes in African-American folktales include tricksters, life lessons, the hardships of slavery, and heartwarming tales. African Americans told stories of folk spirits that could outwit their slaveholders and defeat their enemies. These folk stories gave hope to enslaved people that folk spirits would free them from slavery. Folktales have been used to perpetuate negative stereotypes about the African-American community.
Cinema
See also
Bibliography
Primary sources
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