African Americans in Alabama
 |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1,348,681 (2017) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Alabama | |
| Languages | |
| Southern American English, African American English | |
| Religion | |
| Protestantism[1] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Black Southerners |
| Part of a series on |
| African Americans |
|---|
| History of Alabama |
|---|
 United States portal |
African Americans in Alabama are residents of the state of Alabama who are of African American ancestry. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, African Americans were 26.5% of the state's population.[2] [3]
African Americans were enslaved in Alabama and worked on cotton plantations.[4]
Business and finance
In 1890, The Penny Savings Bank, the first black-owned and black-operated financial institution in Alabama, was founded by William R. Pettiford.[5]
In 1997, the 19,077 businesses owned by black people in Alabama generated around $1 billion in revenue and employed 13,232 people. Businesses owned by black people made up 6.7% of all non-farm businesses in Alabama placing Alabama ninth in the United States for the percentage of black businesses.[6]
In 2010, 15% of white Alabamians, which was 487,100, were in poverty while 37% of black Alabamians were in poverty, which was 457,900.[7]
In 2013, the median household income in Alabama was $42,849, the average white household income was $49,465 while the black household income was $29,210. The national median household income was $52,250, the average white household income was $55,867 while the black household income was $34,815.[8]
Entertainment
In 1914, the Lyric Theatre was created in Birmingham, Alabama, and was one of the first places in the American South where black and white people saw the same shows although black people were in an isolated section.[5]
During the time of Negro league baseball the Birmingham Black Barons was organized in 1920.[9]
Population
Antebellum
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1800 | 517 | — | |
| 1810 | 2,624 | 407.5% | |
| 1820 | 42,450 | 1,517.8% | |
| 1830 | 119,121 | 180.6% | |
| 1840 | 255,571 | 114.5% | |
| 1850 | 345,109 | 35.0% | |
| 1860 | 437,770 | 26.8% | |
| 1870 | 475,510 | 8.6% | |
| 1880 | 600,103 | 26.2% | |
| 1890 | 678,489 | 13.1% | |
| 1900 | 827,307 | 21.9% | |
| 1910 | 908,282 | 9.8% | |
| 1920 | 900,652 | −0.8% | |
| 1930 | 944,834 | 4.9% | |
| 1940 | 983,290 | 4.1% | |
| 1950 | 979,617 | −0.4% | |
| 1960 | 980,271 | 0.1% | |
| 1970 | 903,467 | −7.8% | |
| 1980 | 996,000 | 10.2% | |
| 1990 | 1,020,677 | 2.5% | |
| 2000 | 1,138,726 | 11.6% | |
| 2010 | 1,251,311 | 9.9% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census[10] | |||
Black slaves arrived in present day Alabama during the late 18th and early 19th century in the Mississippi Territory. At the time of the 1800 Census there were 517 black people in the Alabama portion of the Mississippi Territory, with 494 slaves and 23 free blacks. By the time of the 1810 Census the population of black people had risen to 2,624, with 2,565 slaves and 59 free blacks.[10]
In 1817, the Alabama Territory was formed from the Mississippi Territory and was later admitted as a state in 1819.[11] The 1820 Census showed that the population of black people had increased by 1,517.8% to 42,450, with 41,879 slaves and 571 free blacks.[10]
In 1808, the importation of slaves was banned, but the external importation of slaves would continue with the last slave ship, Clotilda, bringing slaves into Alabama in 1860.[12] The last three survivors of the Atlantic slave trade, Cudjoe Lewis, Redoshi, and Matilda McCrear, were all brought to Alabama.[13][14]
Postbellum
Politics
Appointed and elected officials
In 1870, Benjamin S. Turner, who was born a slave on March 17, 1825, in Weldon, North Carolina, was elected as Alabama's first black member of the United States House of Representatives. Turner would serve until 1873, as he lost reelection in 1872 due to the black vote being split between himself and independent candidate Philip Joseph allowing Democratic nominee Frederick George Bromberg to win.[15]
In 1870, Jeremiah Haralson, who was born a slave on April 1, 1846, in Columbus, Georgia, was elected as the first black member of the Alabama House of Representatives.[16][17] In 1868, Benjamin F. Royal was elected as the first black member of the Alabama Senate.[18] In 1970, Fred Gray and Thomas Reed became the first black people elected to the Alabama House of Representatives since the end of Reconstruction.[19] In 1992, Sundra Escott-Russell was elected as the first black female member of the Alabama Senate.[18]
In 1947, Oscar Adams established the first black law firm in Birmingham, Alabama, and was later appointed as the first black Justice on the Supreme Court of Alabama. U. W. Clemon, who had aided in the Civil rights movement through lawsuit against discriminatory work practices, was appointed as the first black federal judge in Alabama in 1980.[20]
Andrew Hayden, who was elected as the mayor of Uniontown, Alabama, was the first black person to defeat an incumbent white mayor in Alabama.[21] Richard Arrington Jr., who had served on the Birmingham, Alabama city council from 1971 to 1979, was elected as the city's first black mayor in 1979, and took office in 1980.[20] Steven Reed served as the first black probate judge in Montgomery County, Alabama, and was elected as Montgomery, Alabama's first black mayor in 2019.[22]
Ethel Harris Hall - first black member of the board of education
Slavery
On December 2, 1865, the Alabama Legislature ratified the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution which abolished slavery.[23]
Voter registration
In 1901, a new state constitution was created for Alabama. When the convention opened John M. Knox, the chairman of the constitutional convention, stated that “[W]hat is it we want to do? Why it is within the limits imposed by the Federal Constitution, to establish white supremacy in this State,”. Henry Fontaine Reese, a delegate from Selma, Alabama, stated that “When you pay $1.50 for a poll tax, in Dallas County, I believe you disenfranchise 10 Negroes. Give us this $1.50 for educational purposes and for the disenfranchisement of a vicious and useless class.” A poll tax, a literacy test, property requirements, and disqualification for certain criminal convictions were added to the constitution. Following the passage of the constitution black voter registration fell from more than 180,000 in 1900, to less than 3,000 in 1903.[24]
Rights restoration[24]
Following the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 the United States Department of Justice blocked over one hundred voting policy changes in Alabama from 1969 to 2008, and had over eight hundred changed or withdrawn.[24]
On July 25, 2019, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill announced that 94% of all eligible Alabamians and 96% all of eligible black people in Alabama were registered to vote.[25] However, according to the United States Census Bureau only 69% of all eligible Alabamians and 67.4% of all black people in Alabama were registered to vote.[24]
Health
African Americans in Alabama have poorer health indicators than whites in areas such as life expectancy and infant mortality rate.[26]
Notable people
- William C. W.C. Handy, born in Florence, Alabama. Known as the Father of the Blues.
- William J. Willie Mays from Westfield, Alabama. He was named Baseball player of the Decade.
- Leroy Robert SatchelPaige born in Mobile Alabama. He was the greatest baseball pitcher among the Negro Leagues.
- Nat KingCole, Montgomery Alabama. Singer, actor and pianist.
- Jessie Owens, born in Danville, Alabama. Broke world and Olympic records in the 1936 Berlin Games.
- General Daniel Chappie James, a graduate of Tuskegee University who became the first black four star general in the history of the United States.
- Joe Louis born Lafayette, Alabama. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber because of his 54 boxing career knockouts.
- Lionel Richie, born in Tuskegee, Alabama. Lead singer of The Commodores, an rhythm and blues group.
- John Lewis, born in Troy, Alabama. Civil rights icon and U.S. congressman.
See also
- History of slavery in Alabama
- African Americans in Mississippi
- Demographics of Alabama
- White Americans in Alabama
- Alabama Creole people
- List of African-American newspapers in Alabama
References
- ^ "Religious Landscape Study".
- ^ "Alabama QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau". Quickfacts.census.gov. 2011. Archived from the original on February 26, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
- ^ "Dimensions of Alabama's Black Population". Center for Business and Economic Research, University of Alabama.
- ^ "Slavery".
- ^ a b "A Timeline of Birmingham's Black History". Birmingham Times. February 6, 2020. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "African American-Owned Business in Alabama Generate $1 Billion in Revenues". The Culverhouse College of Business. August 7, 2019. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "Poverty in Alabama". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "In Alabama, major income gaps between races, genders". Montgomery Advertiser. September 25, 2014. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "The Birmingham Black Barons". Negro Southern League Museum. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ a b c "Alabama's population: 1800 to the modern era". AL.com. December 28, 2019. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "What was Alabama like in 1817, when it became a territory?". AL.com. May 18, 2019. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "The 'Clotilda,' the Last Known Slave Ship to Arrive in the U.S., Is Found". Smithsonian. May 22, 2019. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "Alabama woman now thought be last African slave to live in US". AL.com. April 3, 2019. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "'Remarkable' woman discovered as last known survivor of transatlantic slave trade". CNN. March 26, 2020. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "Representative Benjamin Turner of Alabama". United States House of Representatives. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "HARALSON, Jeremiah". United States House of Representatives. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "Alabama man only Congressman ever killed by wild animals". AL.com. March 29, 2019. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ a b "Alabama Senate". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "On this day in Alabama history: First black legislators elected since Reconstruction". Alabama NewsCenter. November 3, 2018. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ a b "African American Experience in Birmingham". Birmingham Public Library. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "Andrew Hayden". The Selma Times-Journal. September 15, 1972. p. 1. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Montgomery, Ala., elects its first African American mayor after 200 years". The Washington Post. October 9, 2019. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "Reconstruction Constitutions". Encyclopedia of Alabama. April 7, 2020. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Alive and Well: Voter Suppression and Election Mismanagement in Alabama". Southern Poverty Law Center. February 10, 2020. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "Alabama's 3.5 Million Registered Voters Continues to Shatter State Records". Secretary of State of Alabama. July 25, 2019. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ "Minority Health/African Americans". Alabama Public Health.
External links
- Black History in Alabama
- http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2369
- https://muse.jhu.edu/article/756238
- THE CLOTILDA The Last American Slave Ship