African Americans in Tennessee
African Americans are the second largest census "race" category in the state of Tennessee after whites, making up 17% of the state's population in 2010. African Americans arrived in the region prior to statehood. They lived both as slaves and as free citizens with restricted rights up to the Civil War.
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1,175,173 (2020, ADOS, various immigrant groups and their descendants) ADOS, various immigrant groups and their descendants (including those of ancestral descent) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Shelby County (Memphis) | |
| Languages | |
| Southern American English, African-American Vernacular English, Appalachian English, various languages and dialects among immigrants | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity, Black Protestant, other faiths and non-faiths |
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| African Americans |
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The state, and particularly the major cities of Memphis and Nashville, have been important sites in African-American culture and the Civil Rights Movement. The majority of African Americans in Tennessee reside in the western part of the state, which had a concentration of large cotton plantations in the antebellum period. Many freedmen stayed in the region after emancipation and the abolition of slavery. Historically there have been much smaller Black populations in the Middle Tennessee and East Tennessee (Appalachian) regions, because of the different geography and agricultural patterns.