• At the time of the first census in 1790, the black population numbered 757,000 and represented 19.3% of the new nation's population. Between 1790 and 1860, it grew at a rapid rate (over 2% annually) to 4.4 million, but declined to 14.1% of the population, as a result of European immigration and the growth of the white population.

• From the Civil War through the Great Depression of the 1930s and 1940s, the growth rate of the black population fell as a result of the complete end of the slave trade and declines in fertility. These forces, together with the rapid growth of the white population through the great waves of immigration, led the black percentage of the population to steadily decline to only 9.7% in 1930 and 1940.
  

• After falling as a percentage of the US population for 140 years, the proportion of blacks in the nation began to rise after 1940. Growth rates from 1950 to 1960 approached those of the pre-civil war years, increasing to 10.5 percent of the population in 1960, 11.1 percent in 1970, 11.8% in 1980 and, 12.8% in 2000.
  

• The black population reached 35.5 million (12.8% of the nation's population) in 2000, and is estimated to increase steadily to about 15.4% of the projected population of nearly 400 million in 2050.

• In 1790, almost all blacks (92%) in the new nation were slaves. By 1860, the enslaved proportion had dropped slightly to 86%, reflecting the growth of the free black population in the North (increasing from 40% to 67% of all Northern blacks). Virtually all blacks in the South were slaves in both 1790 (95%) and 1860 (94%).
  

• The Great Migration of blacks from the South to the North began during World War I and gained momentum after the war. About 454,000 blacks migrated from the South to the North between 1910 and 1920, and almost as many had migrated in the 40 years between 1870 and 1910 (468,000). In the decade of the 1920s, the net out-migration of blacks from the South increased to 749,000, but it fell to only 347,000 in the Depression decade of 1930-1940.

• The migratory flow of blacks from the South to the North was massive between 1940 and 1970, averaging nearly 1.5 million in each of the three decades. In 1940, more than 3 of every 4 blacks (77%) still lived in the South; by 1970 only a slight majority-53%-did.
  

• Only 129,000 blacks lived in the West in 1940. This increased nearly tenfold to over 1.1 million by 1960 and to 1.8 million in 1970.

• Between 1970 and 1990, the distribution of blacks across the nation's regions remained fairly stable, at about 53% in the South, 18-19% in the Northeast, 19 -20% in the Midwest, and 9% in the West. The 2000 Census data suggest that a return migration to the South may be getting under way, with 54% of blacks residing there in 2000, 19% each in the Northeast and Midwest, and about 10% in the West.

References

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