States In The United States With The Largest Black Population For 2024

The 10 Blackest States In America For 2024

1. Mississippi

Population: 2,958,846
African American: 1,098,675
Percent African American: 37.1%
Percent African American 2010: 36.9%
Percent Change: 1.3%
Rank Last Year: 1 (No Change)
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Which state is the blackest in America? Yep, Mississippi. In Mississippi, 37.1% of residents are black, which is 1.27% higher than ten years ago. There are nearly 400 times more blacks in Mississippi than there are in the state of Montana.

Jackson Mississippi ranks 2nd in America for percentage of black residents at 80%. The only other city in America with a higher concentration of black Americans is Detroit, where the black population makes up 83% of the total population. There are ten cities in Mississippi with more than 5,000 residents that are at least 70% black.

Oprah Winfrey is from Mississippi. So is James Earl Jones. Record producer Ray J hails from McComb, Mississippi.

2. Louisiana

Population: 4,640,546
African American: 1,456,107
Percent African American: 31.4%
Percent African American 2010: 31.6%
Percent Change: 4.2%
Rank Last Year: 2 (No Change)
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Moving on, we come to the second blackest state in America, which is Louisiana. In Louisiana, 31.4% of residents are black, a 4.17% increase in the last ten years. Now, 80,000 more black Americans live in Louisiana than a decade ago.

Monroe suburb Bastrop and Baton Rouge suburb Baker are both small towns and have the highest concentration of blacks in Louisiana at 80%. New Orleans is 60% black – the 7th highest black population of large cities in the US. New Orleans is considered the birthplace of jazz music. Jambalaya, gumbo, and other southern soul foods also have their roots in Louisiana.

Actor Tyler Perry, newsman Bryant Gumbel, and NBA great Karl Malone all have Louisiana roots.

3. Georgia

Population: 10,722,325
African American: 3,334,095
Percent African American: 31.1%
Percent African American 2010: 30.0%
Percent Change: 17.2%
Rank Last Year: 3 (No Change)
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Let’s move on to our next blackest state in the US. It’s Georgia. Georgia’s black population is 31.1%, which is almost 1% higher than it was ten years ago. In terms of actual numbers, there are 3.1 million African Americans in Georgia – second only to the state of Texas, which has 3.8 million black Americans.

Union City, an Atlanta suburb, has the highest black population in Georgia at 86%. Savannah, Georgia is 56% black. Atlanta’s black population continues to move into the suburbs. Ten years ago, Atlanta’s black population was 61%. Now, it’s 54%.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta. He was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 until his assassination in 1968. As such, Atlanta is home to the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. Other famous people from Georgia are singer Kanye West, actress Raven Symone, and singer Ray Charles.

4. Maryland

Population: 6,161,707
African American: 1,815,877
Percent African American: 29.5%
Percent African American 2010: 28.9%
Percent Change: 10.4%
Rank Last Year: 4 (No Change)
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Where’s our next blackest state in America? That’s Maryland. The main reason Maryland has a large black population is because of Baltimore. Maryland’s total population is 5.2 million. 29.5% of the population in Maryland is black, and 65% of Baltimore’s 620,000 residents are black. A quarter of all black residents in Maryland are in Baltimore.

Other cities in Maryland with a high black population are District Heights and Glenarden. In District Heights, the black population is 86%. Nearby, Washington DC’s black population is 60%.

Harriet Tubman was born in Dorchester County, Maryland. She was a Civil War Scout, Honorary General, Union Spy, Nurse, and Civil Rights Activist who helped rescue 70 enslaved people. Civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall, NAACP founder W.E.B. Dubois, and rapper Rye Rye are also notable people born in Maryland.

5. Alabama

Population: 5,028,092
African American: 1,318,388
Percent African American: 26.2%
Percent African American 2010: 26.0%
Percent Change: 7.5%
Rank Last Year: 5 (No Change)
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Our next blackest state in America is Alabama. In Alabama, 26.2% – or more than 1 in 4 residents is black – which is twice as high as the national average. That’s a 7.5% increase in the last ten years. Tuskegee, a city with 8,500 residents, is 95% black – the highest number of black residents in one city in the state of Alabama. Birmingham is 71% black – and it has the 4th highest black population in America. Nearby Montgomery is 57% black. It has the 9th highest black population in America.

Perhaps the most memorable historical African American event in Alabama took place in Montgomery, Alabama, when, in 1955, Rosa Parks stood up against racial segregation by refusing to move to the back of the bus. That led to a Supreme Court ruling that segregated buses were unconstitutional, which led the inspiration to a chain of events that led to President Lyndon Johnson’s Civil Rights Act in 1964, which outlawed racial segregation.

Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis, activist Angela Davis, superstar athlete Bo Jackson, and musician Clarence Carter are all from Alabama.

6. South Carolina

Population: 5,142,750
African American: 1,316,074
Percent African American: 25.6%
Percent African American 2010: 28.0%
Percent Change: 4.3%
Rank Last Year: 6 (No Change)
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Where is our sixth blackest state in America? South Carolina. In South Carolina, 25.6% of the population is black. That’s a 4.25% from the black population ten years ago, meaning South Carolina is one of only two states on this list to see a decrease in its black population as a percentage of the state’s total population.

Marion, South Carolina is the blackest city in the state, at 78%. Columbia, the state’s capital, is 40% black.

Famous black Americans from South Carolina include musician Dizzy Gillespie and Dr. Benjamin Mays, the father of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

7. Delaware

Population: 993,635
African American: 213,516
Percent African American: 21.5%
Percent African American 2010: 20.6%
Percent Change: 17.4%
Rank Last Year: 7 (No Change)
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Which of the American states has the seventh most black Americans? Delaware. In Delaware, 21.5% of residents are black. The black population in Delaware has increased by 17.37% in the last ten years. Delaware has the 5th lowest population overall of all US states.

Wilmington and Dover are the biggest cities in Delaware and have the largest black populations. Wilmington’s black population is 57%, and Dover’s is 40%. About a third of the total number of blacks in Delaware live in these two cities alone.

Delaware State University in Dover is a historically black university with a higher-than-average number of black middle-class residents. Delaware was the first state to join the Union in 1787. It was also considered a border state, but Delaware didn’t abolish slavery for good until the 13th Amendment was passed in 1865. Notable black Americans from Delaware include NBA players A.J. English and Stevie Graham and jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown.

8. North Carolina

Population: 10,470,214
African American: 2,161,841
Percent African American: 20.6%
Percent African American 2010: 21.2%
Percent Change: 10.2%
Rank Last Year: 8 (No Change)
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We’re going to move on to our next blackest state in America. It is… North Carolina.

In North Carolina, there are just over ten million people. More than two million are black, giving North Carolina a 20.6% black population. Fayetteville, North Carolina has the largest black population in the state. Fayetteville has 200,000 residents, and 42% are black. Other cities with large populations of black Americans in North Carolina are Kinston, Rocky Mount, and Wilson. Kinston’s black population is 65%.

Durham, North Carolina is home to what is now called Black Wall Street. The city was a financial center formed by several prominent black entrepreneurs. Booker T Washington spoke many times about how relaxed race relations were in Durham at the time. Harriet Jacobs, America’s most famous female slave narrator, was born in Edenton, North Carolina. TV personality and writer Star Jones was born in Baden, North Carolina. Singer/rapper Jermaine Dupri grew up in Asheville.

9. Virginia

Population: 8,624,511
African American: 1,601,668
Percent African American: 18.6%
Percent African American 2010: 19.3%
Percent Change: 6.0%
Rank Last Year: 9 (No Change)
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We will remain in the South as we visit our next blackest state in America, Virginia. Here, the percentage of black Americans is 18.6%. What’s interesting about Virginia is that the black population is decreasing here. Back in 2010, the black population of Virginia was 19.3%, so that means there are 4% fewer black Americans in Virginia now.

Here in Virginia, Petersburg, Emporia, and Franklin have the largest black populations. Petersburg is 75% black. Virginia Beach is 20% black – and it has the highest number of African Americans in a city in Virginia.

Hampton University is here – it was one of the first black colleges in the US. Brown vs. Board of Education protests first started in Virginia. Those protests led to an end to racial segregation in public schools. Bill “Bojangles” Robinson is from Virginia. He was a dancer best known for his tap dancing with child star Shirley Temple. Tennis star Arthur Ashe was born here.

10. Tennessee

Population: 6,923,772
African American: 1,116,871
Percent African American: 16.1%
Percent African American 2010: 16.5%
Percent Change: 8.3%
Rank Last Year: 10 (No Change)
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In Tennessee, the percentage of Black residents is 16.1%. For comparison, in the whitest state in America, Montana, the black population is .2%. There are also only 2,359 Black Americans in the entire state of Montana. In Tennessee, there are 1,116,871 black Americans. That means there are 394 times more African Americans in Tennessee than there are in Montana.

Here in Tennessee, the large metro areas such as Memphis make up a large percentage of the black population. In Memphis, more than two-thirds of the population is black. That’s the tenth-highest ratio of black citizens in America. For comparison, in Detroit, the black population is 82%.

Other cities in Tennessee with a majority of blacks include Bolivar, Brownsville, and Whiteville.

Green Bay Packer Reggie White, disco singer Edmund Sylvers, and rapper Young Buck are all from Tennessee.

How We Determined The Most African American States in The US

When we analyze the racial demographics of states, we use Saturday Night Science to look at statistics. In particular, we can look to the recently released 2018-2022 American Community Survey for a detailed breakdown of race by state.

Specifically, we looked at table B03002, which has the breakdown of people by Hispanic/Latino and race.

We looked at the percentage of the population of each state that identified as non-Hispanic/Latino black. We then ranked each city from 1 to 50 in terms of that percentage, with the state having the highest overall rate being named the “State In America with the Largest African American population” — Mississippi.

The “least African American” state according to the data? That would be Montana which is only 0.48% African American as of the latest data. We updated this article for 2024. This report is our tenth time ranking the most African American states in America.

There You Have It — The States With The Largest Black Populations in the US

Based on recent trends, the South might not continue to dominate this list in the years to come — well, maybe decades — as Northern states continue to attract large swaths of the black population.

But until then, we’ll keep seeing southern states at the top of the list. And we’ll guess that Mississippi is still the blackest state for the next several years.

The most African American states in the United States are Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Maryland, Alabama, South Carolina, Delaware, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee.

The least African American states in the United States are Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Oregon, New Mexico, and Hawaii.

For more reading, check out:

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Black Population By State In The US For 2024