African American heritage
Black American roots
African American heritage refers to the cultural traditions, history, and collective identity passed down through generations of Black Americans—encompassing music, art, language, cuisine, religious practices, and historical memory rooted in the African diaspora and the experience of slavery and its aftermath.
The museum celebrates African American heritage.
The phrase often appears in educational and commemorative contexts: African American Heritage Month, preserving African American heritage sites.
- bluesMournful American music genre
- jazzImprovisational American music genre
- slaveryOwnership of people
- Jim Crow lawsPost-Reconstruction racial separation statutes
- redliningRefusing loans by neighborhood
soul food · double consciousness · Juneteenth · spoken word poetry · gospel music · emancipation · Negro spirituals · call-and-response · freedom songs · Underground Railroad · Harlem Renaissance · juke joints · soul · HBCU · abolitionism · mass incarceration · banjo · history
- Chesapeake historyChesapeake Bay, watermen, blue crabs, oystering, crabbing
- Black BeltAlabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina
- Mississippi RiverItasca, levee, riverboats, steamboat, towboats
- Florida PeopleCubans, Seminoles, Haitians, Puerto Ricans, snowbirds
African American heritageNative American heritage
Descent from original Americans
Hispanic heritage · Irish American heritage · Latino heritage