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If I asked you to guess what are the five blackest states in America, where would you guess
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Now this is based on percentage, not raw numbers. If we did use raw numbers, it would be so easy to point to big states like California
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or Texas. But in this episode, we're going to look at the top five states that have the highest black
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population by percentage. Hi, my name is Jared and welcome to The Five where we share 5 interesting things in Black
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culture and society in every episode. Don't forget to subscribe and hit that bell so you can get notified when we release more videos
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Okay, so we're going to start at number 5 and work our way down to the blackest state
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in America. Number 5, South Carolina. The state of South Carolina has a population of 5 million people
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Out of that population, 26.6% are black. The state has actually seen a decrease of the black population over the years
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Back in 2010, the population sat at 28%. And 20 years before that, in 1990, the black population was at 30%
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The blackest city in South Carolina is Marion. The population is 78% black in the city
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The capital city, Columbia, has a population of 133,000, out of which 40% are black
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In the mid the black population of South Carolina actually outnumbered the white population by a huge margin But after slavery ended the percentage of black population has steadily decreased
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The biggest drop came between 1900 and the 1950s, following the great migration of African Americans to the North and West
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Number 4, Maryland. Maryland is the 19th most populous state in the country
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The state is 29.4% black. However, this state too has showed a decrease in the percentage of black population
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Back in 2013, the black population was close to 34%. One of the biggest reasons why Maryland has a large black population is due to the larger Baltimore metro area
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which is home to almost half of Maryland's population. The city of Baltimore has one of the highest concentrations of African Americans
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which make up 65% of the city. A quarter of all black residents in Maryland are in Baltimore
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Other cities in Maryland with a large black population also include District Heights and Glen Garden
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One of the most controversial cities to make it on our list of the five best cities for blacks in America is Baltimore
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A lot of viewers expressed their shock that Baltimore made it on any best list
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but our list was based on metro areas where blacks earn a higher median income
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On that metrics alone, Baltimore ranks as one of the best due to a high number of government jobs in the area
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Number three, Georgia. It is no surprise that Georgia lands on this list as it is home to so much black culture and heritage This state with a population of about 10 million is 31 black
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Even though there has been a huge black migration to Georgia, and more specifically to the Atlanta
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area, in the last 10 years the percentage of black population only grew by 1% from 2010
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When looking at just the raw numbers, there are 3.1 million African Americans living in Georgia
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The only other state that beats this number is Texas, which has a population of 3.8 million
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African Americans. And the blackest city in Georgia is not Atlanta, it is actually Union City, which is located
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in Atlanta's suburb. This city is 86% black. Other cities with high black population also include of course Atlanta and Savannah
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The city of Atlanta has made our list as one of the best cities in America for Blacks and is also one of the best cities for singles
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Number 2. Louisiana Louisiana is the 25th most populous state in America and has a population of 4.6 million people
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Out of that population, 31.6% are Black. The percentage of the Black population in Louisiana has stayed relatively unchanged over the years
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Back in 2010, the black population was at almost 32%. The city of New Orleans is 60% black
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and is the seventh city with the highest black population. Another city in Louisiana with a large black population is also the capital city of Baton Rouge which is also the largest city in the state Unfortunately Louisiana frequently ranks low among the U in terms of health education and development and high measures of poverty
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The city of New Orleans has also made it on our list of the worst places for blacks in the South
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And number one, the blackest state in America, Mississippi. Mississippi has been the blackest state in America for a very long time
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The state has a population of almost 3 million people, of which 37.6% are black
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This should be no surprise because by 1860, Mississippi was the nation's top cotton-producing state
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and slaves accounted for 55% of the population. Jackson, Mississippi is the second blackest city in America with an 80% black population
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The only other city to beat that is Detroit. Since 1990, the black percentage in Mississippi has slowly been inching up by almost a percent every decade
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Just like Louisiana, Mississippi also often makes it on many worst lists
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The city of Jackson made it on our list of the worst cities in the South
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So those are the five blackest states in America. Were you surprised by any of the states that made it on this list
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Or did you think another state was going to make it? Let us know in the comments
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That's it for this episode of The Five. We'll be back with another episode in Black culture and society
