Recognizing Black Immigrants this Black History Month

Starting with forced migration from Africa through the slavery trade and continuing with the immigration of Afro Latinos and other Black immigrants from around the world, the U.S. has greatly benefited from the labor, contributions, and business that the Black community has given- all while overcoming enormous disparities and adversity.  

From Jim Crow to the Civil Rights Movement to desegregation, Black Americans and their advocacy transformed the sociopolitical climate of the United States, and this includes the view on immigrants.  

“Black immigrants in the United States are racially and ethnically diverse. As many as 419,000 immigrants who identified as Black on the U.S. census (10 percent of all Black immigrants) also self-identified as Latino. Foreign-born Afro-Latinos make up about one-fifth of all U.S. Afro-Latinos and immigrated primarily from the Dominican Republic (42 percent), with smaller numbers from Mexico (12 percent), Cuba (10 percent), Panama (7 percent), and Honduras (6 percent). Additionally, approximately 6 percent of Black immigrants identified as Black in combination with another race, primarily biracial Black and White (4 percent) and to a lesser extent biracial Black and Asian and Black and Native American,” Migration Policy Institute reports.  

Black Immigrants Who Changed America 

In honor of Black History Month, we recognize only a handful of the Black immigrants who have made this country better through the centuries: 

John Brown Russwurm, Journalist and Activist

John Brown Russwurm was one of the first Black men to graduate college in the United States, a co-founder of the first Black-run American newspaper and the governor of a nation of Black Americans in Africa. Russwurm was the son of a white merchant and a Jamaican enslaved woman. His father brought Russwurm with him from Jamaica to Maine and married a white American woman who insisted that her new stepson take his father’s name, giving him opportunities not available to most Black people in the colonial United States. With this support, he became the first Black man to graduate from Bowdoin College in 1826 and co-founded Freedom’s Journal, an abolitionist newspaper and the first paper in the United States to be owned, operated, and published by Black people. He went on to become the first Black governor of the Republic of Maryland, a nation of Black Americans who migrated to Africa and were eventually annexed by Liberia.

Claude McKay, Author 

Claude McKay is famous for inspiring the Harlem Renaissance, a prominent literary movement of the 1920s. A prolific author, he wrote his first poem at the age of 10. He arrived in South Carolina from Jamaica in 1912 and published his first poems in 1917. His most famous poem, If We Must Die, was published in 1919 during “Red Summer,” a period of intense racial violence against Black people. Although he was known for the directness with which he wrote of racial issues, this poem spoke to resistance movements worldwide, and was even quoted by Winston Churchill during World War II. McKay’s most successful novel, Home to Harlem, gained recognition as the first commercially successful novel by a Black writer. His last novel, Amiable with Big Teeth, was published posthumously in 2017.

Celia Cruz, Singer 

Celia Cruz was a Cuban-born won singer who became the first Black lead singer for La Sonora Matancera, a longstanding Cuban orchestra. Following the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the orchestra left the country and Cruz settled in New Jersey, launching a solo career and becoming an acclaimed salsa performer. Cruz was especially well known for her work ethic. Over the course of her career, she put out 37 albums, earned three Grammys and four Latin Grammys. She passed away in 2003, having won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, been awarded the U.S. National Medal of Arts, and leaving a legacy as one of the most successful Afro-Latina artists in history.

Iman, Supermodel  

Iman, born Zara Mohamed Abdulmajid, was attending college in Kenya when a photographer encouraged her to pursue modeling. She moved to the United States and eventually became a worldwide model. Iman used her success to advocate for pay equality for Black models. Inspired by her own struggles to find makeup that suited her skin tone, she launched Iman Cosmetics with the tagline “Makeup for Women of Color.” Her next thriving venture was Global Chic, a popular clothing design line inspired by time she spent in Egypt as a child.

Trevor Noah, Comedian  

Trevor Noah was born to a white father and Black, Xhosa mother, which was a crime in Apartheid South Africa. After a childhood marked with poverty and abuse from his stepfather, Noah’s life changed when he tried stand-up for the first time on a dare. His profile rose in South Africa as he toured and gained notoriety. Most Americans learned of Noah when he took over for comedian Jon Stewart as the host of the The Daily Show. His outspoken views on gun violence, race and current events transformed the show and brought in a new audience. On top of hosting a daily TV show, Noah has continued to tour internationally to sold-out audiences. Noah’s memoir, Born a Crime, reached The New York Times bestseller list and another accomplished Black immigrant, Lupita Nyong’o, will portray his mother in a forthcoming film adaptation. In 2018, he founded the Trevor Noah Foundation to improve educational opportunities for South African young people, saying, “We all deserve to achieve our fullest potential no matter where we come from.

The Importance of Black Immigrants 

Black immigrants face unique challenges, including anti-Black discrimination and racial prejudice. Acknowledging these challenges can start the process of change, to address how they are singularly treated and increase recognition of the ways Black immigrants contribute to American life every day.