A line of Iowa voters last year. (AP Photo/The Waterloo Courier, Matthew Putney)

African Americans proved their voting power this past presidential election. And they did it in record numbers. According to  a new analysis of census data by the Associated Press, African Americans “voted at a higher rate than other minority groups in 2012 and by most measures surpassed the white turnout for the first time,” reports the political blog Think Progress.

If black people had turned out in the same numbers as they did in 2004, when African-American turnout was below its now historic levels, Republican Mitt Romney would have “won narrowly.”

According to the 2012 data, “Obama’s personal appeal and the slowly improving economy helped overcome doubts” and pushed minority voting to record levels. GOP candidate Romney, on the other hand, could not motivate enough white voters, let alone pull in substantial numbers of black or Latino voters.

“The 2008 election was the first year when the minority vote was important to electing a U.S. president. By 2024, their vote will be essential to victory,” William H. Frey, a demographer who analyzed the 2012 elections for the AP, said. “Democrats will be looking at a landslide going into 2028 if the new Hispanic voters continue to favor Democrats.”

African Americans represented 13 percent of total votes cast in 2012 while making up 12 percent of the population. And they voted despite many obstacles.  According to a poll by Hart Research conducted immediately after the election, 22 percent of African Americans waited 30 minutes or more to vote, compared to just nine percent of white voters. Another analysis from Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that black and Hispanic voters waited nearly twice as long to vote as whites. Florida was home to the longest lines, which resulted in people giving up and not voting. At least 201,000 people may have not cast a vote because of the overly long waits.

Also, black youth was more likely to be asked to show ID, found a study by professors at the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis. And many did not even attempt to vote because they did not have the required identification.

In order to prove their importance as a voting bloc, African Americans will need to push past the record in upcoming elections.

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According to the latest stats, black businesses are booming. The number of American businesses in general have increased by 18 percent, and black-owned firms have expanded by 60.5 percent to 1.9 million between 2002 to 2007, more than triple the national rate according to U.S. Census data, reports the Examiner.

According to the government definition, a black-owned business is a firm with African-American owners holding a 51 percent or greater stake in the business. All of the black businesses in the U.S. accrued $137 billion in sales and receipts, and comprised 7.1 percent of businesses nationwide in 2007, compared to only 5.2 percent in 2002. Most black businesses are small. According to National Urban League president, Marc Morial, and data from Survey of Business Owners: Black-Owned Businesses, 87 percent of all black-owned firms earn less than $50,000 a year in receipts.

Certain industries are heavily saturated with black owners, such as health care and social assistance (19 percent of black-owned businesses), repair and maintenance, and personal and laundry services (another 19 percent of black-owned businesses), and administrative and support, waste management, and remediation service industries, which comprise 11 percent of black-owned businesses, according to Examiner.

And there are various cities and states where black business thrive.

As of 2007, the four cities with the most black-owned businesses are: New York City (154,929); Chicago (58,631); Houston (33,062); and Detroit (32,490).

Detroit has the highest percentage of African-American-owned businesses within the city’s limits at 64 percent.

The three states with the most black-owned businesses, as of 2007, are: New York (204,032); Georgia (183,874); and Florida (181,437),

Produced by L Herndon

Since the 1920s, Harlem has been dubbed the Mecca of black culture—a haven of sorts where blacks gathered together to mix and mingle on the historic 125th street, in front of the Apollo Theater or at Sylvia’s Soul Food, and where some of the world’s most notable forms of music and art were produced.

But those days are long gone according to recent census data. At the height of the millennium, blacks made up the majority of Harlem’s population, but almost a decade later, data reveals that the black population has been cut by double digits. Harlem’s ongoing evolution is being driven by an economic and population shift in which more affluent, non-blacks are moving into the area, replacing African-Americans that have called Harlem home for generations. So what does this mean for the future of Harlem? In the video below, we explore this issue by consulting with experts to find out exactly what’s going on in Harlem and to find out what they see next for the transitioning community.

(New York Times) — Metropolitan New York is being rapidly reshaped as blacks, Latinos, Asians and immigrants surge into the suburbs, while gentrification by whites is widening the income gap in neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn, according to new census figures released on Tuesday.  Some of the largest population gains since 2000 were recorded in places that not long ago might have been considered marginal, including Bedford-Stuyvesant and Williamsburg in Brooklyn; Castle Hill and Hunts Point in the Bronx; South Jamaica in Queens; and Newark, Jersey City and Hoboken in New Jersey. Parts of those neighborhoods and cities, as well as the financial district in Lower Manhattan, registered large gains.

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