The term has been adopted in the United States since the 1970s as the politically correct term for black Americans.
The term is subject to accidental or intentional misuse in that it defines a group both in terms of race and in terms of citizenship. This can make clear discussion of topics related to race difficult. When speaking specifically of black United States citizens, the term is correct, but when speaking of all black people, that term is preferable.
Persons of sub-saharan African origin were brought to the United States involuntarily as slaves. After the abolition of slavery after the Civil War, African-Americans continued to be denied fully equal [civil rights]? in many jurisdictions, both legally and by extra-legal cultural practices, including the efforts of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Legal barriers to equality were removed by the civil rights movement of roughly the period World War II - through the 1960s
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