African-American % by state, by decade

[TDAS04]

This thread was just going to compare the black % by state in 1910 and 1970, but ElectionsGuy wants to create maps for all the decades, back through 1790.  To start, I'll just show that even in 1910 the black distribution was very different from today. 

1910:

From darkest to lightest green:
50.0% or more African-Amerian
40.0-49.9%
30.0-39.9%
20.0-29.9%
10.0-19.9%
5.0-9.9%
Less than 5.0% African-American

ElectionsGuy's maps will use the same color scheme.

[TDAS04]

There's a good wikipedia article on this showing all the data of historical ethnic and racial populations here. I know this is thread is just for 1910 and 1970, but I kind of want to start from the beginning for fun. Here is 1790 (using the same key your using):

I do find it very interesting that in 1910, literally all the states defined as southern by the census bureau have a black population of over 5%, while all the states not defined as southern have a black population under 5%.

OK, then I'll let you take over.

Yeah, it is interesting that blacks remained so heavily concentrated in the South well into the 1900s.

[TDAS04]

Good work, ElectionsGuy!

Maryland and Delaware are interesting.  I tend to think of them as Northeastern, but I guess the Census classification of them being Southern makes sense historically, considering they were slave states and that they've always had sizable black populations, even when there were hardly any blacks north of the Mason-Dixon line.

It's also notable how the black percentage in Florida shrunk between 1910 and 1960.