Black middle class

The black middle class consists of black Americans who have middle-class status within the American class structure. It is a societal level within the African American community that primarily began to develop in the early 1960s, when the ongoing Civil Rights Movement led to the outlawing of de jure racial segregation. The gains accrued by the Civil Rights Era are strongly correlated with the emergence of a new black middle class.

While the vast majority of whites are centrally middle-class, the majority of African Americans are also considered middle-class. In terms of income, the narrowest view of a household with a middle-class income is considered $39,100 to $62,000, while a more generous view is $20,291 to $100,000. Anything around $40,000 is seen as the lower end of the middle-class household income. In 2009, the majority of white household incomes was around $54,461, which is considered a centrally middle-class income. On the other hand, the majority of black household incomes was 32,584, which is viewed as a working class income.

As of the 2010 Census, black households had a median income of $32,068, which places the median black household within the second income quintile. 27.3% of black households earn an income between $25,000 and $50,000, 15.2% earn between $50,000 and $75,000, 7.6% earn between $75,000 and $100,000, and 9.4% earn more than $100,000.

Although the composition of the black middle class varies by definition, the black middle class is typically divided into a lower-middle class, core middle class, and an upper-middle class. The black lower-middle class is concentrated in sales, clerical positions, and blue-collar occupations, while the black upper-middle class (sometimes combined into the black upper class) is characterized by highly educated professionals in white-collar occupations, such as health care professionals, lawyers, professors, and engineers.

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