Decolonization and Cultural Reconnection: Black Americans are largely descendants of Muslims - Controversial Topic with Andreu Lightfoot Al Qarsherskiyan
Historians estimate that roughly 15% to 30% of the Africans forced into slavery and brought to North America were Muslims. Because descendants of the transatlantic slave trade make up the original Black American population and the descendants of Africans from different regions intermarried, it's likely that at least 50 to 80% of Foundational Black Americans have ancestors who were African Muslims. The term Foundational Black American, or FBA, denotes Black Americans who descended from early Black Americans who were indentured servants or enslaved, differentiating them from later arrivals. An American whose parents came from Senegal may be a Black American, but they're not counted as a Foundational Black American.
Many enslaved people came from West African regions where Islam had a strong presence, such as Senegambia and the Guinea coast. Slaveholders systematically suppressed Islamic practices, names, and literacy, replacing them with Christianity. While exact genetic or genealogical tracking is difficult across centuries, historians calculate the ancestral percentage based on the demographics of the specific regions in Africa from which enslaved people were taken. Today, about 2% of Black Americans actively practice Islam. Roughly half of contemporary Black Muslims are converts to the religion (with movements like the Nation of Islam and traditional Sunni Islam growing significantly through the 20th century), while the other half were born into the faith.
Black Americans make up approximately 20% of the total Muslim population in the United States.