Common African American Surnames
The question: “what are the most Common African American Surnames” is something of a misnomer and potentially a very insulting one because a surname is a race issue, nor is it contingent upon the ethnicity of a person. The waters are further muddied if we consider the socioeconomic factors involved in the placement and dispersal of the African-American population within the United States. If for example, we interpret the term “African-American” to refer only to those people who lived in the US in the short period of time before the American Civil War and after it, then we must bear in mind that those people were legally classified as slaves.
African-American slaves at that time did not have any legal rights, and were treated as second class citizens exposed to a daily regime of violence, discrimination, harassment and oppression. They were not entitled to vote, own land or property, and were denied the right of access to education. Therefore, the overwhelming majority did not actually have any surnames in the first instance, or if they did possess one, it fell to the wayside when they were pressed into slavery.
It is also important to note the cultural terrain of Africa itself, for Africans do not make distinctions between a Christian and surname in the same manner as Europeans and other Western nations do and so whilst an African maybe called and identified by the name Kamau, this can be used interchangeably as both a given name and a surname.
Many people whenever they research the topic of the most common African American Surnames whether online or by other means invariably stumble across a US census which identifies the most commonly used surnames along with their ethnicity. From these results, the researcher will probably look at these, notice the fact that Williams, Brown, and Jones are all common surnames for African-Americans.
This discrepancy is only on a superficial level and is easily explained: most African-American slaves were given the surname of their legal masters or once they were freed, they voluntarily adopted the surname of their former masters. Whilst this was not true or applicable in any situations, it was prevalent enough to have a very profound effect upon the social composition of the African-American community.
The black activist Malcolm X actually used the X after his name both to deny and negate the slave aspect of his ancestry as well as venerating his unknown ancestors.