What is "black belt"

Black belt \Black" belt`\ (bl[a^]k"b[e^]lt`), n. (Martial arts) a comedy that treats of morbid, tragic, gloomy, or grotesque situations as a major element of the plot.

n. 1 (context martial arts English) The highest belt colour in various martial arts. 2 (context martial arts English) Someone who has attained a black belt 3 (context management English) A senior manager who is expert in one of various management systems such as Six Sigma or DMAIC and acts in a project leader or mentor role. 4 (context US southern English) A geographic region where the residents are predominantly or exclusively African-American.

1. n. a person who attained the rank of expert in the martial arts (judo or karate)

2. a black sash worn to show expert standards in the martial arts (judo or karate)

In East Asian martial arts, the black belt is a way to describe a graduate of a field where a practitioner's level is often marked by the color of the belt. The black belt is commonly the highest belt color used and denotes a degree of competence. It is often associated with a teaching grade though frequently not the highest grade or the "expert" of public perception. It is also a relatively recent invention (dating from the late 19th century) rather than an ancient custom.

Black Belt may refer to:

• Black belt (martial arts), an indication of attainment of a high rank of skill in martial arts
  • Black Belt (magazine), a magazine covering martial arts news, technique, and notable individuals
• Black Belt (U.S. region), a geographic and socio-political region in the South of the United States of America
  • Black Belt (region of Alabama), a geographic and socio-political region of Alabama
• Black Belt (region of Chicago), a historical region in Chicago, Illinois, in the South Side area
• Black Belt Jones, a 1974 action film
• Black Belt (1978 film), an Indian Malayalam film released in 1978
• Black Belt (film), a 2007 film, also known as Kuro-obi
• Black Belt (video game), game for Sega Master System based on the anime Fist of the North Star
• Black Belt (8-bit Theatre), a character in the webcomic 8-bit Theatre

The Black Belt is a region of the Southern United States. The term originally described the prairies and dark fertile soil of central Alabama and northeast Mississippi. Because this area was developed for cotton plantations based on enslaved Black/African-American labor, the term became associated with these conditions. It was generally applied to a much larger agricultural region in the American South characterized by a history of plantation agriculture in the 19th century and a high percentage of African American workers outside metropolitan areas. They were enslaved before the Civil War, and many continued to work in agriculture for decades afterward.

During the first half of the nineteenth century, as many as one million enslaved African Americans were transported through sales in the domestic slave to the Deep South in a forced migration to work as laborers for the region's cotton plantations. After having lived enslaved for several generations in the area, many remained as rural workers, tenant farmers and sharecroppers after the American Civil War and emancipation. Beginning in the early 20th century and up to 1970, a total of six million blacks left the South in the Great Migration to find work in industrial cities, especially of the Midwest and West Coast. They became urbanized.

Because of relative isolation and lack of economic development, the rural communities in the Black Belt have historically faced acute poverty, rural exodus, inadequate education programs, low educational attainment, poor health care, urban decay, substandard housing, and high levels of crime and unemployment. Given the history of decades of racial segregation into the late 20th century, African-American residents have been disproportionately most affected, but these problems apply broadly to all ethnic groups in the rural Black Belt. The region and its boundaries have varying definitions, but it is generally considered a band through the center of the Deep South, although stretching from as far north as Delaware to as far west as East Texas.

Black Belt is an American magazine covering martial arts and combat sports. The magazine is based in Valencia, California, and is one of the oldest titles dedicated to martial arts in the United States.

Black Belt is a beat 'em up game released for the Sega Master System. It is a localization of the Japanese Mark III game, , based on the manga and anime series of the same name (Fist of the North Star in English). The international version was stripped of the Hokuto no Ken license, forcing graphic alterations to the game. Black Belt was one of programmer Yuji Naka's early games prior to his involvement in Sonic the Hedgehog.

The Black Belt is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama. The term originally referred to the region's rich, black topsoil, much of it in the soil order Vertisols. The term took on an additional meaning in the 19th century, when the region was developed for cotton plantation agriculture, in which initially the workers were predominantly African-American slaves. After the American Civil War, many freedmen stayed in the area as sharecroppers and tenant farmers, continuing to comprise a majority of the population. The sociological definition of the "Black Belt," as related to this ethnicity, refers to a much larger region of the Southern United States, stretching from Maryland to Texas but centered on the Black Belt of uplands areas of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana - the Deep South.

In the antebellum and Jim Crow eras, the white elites of the Black Belt were powerful in Alabama state politics. Rural elites continued to exercise power in state politics through the 1960s, as they did not redistrict after 1901. Montgomery, the Black Belt's largest city, has been the capital of Alabama since 1846. Montgomery and Selma and other parts of the Black Belt were important centers of public activism during the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s to 1968.

Since the black population gained the renewed ability to exercise their franchise after 1965 under the Voting Rights Act, the voting patterns of the African-American dominated Black Belt, where voters mostly choose Democratic Party candidates, have been in contrast to those of majority-white areas of the state. Since the mid-20th century, white conservatives have shifted from the Democratic to the Republican Party.

Black Belt, known as Kuro-obi in Japan, is a 2007 film directed by Shunichi Nagasaki. It focuses mainly on the martial art of Karate, and is notable in that it doesn't contain any of the usual exaggerations of the genre. For example, the lead roles were played by karate experts, and no special effects were used.

Black Belt is a 1978 Indian Malayalam film, directed Crossbelt Mani. The film stars Unnimary, Balan K Nair, Kuthiravattam Pappu and Ravikumar in lead roles. The film had musical score by Shyam.