The change conveys “an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African Diaspora and within Africa,” John Daniszewski, AP's vice-president of standards, said in a blog post yesterday.

An ongoing debate over capitalisation of Black accelerated in many US newsrooms in recent weeks as journalists grappled with massive protests and sweeping changes in the aftermath of George Floyd's death at the hands of the police.

The Los Angeles Times, USA Today and NBC News last week embraced capitalisation, and the National Association of Black Journalists urged other news organisations to follow.

It's also a relatively simple step for news organisations dealing anew with many complex issues, such as whether their journalists can be opinionated on social media or march in Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

One Black scholar who published an open letter to the AP earlier this week calling for the capitalisation, said Friday he was pleased that the change happened on Juneteenth, which commemorates when the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free – 155 years ago.