The history of racial terminology in the United States is older than the country itself. Since the early colonial era, terminology for people of African descent, in particular, has evolved, been contested, and remains malleable to this day. Terms such as “Colored,” “Negro,” “Black,” and “African American” have come in and out of usage and acceptance for a number of reasons. To better understand the terms we used in No Turning Back, set in the early 1960s, versus the terms that are acceptable for use today, we must think historically about how and why these terms have changed over time.
When it comes to conversations about racial identity, using the correct terminology can be important and beneficial, particularly for public relations practitioners whose sole jobs are to communicate accurately and effectively. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of African American is an American of African and especially of Black African descent.
Early Usage: "African" and "Colored"
During the early Republic, the earliest mutual aid groups and schools for free and enslaved Blacks adopted the broad term “African” as an identifier. The African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia was founded by Black freedman Richard Allen while the African Free School in New York was organized by founding fathers Alexander Hamilton and John Jay.
In the Emancipation Era - the post-Civil War period of new-found freedom and autonomy for the formerly enslaved - Black Americans shifted from inherited terms of racial categorization to naming themselves. “Colored” was the dominant term through the mid to late 19th century, but freedmen adopted the term for themselves as a marker of race pride.
The Rise of "Negro"
The word “Negro” was born from romance languages (French, Spanish, Latin, and Portuguese) and literally means “black” or “dark,” but its usage as a description of people dates back to Spanish colonization. Spanish colonial “casta” or caste systems hierarchically categorized European, Native, African, and mixed-race populations in North and South America. The term “Negro” gained acceptance in the late 19th century with the promotion of Black activists like W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes’s affirmation of the term (and celebration of the race) is evident in this piercing line from a 1926 essay: “Why should I want to be white, I am a negro - and beautiful.”
Read also: Understanding the Hurtful Legacy of "Nigger"
“Colored” and “Negro” were used somewhat interchangeably by Black Americans, but by the 1940s, there were no new organizations that included the term “Colored” in their title, indicating another shift. Instead organizations such as the National Council of Negro Women (1935) and Negro Youth Congress (1937) became commonplace. Black activists preferred “Negro” over “colored,” as the latter lacked specificity given the growing racial diversity of the country.
By 1950, while “Negro” was the dominant term by which Black Americans dignifiably identified themselves, it was not without tension.
The Emergence of "Black"
By the start of the modern civil rights movement, Black Americans were considering new ways of thinking about their communities. “Black” had been used as a negative foil to “white” [people], and thus the opposite of all that is “good” and “pure,” and for that reason has been considered offensive. However, in the 1960s, a movement led by young people sought to pridefully reclaim the term: Black Power, Black is Beautiful. While Negro was an inherited term associated with slavery, Black was a chosen identity rooted in self-determination and embraced natural hair as beautiful. For Black Americans who experienced “white supremacy” through lynching, pogroms, and all types of violence, “Black” as the antonym of “white” was indeed a good thing.
The use of Black by young people, student movements, and organizations like the Black Panthers added to the intergenerational conflict already emerging within the civil rights movement around strategy and the pace of change.
The Return of "African American"
Around the late 1980s, the term “African American,” which originally appeared in public as far back as 1782, returned to the American lexicon to center cultural integrity and heritage. The term’s earliest known appearance in print is in an eighteenth-century sermon. Yale law librarian Fred R. Most of us became familiar with the ethnonym African American in the 1980s, when Jesse Jackson began popularizing it as an alternative to black. The Oxford English Dictionary traced its documented occurrences of “African American” back as far as 1835. (The related term “Afro-American,” which enjoyed a brief popularity in the 1960s, has an 1831 citation in the OED.) But last April, I did a routine search for the phrase in America’s Historical Newspapers, the Readex company’s very powerful database of early US papers, and was surprised to be led to a 1782 sermon published in Philadelphia.
Read also: Moroccan Visa Requirements
The designers of No Turning Back made a choice not to use terms that would be out of place and even offensive to the people depicted in the game. Many Black people in the early 1960s were still proud of, and fighting for, the use of “Negro” and its capitalization, which signified dignity and respect.
While the terms “colored” and “Negro” were once acceptable terms when referring to people of African descent, today these terms are often considered offensive and are unacceptable.
Black vs. African American Today
The term African American (sometimes used with a hyphen and occasionally without) is habitually used to describe ethnicity while Black often describes race. But not all Black people are African American. In fact, the Pew Research Center indicates that the Black population in the United States is quite diverse with many being descendants of slaves, while others are recently arrived immigrants.
According to CBS News, most people tend to lean toward the term African American out of a desire for either political correctness or politeness. For example, there are those in the Black community that identify as Afro-Latino and Afro-Caribbean.
Back in the day, the 1960s categorically speaking, Black activists began using the term Black when referring to descendants of slaves. This was done in an attempt to 1) erase the term Negro from the American lexicon and 2) distance the generation from the Jim Crow era, a turbulent period where state and local laws enforced racial segregation in the South.
Read also: Experience Fad's Fine African Cuisine
Still, the term Black does seem to be a better choice. The term is a celebration of the race and culture itself.
It seems important to faithfully reflect the language the poets and writers included on this site used to describe themselves. Several anthologies from the period use the word "Negro" in their titles, including most famously, Alain Locke's The New Negro: an Interpretation; the UNIA's official newspaper was also called Negro World; there could be many more examples.
Many of our students have found the historical usage of the term "Negro" confusing, and at times have hesitated to say words like "Negro" or "colored" aloud (even in historical context), worrying they might be offensive. While there is no harm in being cautious, having a clear sense of the history of language usage should assuage fears that these historical terms -- used in historical context -- are offensive to say aloud.
To be clear, in describing people of African descent in one's own words, it is appropriate to use contemporary standard usage ("Black" or "African American"). The other terms described below may today be obsolete or anachronistic, but when used in historical context they should not be "offensive."
Black vs. African American Identity | Why Race Matters
Historical Terms and Their Usage
Here is a list of historical terms for your reference. Most of these will not be used in a title, description, or subject, but will instead be terms that you should look out for in the historical sources themselves.
- African: The term “African” is helpful if searching a collection of North American sources from the eighteenth and nineteenth, centuries. Up until about 1816, African Americans referred to themselves as Africans.
- Negro: Negro (with a capital “N”) was reclaimed and became popular in the early twentieth century, especially among northern African Americans and Black leaders such as Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois.
- Mulatto: A term that white people used in the nineteenth and throughout most of the twentieth century to refer to people who had one parent that was perceived as white and one parent that was perceived as Black or African American.
Black, African American, or something else?
Black and African American are distinct labels. Perceiving and categorizing every Black student, patient, or research participant as African American is the erasure of Black histories and cultures. Conflating these two interconnected but distinct labels compels every Black person to “self-identify” with an identity that does not align with their experience. Consequently, in research, the nuances of ethnic differences within the Black experience are often overlooked, undermining the accurate representation of this historically disadvantaged population.
Individuals often embody multiple racial and ethnic identities, highlighting the interconnected nature of these categories, making it essential not to discuss them in isolation (Flanagin et al., 2021). Examples that immediately come to mind are Afro-Latine/a/o/x, Caribbean American, Jamaican American, Haitian American, and Nigerian American, amongst numerous other unique ethnicities.
It's important to understand the nuance when discussing race both in America and on a global scale."There are black people in every continent who are all over the world," explained Professor Celeste Watkins-Hayes, an African American studies professor at Northwestern University. "African American is nation-specific.
But Watkins-Hayes adds that if someone wants to know for sure how a black person identifies, it's best to simply ask what their preference is.
Demographics
As of 2023, the regions with significant African American populations are:
- Southern United States
- American urban centers
Including states like:
- Texas (3,552,997)
- Georgia (3,320,513)
- Florida (3,246,381)
- New York (2,986,172)
- California (2,237,044)
Conclusion
Understanding the history and nuances of racial terminology is crucial for respectful and accurate communication. While "African American" and "Black" are often used interchangeably, it's important to recognize their distinct meanings and to respect individual preferences. By being mindful of these distinctions, we can foster a more inclusive and equitable society.
