User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/African American (Terminology)

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African American is a term that has been used since the 1980s, similar to German-American or Irish-American, to refer to descendants of Americans whose ancestors came from diverse racial groups and countries on the African continent. In 1988 Jesse Jackson publicly used the term "African American".[1] In 1997, the United States government agencies such as the United States Census Bureau, and the Office of Management and Budget replaced the classification of "black" to "African American."[2] In 2010, the Census Integrated Communications Campaign Plan (ICC)

History[edit]

In 1911 a parade float displayed the word "Afro-American."

In 1911 the term Afro-American was used.[3] Google search: not mention of the phrase "African American" before and including December 31, 1970. In a 1970 article for the Time magazine article series on Teaching American History, by Ralph Ellison, an American novelist, literary critic, and scholar, used the term "blacks" without a capital, "Negro American" and "Negro" as a noun with capitalization.[4]

A 1970 article in The Harvard Crimson entitled "Black Studies Department Reflects a Decade of Change", described the advocacy work of the Association of African and Afro-American Students (AAAAS) who were calling for the formation of a Department of Afro-American Studies.[5] The article reported that, " demand for Black Studies programs, at Harvard as elsewhere, surfaced only as black student protest escalated during the later years of the 1960's, that demand resulted from black student activism which spanned the entire decade." It mentioned a "Negro college in North Carolina", "black nationalist sentiment", and the "Black experience".


In 1997, the United States government agencies United States Census Bureau and the Office of Management and Budget revised terminology in the census replacing the classification of "black" to "African American."[2][6] In 2008 the 2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign Plan (ICC) clarified that, "the Black audience in the United States consists of three major communities, with each group having its own unique sense of community, based on geography and ethnicity. "These groups are African Americans (Blacks born in the United States), Black Africans (Black Immigrants from Africa) and Afro-Caribbeans, which includes Haitians."[7]

By 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation was still using classification terminology set in the 1978 edition of the Statistical Policy Handbook published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce which itself was derived from the 1977 edition of the Office of Management and Budget classification.[8] which categorized black or African-American people as "A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa" through racial categories used in the UCR Program adopted from the Statistical Policy Handbook (1978) and published by the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce, derived from the 1977 Office of Management and Budget classification.[8]

References[edit]

  1. ^ From Negro to Black to African American: The Power of Names and Naming Ben L. Martin Political Science Quarterly Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 83-107 ublished by: The Academy of Political Science DOI: 10.2307/2152175 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2152175 Page Count: 25
  2. ^ a b McKinnon, Jesse. "The Black Population: 2000 United States Census Bureau" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. Retrieved October 22, 2007.
  3. ^ Baugh, John (1999). Out of the Mouths of Slaves: African American Language and Educational Malpractice. University of Texas Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-292-70873-0.
  4. ^ What America Would Be Like Without Blacks Ralph Ellison Time Magazine April 06, 1970
  5. ^ The Harvard Crimson entitled "Black Studies Department Reflects a Decade of Change" By LEE A. DANIELS, September 24, 1970 http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1970/9/24/black-studies-department-reflects-a-decade/
  6. ^ "Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity". Office of Management and Budget. 1997. Archived from the original on March 15, 2009.
  7. ^ "2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign Plan" (PDF). 2010 Census. U.S. Census Bureau. August 2008. p. 225. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
  8. ^ a b "Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook" (PDF). U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2004. p. 97.
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