black consciousness (1951)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

First OED3 cite for "black consciousness" is from 1953:

  1953 F. HENRIQUES Family & Colour in Jamaica iii. 62 The current
  expositors of *black consciousness in Jamaica are a group of people
  who call themselves Ras Tafarites.

Here is a slightly earlier cite from Henriques (via JSTOR):

  Colour Values in Jamaican Society
  Fernando Henriques
  The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 2, No. 2. (Jun., 1951), p. 121.
  Although the riots of 1938 forced the Black man into prominence it was
  not the first manifestation of Black consciousness.


--Ben Zimmer