Minority (continued)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   This continues a discussion of "minority"--a subject on William Safire's "On Language" New York Times Magazine column.
   OED will probably cover "minority" soon, so it's worth the research.
   "Minority" did not start to mean "nonwhite" in 1938.  It appears that the authors Donald Ramsey Young and Francis James Brown played an important part in the history of this term.  The following books are in many libraries.
   From OCLC WorldCat:

AMERICAN MINORITY PEOPLES:
A STUDY IN RACIAL AND CULTURAL CONFLICTS IN THE UNITED STATES
by Donald Ramsey Young, 1898-
Harper & Bros., NY
1932

RESEARCH MEMORANDUM ON MINORITY PEOPLES IN THE DEPRESSION
by Donald Ramsey Young, 1898-
Social Science Research Council
1937

OUR RACIAL AND NATIONAL MINORITIES:
THEIR HISTORY, CONTRIBUTION, AND PRESENT PROBLEMS
co-edited by Francis James Brown (1894-) and Joseph Slobey Roucek (1902-)
(Brown contributed the essay "The meaning of minorities"--ed.)
Prentice-Hall, NY
1937