when did "Black" start replacing....

[Jonathan Lighter]

For some reason the following reply, intended for all, went to Sean only :

  I recall Stokely Carmichael and/or H. Rap Brown explicitily insisting on the exclusive use of _Black_ (capitalized) for the reason that _Negro_ "meant" _nigger_.  These statements received wide media coverage.

  The year was either 1967 or 1969, the latter I think. Before that, except for the occasional neutral use in anthropology (e.g., "black Africans") whites used _black_ chiefly as a deliberate insult. "Negro" was the dignified standard term and "colored" was quite acceptable, but only as an adjective (as in NAACP). The common phrase "the coloreds" almost always reflected a racial animus.  Though it existed, whites rarely used "Afro-Americans."  The usual phrase was "American Negroes."

  JL



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