when did "Black" start replacing....

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Thu May 25 16:55:14 UTC 2006


>On 5/25/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>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.
>
>The documentary "James Brown: Soul Survivor" (aired on the PBS series
>"American Masters" a few years ago) makes the case that the real
>turning point for the mainstreaming of the word "black" was the
>success of the single "Say It Loud - I'm Black And I'm Proud (Part
>1)," which cracked the top ten of Billboard's pop charts in the fall
>of 1968.
>
And a bit earlier there was the Black Power salute by John Carlos and
Tommie Smith at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.

Larry

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