African-American

[Margaret Lee]

The shift from Black to African American occurred in 1998, when Dr. Ramona Edlin, then president of the National Urban Coalition, proposed that the next year's meeting be called, not the Black Summit, but the _African American_ Summit. The purpose of this change was to reassess the condition of Blacks in America while "linking Africans in North America with those on the Continent of Africa and throughout the Diaspora" (Smitherman, in Mufwene et al, 1998, 213).  Jesse Jackson is credited with popularizing the term, not proposing it. 
 
--Margaret Lee
 

________________________________
 From: Brian Hitchcock <brianhi at SKECHERS.COM>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: African-American
  
(Wilson Gray posted, on Thu, 9 Feb 2012  at 01:29:18)
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I1) Did Rev. Jackson propose the usage *African-American* as  a  moniker for
people of African and American descent? And did it gain some currency in
America? When, and for how long, and how widely was/is it used, and among
which sub-groups?  What factors have influenced the term's waxing and
waning?

Brian Hitchcock
Torrance, CA

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org