U.S. top using 'Negro' in census surveys

WASHINGTON -- After more than a century, the Census Bureau is dropping its use of "Negro" to describe black Americans in surveys.

Instead of the term that came into use during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, census forms will use the more modern labels "black" or "African-American."

The change will take effect next year when the bureau distributes its annual American Community Survey to more than 3.5 million U.S. households, Nicholas Jones, chief of the bureau's racial statistics branch, said in an interview.

He pointed to months of public feedback and census research that found few black Americans still identify with being Negro and it is for many "offensive and outdated."

"This is a reflection of changing times, changing vocabularies and changing understandings of what race means in this country," said Matthew Snipp, a sociology professor at Stanford University. "For younger African-Americans, the term 'Negro' hearkens back to the era when African-Americans were second-class citizens."

First used in the census in 1900, "Negro" became the most common way of referring to black Americans through most of the early 20th century, during a time of racial inequality and segregation. "Negro" itself had taken the place of "colored."

Starting with the 1960s civil rights movement, black activists began to reject the "Negro" label and came to identify themselves as black or African-American.

Still, the term has lingered, having been used by Martin Luther King Jr. in his speeches. It remains in the names of some black empowerment groups established before the 1960s, such as the United Negro College Fund, now often referred to as UNCF.