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How the Rev. Jesse Jackson helped popularize the term 'African American'
Rev. Jesse Jackson led a late 1980s effort backed by 75 Black groups to replace terms like 'colored' with 'African American' to restore dignity and cultural identity.
- Late in the 1980s, The Rev. Jesse Jackson led a campaign that popularized the term African American and died Tuesday at age 84.
- Jackson and allies argued the term African American better reflected ancestral roots and cultural dignity, and Jackson said it would boost self-esteem and place the group in proper historical context.
- Drawing on other minority movements, Jackson convened a meeting of 75 Black groups, prompting some school districts in Chicago and Atlanta to adopt the term.
- The U.S. Census Bureau issued guidance that `Black or Negro includes African-Americans`, and sociologist Walter Allen called the adoption `a significant psychological and cultural turning point`.
- Today `Black` and `African American` are often used interchangeably, though critics say `African American` can modify American identity, with debates dating back to 1782, research shows.
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How the Rev. Jesse Jackson helped popularize the term ‘African American’
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died Tuesday at age 84, helped push for widespread usage of the term “African American” as a way to reclaim cultural identity.
·Waterloo, Canada
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How the Rev. Jesse Jackson helped popularize the term 'African American' - The Morning Sun
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died Tuesday at age 84, helped push for widespread usage of the term “African American” as a way to reclaim cultural identity. The protege of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. joined calls by NAACP members and other movement leaders in the late 1980s to replace “colored" and “blacks” with a term they thought better represented the community’s ancestral roots and brought a sense of dignity. “To be called African Amer…
·Pittsburg, United States
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Total News Sources21
Leaning Left11Leaning Right1Center8Last UpdatedBias Distribution55% Left
Bias Distribution
- 55% of the sources lean Left
55% Left
L 55%
C 40%
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