The National Archives Catalog

Black Person

Reparative Description Preferred Term

Preferred Terms: Person/people (with no modifier), man/woman/boy/girl/child (with no modifier), Black person/people, Black, Black Americans, African American(s), Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latino/a, (specific national background if known, e.g. Jamaican), exclusively for the Spanish word negrito/Negrito use the Spanish word negro/Negro.

Non-Preferred Term: Noun form: nigger (pl. niggers), negro (pl. negroes), Negro (pl. Negroes), Negrito (Spanish)

Related Terms that May Continue to be Used: n/a

Guidance:

For replacing negro:

Due to its complex history, negro cannot be uniformly replaced with another term in NARA’s archival descriptions or authority records. Each instance must be reviewed for context.

Black is the preferred term when referring to an individual’s race. The term should be capitalized and used as an adjective, not as a noun. For example: “Benjamin Robinson was a Black soldier in the U.S. Army.” Note that Blacks and the Blacks are both considered offensive and should not be used. Black people is the preferred plural form of Black.

African American (pl. African Americans) is also acceptable, but it is not necessarily interchangeable with Black. Black can be used regardless of nationality, while African American is specific to Americans of African, and especially Black African, descent. Some individuals in the United States self-identify with both terms, while others prefer one term over the other; some may prefer a different but related term (e.g., Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latino). Descriptions of individuals should use the individual’s preferred self-identifier, if known and a current, non-harmful term.

Some defunct organizations included Negro in their formal names, and some organizations continue to do so (e.g., United Negro College Fund). Some geographic place names also include the term. Formal names for defunct organizations should not be changed. Formal names for current organizations and place names should not be changed unless or until the organization or place is renamed. However, additional descriptions within an authority record (e.g., Administrative History Notes) should avoid using the term, except in reference to the organization or place name.

Examples:

Example:
Title - President Gerald R. Ford Remarks in a Film Clip for United Negro College Fund Drive
General Note - This archival description was reviewed and not revised as part of the NARA reparative description initiative on [mm/dd/yyyy].  The term "Negro" found in the title field was determined to be part of the name of an organization.

If negro(es) is used, it should be capitalized, outside of direct quotations and transcriptions of Spanish (in which the lowercase term negro is the masculine word for the color black). Direct quotations in which Negro(es) appears (whether lowercase or capitalized) should be used sparingly and with care; they should not be included simply because they seem “interesting.” Alternatives to including direct quotations include paraphrasing (best for descriptions of non-digitized material) or transcription (best for digitized material).

If negro or a variant appears in an original caption or title, such as an item or a file unit title, the term should be retained in the Title field and an alternative, reparative title provided to the Other Title field. A new, different title using preferred terms (e.g., Black, African American) should be implemented in the Other Title field. A General Note should be added to explain that an alternative title is provided in the Other Title field as part of a reparative description project.

Example:
Title - Petition for Naturalization of Dominico Negro
General Note - This archival description was reviewed and not revised as part of the NARA reparative description initiative on [mm/dd/yyyy]. The term "Negro" found in the title field was not changed because it is a surname. Original archival records have not been altered.

Example:
Title - Correspondence about Black People, 2/1942-9/1942
Other Title - Correspondence on Negroes, 2/1942 - 9/1942
General Note - “Correspondence on Negroes, 2/1942 - 9/1942” was the original title of this item.
General Note - This archival description was reviewed and revised as part of the NARA reparative description initiative on [mm/dd/yyyy]. The word “Negroes” was removed from the Title field. Original archival records have not been altered.

If negro or a variant appears in the title field, and it appears to have been a NARA provided title, such as a series title, then the term can be replaced in the Title Field. The previous title with the outdated or non-preferred term should be moved to the Other Title field. A General Note should explain the change. See General Correspondence Relating to African Americans, 1909–1955 for an example.

For replacing nigger:

Due to its complex history, nigger cannot be uniformly replaced with another term in NARA’s archival descriptions or authority records. Each instance must be reviewed for context.

Black person is the preferred term for an individual. Black people is the preferred term to refer to groups of people. The modifier Black does not need to be included, especially if the description elsewhere provides context related to Black people or African American people (mentioned elsewhere in notes or indexed as a subject access point).

Use of this term in geographic place names is common. Often, the term was adopted informally and became the accepted place name. Formal names for place names that have not been officially changed should be kept. In instances where the place name has been officially changed or where the term is used colloquially, the current or formal name should be adopted and added as an access point.

If the term is used to describe a record outside of the original title or caption, consideration should be given to replacing the term. Context will be key in these instances. Much will depend on how and by whom the term was used and whether it was solely archivist-supplied. For example, in the description “Interview with Frank Leeming and Gerald Mertens,” the archivist-supplied Scope and Content note describes sound recordings in which “cheers of ‘nigger lover’” can be heard. The term should be replaced with “racial slurs,” or a similar phrase.

Example:
Scope and Content Note - This sound recording contains an interview of Frank Leeming and Gerald Mertens, who recount their experiences on the night of September 30 - October 1, 1962 on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, when James Meredith first arrived on that campus to register for classes. In the interview, Mertens and Leeming, friends who were both graduate students and teaching assistants in the psychology department, recount that they were in the Peabody Building overlooking the Lyceum and saw the fire marshals arrive. They heard racial slurs.
General Note - This archival description has been reviewed and revised as part of the NARA reparative description initiative on [mm/dd/yyyy]. The non-preferred term “Nigger” has been removed from the Scope and Content Note. Original archival records have not been altered.

Where does this apply?

This applies to changes in descriptions and authority records. See the Appendix: Reparative Description Preferred Terms for guiding principles and general guidance.

Rationale:

The term nigger has its roots to the Latin word niger, meaning black. The term Negro in English and several of the words for black in Latin languages like Spanish and French have the same root. It is probable that the term stems from a “phonetic spelling of the White Southern mispronunciation of the word Negro.”  Though not originally considered an ethnic slur, by the mid-19th century it had become an “opprobrious term, employed to impose contempt upon [blacks].”  Today, there is no doubt that it is one of the most harmful terms in the lexicon.

English speakers adopted Negro from Spanish and Portuguese (in which negro is the masculine word for the color black) in the mid-16th century. White people, especially enslavers and their supporters, used it to refer to Black people through the 19th century; the term was also used in now-debunked theories of race. During the early to mid-20th century, many Black Americans reclaimed the term as a preferred self-identifier, and many Black-led and Black-focused organizations incorporated it into their formal names. However, after the Black Power movement in the 1960s, the term fell out of favor and is now considered derogatory and offensive because of its associations with slavery, racism, and oppression against Black people.

For replacing negrito:
In Latin American countries and Spanish-speaking Caribbean countries the term Negrito can be used as an offensive diminutive Spanish-language term for Black person. The term Negrito can be used affectionately within a community and within families; those types of instances would be exceptions and require contextualization.

Resources:

Date added: July 19, 2022

Date updated: December 19, 2023

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