I'm old enough to remember the fight to get newspapers and magazines to capitalize the word "Negro".    The issue then and now was and is not so much what term is most accurate but what is polite and respectful (and of course what is not hurtful). I still use "Negro" and in my mind see the capital "N" every time I use it, because it was so important then. Seems pretty trivial now, but what was at stake then was claiming one's humanity. Still is.