Well, thurg, ya got me there :o)

I was dating those terms from the time of the 1960s USA Black power movement which started [guess when!]in the mid to late 1960s.

But yes, I'll agree that there was a great deal of back & forthness among Black folks not as much about whether "Negro" should be scrapped, but whether the correct formal group referent should be "Afro-American" or "African-American". I also recall seeing some print articles that used "Afri-American" and probably other variants, though I don't recall ever hearing that referent used in spoken conversations.

Wikipedia has this to say in their article about the group referent "African American":

"The term "African American" has been in common usage in the United States since the late 1980s, when greater numbers of African Americans began to adopt the term self-referentially. Malcolm X favored the term "African American" over "Negro" or "Black" and used the term at an OAAU (Organization of Afro American Unity) meeting in the early 1960s, saying, "Twenty-two million African-Americans – that's what we are – Africans who are in America."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American

I pretty much agee with the information in that article. IMO, it's a very interesting read. [and no, I didn't contribute to that article.]

All this to say, it is probably more accurate to state that most African Americans have been calling ourselves African Americans as a formal referent and Black as an informal referent for 30 years and not 40. But it certainly has been more than 10 years that the Afrian American group referent has been consistently used [by us and through example and pressure, by the 'mainstream' USA media].

Thanks thrug, for asking me for that clarification.

Btw, it occurs to me that I wrote a post on another Mudcat thead about why "African American" became the commonly accepted group referent [among Black Americans] for "Black Americans".

And since you asked ;0) here's a slightly excerpted repost of that comment:

Subject: RE: BS: Cross cultural marriages
From: Azizi - PM
Date: 24 Jan 05 - 06:59 PM

Though this is definitely a digression from the heart of the topic of cross cultural marriages, I would like to offer an abbreviated version of my opinion of why "African American' won the contest for the best group referent for Black people in the United States...

Once upon a time, as I'm sure that you're aware, some people of African descent in the United States used the referent 'African' to describe themselves. As evidence of this, one can point to the Protestant denominations AME and AME Zion [African Methodist Episcopal and African Methodist Episcopal Zion]

In the mid to late 1960s the referents for Black Americans were really in flux. During this time, a number of African countries were becoming independent nations. For the first time for many of us, the continent of Africa, and African cultures were getting some favorable press. For a growing number of Black Americans it was a matter of pride to be identified with historical & contemporary mother Africa.

At that time in the United States the 'melting pot theory' was being ditched for the 'multi-cultural' mosaic theory on how American culture is shaped. As a result in this paradigm shift the mass media was paying more attention to the positive contributions that each hypenated ethnic group in the United States provided to the whole..

If was therefore not surprising that eventually the term 'Afro-American' was added to the list of hyphenated Americans [although as per Americans' custom to simplify things, the two words came to be used without the hypens]. So you heard more about "Italian Americans", "Asian Americans", "Native Americans", and "Irish Americans". And you also heard about "European Americans", although I believe California's Latino Americans started using the group referent "Anglo American" instead of "European American".

Then it was that some formerly Negro, formerly colored people argued that we should just use "black" or "black Americans' as our formal group referent. But there was a real problem with this referent. Notice that all the group names but 'black' were capitalized. Did the use of the small 'b' connote a lessened status?...Many thought it could be interpreted this way. So though "black Americans'was still used informally {often with the 'b' capitolized, the search was still on for a formal group referent.

For a while "Afro-American" appeared to be the winner. But then someone noticed that the beginning word for all these hyphenated names except 'Afro' referred to a geographical place-a homeland. Others noticed that 'afro' spelled with a small 'a' was the name of a natural hairstyle that was gaining prominence among segments of Black Americans at that time. For sure brothers and sisters didn't want their formal group name confused with the name of a hairstyle...No, the group name had connote pride and promote a connection with the glories of Africa past and the promise of Africa now and in the future..

What name would it be? Why, African American of course the leaders exclaimed! And the people followed their leaders lead as people are usually do.   

So that was how "African American" won the what-to-call-us contest. And that is why African American remains the formal referent for us still today.

thread.cfm?threadid=77610#1386594 Cross-Cultural Marriages