Americans of African descent have preferred a succession of racial labels, often with newspapers playing a significant role in the evolution of those terms. In light of the effort since 1988 to replace "black" with "African-American" and because a similar discussion seems almost certain to occur again in the next generation or two, this research documents and analyzes the debate among journalists from 1967 through 1971 over which racial identifier to use -- "black" or "Negro."

   While the attitudes of individual publications and journalists are sprinkled throughout the literature on racial labeling, there has been no published analysis of the positions and rationales expressed in the journalism industry during that time. A qualitative analysis of Editor & Publisher, The Quill, Columbia Journalism Review, The Bulletin of the American Society of Newspaper Editors,  and the ASNE Proceedings  was conducted.

   This research found that, for the most part, the trade journals remained silent regarding which racial identifier to use. Of the five publications, three of them -- Columbia Journalism Review, The Quill, and the ASNE Proceedings  contained not one word on the subject during the time period studied. Even those that dealt with the topic -- E&P  and the ASNE's Bulletin  -- offered no official editorial positions. However, the rationales that were presented in E&P's  and The Bulletin's  coverage, commentaries and readers' letters mirrored the debate occurring in society. More than half of the discussion occurred in 1968, the same year in which the question was being most hotly debated elsewhere in the country.

   This paper concluded that the journalism industry as a whole neither led the way nor dragged behind public opinion on the question of whether "Negro" or "black" should be the preferred term of reference. Instead, the rationales presented in the industry's most popular forums for critical discussion of journalism issues paralleled society's general angst over how to define a race of people.