Negro

In 1914 W.E.B. Du Bois in The Crisis argues that capitalizing Negro asserts racial respect and public recognition against dismissive usage.
Author

W.E.B. Du Bois

Published

June 1, 1914

There are indications that the custom of extending courtesy to 150,000,000 of human beings by capitalizing the racial name which is most in use, is slowly increasing. The manager of the Associated Press writes us:

We have a broad rule to the effect that the word ‘Negro’ should be capitalized in our service, but we do not control the typographical appearance of the word as it appears in the newspapers.

A little more than a year ago we sent out 900 copies of a letter from Mr. Lester A. Walton, of the Age, to the newspapers in the Associated Press, and I think the practice of capitalizing the word Negro is very general so far as I have been able to observe.

Citation

For attribution, please cite this work as:
Du Bois, W.E.B. 1914. “Negro.” The Crisis 9 (2): 28–30. https://www.dareyoufight.org/Volumes/09/02/negro.html.