Counting RaceThe Census and the Classification

of Race and Ethnicity

Margo AndersonProfessor, History & Urban Studies

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Outline

• Census History: constitutional origins and functions; technical implementation

• Demographic history of US and implications of growth and change on the political system

• History of the Classification of Race and Ethnicity in the Census in the context of the history of the census and the demographic history of the US

Outline

• A disclaimer: for the sake of clarity, I ignore other issues of race classification, which I hope we can return to.

I. Building the American State

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Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3

• Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.

Importance of the Census

• The United States was the first nation in the history of the world to take a population census and use it to allocate seats in a national assembly according to population.

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Importance of the Census

• The U.S. has had one of the most demographically dynamic and diverse populations in the history of the world.

• The combination of the census as mechanism to adjust power and resources each decade, in conjunction with the demographic dynamism and diversity, made the census and the statistical system truly central to the functioning of the society and state

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Importance of the Census

• Dynamism is measured by patterns of population growth and change

• Diversity involves geographic diversity, group diversity, and different rates of change for different parts of the country, and among the groups.

• Hence three levels– Numerical growth– Geographic diversity– Racial and ethnic diversity

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Numerical Growth

From 3.9 million to 309 million: Growth

• 13 states have become 50 states.• House of Representatives grew from 65 to 435

members.• The average congressional district after the 2010

Census will be larger than the total population of any of the original 13 states in 1790.

• Growth has been differential: some states and local areas lose while others gain.

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Admitting States to the Union

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Growth in the Size of the House of Representatives

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Differential Population Growth: New York State Population and House Delegation, 1790-2010

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Projected Changes in House Seats after 2010

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Geographic Diversity

Geographic Diversity: Westward Expansion

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Geographic Diversity: The First Gerrymander, 1812

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Racial and Ethnic Diversity

http://census.gov/clo/www/redistricting.htmlhttp:/www.census.gov

http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-4.pdf http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/white_a.pdfhttp://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/white_a.pdfClick to see Table

Click to see Redistricting Info (PL-94-171)Click to see Census Bureau Web Home Page

Click to see Census 2000 Brief

http://www.census.gov/clo/www/redistricting.htmlhttp://www.census.gov/

http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-5.pdfhttp://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/black_a.pdfhttp://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/black_a.pdfClick to see Table

Click to see Redistricting Info (PL-94-171)Click to see Census Bureau Web Home Page

Click to see Census 2000 Brief

http://www.census.gov/clo/www/redistricting.htmlhttp://www.census.gov/

http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/his_lat.pdfClick to see TableClick to see Redistricting Info (PL-94-171)

Click to see Census Bureau Web Home Page

http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-3.pdfClick to see Census 2000 Brief

Civil War Demographic Map

How did the Census Measure and Classify Race and Ethnicity?

• Key Dates– 1787: Constitution– 1790: First Census– 1820-1870: Race, Abolition of Slavery and

Emancipation • 1820: First true measurement of “race” in the census• 1850: Individual level census: the start of the

expansion of the list of categories• 1865-1870: Abolition of Slavery and the Three Fifths

Compromise; Race in the 14th and 15th Amendments

How did the Census Measure and Classify Race and Ethnicity?

• Key Dates, cont.– 1870 and later: racializing Asians– 1900-1910: proposal to racialize immigrants – 1930: Census racializes Mexicans (only in 1930)– 1970: Mail census – self enumeration and thus

self definition of race – 1978-1980: Hispanic/Latino ethnicity defined by

OMB15– 1990s-2000: End of monoracial classification

Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3

• Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.

From constitutional categories to race categories, 1787-1820

• 1787: The original constitutional structure: a mixture of labor status and citizenship status– free, – slave,

• or

– Indians not taxed

From constitutional categories to race categories, 1787-1820

• 1790: The original implementation categories. For each household, the number of:– free white males 16 and over; – free white males under 16; – free white females; – other free people; – slaves

• The categories define: military capacity and apportionment under the 3/5ths Compromise

• The only race category is “white”

Evolution of the Categories

• The original conflation of labor status and citizenship status meant that “race” as a concept in the census is incoherent.

• The only category initially defined is “white.”• At the same time (1790), the first

naturalization statute restricted citizenship to “whites”

Changes

• 1820: Census statute first used of the term “free colored persons”

• First age and sex breakdowns of “slave” and “free colored persons” tabulations.

• Function: debates about gradual emancipation and the Missouri Compromise. Does the demographic trajectory of the free colored population resemble that of the slave population?

Changes• 1850: First individual level census, and thus

the first need to identify and designate the “race” of individuals

• Congress debated the census process at the same time they debated the Compromise of 1850.

• Issue was emancipation and future of slave labor system.

• Outcome: 2 census forms; one for slaves and one for free persons; different questions, but both asked for “race”

1850-1860 Census Innovations

• Slave Schedule race categories: Black or Mulatto

• Free Schedule race categories: White, Black or Mulatto

• 1860 Census added “Ind” as a race category for “Indians who have renounced tribal rule, and who under State or Territorial laws exercise the rights of citizens”

Wartime Amendments: 14th Amendment, Section 2, 1868

• Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State

Fifteenth Amendment, 1870

• The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

1870 to 1890

• Congress added Chinese to the race categories in 1870

• Congress added quadroon and octoroon to race categories in 1890

• Census office added Japanese to race categories in 1890

Draft Census Schedule in 1870 House Census Bill

1900-1930: Expansion of the Race Categories

• 1910: Senate proposal to change the question to “race or people” to racialize immigrants. “Mother tongue” question added as an alternative

• 1910: Other race category added to the form.• 1920 categories: W, B, Mu, In, Ch, Jp, Fil, Hin,

Kor, Ot• 1930 categories: W, Neg, Mex, In, Ch, Jp, Fil,

Hin, Kor, Ot

Categories, 1960-1990• 1960 White, Negro, American Indian, Japanese, Chinese,

Filipino, Hawaiian, Part Hawaiian, Aleut, Eskimo,(etc)

• 1970 White, Negro or Black, Indian (Amer), Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Korean, Other (print race)

• 1980 White, Negro or Black, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian(Amer), Asian Indian, Hawaiian, Guamanian, Samoan, Eskimo, Aleut, Other(specify)

• 1990 White, Black or Negro, Indian(Amer), Eskimo, Aleut, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Asian Indian, Samoan, Guamanian, Other API, Other race

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Current Classification of Race and Ethnicity

• “Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity,” are promulgated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

1978 OMB “Statistical Directive 15”• For the first time, the federal government

promulgated a government wide standard for the classification of race and ethnicity– Race:

- American Indian or Alaskan Native- Asian or Pacific Islander- Black- White

– Ethnicity:- Hispanic origin- Not of Hispanic origin

1997 Revision

• 1997 Revision of Statistical Directive 15:– Five categories for data on race:

• American Indian or Alaska Native• Asian• Black or African American• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander• White.

– Two categories for data on ethnicity: • Hispanic or Latino, and • Not Hispanic or Latino

1997 Revision: “More than one race”

• “…OMB accepts the … recommendations concerning reporting more than one race: – When self-identification is used, a method for

reporting more than one race should be adopted. – The method for respondents to report more than one

race should take the form of multiple responses to a single question and not a "multiracial" category.…

– Based on research conducted so far, two recommended forms for the instruction accompanying the multiple response question are "Mark one or more ..." and "Select one or more...." “

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• The Statistical Policy Directive can be tabulated in 63 census racial groups, that is the six main groups plus 57 multiple combinations.

• The 63 groups can be cross classified by Hispanic origin, allowing for 126 racial and ethnic categories.

Race and Ethnicity, continued

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2000 Demographic Results

• Race and ethnicity:– 75.1% White– 12.3% Black or African

American– 3.6% Asian– .9% American Indian,

Alaska Native– .1% Native Hawaiian or

other Pacific Islander

• Race and ethnicity… – 2.4% two or more races – 5.5% some other race– Hispanic population

grew 58% during the 1990s, to 12.5% of the population or 35.3 million.

Demography of Race and Ethnicity, 1790-Present

• The classifications and their changes provide one window into the issues of race in the census

• The changing proportions of the resulting race “groups” over the history of the nation provide another window.

1780 1860 1940 2020Year

70

80

90

100

Per

cent

Whi

te

Percent of US Population White

1780 1860 1940 2020YEAR

5

10

15

20P

erce

nt B

lack

/Afr

idan

Am

eric

an

Proportion of the US Population Black

Percent of US Population Neither White Nor Black

1780 1860 1940 2020YEAR

0

5

10

15

Per

cen

t Ne i

t her

Whi

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or B

lack

Percent of US Population Neither White Nor Black

The Changing Proportions of Races in the US Population, 1790-2010

Current Patterns of Race and Nativity

Current Patterns

of Race and Nativity

Geography of Race and Ethnicity

Civil War Demographic Map

Dedication

…corresponding with the official returns of the 8th Census

http://census.gov/clo/www/redistricting.htmlhttp:/www.census.gov

http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-4.pdf http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/white_a.pdfhttp://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/white_a.pdfClick to see Table

Click to see Redistricting Info (PL-94-171)Click to see Census Bureau Web Home Page

Click to see Census 2000 Brief

http://www.census.gov/clo/www/redistricting.htmlhttp://www.census.gov/

http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-5.pdfhttp://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/black_a.pdfhttp://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/black_a.pdfClick to see Table

Click to see Redistricting Info (PL-94-171)Click to see Census Bureau Web Home Page

Click to see Census 2000 Brief

http://www.census.gov/clo/www/redistricting.htmlhttp://www.census.gov/

http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/his_lat.pdfClick to see TableClick to see Redistricting Info (PL-94-171)

Click to see Census Bureau Web Home Page

http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-3.pdfClick to see Census 2000 Brief

http://www.census.gov/clo/www/redistricting.htmlhttp://www.census.gov/

http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/aian_b.pdfhttp://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/aian_b.pdfClick to see TableClick to see Redistricting Info (PL-94-171)

Click to see Census Bureau Web Home Page

Click to see Census 2000 Brief http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/c2kbr01-15.pdf

http://www.census.gov/clo/www/redistricting.htmlhttp://www.census.gov/

http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/asian_b.pdfClick to see TableClick to see Redistricting Info (PL-94-171)

Click to see Census Bureau Web Home Page

Click to see Census 2000 Brief http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/c2kbr01-16.pdfhttp://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/c2kbr01-16.pdf

Questions for the Future…

• What will we learn from Census 2010?• Is there a common understanding of what

Americans mean when they talk about race, ethnicity, citizenship and nativity?

• How much does the Census influence or determine those understandings?

• How much does the Census reflect those understandings?

Thank you…For more information:

Margo Anderson History & Urban Studies

University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee margo@uwm.edu