Paths Not Taken

Margo AndersonHistory & Urban Studies

University of Wisconsin –MilwaukeeSSHA 2010

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.

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”

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1860 Census

• 1860 instructions: Indians.-- Indians not taxed are not to be enumerated. The families of Indians who have renounced tribal rule, and who under State or Territorial laws exercise the rights of citizens, are to be enumerated. In all such cases write "Ind." opposite their names, in column 6, under heading "Color."

Emmanuel Celler, 1952

• “...It was never stated in any of the discussions of the Judiciary Committee of the House, where all immigration bills originate, not on the Floor of the House, that an application for a visa should include a statement of religion. I have personally participated in discussions of immigration statutes for thirty years and never has anyone voiced a statement that an application answering the question of his “ethnic classification” must state the fact that he is Jewish. I am a Jew and were I asked for my race and ethnic classification, I would say I am white and American. My grandparents were Jews and were born in Germany and their answers would have been that they were white and German....

Civil Rights Act of 1964• (g) If the court finds that the respondent has intentionally engaged in or is

intentionally engaging in an unlawful employment practice charged in the complaint, the court may enjoin the respondent from engaging in such unlawful employment practice, and order such affirmative action as may be appropriate, which may include reinstatement or hiring of employees, with or without back pay (payable by the employer, employment agency, or labor organization, as the case may be, responsible for the unlawful employment practice). Interim earnings or amounts earnable with reasonable diligence by the person or persons discriminated against shall operate to reduce the back pay otherwise allowable. No order of the court shall require the admission or reinstatement of an individual as a member of a union or the hiring, reinstatement, or promotion of an individual as an employee, or the payment to him of any back pay, if such individual was refused admission, suspended, or expelled or was refused employment or advancement or was suspended or discharged for any reason other than discrimination on account of race, color, religion, sex or national origin or in violation of section 704(a).

OMB 15

• Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity are promulgated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB, 1977)

• Race:- American Indian or Alaskan Native- Asian or Pacific Islander- Black- White

• Ethnicity:- Hispanic origin- Not of Hispanic origin

Census 2000• 10. What is this person's ancestry or ethnic origin?• [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]• [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]• (For example: Italian, Jamaican, African Am., Cambodian, Cape Verdean,

Norwegian, Dominican, French Canadian, Haitian, Korean, Lebanese, Polish, Nigerian, Mexican, Taiwanese, Ukrainian, and so on.)

• .....

• 28. Occupation• a. What kind of work was this person doing? (For example: registered nurse,

personnel manager, supervisor of order department, auto mechanic, accountant)• [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]• [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]• [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]

• The Evening Star, Washington, DC Monday April 6, 1970• Rules for Questioners

• Census Takers Face Race Listing Problem• By Philip Shandler. Star Staff Writer• In Louisiana, if you tell a census-taker you’re Creole, you’ll be listed as “Negro or

Black.” Elsewhere in the country, Creoles are classified as “Other.” • Persons who say their race is Jewish, Latin American, Moslem, Puerto Rican or

South African are tabulated as “White” – unless they see otherwise, or ask to be listed as “Black” or “Other.”

• Ocktoroons (sic) and Quadroons, on the other hand, are classified as “Negro or Black.”

• These are some of the refinements of racial enumeration contained in a Questionnaire Reference Book prepared for use by counters in the decennial census that began last week. Over 200 possible responses are dealt with.

• Census officials know that not all members of any racial, national or ethnic group are of the same color or want to be counted under a monolithic racial designation. …….

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

Current Patterns of Race and Nativity

Current Patterns of Race and Nativity