From the clerk's eye to your own pen: 1960, 1970, 2000 (United States, 1950–2010)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1950
SUMMARY8. From the clerk's eye to your own pen: 1960, 1970, 2000 (United States, 1950–2010) [Connections: Who decided who's Indian, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDThe Census Bureau's race-history tool: 1950, "Indian" became "American Indian"; 1960, "Self-response replaced enumerator reporting for most Americans"; 1970, "American Indian" became "Indian (Amer.)"; 2000, "The race question allowed reporting of more than one race"; 2010, "Mark x one or more boxes."
PATTERNFor 170 years (1790–1950) a stranger wrote down your race. Self-identification arrived only in 1960, and choosing both Black and American Indian only in 2000. Every pre-1960 family record a genealogist uses was filled in by someone else
LENS (WW9)The "Black" in grandmother's census line was the enumerator's word, not hers; 2000 was the first time the form let a family write both halves
OPENPull the national counts of "Black + American Indian" from the 2000, 2010 and 2020 censuses (needs a fetched Census table before quoting numbers)
SOURCEUS Census Bureau, "Measuring Race and Ethnicity Across the Decades: 1790–2010".