232 Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the PresentReuter, Edward Byron. Th e Mulatto in the United States. Boston:
Richard G. Badger, 1918.
Williamson, Joel. New People: Miscegenation and Mulattoes in the
United States. New York: Free Press, 1980.Names Debate
Th e names debate refers to the confl ict among African
Americans over which term they wanted to use to describe
themselves racially. Many terms—both positive and derog-
atory—were used to describe people of African descent in
the United States, including “Afric,” “African,” “colored,”
“black,” “Niger,” “Negro,” and so on.
Yet by the 1830s, African Americans sought to exer-
cise self-determination and wanted to name themselves
on their own terms. Th us, the names debate began in 1835
when William Whipper, a wealthy Philadelphian, intro-
duced a controversial resolution at the fi ft h gathering of
the Colored Convention. Prior to 1835, most black orga-
nizations used “African” as a way of demonstrating their
distinct identity and cultural pride. However as opposition
to African colonization prompted black activists to claim
America as their homeland, some leaders pondered the
ramifi cations of their naming tradition. In particular, men
such as William Whipper argued that black people should
break down the barriers of racial separation by removing
racial designations and eradicating separate black organi-
zations and institutions. Th is belief led Whipper to propose
that African Americans should abandon the use of the term
“colored” and remove the term “African” from their organi-
zational titles.
Not surprisingly, there was signifi cant debate over
Whipper’s proposal at the 1835 Colored Convention. How-
ever, the resolution fi nally passed. In the end, however, it is
important to note that African Americans were reluctant to
abandon the use of racial designations entirely. Although
they eventually ceased using the term “African,” they re-
tained the use of “colored” as well as other racial signifi ers.
Refl ecting their early commitment to Black Nationalism,
most black activists were not yet ready to adopt Whipper’s
vision of complete assimilation into American society, and
therefore, black leaders continued to create and support
separate black organizations and institutions long aft er the
1835 convention. Th ey supported their decision so stronglymajority of interracial sex consisted of exploitative unions
between white male slave owners and their black female
slaves (whereas sex between white women and black men
was strictly forbidden). To have a mulatto child in a white
family was scandalous and threatened the entire ideological
logic of the slave system. A mixed-race child in the slave quar-
ters, however, was not only tolerated but oft en considered an
asset. Either way, light-skinned mulatto children were oft en
given special privileges: positions as “house servants,” educa-
tion, training, and access to white culture, to name a few.
Th e Civil War, due to increasing Southern defense of
slavery and the one-drop rule, created a climate of dis-
trust and hostility toward free mulattos and permanently
altered the relationship between whites and mulattos in
many places. Free mulattos sought alliances with blacks and
shift ed their sense of identity accordingly—this alliance,
though not unproblematic, continued well into the mid-
20th century. Because of the many privileges mulattos were
allowed prior to the Civil War, many emerged as leaders of
Southern blacks through Reconstruction and into Jim Crow
and served critically important roles in the black struggle
(e.g., see prominent mulattos such as W. E. B. Du Bois,
William Monroe Trotter, James Weldon Johnson, A. Philip
Randolph, and Walter White). Interestingly, throughout
the Harlem Renaissance, the work of many mulatto artists,
musicians, dancers, poets, and writers represented the ar-
ticulation of the black experience (e.g., Zora Neale Hur-
ston, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Jean Toomer)
to white audiences.
A generation aft er the passage of Loving v. Common-
wealth of Virginia (1967), which made laws prohibiting
miscegenation illegal, by the mid-1980s, the United States
had seen the rise of multiracial, biracial, and mixed-race
individuals and groups of individuals demanding a change
in the way that the United States racially classifi es its citi-
zens. Dubbed by some scholars as the “neo-mulattos,” the
multiracial movement is attempting to deal serious blows
to the one-drop rule; however, the reasons behind these
movements and the implications for the struggle for black
liberation in the United States remain little understood.
See also: Amalgamation; Miscegenation
David L. BrunsmaBibliography
Davis, F. James. Who Is Black: One Nation’s Defi nition. University
Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991.