Negro with a capital "N"

The Negro Branch of the Nashville, Tennessee Public Library, 1916-1949

...when the use of the word “Negro” was used to describe African Americans, it appeared in print overwhelmingly with a small “n”.  The idea was simple—to use a capital “N” would give a certain amount of respect....

The capital N was a rallying point, a common point of singularity for a large percentage of the Black population in the U.S.--and a very tiny percentage of the White population. We can deduce this because major papers such as the New York Times did not adopt a policy of using the capital “N” until 1930. And as a matter of fact the federal government documents printed “negro” small “n” beyond 1930, even though heavily lobbied to use the more enlightened and respectful “Negro”... As the editor of the Eatonton, Georgia, newspaper Messenger said when asked about the capitalization issue, that he would not be a party to it, because “it would lead to social equality."

...When W.E.B. DuBois wrote an article for the venerable American Historical Review, the editor, J. Franklin Jameson, refused to allow the use of DuBois' capitalized “Negro”. As the editor of the Dictionary of American Biography, Jameson refused the capital “N” in the publication until it was terminally embarrassed into doing so, in 1937...

And this doesn't even address the use of the reviled “n” word, which is a story unto itself. And in which there was also debate over the years as to whether or not that be capitalized.

Further details and source information in a post at Ptak Science Books.

Photo found at Librarianista.