Colored Whistles takes place in 1936 and 1937 in and near Savannah, Georgia.  Some of the vocabulary may strike a painful chord from our nation’s history, especially in the South, but the terms used to describe Americans of African ancestry over the last 100 years reveal more of a struggle for identity than a campaign for political correctness.  During the Great Depression, the terms “Colored” and “Negro” were most common, but did they have negative connotations?  Not necessarily.  The following is a brief history of terms used to describe African Americans:

- Colonial Times to 1900- “Colored” was used in common and government vocabulary.  In 1909 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or NAACP was established.  Today they retain the name, and describe the term “colored” as antiquated but not derogatory.

- 1910-1960- “Negroes” was the official US Census designation.  In 1920 W.E.B. Du Bois championed the term “Negroes,” including it’s capitalization, which was formally adopted in 1930.  “Negro” was the preferred designation until 1966, when the “black power” movement began to use “Negro” as a term for someone who was a member of the establishment.

- 1970′s and 1980′s- “Negro” gained a strongly negative connotation, and most people polled preferred the term “black.”  Jesse Jackson championed the term “African American,” which did not meet with as much acceptance as “black,” but is considered an acceptable and often more official term.

- Today: Polls show most folks prefer the terms “black” or “African American.”

Regardless of the term, blacks and whites were legally and socially separated, especially in the South, until the 1960′s and the Civil Rights movement.  Did you know:

1) Until the 1970′s there were still anti-miscegenation laws on the books in some states prohibiting interracial marriage.

2) In 1868 John Menard of Louisiana was the first African American elected to Congress.  He never served because white members of Congress would never let him take his seat.

3) After the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution guaranteeing freedom from slavery and the right to vote were passed, Congress also passed a Civil Right Act in 1875.  It was then nullified by the Supreme Court in 1883 after a national backlash.

4) Black rights, especially at the polls, were severely limited by powerful Southern White Democrats and their more liberal counterparts in the north willing to compromise in order to pass legislation.  This lasted until FDR in the 1930′s, when compromises negatively affecting black people continued in Congress as northerners tried to appease Southern Democrats in order to pass New Deal legislation.

5) Representative (and later President) Lyndon B. Johnson (D- TX) introduced the Civil Rights Act of 1957.  It was watered down to appease Southern Democrats again until it simply created a Civil Rights Commission.  It did, however, pave the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that finally tore down the old Jim Crow Laws.

Given the racial tension and economic crises of the 1930′s, can you imagine the controversy if a white man fell in love with a “colored” woman, especially in the Deep South?  What would happen if a prominent Cotton Broker went missing, and the last person seen with him was a “negro”? You don’t have to wait long.  Colored Whistles is on its way to being published very soon!