Research Guides: HIST 491C / LAS 450/ AMS 490 / Africana 406: Race and Racism in the Americas (Spring 2025): The Problem with Primary Sources

Native American Rights

Address of the delegates of the Native American national convention

What Story (or Stories) do these documents tell?

Race Across Time in the US Census
Definitions of race vary across time, and are often inconsistent.
Rise of "Scientific" Racism
Note the massive grown in the early 20th century, declining as the century processes.
Measuring Race and Ethnicity Across the Decades: 1790–2010
Visualization of how the US government has official viewed race over time, showing it is not fixed or scientific.

Context Sources

HISTORICAL CENSUS STATISTICS ON THE FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES: 1850 TO 2000
Changes in demographics can influence views on race
The white scourge Mexicans, Blacks, and poor whites in Texas cotton culture
Studies shows on race is a construction, and people currently considered "white" --Irish, Italians, Eastern Europeans -- were not viewed a such until the early 20th century.
The wages of whiteness race and the making of the American working class
Ibid.
How Jews became white folks and what that says about race in America
ibid.

Taken as a whole, primary & secondary sources show that the very concept of race is largely constructed, albeit a construction with very real impacts.