[78-L] Racially Offensive Language/Robeson.^

[Donna Halper]

And Julian wrote--
>==============
>I may be wrong but I don't recall hearing the term "The Holocaust"
>before the TV series.

True that.  Nobody in the 1930s  or 1940s referred to it that 
way.  In fact, a well-respected Boston author and talk show host, 
Paul Benzaquin, wrote a book about the Cocoanut Grove Fire and called 
it "Holocaust," which meant "a huge fire" back then.  When the book 
came out for re-issue in the 70s, he had to change its title because 
the meaning of the word had completely changed.

The black newspapers of the early 1900s referred to black people as 
"tan" or "sepia" or "race men" (and women).  Sometimes they used 
negro.  Sometimes colored people.  There were many terminologies, and 
no one word seemed to be preferred.  I've even found a number of uses 
of "Afro-American," since the black newspaper from  Baltimore used that name.