Fifth of Blacks are Mulattoes

Posted in Articles, Census/Demographics, Media Archive, United States on 2021-11-01 15:14Z by Steven

Fifth of Blacks are Mulattoes

The Atlanta Georgian
1912-08-29 (Extra)
page 3, column 1
Source: Georgia Historic Newspapers

United States Census Shows Great Increase in Percentage of Mixed Element.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29.—A preliminary statement showing by states and geographic divisions the number and proportion of mulattoes among the negroes enumerated at the thirteenth decennial census of the United States, taken as of April 15, 1910, was issued today by Director [Edward Dana] Durand. of the bureau of the census.

The statement gives comparative figures for 1870 and 1890, no data being available for 1880 or 1900.

The term “mulatto,” as used in the census of 1910, includes all person, not full-blooded negroes, who have some proportion or perceptible trace of negro blood. The bureau of census does not regard the returns as being beyond question, since the classification of negroes as full-bloods or mulattoes was necessarily to a considerable degree dependent upon the personal opinion and conscientiousness of the enumerators. The results, however, are believed to approximate the facts for the country as a whole and for large aggregates.

How Percentage Grows.

In 1910 there were in continental United States, as a whole, 9,827,763 negroes, of whom 2,050,686, or 20.9 percent, were reported as mulattoes. In 1890 there were 1,132,060 mulattoes reported, or 15.2 per cent of all the negroes, and in 1870 a total of 584,049, or 12 per cent. Thus the figures, taken at their face value, show that about one-fifth of all the negroes in 1910 had some admixture of white blood, as against about one-eighth in 1870. It may be noted, however, that an increase in the mulatto element does not necessarily imply increasing intermixture with the whites, since the children born of marriages between blacks and mulattoes would be mulattoes, according to the census definition.

The percentage of mulattoes reported varies widely in different states and different sections of the country. In New England and in the East, North Central and Pacific divisions, about one-third of the negro population were reported as mulattoes, while in each of the three Southern divisions the proportion is only about one-fifth. In the Middle Atlantic division, for some reason, the percentage is not higher than it is in the Southern divisions. This may possibly bs due to the rapid growth of the negro population in that division through immigration from the South.

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