One account holds that, before the Civil War, black, Negro, and colored were all neutral descriptors. When slavery ended, the term colored became widespread, superseded in popularity by Negro at the beginning of the 20th century. Although black re-emerged as the term of choice within the Black Panther and Black Power movements of the 1960s, a poll of the general populace taken by Newsweek in 1969 still ranked it third, behind Negro and colored. Not until the end of the 1970s did black become the preferred descriptor.

Today, one's choice of terminology — whether black, African-American, or person of color — may be interpreted as a political statement. Nonetheless, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has decided many times against changing its name in response to what it considers cyclical fashion. As their historian explains, the NAACP founders intended the phrase colored people to encompass persons of all shades other than white.