I was born in ‘67 and my birth certificate says black. My husband was born in ‘64 and his says negro. My mother was born in ‘42 and hers says colored. Nobody was African American until the late 80s or 90s.”
Sounds about right for legal documents, but the term Afro-American was used commonly (as was Black) in the late 60’s and early ‘70’s, of that I am certain. It changed at some point after that. I thought the change to African-American happened right afterward. Could be wrong about that...but I don’t know what could have been there in between...do you?
I checked with my mom and you’re right there were folks who called themselves afro American back in the 70s but they were activists, Elijah Muhamed followers or college people. The majority called themselves black until Jesse Jackson (I still wonder who made him king) made a speech demanding that the African American term be used.