Census 2000
AMEA is a member of the Subcommittee on the Census, an advisory board providing oversight and guidance to the Census Bureau. We provided and garnered significant support to the concept of multiethnicity that have resulted in the new format incorporated into the millenium census forms.
VICTORY!The Office of Management and Budget issued a new, revised Statistical Directive 15 on October 30, 1997, adopting the recommendations of the Interagency Committee to allow multiple checkoffs on government forms that ask for racial/ethnic information. This momentous change, proposed by AMEA since it was founded, effectively ends the infamous "one-drop rule" that had prevailed for many generations in the United States and had prevented the acknowledgment of people of multiracial parentage. Directive 15 will affect all agencies of government, including the Census, the public schools, the states and any other agency receiving federal monies. For the full text of the new Directive 15 see it published in the Federal Register.
AMEA's response to to Multiracial Census Data is detailed in this article.
Archived Bulletins of the Bureau of the Census (selected) and other Census links:- 1997 Archives
- 1998 Archives
- 1999 Archives
- Upgrading America's Conversations on Race: The Multi-Race Option for Census 2000 By Ramona E. Douglass
- Bureau of the Census Homepage has many valuable links
- Census Bureau Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) where the new option to report more than one "race" is addressed
