How the U.S. census has measured race over 230 years
On the first Monday in August 1790, just over a year after the inauguration of President George Washington, America’s first census marshals began knocking on doors. The new country’s constitution decreed that each state would be represented in Congress “according to their respective numbers.” A national enumeration was in order. And so, marshals took to the streets with schedules, quill pens and ink in hand. The census intended to enumerate every person in the original 13 states, three districts (Kentucky, Maine and Vermont) and one western territory (Tennessee). The Northwest Territory and American Indian communities were left out. The marshals asked the head of each household to record his or her name and the size of the household, and then placed the residents into one of three racial categories: “white” people, “other free people” and “slaves.” That first census tallied 3.9 million residents, approximately the number of people living in Los Angeles today. The U.S. population has expanded and diversified a great deal since that first count. And...