In 1790, the first federal population census was taken in the United States. Enumerators were instructed to classify free residents as white or "other." Only the heads of households were identified by name in the federal census until 1850. Native Americans were included among "Other;" in later censuses, they were included as "Free people of color" if they were not living on Indian reservations. Slaves were counted separately from free persons in all the censuses until the Civil War and end of slavery. In later censuses, people of African descent were classified by appearance as mulatto (which recognized visible European ancestry in addition to African) or black.

By 1990, the Census Bureau included more than a dozen ethnic/racial categories on the census, reflecting not only changing social ideas about ethnicity, but the wide variety of immigrants who had come to reside in the United States due to changing historical forces and new immigration laws in the 1960s. With a changing society, more citizens have begun to press for acknowledging multiracial ancestry. The Census Bureau changed its data collection by allowing people to self-identify as more than one ethnicity. Some ethnic groups are concerned about the potential political and economic effects, as federal assistance to historically underserved groups has depended on Census data. According to the Census Bureau, as of 2002, over 75% of all African Americans had multiracial ancestries.

Answer this series of questions:

1. How many ways were people of African Descent classified in 1790?
2. What about free residents?
3. Unitil 1850 which group had their names included?
4. Who took the count?
5. When did the US start the census?
6. At first how were Native Americans classes?
7. and later?
8. How were people with African blood classed?
9. How many ways?
10. what were they?
11. How many African Americans choose to include more than one race?
12. What does federal assistance depend on?
13. Are people worried about this?
14. Which groups depend on this aid?
15. when did it include over 12 categories?
16. Does this suggest a shift in thinking?
17. about what?
18. What kind of laws could have contributed?
19. When were these laws from?
20. What country is this census from?
1. Just one
2. Also only one classification
3. Heads of households
4. Enumerators
5. In 1790
6. "Other"
7. as "Free people of color"
8. By appearance
9. Two
10. Mulatto or black
11. 75%
12. On Census data
13. Yes
14. Historically underserved ones
15. By 1990
16. Yes
17. ethnicity
18. immigration
19. the 1960s
20. The United States