Why is the term "people of color" still used?

[El_Johns]

4. When did it begin?

''I've seen 'people of color' used in English as early as a 1793 pamphlet about a yellow-fever epidemic,'' reports Prof. Wilson Moses of the Afro-American studies program at Boston University, but the citation is not at hand. ''It was probably used earlier than that, however. It later became an attempt by the free black community to dissociate itself from the Africans, and was replaced during the 1920's, when 'Negro' became the militant word to use. You will probably find 'people of color' rooted in French.''

Gail Anderson, at New York's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, agrees: French-speaking colonies were the first to use 'gens de couleur liberes', which translates as ''free people of color.''

She cites an 1818 pamphlet in English entitled ''Report of the Committee, to Whom was Referred the Memorial of the President and Board of Managers of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States.'' (Who-Whomniks who object to this use of their favorite word can write to the Committee, all of whose members are safely dead.)

Perhaps the association of 'free' with the phrase 'people of color' gave the phrase its positive connotation; speculation aside, today 'people of color' is well received by most blacks while 'colored people' is not.

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/20/magazine/on-language-people-of-color.html