The 2010 U.S. Census recorded 3,328 black Americans with Whiteside as their last name. That represented 29% of the total of 11,334 entries.
This article tracks their numbers in the census since the Civil War. We also look at historic African American people named Whiteside.
We end with a review of early records of black military service in the United States.
After The Civil War
The 1870 census was the first survey after the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1850 and 1860, only free African Americans were recorded in the census. The many enslaved were omitted.
From 1870 onwards, all black Americans were included.
246 people named Whiteside were recorded in the 1870 census as black and 44 as mixed.
There was a total of 1,727 people with the name.
Whiteside In The 1900 And 1940 Census
The mixed category was dropped from the census in 1900, so we just need to look at the black numbers this time.
The 1900 census recorded 508 people with the last name Whiteside as black within a total of 3,267 that year.
By the way, the mixed category returned in the 1910 and 1920 censuses. It was dropped again in 1930, but replaced with extra categories for colored and non-white in a way that seems confusing now.
This changed again in 1940 and we can simply focus on one black category.
The 1940 census recorded 1,271 people named Whiteside as black within a total of 6,428.
Historic Black Figures With The Whiteside Surname
Here are some notable African Americans in history with Whiteside as their last name.
Lawrence Whiteside
- Born: 1937
- From: Boston, Massachusetts
- Died: 2007
Lawrence W. Whiteside, also known as “Sides,” was an American journalist. He was best known for his coverage of baseball, particularly the Boston Red Sox for The Boston Globe.
In 1971, Whiteside started The Black List to help sports editors find qualified black journalists to hire. He moved to Boston in 1973 and worked for The Boston Globe until the end of his career.
In those early years, he was the only black journalist covering Major League Baseball on a daily basis for a major paper.
In July 2008, he was honored with inclusion in the writers’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was the first African-American beat writer to receive the J. G. Taylor Spink Award.
He has also been inducted posthumously into the Hall Of Fame of the National Association Of Black Journalists (NABJ).
Here are some other members of the NABJ’s Hall Of Fame:
Whiteside In Black Military Records
Military records are a rich resource of for family history research. Here are examples of the Whiteside surname from three different military services:
- Buffalo soldiers
- Black civil war sailors
- Tuskegee airmen
Buffalo Soldiers
Five regiments for black soldiers were formed during the Civil War. They were known as the Buffalo Soldiers.
Their records are part of the national archive of military monthly returns. The information includes the year and place of birth, where they enlisted, their occupation, and their height.
One of the earliest military entries for Whiteside was in August 1893. James Whiteside was a Private in the Tenth Cavalry. He was stationed in August 1893 at Fort Buford, North Dakota.
One of the later entries was in March 1907. Oscar Whiteside was a Farrier and Blacksmith in the Ninth Cavalry.
If you are researching military ancestors, there is a free index of these records on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.
You have to create an account on either website, but you do not need to pay for the Buffalo Soldiers archive.
Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen were military personnel who served at the Tuskegee Army Airfield or related programs.
Nearly one thousand black pilots graduated from the Tuskegee Institute. They flew single-engine fighter planes or twin-engine bombers. 352 fought in combat.
Albert Whiteside graduated from the Tuskegee Institute in August 1945. He qualified as a bomber pilot. Albert was from San Antonio, Texas.