Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Negro

NEGRO, the distinctively dark, as opposed to the fair, yellow, and brown varieties of mankind. Their original home was probably all Africa S. of the Sahara, India S. of the Indo-Gangetic plains, Malaysia and the greater part of Australasia. In early and middle Tertiary times this tract was probably

broken up by the sea and the disappearance of the region named by Sclater Lemuria. The negro is best represented by the Sudanese tribes in Africa. Varieties are found throughout that Continent, with differing characteristics. Negroid races are also found in Madagascar, New Guinea, and Melanesia. The classification of these is difficult, and ethnologists do not agree in relation to them. Indeed, knowledge as to the negro is relatively slight, although advances have been made in recent years.