On July 4, 1986, the Organizing Committee for a National Association of MultiEthnic Americans was formed by representatives of local mixed-race groups, which emerged during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Many of these organizations, such as I-Pride (San Francisco Bay Area) and the Biracial Family Network (Chicago) formed after anti-miscegenation laws were struck down.
There are three main areas of AMEA’s work: maintenance of a resource network with a competency around mixed-race issues; facilitating collaboration between organizations dedicated to multiethnic, multiracial and transracial adoptee issues; and conducting needs assessments to identify the unmet needs of the mixed-community and develop recommendations to service providers.
[1] In 1989, AMEA issued a letter illustrating the concerns of their constituency to Congressman Thomas Sawyer, chairman of the House subcommittee monitoring the census.
While public opinion was diverse, initially many advocacy groups supported one "multiracial" box for mixed-race individuals.