academic struggles

So, in my dissertation, I have a short section on Zora Neale Hurston and I'm having a lot of trouble with using the word negro. While it is a term that Hurston uses and is historically appropriate to what she was seeking, it still is kind of twinge worthy for me as a word, given the way in which it represents a phase of American history marked by official disenfranchisement of African American voters and the perpetration of horrible acts of intimidation and violence upon them. As is, I use the term but have a footnote about why. What do people think about this as an approach?