“Blacks”

This NY Times article on programs to keep African-American men enrolled in college has an interesting sidebar on the Times’ site: the “Times News Tracker” says you would receive an email about the article if you had chosen one of the following four topics as one of your alerts:
Teachers and School Employees
Blacks
Equal Educational Opportunities
Education and Schools
Now, I’m really no expert on political correctness, so maybe this is just me, but isn’t it considered bad form these days to use the term “Blacks” as opposed to “African-Americans” or, failing that, “black people”? Just has a ring of Strom Thurmond about it, as in, “I’d like to get the news about the Blacks.”