Blacks And The Quest For Economic Equality

The civil rights movement of the 1960s improved the political and legal status of African Americans, but the quest for equality in employment and economic well-being has lagged behind. Blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to be employed in lower-paying service jobs or to be unemployed, are three times as likely to live in poverty, and have a median household income barely half of that for white households. What accounts for these disparities, and what possibilities are there for overcoming obstacles to black economic progress? This book seeks answers to these questions through a combined quantitative and qualitative study of six municipalities in Florida. Factors impeding the quest for equality include employer discrimination, inadequate education, increasing competition for jobs from white females and Latinos, and a lack of transportation, job training, affordable childcare, and other sources of support, which makes it difficult for blacks to compete effectively. Among factors aiding in the quest is the impact of black political power in enhancing opportunities for African Americans in municipal employment. The authors conclude by proposing a variety of ameliorative measures: strict enforcement of antidiscrimination laws; public policies to provide disadvantaged people with a good education, adequate shelter and food, and decent jobs; and self-help efforts by blacks to counter self-destructive attitudes and activities.

"An analysis of economic issues and political conditions for black Americans, based on quantitative and qualitative data from six Florida cities"--Provided by publisher.

The civil rights movement of the 1960s improved the political and legal status of African Americans, but the quest for equality in employment and economic well-being has lagged behind. Blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to be employed in lower-paying service jobs or to be unemployed, are three times as likely to live in poverty, and have a median household income barely half of that for white households. What accounts for these disparities, and what possibilities are there for overcoming obstacles to black economic progress? This book seeks answers to these questions through a combined quantitative and qualitative study of six municipalities in Florida. Factors impeding the quest for equality include employer discrimination, inadequate education, increasing competition for jobs from white females and Latinos, and a lack of transportation, job training, affordable childcare, and other sources of support, which makes it difficult for blacks to compete effectively. Among factors aiding in the quest is the impact of black political power in enhancing opportunities for African Americans in municipal employment. The authors conclude by proposing a variety of ameliorative measures: strict enforcement of antidiscrimination laws; public policies to provide disadvantaged people with a good education, adequate shelter and food, and decent jobs; and self-help efforts by blacks to counter self-destructive attitudes and activities.

Race relations in the United States have long been volatile - marked on the one hand by distrust and violence, but tempered on the other by periods of conciliation, integration and relative harmony. This path-breaking blend of history, sociology, political science and economics argues that the key factor determining the quality of race relations is economic: When economic equality spreads so do social and political equality. Conversely, economic downturns and widening income disparities promote political inequality, polarizing blacks and whites. To support this provocative thesis the author examines key events and eras in American history since the Reconstruction - particularly the black migration and the New Deal policies of the interwar years, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, and the rise and decline of affirmative action in the late twentieth century. He also analyzes the racial policies and politics of the major political parties and shows how they "played the race card" to win support.

Shortly before his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. called for a radical redistribution of economic and political power to transform the whole of society. In 1967, he envisioned and designed the Poor People’s Campaign, an interracial effort that was carried out after his death. This campaign brought together impoverished Americans of all races to demand better wages, better jobs, better homes, and better education. King and the Other America explores this overlooked and obscured episode of the late civil rights movement, deepening our understanding of King’s commitment to social justice and also of the long-term trajectory of the civil rights movement. Digging into earlier radical arguments about economic inequality across America, which King drew on throughout his entire political and religious life, Sylvie Laurent argues that the Poor People’s Campaign was the logical culmination of King’s influences and ideas, which have had lasting impact on young activists and the public. Fifty years later, growing inequality and grinding poverty in the United States have spurred new efforts to rejuvenate the campaign. This book draws the connections between King's perceptive thoughts on substantive justice and the ongoing quest for equality for all.

The struggles of the 1960s brought about far-reaching changes, not only an end to legalized segregation and discrimination nationwide, but a change in the consciousness of both whites and blacks. After nearly three decades, however, black hopes for equality, particularly in the economic realm, are frustrated by political reaction and economic pressures. This collection of essays looks at the history of the black struggle and at the policies and political and economic realities that have brought progress to a near standstill. In an introductory chapter, Julian Bond reviews two and a half decades of black struggle, giving particular attention to the shifting fortunes of the movement for black freedom and equality and the recent worsening of black poverty relative to the condition of the affluent majority. Several authors focus on the leadership of the civil rights movement, including neglected women leaders, and the history of the movement as a whole. Others analyze the experience of desegregation as it has affected both whites and blacks. Additional areas explored are the continuing problem of de facto segregation in schools, the condition of blacks in the workplace, and attempts to improve the situation of inner-city black youth. The volume concludes with an examination of options and strategies for reanimating the black agenda in the coming decades. The work of a distinguished group of scholars in the field, this book will be of interest to anyone concerned with race relations, policy issues, the civil rights movement, and U.S. political and social history.

In Collective Courage, Jessica Gordon Nembhard chronicles African American cooperative business ownership and its place in the movements for Black civil rights and economic equality. Not since W. E. B. Du Bois’s 1907 Economic Co-operation Among Negro Americans has there been a full-length, nationwide study of African American cooperatives. Collective Courage extends that story into the twenty-first century. Many of the players are well known in the history of the African American experience: Du Bois, A. Philip Randolph and the Ladies' Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Jo Baker, George Schuyler and the Young Negroes’ Co-operative League, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panther Party. Adding the cooperative movement to Black history results in a retelling of the African American experience, with an increased understanding of African American collective economic agency and grassroots economic organizing. To tell the story, Gordon Nembhard uses a variety of newspapers, period magazines, and journals; co-ops’ articles of incorporation, minutes from annual meetings, newsletters, budgets, and income statements; and scholarly books, memoirs, and biographies. These sources reveal the achievements and challenges of Black co-ops, collective economic action, and social entrepreneurship. Gordon Nembhard finds that African Americans, as well as other people of color and low-income people, have benefitted greatly from cooperative ownership and democratic economic participation throughout the nation’s history.

Black Politics in a Time of Transition appears at an historic point in American politics. From the vantage point of the maturation of the study of black politics, this volume provides a framework for current and future discussion of this critical time. Incorporating the expanded stream of work on today's black politics, this latest volume of the National Political Science Review is also a new assessment of the period from which the study of black politics emerged. Selected for this volume are chapters of contemporary relevance alongside those that reconsider an early twentieth- century pioneer in black politics and history, W. E. B. Du Bois. The volume also includes a robust book review section that spans a range of topics from the South's new racial politics to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This volume features work by varied and accomplished scholars, including "Black Power in Black Presidential Bids From Jackson to Obama," Katherine Tate; "'But I Voted for Obama': Melodrama and Post-Civil Rights, Post-Feminist Ideology in Grey's Anatomy, Crash, and Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential Bid," Nikol Alexander-Floyd; "Afro-Brazilian Black Linked Fate in Salvador and Sao Paulo, Brazil," Gladys Mitchell; and "Beyond Tactical Withdrawal: An Early History of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists," Joseph P. McCormick, II.