The Negro Family

The life and times of the thirty-second President who was reelected four times.

Published in 1939, this was one of the first titles to study the family life of African Americans. It begins with colonial-era slavery, extending through emancipation, to the impact of migration to northern and southern cities in the early-20th century.

An exhaustively researched history of black families in America from the days of slavery until just after the Civil War.

The Negro Motorist Green Book was a groundbreaking guide that provided African American travelers with crucial information on safe places to stay, eat, and visit during the era of segregation in the United States. This essential resource, originally published from 1936 to 1966, offered a lifeline to black motorists navigating a deeply divided nation, helping them avoid the dangers and indignities of racism on the road. More than just a travel guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book stands as a powerful symbol of resilience and resistance in the face of oppression, offering a poignant glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of the African American experience in the 20th century.

A social systems approach to the study of Negro family life -- Historical backgrounds of the Negro family -- Shadows of the plantation: contemporary social forrces affecting Negro family life -- Screens of opportunity: sources of achievement in Negro families -- Social status in the Black community -- The agony and the promise of social change -- Strategies of social reform.

As assistant secretary in the United States Department of Labor, Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote his report "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action" in 1965 as an internal document within the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson. It described alarming trends in black employment, poverty, and education and argued that they were exacerbated by black family instability. While Moynihan called for a jobs program to employ black men and stabilize families, the report was attacked as an attempt to blame blacks rather than the injustices in American society and widely vilified as sexist and racist in liberal circles. Now more than 40 years later, this issue of The ANNALS reviews this controversial yet "prophetic report" through a new lens, bringing together some of the country's foremost social scientists to consider how its arguments and predictions have fared in subsequent years and how the controversy surrounding it influenced social science in the late 20th century.