Still a Dream

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This is easily the most up-to-date and comprehensive review yet written of the changing social and economic status of Blacks in the United States during the critical years since 1960. It not only investigates how changes occurred, but also measures how much change took place and how public policy affected the transformations. To a field beset by shifting ideologies and superficial conclusions, Still a Dream brings the clarity and definition of a classic work.

The authors probe the critical areas of change affecting the black experience: employment, education, marital and family patterns, health, housing, and power and control over individual destiny. From the massive data available, they try to ascertain which government programs succeeded and which failed.

Great progress has been made, the authors demonstrate, largely as a result of governmental efforts on many fronts. But they argue that the “benign neglect” and adverse economic conditions of the 1970s have offset some of the gains of the 60s. Their conclusion is that a society where all men are created equal remains a dream, but that further progress can be made with a recommitment of the nation’s energies to equality.