America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible

781 Pages·2009·6.17 MB·English

by  Stephan Thernstrom

Also by Stephan Thernstrom
Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City The Other
Bostonians:
Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis 1880–1970
Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (ed.) A History of the
American People, Vols. 1&2
Also by Abigail Thernstrom
Whose Votes Count?: Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights A
Democracy Reader: Classic and Modern Speeches, Essays, Poems, Declarations
and Documents on Freedom and Human Rights Worldwide (with Diane Ravitch)

TO MELANIE AND SAM
Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Copyright © 1997 by Stephan Thernstrom and Abigail Thernstrom
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any
form.
TOUCHSTONE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.
Maps by Jeffrey L. Ward
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Simon & Schuster edition as follows:
Thernstrom, Stephan.
America in black and white: one nation, indivisible /
Stephan Thernstrom and Abigail Thernstrom.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Afro-Americans—Civil rights—History—20th century. 2. Afro-
Americans—Social conditions. 3. United States—Race relations.
4. Racism—United States—History—20th century.
I. Thernstrom, Abigail M., date. II. Title.
E185.61.T45 1997 97–14078 CIP
305.896’073—dc21
ISBN-13: 978-1-4391-2909-8
ISBN-10: 1-4391-2909-6
Visit us on the Web:
http://www.SimonandSchuster.com
Acknowledgments
ABIGAIL THERNSTROM is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and for the
extraordinary freedom to write full-time, she could not be more grateful. For
their unwavering commitment to this seemingly endless project, particular
thanks is owed to two remarkable men: Lawrence Mone, the Institutes president,
and Roger Hertog, chairman of the board of trustees. They have provided a
warm and nurturing home for an academic who chose to leave the academy.
The John M. Olin Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the
Smith Richardson Foundation, the Earhart Foundation, and the Carthage
Foundation have also generously funded our research. Harvard University gave
Stephan Thernstrom sabbatical leave in the academic year 1992–1993, and in the
spring of 1993 Abigail Thernstrom was a visiting scholar at the Woodrow
Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., a wonderful academic retreat that owes
much to its director, Charles Blitzer.
Many friends and colleagues read the manuscript in whole or part. Douglas
Besharov, Martha Derthick, Howard Husock, Morton Keller, Randall Kennedy,
Andrew Kull, Stephen J. Markman, Walter Olson, Diane Ravitch, Charles
Shanor, Ricky Silberman, Alex Von Hoffman, and James Q. Wilson all offered
critical advice about specific chapters. Mary Ash, Henry Fetter, William
Guenther, Edward Lev, and Stephen Teles stared at every page and provided
highly detailed, invaluable feedback. We learned much from their painstaking
reviews. Thanks to Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity for
catching numerous small errors in the hardcover edition. Finally, perhaps our
greatest debt is to our son, Samuel Thernstrom, whose editorial skills are
daunting and whose wise counsel on many matters of substance made us think
and think again.
We were blessed with wonderful research assistants: Michael Burgmaier,
Andrew Hazlett, Kevin Marshall, Todd Molz, Joel Pulliam, and Romney
Resney. As a Harvard undergraduate, Joel worked for us part-time throughout
his college career; for more than a year Andrew devoted his life to our project.
Gina Hewes tabulated unpublished survey data that were important to our
analysis. We owe a special thanks to them. Our warmest thanks as well to our
literary agents, Glen Hartley and Lynn Chu, who have guided the book in
countless small ways, and to our superb editor at Simon & Schuster, Robert
Bender, who handled both book and authors with a firm and deft touch.
Inevitably, readers will wonder who wrote which chapters. This was truly a
collaborative project; every chapter was a joint effort. The order of our names on
the jacket has no significance; it resulted from the toss of a coin.
A.T.
S.T.
Lexington, Massachusetts
Contents
Preface
Introduction
PART ONE
History
CHAPTER ONE Jim Crow
CHAPTER TWO The Promised Land
CHAPTER THREE Remarkable Change
CHAPTER FOUR Amazing Patience
CHAPTER FIVE We Shall Overcome
CHAPTER SIX Coming Together—and Apart
PART TWO
Out of the Sixties: Recent Social, Economic, and Political Trends
CHAPTER SEVEN The Rise of the Black Middle Class
CHAPTER EIGHT Cities and Suburbs
CHAPTER NINE Poverty
CHAPTER TEN Crime
CHAPTER ELEVEN Politics
PART THREE
Equality and Preferences: The Changing Racial Climate
CHAPTER TWELVE With All Deliberate Speed
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Skills, Tests, and Diversity
CHAPTER FOURTEEN The Higher Learning
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Jobs and Contracts