Black Progress Since Civil Rights

The issue of black progress in America since the passing of Civil Rights legislation during the 1960s is a sensitive one because for too long issues of black versus white have remained a subject only for the intellectual elite with little public dialogue open to the issue. Because of this, different schools of thought have emerged. On the one hand, we have a school that argues that little progress has been made “They insist racism rules, black folks can’t catch a break and what passes for good news is nothing more than white folk becoming cleverer about masking their unrelenting racism” (Raspberry 1). This school of thought views talk of black progress as virtual heresy. On the other hand, we have those who insist that despite issues and challenges still facing black Americans, there is reason to cheer over the significant progress black Americans have made since the passage of Civil Rights legislation “The descendants of blacks who were excluded by segregation in 1900 now have full civil rights and are surging into the middle classes and upper ranks of society” (Barone 3). This analysis will focus on the latter school of thought, elaborating on significant socioeconomic and political gains made by black Americans in the past thirty five years. Included in the analysis will be the fact that so many blacks have experienced a higher socioeconomic reality that urban city ghettos have become even more di

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nges in white attitudes and race relations in America. Instead of recognizing real gains they focus on a past time of oppression versus “a dawning of a new era of hope, opportunity and measurable progress” (Raspberry 2). Socioeconomic and political access and representation are often considered the hallmark measures of equality or progress in society. When it comes to politics, blacks have also made dramatic gains since the era of civil rights legislation. Black advocates do have a legitimate point when they argue there is still a long way to go in achieving socioeconomic and political parity with whites in modern America. However, real progress has been made in both areas. Yet, as we see with the following statistic concerning black political progress, critical areas that represent challenges like more parity in educational opportunity are exposed “The number of African-Americans in Congress rose from 4 to 41 between 1965 and 1995. This is a remarkable shift; but less than a fifth of the congressional black caucus in 1995 had attended an elite institution” (Thernstrom and Thernstrom 6). In the wake of the progress of black Americans over the past four decades, a black academic right has evolved that is often viewed as a
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Approximate Word count = 1985
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)