meant to represent a slate-cleaning phenomenon when it comes to the institution of slavery, Jim Crow laws and oppression of blacks in American society. However, to deny such progress has occurred and continues to exist is to rob us of a chance of discovering what issues and challenges still need to be addressed for further progress. When it comes to economics, black poverty rates have greatly diminished through most of the 20th century “The black poverty rate fell from 87 percent in 1940 to 30 percent in 1970, and by 1995 had slipped further to 26 percent. This remarkable change can hardly be ascribed to anti-discrimination laws or affirmative action policies that weren’t implemented until the late 1960s” (Hood 3).
Many argue that since the white poverty rate is only 9 percent, that the wide disparity between blacks and whites is proof of racism and socioeconomic inequality (Hood 3). However, to deny that a 60% drop in the black poverty rate is not progress is to remain blinded by past history instead of focusing on the encouraging conditions of the present. After all, despite current debate over programs like affirmative action, there have been many attempts to help bridge the gulf between blacks and whites when it comes to socioeconomic disparity. Affirmative action, desegregation, busing, college admissions, redistricting, employment, poverty, housing and cultural efforts have all been made since civil rights legislation. Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom argue in their book, America in Black and White, that “The gap between blacks and whites has shrunk dramatically in many areas, from incomes and living standards to educational attainment. … To deny the past five decades of progress is to prevent serious debate about what remains to be done” (
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