Blacks and the Quest for Economic Equality

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Preface

Thirty years ago, I began the exploration of race, politics, and change in six southern (Florida) communities. In Blacks and Social Change: Impact of the Civil Rights Movement in Southern Communities (Princeton University Press, 1989), I detailed transformations that resulted following the 1960s political mobilization of blacks, including the election of African Americans to public office, improvements in municipal services, and the desegregation of schools and public accommodations. Now, in the latest investigation of these six cities, Barbara Rienzo and I look at the issue of most importance to African Americans more recently—the betterment of economic (primarily employment) conditions.

In my first book, I surmised that greater black political participation helped African Americans in the South by removing legal barriers, providing greater status, and enhancing basic public services such as street paving, recreation, and police protection. I also suggested, however, that the larger and more complex battle would be the quest by blacks for economic equality with whites. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “Jobs are harder and costlier to create than voting rolls” (King 1976, 6). Thus, the focus of this work is to explore the employment situation of blacks in the new millennium and the factors that have influenced how blacks are faring economically.

This study is unique in several respects. First, it blends both quantitative and qualitative data that triangulate our findings. The more than four hundred personal interviews (we completed the vast majority!) provide a rare entr&eacute;e into blacks’ and whites’ perspectives as they deal with the issue of race and employment within southern communities. Second, we closely look at the policies and problems not often investigated in context yet related to jobs and African Americans, including the salient issues of affirmative action, interminority competition, inequities in public education, and cultural diversity programs.

Third, this study focuses on typical communities in the South. While this region encompasses more than half the African American population, race and economics in the South are sorely neglected by both scholars and policymakers. Finally, unlike most academic tomes on race-related issues, this study conclude with a discussion of prescriptions for change that, based on our findings, have the best chance of improving the economic status of African Americans through employment opportunities.

This study could not have been completed without the funding bestowed by The Russell Sage Foundation. For this, we are most grateful. We would also like to acknowledge the work of two graduate research assistants who assisted with a portion of the fieldwork for this study: Shannon Tynes Michael and Phil Gold.

Jim Button

May 2005

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