As the 20th century ends, the fate of the African-American community remains a central and hotly contested focus of our national political discourse. Although American race relations, and the structure of opportunities facing most African-Americans, have dramatically improved in recent decades, daunting challenges and questions remain. This book examines the vexing reality of racial conditions in America today: improved overall, but far more complicated than they used to seem, and in important respects continually depressing. Thirteen provocative and timely essays--by some of the most highly respected experts in the nation--present thoughtful, and often-competing, assessments of African-American progress and of the prospects for its further enhancement. The authors examine the educational achievement disparities and education policy choices confronting black America; the track record of faith-based organizations in improving poor inner-city communities; the continuing impediments to residential integration; and data-based arguments for continuing affirmative action programs. The final chapter discusses the feasibility of "reaching beyond race" to build stronger political coalitions for racially-progressive policies. In addition to the editor, the authors include Edward G. Carmines, Linda Darling-Hammond, John J. DiIulio, Jr., Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Nathan Glazer, Jay P. Greene, Jennifer L. Hochschild, Christopher Jencks, Phillip Klinkner, Glenn C. Loury, Orlando Patterson, Paul E. Peterson, Meredith Phillips, Rogers Smith, Paul M. Sniderman, Abigail Thernstrom, and Stephan Thernstrom.

The African American experience in the U.S. has enriched American history in countless ways. The overriding theme of that experience, however, is one of exploitation and discrimination. How long will this go on? Are African Americans making progress toward complete incorporation into American society? The author of this fascinating volume addresses these issues, examines others' accounts, and offers an alternative approach to explaining the "African American predicament". Burman's analysis is a sobering one: No simple answer is available to the problem at hand. Some of the other issues the author addresses are the liberal tradition and Black progress, race and politics (with special emphasis on Atlanta, Georgia), Black nationalism, and Marxism and capitalism and how they relate to Black progress.

What is the meaning of blackness in Africa? This title tackles the question of race in West Africa through its post-colonial manifestations. Pierre examines key facets of contemporary Ghanaian society, from the pervasive significance of 'whiteness' to the practice of chemical skin-bleaching to the government's active promotion of Pan-African 'heritage tourism'.

That the Blood Stay Pure traces the history and legacy of the commonwealth of Virginia's effort to maintain racial purity and its impact on the relations between African Americans and Native Americans. Arica L. Coleman tells the story of Virginia's racial purity campaign from the perspective of those who were disavowed or expelled from tribal communities due to their affiliation with people of African descent or because their physical attributes linked them to those of African ancestry. Coleman also explores the social consequences of the racial purity ethos for tribal communities that have refused to define Indian identity based on a denial of blackness. This rich interdisciplinary history, which includes contemporary case studies, addresses a neglected aspect of America's long struggle with race and identity.

Racial oppression, the quest for freedom and the struggle for survival are the major aspects of African-American history. From the advent of the seventeenth century up to the twentieth century, African-Americans were exposed to various forms of oppression and discrimination that devastated their psyches and forced them to resort to escape mechanisms necessary for survival. Therefore, African-American writers, among whom Richard Wright (1908 - 1960) is a leading figure, have always been concerned with pinpointing the African-American predicament within the socio-political context of that history. The main objective of this book is to explore Wright's portrayal of the African-American predicament in the first half of the twentieth century and to psychoanalytically examine the impact of racial oppression on African-Americans, especially in Native Son (1940) and The Long Dream (1958).

This collection of Kofi Awoonor's writings comprises essays written over a period of three decades, and includes several previously unpublished pieces. According to the author himself: '[they] reflect a life-time of engagement in literature and politics, my two passions...'