Race in America: The Struggle for Equality

Race in America is a multidisciplinary analysis of race and justice. The essays provide an historical retrospective,an assessment of where we are now and an outline of possibilities for the future. The major controversial issues in race relations, in the past and in the present, such as affirmative action, educational segregation, labour union racial practices, legal strategies for protest movements, the persistence of racism in American institutions and the sources of resistance to change are discussed at length. Contributors comment on many of the important events in recent American history as they examine the strategies and programmes, and the victories and defeats of the civil rights movement. The book aims to evoke the human experience of active participants in the history of race relations through personal accounts, such as those of Kenneth B. Clark, who in an autobiographical essay describes a long life devoted to the pursuit of racial justice, and Patricia J. Williams, who relates the contemporary struggles of African-American women to the historical context of slavery and its aftermath. This collection of essays intends to provide the basis for the critical insights and historical perspectives that are necessary for an understanding of one of the major issues still confronting American society - race and racism.