Race, Reform and Rebellion

The original edition of this book reflected two perspectives, the thoughts of the social historian, and the commentary of the political theorist and social activist among African-Americans in the post-1975 period. This book continues these theories in the light of developments in the 1980s.

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The original edition of this book was written during the second year of the Reagan administration. It reflected two perspectives, the thoughts of the social historian, and the commentary of the political theorist and social activist among African-Americans in the post-1975 period. This book elaborates and expands these theories in light of the developments that have occurred in the 1980s. "Race, Reform and Rebellion" examines the change in the mid-1980s, with the eruption of Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988, the resistance to Reagan's policy of support for apartheid South Africa and the successful election of powerful black leaders in high office - the mayoral victories of Harold Washington in Chicago in 1983 and 1987, the New York mayoral election of David Dinkins and the gubernatorial victory of Doug Wilder in Virginia. Yet despite this rebirth of activism in the electoral system, the author argues that the trends contributing to social and economic deterioration of the black working class and lower-income communities continued to worsen.
Crack and cocaine produced a social devastation and violence between black Americans that had never before been witnessed. Single-parent households continued to proliferate; the number of African-American imprisoned in federal and state institutions exceeded the total number of black male college students; the black homeless population doubled in less than a decade. This book uses the information gathered from the years of the Reagan administration to define the national political culture and government of African-American society.