Thus limited, blacks in the early 1940s trailed far behind whites on virtually every important social and economic indicator. Blacks attended poorly equipped schools and for only half as many years as did whites. The average black male earned less than half as much as his white contemporary. He labored, more often than not, in the most menial and low-wage jobs and received less pay than comparable whites, even when doing the same work. Such was the custom in 1944.

Fifty years later, in 1994, remnants of white supremacist ideology continue to color the thoughts and behaviors of whites and blacks alike, but the most pernicious customs are largely outdated and most are violations of federal law. Further, beyond formal legal structures, the civil rights and black power movements have achieved for African Americans a presence in public affairs and elective offices that few could have conceived of at the time that Myrdal wrote.

Still, legacies from three centuries of enforced social and economic subordination abound: Economic advantage and disadvantage still correlate with race much more than might happen by chance; social relations between the races remain clumsy, suspicious and fragile. Moreover, tenets of conventional wisdom regarding the causes of racial economic inequality, some of which are increasingly obsolete as contemporary explanations, are legacies of the past as well.

Measurable racial disparities in skills and apparent commitment to work are complex manifestations of deep-rooted historical and contemporary social forces that produce self-fulfilling prophecies of poor performance for many African-American youth and adults alike. These forces include the demeaning and discouraging messages that society delivers to black males as a group and the long tradition of excluding black workers from many positions for which they have had the qualifications. Discouraging messages that communicate lack of welcome and low expectations to black male youth, buttressed by inadequate schools and talk "on the street" that the economic game is "rigged," foster skeptical and often half-hearted engagement by many black youth, and some adults as well, in mainstream activities that purport to prepare them for expanded opportunity.

Substantially reducing racial disparity among young adults in the labor market requires supporting and holding accountable the institutions that should inspire, educate and nurture African-American children. In addition, it requires continued vigilance against racial bias in the world of work which, when it happens, serves to validate young people's expectations that the game is rigged against them even when they do their part to prepare and perform. Given the complexity of the social forces that affect the acquisition of skill and success in labor markets, and given that social forces are malleable, I reject any assertion that the remaining differences in skill among blacks and whites are genetically predetermined (as some pundits are again suggesting) or that society should acquiesce and be content to tolerate them.

World War II opened new employment opportunities for African-Americans. It brought growth in earnings that did not disappear when the war was over. While the causes shifted, the positive momentum of progress continued from the 1940s through the 1960s as younger blacks led a mass migration away from the rural South. Some settled in southern cities; others migrated farther to the cities of the North where, until the mid-1970s, economic opportunities were far superior.

Thanks to the civil rights movement, economic progress for blacks accelerated in the South after the mid-1960s. For the first time, more blacks returned to the South than left it during the 1970s. In addition to its many other achievements, the civil rights movement was a major force behind decisions by Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson to enact Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Executive Order 11246. Both of these measures apparently helped to sustain income growth for blacks relative to whites well into the mid-1970s. These civil rights measures helped to ensure, for example, that blacks would receive the growth in earnings that they deserved, commensurate with the gains that they were achieving in academic attainment. Blacks gained on whites in educational attainment and in various measures of school quality through the entire period after 1940. Researchers agree that this probably accounts for between one-quarter and one-half of the progress that blacks achieved in closing the gap in earnings, even without explicitly accounting for civil rights pressures. After the mid-1970s, progress toward closing the gap in earnings stopped. In fact, for younger blacks, the trend reversed. Disparity grew.

A number of economic shifts have been identified as contributing factors by other authors. They include racially disparate shifts in industry and occupational employment patterns, among others, that contributed to growth in racial disparity among young workers after 1975. Several may have common roots in the growing value of skill and in reduced federal pressure for affirmative action. Several, such as changing technology, the falling minimum wage, declining unionism, and increased immigration, help to account for why the value of skill has grown both within and across racial groups.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that basic skills for black high school students have been rising relative to those for whites since at least the early 1970s. Hence, the increase from minus six percent (in 1975) to minus sixteen percent (in 1989) in the disparity in wage rates between young blacks and whites (as measured without controlling for test scores) is probably not because blacks' skills have deteriorated. Instead, either the value of skill rose after 1975 faster than the black-white gap in skill closed thus inflating the financial significance of remaining skill differences or blacks in 1975 were earning more than whites who had similar qualifications and the apparent erosion of earnings after 1975 was simply bringing them back in line. Either or both explanations may have some merit.

Based on the evidence, these explanations for what happened after 1975 seem more plausible than one that relies on an increase in discrimination.

Therefore, while we note the continuing importance of discrimination and endorse the vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws, our findings point to other explanations for the increase in disparity after 1975. Similarly, black-white differences in employment levels for men with 13 or fewer years of schooling reflect various skill and behavioral differences, including a greater propensity to resign from occupations that require more skill. The latter pattern may be a response to racial bias in the social relations of work for more complex occupations. It warrants further investigation.

Most important, disparities in opportunity may occur before young people even enter the labor market in the provision of schooling and other resources that influence skill-building and the socialization of youth. These include not only the current disparity in the quality of schooling and recreation and discouraging messages from society at large, but also racial inequities in past generations of institutions that prepared parents and grandparents for their roles as teachers and care givers. Certainly, efforts to fight unfair racial bias in hiring and promotion must continue. However, interventions to strengthen schools, families, and other institutions that prepare children for adulthood must take center stage in responding to the economic disparities that remain among young adults in the 1990s.

These are different times from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The job now is to utilize more effectively the legal and institutional resources that the civil rights and black power movements helped to put in place. The dream that inspired these movements was that African-Americans might lead more healthy, happy, and productive lives, free from the hardships and degradations of social and economic subordination. The dream has not fully come true. Indeed, America may never cast off completely the ideology of white supremacy. Similarly, social class interests that align with wealth and privilege will remain challenges to many visions of social fairness and equity. Nevertheless, the evidence demonstrates that progress for black Americans over the past 50 years has been remarkable. In the face of resistance, discipline, courage and perseverance have paid dividends. The same will be true in the future. As African-Americans whose parents and grandparents taught this lesson to us, we must teach it to our children and insist that they put it into practice.

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Excerpted from An American Dilemma Revisited: Race Relations in a Changing World, edited by Obie Clayton, Jr. © 1996, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, New York. Ronald F. Ferguson is a professor of government at the John F. Kennedy School of Public Policy, Harvard University.