In the United States, the black middle class consists of African Americans who have middle-class status within the American class structure. It is an occurrence that predominately began to develop in the early 1960s, when the ongoing African-American Civil Rights Movement led to the outlawing of de jure racial segregation. The gains accrued by the Civil Rights Era is strongly correlated with the emergence of a new black middle class.
Despite modest increases in wealth, the black middle class still faces societal and institutional forms of racism and discrimination, which constrains the upward mobility of African Americans. These societal and institutional forms of racism and discrimination are reflected in the racial wealth gap, housing discrimination, residential segregation, the achievement gap, and more. Moreover, the historical implications of slavery and marginalization has made race a proxy for disadvantage, which many African Americans face even despite achieving professional and educational success.
Read more about Black Middle Class: Definition of Middle Class, History of Black Middle Class in The United States, Challenges of The Black Middle Class, African Immigrants and The Black Middle Class, Poverty For African Americans
Famous quotes containing the words middle class, black, middle and/or class:
“Wearing overalls on weekdays, painting somebody else’s house to earn money? You’re working class. Wearing overalls at weekends, painting your own house to save money? You’re middle class.”
—Lawrence Sutton, British prizewinner in competition in Sunday Correspondent (London)
“... contemporary black women felt they were asked to choose between a black movement that primarily served the interests of black male patriarchs and a women’s movement which primarily served the interests of racist white women.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)
“Oh, yes, everything’s fine. I always stop by the police station in the middle of the night to pick up my daughter.”
—Theodore Simonson. Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.. Mr. Martin, The Blob, when he comes to pick up Jane (1958)
“... in the fierce competition of modern society the only class left in the country possessing leisure is that of women supported in easy circumstances by husband or father, and it is to this class we must look for the maintenance of cultivated and refined tastes, for that value and pursuit of knowledge and of art for their own sakes which can alone save society from degenerating into a huge machine for making money, and gratifying the love of sensual luxury.”
—Mrs. H. O. Ward (1824–1899)