ts Movement created great opportunities for success among the black middle class, but unfortunately, as a result of de-industrialization, resulted in an increase in poverty among the black lower classes. Throughout the history of blacks in America, there has always been a certain amount of black middle class, doctors, dentists, and etc., which were cut off from the white middle class because they dealt solely with blacks. The middle class and their children benefited the most from the Civil Right’s Movement. They were finally able to work with whites and gain better prosperity. To a lesser extent, black industrial workers gained a little more openings in jobs, but unfortunately, unskilled blacks were not in the position to compete with educated whites and blacks for higher wage jobs. These unskilled blacks could work in factories, but according to Wilson, because of the de-industrialization, “the ladder disappearing while the lower class blacks are still climbing,” the absence of jobs, became the biggest problem among employment with the unskilled blacks (Wilson). Affirmative action can not really benefit these workers because they are not in the position to compete with higher skilled and higher educated workers. (Stokes)The lack of jobs and education for the black working class resulted in growing poverty, social isolation, and social problems. Between 1960 and 1990, there was a decline from 60,000 to 5,000 jobs among the black working class. The ratios of average black to average white family income, between 1947 and 1996, has gone from 51% to 58% and thus has not really changed. This is one of the many justifiable reasons for people to say that there’s been no progress. There has been a substantive movement of the black middleclass but there is still a big black and white gap. More than seventy-five percent of blacks are in middle income jobs in comparison to a ninety-one percent middle income job b...
