A Fifty-Year Perspective on the Declining Significance of Race in the Occupational Attainment of White and Black Men

Abstract

Using William J. Wilson's thesis of the declining significance of race as our theoretical context, we investigate comparable models of occupational attainment before and after the civil rights movement. The results indicate that in the later period the net disadvantage of being black is consistently lower than in the pre-civil rights period. Furthermore, in the later period the effects of class among black men are consistently greater than are the effects of race. These findings support Wilson's thesis of the declining significance of race.