Educational Attainment as a Determinant of Social Class Among Black Americans

Abstract

Historically, Black Americans have placed a great deal of emphasis on educational attainment. Black leaders-whether activists or scholars-have long advocated that the roads to both individual mobility and group competitiveness (if not liberation) were paved with increased schooling. ' Even as DuBois2 and Washington argued over what type of education was required for Black Americans' individual and collective social mobility, they both agreed on the necessity for ever-lengthening periods of instruction. King offered that the educational preparation of Blacks was a compelling call for the desegregation of the U.S. labor market;3 the subsequent entry of sizeable numbers of Blacks into executive and professional occupations would seem to have confirmed his thinking.4 However, more recent indications are that the heretofore spiralling nature of intergenerational and intercohort increases in both quality and quantity of education is ending for Black Americans, if not reversing.5 While Blacks historically have exceeded Whites in their support for spending on education, the gap appears to be