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THE HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF BLACK CITIZENSHIP

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2019

Leah Wright Rigueur  and
Anna Beshlian
Leah Wright Rigueur*
Affiliation:
Harvard Kennedy School
Anna Beshlian
Affiliation:
Columbia Justice Lab, Columbia University
*
*Corresponding author: Leah Wright Rigueur, The John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138.
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Abstract

This paper offers a broad overview of Black citizenship within the United States, concentrating on the major shifts in Black life that have transpired since the classical phase of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. We examine several critical aspects of Black citizenship including economic status, education, criminal justice and mass incarceration, and political participation. Our report reveals that Black progress toward equal citizenship is inconsistent at best; at worst, it is stagnant and at times, regressive. As such, we conclude that dramatic solutions beyond traditional reformist approaches are needed in order to realize genuine citizenship and equal rights for Black people within the United States. In closing, we briefly highlight a specific example of a strategic approach to advancing substantive social and political change.

Keywords

African Americansracecitizenshipeconomicseducationcriminal justiceblack politics
Type
Guest Edited Dossier
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , Spring 2019 , pp. 267 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2019 

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