ABSTRACT
Progress in race relations in the United States historically has occurred in concentrated bursts, rather than through a gradual and continuous evolution. These bursts of progress often have been followed by periods of regression that diminished but did not totally erase the previous advances. The abolition of slavery in 1861 and the Reconstruction Era of the postbellum years offer the most dramatic cases of such bursts of progress. The Reaction Era that began in 1877 and the subsequent rise of Jim Crow offer an equally dramatic illustration of a period of regress. More recently, World War II and the Civil Rights era of the 1960s provide important examples of concentrated bursts of progress, each followed by some reaction.
