ABSTRACT
Why Black unrest in the 1960s? That Blacks in the 1960s should become assertive in their quest for rights long denied them came as a surprise to most social scientists. Instead, younger Blacks in the late 1950s and early 1960s—with Martin Luther King as their preeminent spokesman and involving hundreds of Black college students—seized leadership in the Black civil rights movement. National survey made by W. Brink and L. Harris in 1963 questioned only Black Americans. The sit-ins led by college students provide an excellent illustration of upper status Blacks initiating protest. But status inconsistency among Black Americans is increasing in a more fundamental sense. Census data show that as far back as 1940 educational attainment of Negroes had already exceeded their attainments in employment and income. Thomas F. Pettigrew's analysis suggests that Black unrest will persist, though waxing and waning from time to time in public visibility and sharpness of focus, until Blacks enjoy equal status with Whites.
