ABSTRACT
For as long as Negroes have been in America, their marital and family patterns have been the subject of curiosity and amusement, moral indignation and self-congratulation, puzzlement and frustration, concern and guilt on the part of white Americans. Marital relations in the white and Negro lower class are generally characterized by a high degree of conjugal role segregation. Both white and Negro lower-class men strive to prevent their wives from developing outside interests, whether they themselves cultivate such interests, but white men seem to be more successful and can draw more on peer-group resources in support of their efforts. The young husband, Negro and white, expects to continue to enjoy some of the pleasures of his peer group, and his attachment to that group is often a source of tension during the early period of lower-class marriages.
