Black Families at the Crossroads

This updated edition of the classic book Black Families at the Crossroads, offers a comprehensive examination of the diverse and complex issues surrounding Black families. Leanor Boulin Johnson and Robert Staples combine more than sixty years of writing and research on Black families to offer insights into the pre-slavery development of the Black middle class, internal processes that affect all class strata among Black American families, the impact of race on modern Black immigrant families, the interaction of external forces and internal norms at each stage of the Black family life cycle, and public policies that provide challenges and promising prospects for the continuing resilience of the Black family as an American institution. This thoroughly revised edition features new research, including empirical studies and theoretical applications, and a review of significant social polices and economic changes in the past decade and their impact on Black families.

Foreword (Robert B. Hill). Preface to the Revised Edition. Preface to the First Edition. Acknowledgments. 1. History as Fact and Fiction. 2. Studying Black Families. 3. Work and Money: The Struggle. 4. Patterns of Sexual Intimacy. 5. Singlehood and Partner Selection. 6. Gender Roles and Male Sexism. 7. Marital Patterns and Interactions. 8. The Challenges of Parenting. 9. Kinship and Community Support. 10. Social Change, Challenges, and Prospects. Selected Readings. References. About the Authors. Name Index. Subject Index.