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 policies and economic changes in the past decade and their impact on Black families.

Praise for the First Edition

"Those who work with Black families will find the book a helpful resource, and thoughtful lay people will find that the text augments what they have long suspected. Irrespective of experience levels, all readers will more fully appreciate the fact that the Black family is far from a monolithic, deficient, or amoral institution."
-Family Relations

"Authors Robert Staples and Leanor Boulin Johnson describe how external forces, such as economics, racism, culture, and politics, shape the dynamics of the modern Black family."
-Ebony

"This work makes a significant contribution to the field."
-Journal of Marriage and the Family