Black families in America face special and grave problems. Widespread unemployment, single parent circumstances, adolescent pregnancies, substance abuse, and violence are only some of the problems posing challenges. The authors, convinced that the conventional perspective used in the past to analyze black families is deficient, propose a holistic approach. That perspective takes into account the totality of black family life rather than measuring isolated factors. Using black families as the central unit of analysis, the authors identify fundamental issues requiring concentrated attention and policy changes. Both factors external to the black family and consideration internal to it are studied. The former include economic factors---racism, demographics, and governmental policies. The latter involve such aspects as black family structure, changes in the community, and widespread changes in values at the individual level. The authors provide practical recommendations for improving the conditions of black families through policy changes and revised priorities.

Black families in America face special and grave problems. Widespread unemployment, single parent circumstances, adolescent pregnancies, substance abuse, and violence are only some of the problems posing challenges to black families. The authors, convinced that the "conventional" perspective used in the past to analyze black families is deficient, propose a holistic approach. That perspective takes into account the totality of black family life rather than measuring isolated factors independent. Using black families as the central unit of analysis, the authors identify fundamental issues requiring concentrated attention and policy changes. Both factors external to the black family and consideration internal to it are studied. The former include economic factors, racism, demographics, and governmental policies. The latter involve such aspects as black family structure, changes in the community, and widespread changes in values at the individual level. The authors provide practical recommendations for improving the conditions of black families through policy changes and revised priorities.

Returning to his innovative work of twenty-five years ago, Robert Hill once more offers an incisive analysis of five key cultural strengths of African-American families. With compassion and eloquence, he argues that these existing strengths provide a solid foundation upon which to develop the kind of public policies and self-help initiatives that will truly promote the interests, not only of the African American community, but of our diverse nation as a whole.

This book was first published in 1972 when the author was Director of Research for the National Urban League, which was headed by Mr. Vernon E. Jordan, Executive Director. As a result of widespread acceptance of the 1965 report on the Negro family by Daniel Moynihan, most black families were still depicted by the media in the early 1970's as weak, dysfunctional and devoid of any strengths. This book was written to provide a rare perspective by focusing on the assets and resilience of black families. Over the past three decades, this book has stimulated numerous studies of the strengths of African American, Hispanic American, Asian American and Native American families. While the 1999 sequel has been favorably received, the author continues to receive numerous requests for copies of the original work that has been out of print for many years. Therefore, this reprint edition also includes an epilogue, "Thirty Years Later," which describes the impact of social forces and policies on the social and economic status of African American families since the 1970's. It also examines the role of the five cultural strengths on the functioning of contemporary African American families.