Race relations in America are not today what they were a century ago.

The progress of history may not be the wide highway moving steadily and smoothly upward as many have believed, but the racial picture in America has altered and will continue to do so--sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

Nevertheless, it is only by knowing ourselves that we can intelligently face our crises.

I hope that this volume will assist the reader as he struggles with this difficult task.
Norman Coombs September, 1971 Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep appreciation to the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities and to the Rochester Institute of Technology for providing me with much of the time which made this research possible.
I am also indebted to Professors Benjamin Quarles and Merle Curti for kindly reading and commenting on the manuscript.

My thanks are also extended to my father, Earl Coombs, for his invaluable assistance in helping with the hours of painstaking research demanded by such a project.