Book Description

The justification of the present book by Professor Frazier is to be found in the novelty of his approach as well as in the altered position of the Negro in the United States and of the United States in the world scene. The epic of America offers the greatest example in the modern world of the building of a nation and a civilization out of the diverse peoples and cultures of the earth. The career of the Negro in America furnishes the most dramatic instance of the integration of one such element into our national life. The present book has traced this process with meticulous care. Professor Frazier has succeeded in depicting with clarity and understanding the adjustment of the Negro as a racial and cultural group to the life of the larger society and the responses that society has made to his presence. We see in these pages something more, however, than the analysis of a unique minority. This work, while drawing its concrete materials from the experiences of the Negro in the United States, reflects the processes and problems generally associated with the emergence, the life cycle, and the integration of minorities wherever they may be found. Although the Negro minority, because of the racial factor and because of the complicating historical factor of the institution of slavery, represents certain unique features, there are many phases of the Negro's life in America that throw light on the position of all other minorities in this country. Professor Frazier has adopted a broad sociological perspective and has found that by portraying the experiences of the Negro in the context of his own community and institutions and the more inclusive American community and its institutions, it is possible to reveal with greater realism and balance the actual life of the Negro and of America. - Introduction.