The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again

by Robert D. Putnam

During the closing decades of the twentieth century: Gains in relative life expectancy for black Americans stagnated, beginning to improve again only at the start of the twenty-first century.140 The closing of the black-white gap in infant mortality rates plateaued, and in recent years the infant mortality rate for black Americans has increased.141 Black/white ratios in high school and college degree attainment showed little or no improvement. Progress toward income equality between the races reversed, and in the aggregate the black-white income gap widened significantly.142 Relative rates of black homeownership plateaued and even declined. Schools began to resegregate.143 The trend toward generational liberalization of white attitudes slowed.