Americans were by no means opposed to black advancement—but they had accepted the government’s assurance that de jure racism was the main obstacle to it. They were probably surprised when the advance in blacks’ fortunes slowed after 1964, relative to its rate in the two decades after the Second World War. It was not the first such disappointment in American history. In 1914, half a century after the Emancipation Proclamation, the historian Charles Beard lamented, “Whatever the cause may be, there seems to be no doubt that the colored race has not made that substantial economic advance and
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