The focus of this report is to contrast how lower-income African Americans and Hispanics fared before and during the civil rights era compared to lower-income, non-Hispanic Whites. This report uses Social Security longitudinal earnings records matched to Current Population Survey data to examine changes in relative earnings of the study groups from 1952 to 1975. One analysis follows the relative earnings of African American and Hispanic men as measured by the ratio of minority earnings to non-Hispanic-White earnings at specific points in the earnings distributions. A separate approach was used to track a longitudinal sample of individuals who were in the labor market before and after the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.
Usage, posting and reprint of materials on the UI web site:
Most publications may be downloaded free of charge from the web site in PDF format. This information may be used and copies made for research, academic, policy or other non-commercial purposes. Proper attribution is required.
Copyright of the written materials contained within the Urban Institute website is owned or controlled by the Urban Institute. Posting UI research papers on other websites is permitted subject to prior approval from the Urban Institute—contact paffairs@urban.org.
If you are unable to access or print the PDF document please contact us or call the Publications Office at (202) 261-5687.
Latest Research
Browse by Topic:
Printer-friendly summary
