THE attitudes of black Americans have hardened into a pattern that may well shape the U.S. racial crisis for years to come. Pride in being black is now solidly entrenched. Still-unbroken barriers of prejudice, discrimination and inequality are clearer targets for blacks than ever before. Black confidence runs deep that matters are improving and will get even better. The vast majority want to work through the existing system—economic and political power—for further improvements. But most of all, black Americans see their own militance and strength winning the battle for equality over a white-run system. They increasingly distrust that system, as a whole, even though a majority report remarkably smooth relations with white people.
These are the major findings of a TIME-Louis Harris poll based on interviews among a nationwide cross section of 1,255 blacks. The determination to keep up the pressure on white society runs strongly throughout the survey, and is significantly higher among the young and among well-educated blacks with relatively high incomes who once formed a "safe" and conservative black bourgeoisie. On a national basis, 9% of all blacks —more than 2,000,000 Americans—count themselves "revolutionaries" and believe that only "a readiness to use violence will ever get us real equality." Whatever their own convictions about violence, the number of those who believe that blacks "will probably have to resort to violence to win rights" has risen from 21% in 1966 to 31% today. Among black teenagers, it is 40%. A far higher percentage, 59%, advocate violence only as a last resort when all else has failed, but significantly only 25% of those surveyed were willing to say that violence should be avoided at all costs.
For black Americans, pride in themselves and their culture, so long smothered in a predominantly white society, is now a pervasive reality. Eighty-five percent strongly endorse black-studies programs in high schools and colleges as "an important sign of black identity and pride." Interest in African culture, learning Swahili and wearing Afro hair styles are important to 45%—with almost 60% of the young blacks and those in the upper and upper-middle classes supporting these trends. When asked to state what will be needed to attain full equality in the next ten years, blacks showed a sense of self-reliance expressed in statements such as "Achieve equal educational opportunities with whites," "Greater unity among blacks," and "Blacks must keep pushing and fighting for equality." These assertions far outran such concepts as promoting communication, respect and understanding from whites.