Climbing Jacob's Ladder: The Enduring Legacy of African-American Families - Hardcover

In this companion to Black Families in White America (1968), sociologist Billingsley addresses the strengths and weaknesses of African American families, concluding that their strengths are "by far more powerful and contain the seeds of their survival and rejuvenation." Drawing on many studies and using numerous charts, the author first discusses African American family structure, then goes on to consider the legacy from Africa, family patterns during slavery and after, and the rise and fall of the black working class. Stressing the African American family's adaptiveness, he shows how the extended family, as well as community institutions, can serve as stepping stones to success. The black church, self-help and government, he writes, can all play a part in bolstering the African American family. Although Billingsley argues that forces in society lead to single-parent families, he glosses over the epidemic of teenage pregnancy. A chapter on single mothers includes only success stories, and his contention that African American youths value marriage and stability pivots on an observation made by a sociologist in 1967.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This very readable work focuses on the means by which many African Americans have managed to survive in this country despite frequently unsupportive community and societal attitudes and pressures. Billingsley, author of Black Families in White America (Touchstone: S. & S., 1988. rev. ed.) emphasizes the importance of the family (in all its myriad forms) as the critical factor in the process by which blacks manage to maintain not only their sense of integrity but also achieve upward mobility. He feels that this process would be hastened and broadened if there was a more balanced approach in policy-making affecting this group--a public policy that would not deny very real problem areas but would recognize and base assistance and support on existing individual and group strengths. Highly recommended for academic, professional, and general public attention.
- Suzanne W. Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Alfred
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.