The State of Black America: Progress, Pitfalls, and the Promise of the Republic

This work is not endorsed by or connected with the National Urban League.

An incisive collection of essays that reveals the past, present, and future strength of black America as the best hope for a nation that has lost faith in itself.

"A much-needed antidote to the madness-inducing contradiction of woke orthodoxy." —The Honorable Judge Janice Rogers Brown

In a nation that is tearing itself apart over race, trying to speak honestly about the state of black America is a perilous task. Candor and thoughtfulness are often drowned by hysteria, expediency, and sentimentalism. The State of Black America seeks to restore these sorely needed virtues to the present discourse, assembling a company of scholars who confront our nation’s troubled racial history even as they bear witness to the promise the American heritage contains for blacks.

The essays in this volume bring clarity to the murky darkness of America’s race debates, reviewing and building upon the latest scholarship on the character, shape, and tendencies of life for black Americans. Together, they tell a story of black America’s astounding success in integrating into mainstream American culture and propose that black patriotism is the key to overcoming what problems remain.

Featuring scholarship from a variety of disciplines, including history, economics, social science, and political philosophy, The State of Black America offers to the world a “toolbox” of intellectual resources to aid careful and sound thinking on one of the most fraught issues of our time.

Featuring contributions from W. B. Allen, Mikael Rose Good, Edward J. Erler, Robert D. Bland, Glenn C. Loury, Ian V. Rowe, Precious D. Hall, Daphne Cooper, Star Parker, and Robert Borens.

William B. Allen is a resident scholar and the former chief operating officer of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education in Washington, D.C. He is emeritus professor of political philosophy in the Department of Political Science and emeritus dean of James Madison College at Michigan State University. In 2018–20 he was senior scholar in residence at the University of Colorado Boulder. He served previously on the United States National Council for the Humanities and as chairman and member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Recognized for excellence in liberal education on the 1997 Templeton Honor Roll (individually and institutionally), he also has been a Kellogg National Fellow, received the international Prix Montesquieu, and was the 2014 Salvatori Award winner. He has published extensively, including George Washington: A Collection (Liberty Fund, Inc.), Rethinking Uncle Tom: The Political Philosophy of H. B. Stowe (Lexington Books), and George Washington: America’s First Progressive (Peter Lang, Inc.).