Poll finds a 'change for the better' in race relations
BY CHAKA FERGUSON / Associated Press
NEW YORK — Most Americans support affirmative action, believe race relations have improved since the civil rights movement and approve of interracial marriage, a new poll says.
Still, 49 percent of blacks said they had experienced some form of discrimination in the month preceding the poll and 62 percent believe they are treated somewhat or very unfairly.
"The good news is there is a sense of optimism in the respondents to the poll. There is a real sense that America has changed for the better," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a coalition that includes AARP, unions and religious organizations.
However, he said, the poll also "shows there is a gulf, not only in perception, but in reality" when it comes to differing views on discrimination.
The Gallup Organization poll, commissioned by the AARP and the leadership conference, was released to coincide with next month's 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling that declared school segregation unconstitutional.
Gallup said it is the organization's most comprehensive survey on race relations.
In the poll of adults 18 and older, nearly 90 percent of whites, 73 percent of blacks and 76 percent of Hispanics said race relations had somewhat or greatly improved.
Fifty-seven percent of Americans support affirmative action, a finding that Henderson called a pleasant surprise.
Sixty-three percent, however, said "race relations will always be a problem in the U.S."
The poll also found that 73 percent of Americans approve of interracial marriage. In 1958 when the question was posed only to whites, just 4 percent supported mixed marriages.
The telephone survey of 2,002 people, conducted between Nov. 11 and Dec. 14, had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
NEW YORK — Most Americans support affirmative action, believe race relations have improved since the civil rights movement and approve of interracial marriage, a new poll says.
Still, 49 percent of blacks said they had experienced some form of discrimination in the month preceding the poll and 62 percent believe they are treated somewhat or very unfairly.
"The good news is there is a sense of optimism in the respondents to the poll. There is a real sense that America has changed for the better," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a coalition that includes AARP, unions and religious organizations.
However, he said, the poll also "shows there is a gulf, not only in perception, but in reality" when it comes to differing views on discrimination.
The Gallup Organization poll, commissioned by the AARP and the leadership conference, was released to coincide with next month's 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling that declared school segregation unconstitutional.
Gallup said it is the organization's most comprehensive survey on race relations.
In the poll of adults 18 and older, nearly 90 percent of whites, 73 percent of blacks and 76 percent of Hispanics said race relations had somewhat or greatly improved.
Fifty-seven percent of Americans support affirmative action, a finding that Henderson called a pleasant surprise.
Sixty-three percent, however, said "race relations will always be a problem in the U.S."
The poll also found that 73 percent of Americans approve of interracial marriage. In 1958 when the question was posed only to whites, just 4 percent supported mixed marriages.
The telephone survey of 2,002 people, conducted between Nov. 11 and Dec. 14, had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
