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

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. (Feb.)