Review by Choice Review
Based on responses from 2,089 graduates of the black private institutions supported by the United Negro College Fund and written by an esteemed black sociologist, this study attempts the first systematic profile of the lives and careers of black college graduates since Charles S. Johnson's The Negro College Graduate (1938). A Black Elite is not a model of analytical sociology at its best. Thompson's sample spans too many generations to give it cohesion in many crucial areas; a low response rate of 25 percent renders it vulnerable to the ``brag factor''; and in many instances, the data bears no correlation to the commentary. Comparative data on black graduates of other types of institutions is not provided, although it is essential to validate Thompson's oft-disputed premise that the small private UNCF colleges have through the years offered its graduates the most successful pathway to affluence and respect in an imperfect world. The work possesses two remarkable strengths, however, that make it required reading for all who would understand the black experience in contemporary America. First, it demonstrates that UNCF graduates are overwhelmingly nonradical in politics despite the legacy of the revolution in civil rights, that they exhibit remarkable social and vocational stability, and that they retain a social consciousness not shared by most upwardly mobile white professionals are cogently documented and worthy of note. The book is also superb social commentary on the small southern black private college and its graduates from the mind and heart of a man who has become a legend in American education and the living embodiment of the ideals of the United Negro College Fund. College and university libraries.-R.A. Fischer, University of Minnesota
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
