Date of Award

5-1993

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Art

First Advisor

Pamela Nickels

Second Advisor

Ray Becvar

Third Advisor

Eddie Doerr

Abstract

There have been milestones toward understanding in the Civil Rights journey . Do these milestones reflect an advance in understanding and respect, or have fears, ignorances, and outright bigotry forged a wall against acceptance of the Afro-American into mainstream America?

An area in the Northeast County of St. Louis, Missouri was selected for this study as it encompassed 1036 residential homes . The area integrated starting about 1978. From surveys conducted by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of this subdivision, in 1991 and 1992, it was determined that 63'l. of the families now are Afro-American, 37% are Caucasian or other.

A questionnaire listing twenty questions pertaining to understanding, acceptance, feelings toward others of opposite race, was submitted to some residents and former residents. The variable to be measured was labeled Afro-American Caucasian Understanding (ACU). It was determined beforehand that the sample group of thirty-two be equally apportioned to Afro-American and to Caucasian.

The survey was conducted with the assistance of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees who was an Afro-American male, and a Caucasian female member of the church within the area working with a Ladies Guild . This paper touches many facets of everyday existence including groups of school age individuals, entertainers, ball players, business persons, political persons, church people .

Results of the survey indicated that there has been an increased understanding among the two cultures as measured against what might be expected from a Likert mean. Given a normal distribution, using the Likert scale with scorings at random one to five, on a twenty question survey, one would expect a mean score of 60 . The minimum score would be twenty, maximum score would be one hundred . The tables submitted gave information supporting a positive measurement toward understanding .

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