Dr. Frederick W. Gooding, Jr. is assistant professor of African American studies in the John V. Roach Honors College at Texas Christian University.
Contrary to the myth that black employees were welcomed in the
federal sector in the latter half of the 20
century, Frederick W. Gooding, Jr.'s American Dream Deferred shows
that the struggle for equal treatment was just as steep in
government workplaces as it was in everyday life. . . . What
Gooding, Jr. does well is examine the tortoise pace of progress for
black federal workers and how that progress was thwarted at nearly
every turn.-- "Historical Novel Society"
American Dream Deferred is a pioneering work of scholarship about
one of the most significant struggles of the modern black freedom
movement, one that has been almost completely untold until now.
Frederick Gooding's vivid narrative about the long and difficult
struggle of African-Americans who worked in the federal government
reveals that more than laws and regulations were needed to gain
equality and respect. Only when black men and women in the nation's
capital organized for themselves did they gain the rights and
opportunities they had always deserved.-- "Michael Kazin"
American Dream Deferred presents a cogent analysis of the
persistence of racial inequities in the one institution commonly
considered the benchmark of meritocratic impartiality. It is also
an important meditation on the capacity of institutionalized racism
to limit upward mobility, inflict psychological damage, and quash
dreams of a better life.-- "Michael Dennis, Acadia University"
[Gooding] focusing so closely on the relationship between US
presidents and Black federal workers . . . nicely synthesizes the
ways that each administration handled racial matters. An American
Dream Deferred makes a significant contribution to the growing
fields of Black Washington, Black federal employment, and economic
inequality after World War II.-- "The Journal of African American
History"
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