About the Author

Dr. Frederick W. Gooding, Jr. is assistant professor of African American studies in the John V. Roach Honors College at Texas Christian University.

Reviews

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"