Table of Contents

Preface to the Revised Edition
Forward to the Hardcover Edition
Introduction

Part I
Chapter One: Slavery: A Reexamination of Its Impact
Chapter Two: Sharecropping and the Rural Proletariat
Chapter Three: The African American Family in the Maternalistic Era
Chapter Four: The Arduous Transition to the Industrial North

Part II
Chapter Five: World War II and Its Aftermath
Chapter Six: The Calm before the Storm
Chapter Seven: The

About the Author

Donna L. Franklin was appointed the John Milner Professor at the School of Social Work, University of Southern California, 1994. Prior to that, she was on the faculty of the University of Chicago for eleven years. She is currently on a leave of absence from USC to devote more time to her writing.

Reviews

"Donna Franklin's Ensuring Inequality is distinguished by its scholarly rigor. Franklin provides an exhaustive review of the historical and social scientific literature on the impact on the black American family of slavery, sharecropping, and the various northern migrations, World War II, welfare and housing policies and unemployment...Her historical overview stands on its own as a significant contribution."

--Signs
"Donna Franklin provides an outstanding analysis of the historic and contemporary social forces that have perpetuated economic hardship among a sizable minority of African-American families...Her book offers a strong historical and theoretical account of black family poverty, and it is a vital resource for policy analysts and teachers/researchers interest in the family, social work, race-ethnicity, and gender."

--Contemporary Sociology
"Donna Franklin provides the reader with a very important lesson in how to understand current stresses in family life by studying the ways in which early experiences and circumstances led logically and inevitably to the present depressing, even alarming, state of family life at the end of the twentieth century. This is an important work."--John Hope Franklin, author of From Freedom to Slavery: A History of African Americans
"Why are so many African-American children growing up in mother-led families? From a nuanced historical perspective, Donna Franklin offers no-holds-barred answers to this question.... She brings a provocative new perspective to America's pressing debates about poverty, fatherlessness, and how to (really) reform welfare."--Theda Skocpol, Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University
" Ensuring Inequality is a well-crated, closely reasoned, and well-documented narrative that challenges conventional understanding of the plight of African American families."--Martin Rein, Professor of Urban Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Franklin's book is a well-informed, thoughful and insightful synthesis, demolishing a number of destructive fallacies as it proceeds through its highly readable chapters. It should be useful to all concerned with family, African American history, social policy and many others." --Linda Gordon, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin
"No meaningful future discussion of the problems of the black family or of the American 'underclass' can occur without taking account of Donna Franklin's powerful insights, meticulous scholarship and acute analysis. This invaluable scholarly work ought to dispel many of the ideological myths surrounding these subjects."--Professor Roger Wilkins, George Mason University
"One of the most important contributions to the study of the black family in recent years."--Joyce Ladner, The Washington Post
"Ensuring Inequality, along with Wilson's When Work Disappears, may be among the leading intellectual salvos in a public policy battle in which it might be said that the liberals are striking back."--Gerald Early, Chicago Tribune
"For years, it has been within the University of Chicago sociological tradition to study factors influencing the development and transformation of immigrant and migrant families. This volume, developed and written by a former faculty member of that institution, illustrates the best of that tradition applied to African-American families."--Contemporary Psychology
"Why are so many African-American children growing up in mother-led families? From a nuanced historical perspective, Donna Franklin offers no-holds-barred answers to this question. Conservatives and liberals alike will find things in her argument with which to agree--and disagree. She brings a provocative new perspective to America's pressing debates about poverty, fatherlessness, and how to (really) reform welfare."--Theda Skocpol, Professor of Government and
Sociology, Harvard University
"An intellectually fascinating account of the relational tension between African American men and women. She rejects the view that the rise of single parenthood is a new, modern development, and shows that the change in family structure is traceable to a cumulative story which started in slavery. Ensuring Inequality is a well-crated, closely reasoned, and well-documented narrative that challenges conventional understanding of the plight of African
American families."--Martin Rein, Professor of Urban Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Donna Franklin provides the reader with a very important lesson in how to understand current stresses in family life by studying the ways in which early experiences and circumstances led logically and inevitably to the present depressing, even alarming, state of family life at the end of the twentieth century. This is an important work."--John Hope Franklin, author of From Freedom to Slavery: A History of African Americans
"Franklin's book is a well-informed, thoughtful and insightful synthesis, demolishing a number of destructive fallacies as it proceeds through its highly readable chapters. It should be useful to all concerned with family, African American history, social policy and many others." --Linda Gordon, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin
"No meaningful future discussion of the problems of the black family or of the American 'underclass' can occur without taking account of Donna Franklin's powerful insights, meticulous scholarship and acute analysis. This invaluable scholarly work ought to dispel many of the ideological myths surrounding these subjects."--Professor Roger Wilkins, George Mason University
"Ensuring Inequality is one of the most important contributions to the study of the black family in recent years.... Her provocative analysis is likely to stir a debate on a topic that needs a great deal more clear thinking."--Joyce A. Ladner, The Washington Post
"Ensuring Inequality, along with Wilson's When Work Disappears, may be among the leading intellectual salvos in a public policy battle in which it might be said that the liberals are striking back."--Gerald Early, Chicago Tribune