Search

The article examines the thesis that African Americans are effectively excluded from the decision making process in the community level. The study focuses on a research of black powerlessness in Chicago that evaluates the extent to which Blacks are excluded from positions of influence in major institutional sectors. Their findings indicated that Negroes occupied only 2.6 percent of the top making policy-making decisions in the Chicago area. Black representation in Chicago was greatest in the elected public sector, welfare and religious voluntary organization and industrial unions. There was a virtual absence of Black representation in the policy-making positions of the private institutions such as business corporations, banks, insurance companies and universities. The research tests the hypothesis by examining the degree to which Blacks are found in key policy-making positions in the Milwaukee and Wisconsin metropolitan areas. A total of 4.930 policy-making positions in the business, public government ,academic and voluntary sectors were identified including the number of blacks holding the policy-making positions.