A Study of Black Male Professionals in Industry. Manpower Research Monograph No. 26.

The study on which this monograph is based was a first attempt to investigate what happens to the black male college graduate after he enters the white business firm. The data were obtained from interviews in the summer of 1971 with 500 black male professionals and managers employed in private industry. The respondents were chosen from the files of Recruiting Management Consultants, Inc. and represented the ten cities having the largest number of blacks in the labor force, excluding Washington, D.C. and Newark. Of the surveyed black men, most were college graduates, young, with few years of work experience. Slightly more than half were satisfied with their career progress; and most reported good relations with white coworkers, supervisors, and subordinates; but three out of five felt that they did not have the same opportunities as whites in their firm. The validity of their assessment may be substantiated by the fact that only 62 out of a possible 230 white supervisors agreed to be interviewed. (AG)