Reviews challenges facing Black professionals committed to further promoting civil rights. Focuses on the Federal government role, particularly regarding racial discrimination in employment. Warns against the acceptance of orthodoxies, and calls for new action and the exercising of intellectual freedom. (KH)

The stated purpose of this testimony, before a public hearing of the New York City Commission on Human Rights in May 1974, is to evaluate the political and legal progress--or lack of it--that has been made toward achieving racial equality in the decade since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law. (Author/JM)

Focuses on the role of education and its contribution to blacks' economic advancement, finding that younger blacks are making substantial progress in achieving secondary and higher education, and this increased education is yielding higher incomes both absolutely and relative to whites. (Author/JM)

Calls for redefinition of the "Black middle class," based on (1) measurement of Blacks and Whites by uniform criteria, and (2) consideration of a group's relationship to the means of production. Stresses the need for research on the role of structural factors in the development of racial and class consciousness. (Author/GC)