Concerned exclusively with what might be termed as "the human meaning of the current confrontation of the races in American cities," this preliminary report supplements and extends the findings of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders by dealing specifically with the attitudes, perceptions, experiences, and expectations of blacks and whites living in 15 major nothern cities, and of whites in two suburbs of those cities. Probability sampling yielded 300 to 400 black and white subjects, aged 16-69 years, from each city, and 363 white subjects from the two suburbs. Nearly 500 interviewers (black for black subjects and white for white subjects) administered pretested 100+ item questionnaires, about half of the items being common for both races. Reported results are based on combined responses of black urban, white urban, and white suburban subjects. (Analysis of differences between cities will appear in the final report --see below.) Areas studied were: 1) black views of racial issues; 2) white beliefs about blacks; 3) a comparison of black and white attitudes and experiences in the city; 4) the uses of violence. A summary of the report precedes the detailed tables and anlyses of responses. An extension of the findings in this preliminary report will be published in 1970 by Columbia University Press. (DJB)