This dissertation is concerned with racial discrimination as a central issue in urban planning. Although primarily concerned with black opportunities in housing, the study investigates Negro opportunities in related areas (education, income, and employment) in order to develop the linkages and interdependencies between the various aspects of equal opportunity. In each area, the opportunities available to doday's black population are determined by comparing: (1) opportunities in metropolitan (and particularly central city) areas with those available elsewhere to determine whether the urbanization of blacks is providing the means for upward mobility; (2) opportunities available to blacks in earlier decades with those now available to ascertain whether blacks are in fact improving their absolute position over time; and (3) opportunities afforded blacks and whites, it being recognized that the term "inequality" is generally used in its racial context. In analyzing the housing opportunities of metropolitan area blacks, the dissertation explores housing quality, quantity, cost, and overcrowding. Particular attention is devoted to residential segregation. The purpose of the entire analysis is to establish a suitable foundation for making recommendations designed to maximize black opportunities and to relate these recommended policies to urban planning. (Author/JM)