This paper focuses on changes in the occupational levels of black and white men in the decade between 1962 and 1973. For each race taken separately, and then for both in comparison, shifts are described in the mean levels and a dispersion of occupational socioeconomic status of men in the experienced civilian labor force. An attempt is made, it is stated, to account for these intercohort and racial shifts in terms of commensurate compositional changes in factors of family background and regular schooling. An inquiry is made into the allocative processes which distribute men into their current occupational statuses from their family backgrounds and in terms of their schooling. These allocative processes are understood as the basis of social differentiation and inequality, and they are called processes of socioeconomic stratification. New data has been made available, and partly analyzed here about the socioeconomic origins and destinations of black and white men based on a 1973 replicate of the 1962 Occupational Changes in a Generation Survey (OCG). These data are considered to provide clearer insights about the sources of socioeconomic change for both races. They also permit some purportedly intriguing speculations about the course of racial inequality and about the evolving roles of families and schools in a maturing, postindustrial society. (Author/JM)