This book explores the racial experience and consciousness of black and white Americans within the context of their lives over the course of 20 years. The subjects of this book, 16 blacks and 12 whites, were interviewed in 1968, again in 1978-79, and for a third time in 1986. They speak in their own words about how their lives unfolded, how their political beliefs and racial attitudes changed or remained the same, and how they assess the social transformations they have witnessed. The book includes an introduction and is divided into two parts. Part One, "1968: Surviving the Sixties," contains the following chapters: (1) "The Politics of Manhood and the Southern Black Experience"; (2) "Whites on the Front Lines of Racial Conflict"; (3) "Four Black Women and the Consciousness of the Sixties"; (4) "White Backlash: The Fear of a Black Majority and Other Nightmares"; (5) "Black Youth and the Ghetto Streets"; (6) "The Paradox of Working-Class Racism;" and (7) "Black Workers: New Options and Old Problems." Part Two, "1978-1987: Growing Older in the Seventies and Eighties," contains the following chapters: (8) "Still in the Struggle: Black Activists Ten Years Later"; (9) "White Lives and the Limits of Integration"; (10) "Black Youth: The Worsening Crisis"; (11) "Blue-Collar Men in a Tight Economy"; (12) "Men, Women, and Opportunity"; and (13) "Keeping the Spirit of the Sixties Alive." The book also contains an explanation of the methodology, notes to each of the chapters, and a bibliographic essay. (JS)