Now with a new prologue and updated bibliography, this classic edition of Harvard Sitkoff's A New Deal for Blacks is a comprehensive account of the emergence of civil rights as a national issue within the U.S. The New Deal years are a turning point in race relations trends. They constitute a watershed of developments whose outgrowth was a broad-based social movement aimed at bringing about a fuller participation of blacks in American society. This text covers a wide variety of factors influencing civil rights and race relations in this period. It describes political and top down influences but also spends time on ideas and culture and mass mobilization. The book provides an opportunity to talk about the different types of factors that influence social change and the relationship between them. Finally, the scholarship is still accurate and solid and the book is well, written avoiding jargon.