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Race Relations

Topics at a Glance

Issue Brief

Nelson Mandela

April 2019 marks the 25th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's election as President of South Africa. His path to the Presidency, however, was long and marked by the violence and brutality of the white-only National Party government and the armed opposition of the African National Congress.

Selma march

Andrew Kohut on the Anniversary of the Selma March

On March 7, 1965, black Americans marched on Selma, Alabama in an effort to secure the civil rights that had been withheld from them and were met with brutality.

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The Public, Race, and a Jury of Your Peers

Last year’s jury decisions in racially-charged investigations were only the most recent to reveal the schism in the country’s perceptions of how race intersects with justice.

Civil rights act 1968

Public Opinion on Civil Rights: Reflections on the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Likely the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ushered in a new era in American civil rights as discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin was outlawed.

Enduring Twoness

Public Perspective, May/June 2001. W.E.B. Dubois's voice still rings true on the black experience in America. Read more ...

Race Relations in the 1980s

Public Perspective, January/February 1990. History will be made this week when Virginia inaugurates Douglas Wilder as its first black governor ...

Related Data

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2015 ORC/CNN Survey Datasets Available

Seven Opinion Research Corporation/Cable News Network (CNN) national studies conducted from June to December, 2015 are now available for download.

2013 Pew Research Center’s Martin Luther King Jr. Race Survey

Discover America’s opinions on the progress of racial equality in the Pew Research Center’s Martin Luther King Jr. Race Survey dataset. 

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1969 Gallup/Newsweek Poll of Black Americans

Conducted nearly five years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, this Gallup/Newsweek Poll of black Americans asks a broad range of questions on topics from police brutality to the Vietnam War to Martin Luther King’s assassination

LA Riots

10th Anniversary Los Angeles Riots Survey

Explore the data from this Los Angeles Times poll, which deals with the complex issues of race relations and police brutality. 

Latinas preparing food

2002 National Survey of Latinos

The 2002 Kaiser Family Foundation/Pew Hispanic Center National Survey of Latinos features extensive questions on a wide range of social, political, and economic topics.

Biracial Couple

2001 Survey of Biracial Couples

The Kaiser Family Foundation/Washington Post/Harvard University Biracial Couples dataset features a unique sample of biracial couples asked questions about race relations and discrimination.

Charts & graphics

Services Provided by Churches Attended by Black Americans

Services Provided by Churches Attended by Black Americans

Willingness to vote for woman/black for President

Willingness to vote for woman/black for President