In the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s last book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, the great Civil Rights leader cautioned against both the overly negative view of saying no progress had been made and the overly positive view that the fight for equality had been won.
In that book, he cited a 1960s Harris poll showing that 88% of White Americans would object if their teenage child dated a Black American. Additionally, nearly 80% would mind if a close friend or family member married a Black American and 50% would object to having a Black person as a neighbor.
A Napolitan News Service poll conducted September 18-19, 2024, found encouraging results when asking those same questions. Today, only 16% of White Americans would be concerned if their child dated a Black American, only 11% would be concerned if a close friend or relative married a Black person, and only 2% would be offended by having a Black neighbor.
Fifty percent, (50%) express some version of King’s perspective– we’re not there yet, but we will get there someday. That includes 51% of White voters and 47% of Black voters.
A third of the nation reflects King’s concerns about excessive optimism or pessimism. Nineteen percent (19%) believe we have already reached the point where people are judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. Sixteen percent (16%) say we will never reach that point.
This Napolitan News Service survey of 1,000 Registered Voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on September 18-19, 2024. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. and has a margin of error of +/1 3.1.
