As a result of the actions of the 1960s, blacks made their biggest gains since slavery.
Through the Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity programs, qualified blacks were recruited by colleges and the job market.
Reverend Jesse Jackson, a protégé of Martin Luther King Jr., founded People United to Save Humanity (PUSH), a black self-help group in 1971. The number of blacks employed in better-paying white collar and skilled craftsmen occupations had increased from about 3 million in 1960 to about 5 million in 1971.
In 1971, about 18 percent of young blacks were in college, compared to about 10 percent in 1965. In 1972 there were 2,264 black elected officials, 206 of them in state legislatures, more than double the 1964 figures.
By the end of this period the 23 million African Americans had an annual income of more than $100 billion a year and constituted the second largest African community in the world.