This examination of the collapse in traditional discriminatory patterns in the market for highly qualified black Americans documents the World War II gain of college trained and related high level black workers, investigates the response of black college students and qualified personnel to the new market setting, and explores the factors that transformed the market. This book begins with an empirical analysis of the developments of the new market for highly qualified black workers. Other chapters concentrate on the transformation of the educational system that accompanied the new market, particularly the increased enrollment of blacks in colleges and universities, and the way in which black Americans responded to the new opportunities. Four other chapters examine the extent of economic change in important high level markets and evaluate the impact of governmental and related anti-discriminatory activity on the increased demand for the black elite. Results of the investigation indicate that the socioeconomic position of the black elite and other black Americans improved along many dimensions in the new market of the sixties and early seventies. The critical question that remains is whether or not the improvements of the new market are likely to continue into the future until labor market differences between comparable black and white workers are entirely eliminated. It is hoped that as the black educational and occupational structure approaches that of the whites, discrimination due to the necessity of blacks working for or with complementary discriminatory whites (one of the chief causes of economic differences, according to the standard theory) will disappear. (Author/AM)