Blacks are severely underrepresented in the American scientific community; fewer than two percent of all scientists with doctorates in this country are black. Despite civil rights legislation and integration of schools, school systems still fail to encourage black students to consider and prepare for careers in the sciences. In this book, eight scholars provide original research to analyze the past, present, and future of blacks in science in the United States. Black children express interest in science, but schools discourage them from taking the courses indispensable to scientific and engineering careers. Case studies of three successful intervention programs are included. Strategies that individuals, schools, the scientific community, and the American society can adopt to insure these results are discussed. (KR)