The goal of this paper was to evaluate four alternative explanations to account for low feelings of political effectiveness and political trust among black school children. A discussion of research findings related to political efficacy and trust and a review of other pertinent research are followed by definitions of the basic concepts in the paper. The normative implications of the findings seem to point out that political attitudes of childhood do persist to adulthood; thus to teach adult blacks to be politically effective, the political attitudes of young blacks must be changed. The alternatives that explain why racial differences may result are: 1) differences in political education within American schools; 2) social-structural conditions that contribute to low feelings of self-competence among blacks; 3) differences in intelligence; and 4) differences in the political environment in which blacks and whites live. The assumptions and empirical consequences of each explanation are discussed. An evaluation of the alternatives concluded that social condition and political environment explanations have the greatest scope and therefore are the best explanations, especially if not considered as being mutually exclusive explanations. (Author/KSM)