---
"title": "African Americans View the Future"
"description": "Fewer than half of all African Americans (44%) now say they think life for blacks will get better in the future, down from the 57% who said so in a 1986 survey."
"date": "2008-02-21"
"authors":
  -
    "name": "Pew Research Center"
"url": "https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/short-reads/2008/02/21/african-americans-view-the-future/"
---

# African Americans View the Future

A Pew survey finds African Americans less optimistic about the future than at any time over the last two decades; looking ahead, fewer than half of all blacks (44%) say they think life for blacks will get better in the future, down from the 57% who said so in a 1986 survey. Whites have a different perspective. While they, too, have grown less sanguine about black progress, a majority of whites (56%) say life for blacks in this country will get better in the future. [Read More](https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/pubs/634/black-public-opinion)