IS ASSIMILATION DEAD

This article considers the decline in the positive attitude toward the term ''assimilation'' as an ideal for immigrant and minority groups i n the United States, and it explores the period between World War I an d the mid-1920s, during which assimilation moved from an ideal to a fo rceful policy, under the name ''Americanization.'' During this period, attention was given almost exclusively to immigrants; blacks were tot ally ignored in the debate over assimilation and Americanization. Neve rtheless, until the mid-1960s, the dominant black ideal for their futu re in the United States was assimilation. The failure of assimilation to work its effects on blacks as on immigrants, owing to the strength of American discriminatory and prejudiced attitudes and behavior towar d blacks, has been responsible for throwing the entire assimilatory id eal and program into disrepute.