Change In Hope

This Gallup poll intrigues me. It shows, from 1964 to the present, the belief among Americans that race relations can be worked out. The reason it's being talked about today is the bump of hope Obama brought has mostly dissipated. But that was to be expected.

What interests me is the general trend. Starting in the year of the Civil Rights Act Of 1964, there was a long slide all the way into the 90s from 55% to 41% positive. (I'm ignoring the short term dip due to the O.J. trial). This despite unquestionable progress (objectively speaking--I understand people may not have felt it was happening, but if nothing else, old, unapologetic racists were dying while kids were being raised to hate racism; the old question was should we discriminate against minorities, the new question was should we treat everyone equally or officially discriminate in their favor).

I don't know why this happened. Perhaps it was because the strides made by the civil rights movement from 1945 to 1964 were steady and obvious and brought along a growing part of the population, and by their greatest achievement things peaked. But after getting most of the laws they'd been fighting for passed, perhaps blacks saw they still had major problems and whites felt that blacks were only getting more radical and demanding. It's not unlike a slow play out of the disillusionment the poll shows after the high of Obama's election.

Yet even if that's the case, why was there a reversal of the trend some time in the 90s, and thus a steady rise in hope for at least a decade? That I have no easy answer for.