This work is conceived of as an attempt to merge the least pretentious of social science writing style with a more popular story telling style and thus appeal to and inform a more varied audience than is usually reached by either method alone. The first three sections dealing with the thesis of the work, a review of social science literature and the methodology used by the anthropologists in the community, are primarily addressed to social scientists and other technicians. The description of the community and the sketches of community people will hopefully be of more interest to the lay reader. Ideally the conclusions drawn from all of the preceding materials will be of interest to all readers. Because this work was designed to be read by the people who were the subjects of study for five years, it seemed reasonable to develop the writing along with them. Five years of living in a low-income, urban, Black area have provided some insights into the kinds of reading materials that are popular there, including daily newspapers, Ebony magazine and other specifically Afro-American publications, items that I label "escape" reading such as detective stories, love stories, pornography, and materials that the readers themselves describe as directly relevant to Black people and/or ghetto life, such as the work of Icepick Slim and Claude Brown. Although the specific reading material in such an area is varied, it most often is chosen or pursued for its relevance to the lives of Black people. It is to this interest in themselves as Black people, their history, and their present circumstances that I hope to appeal here. First, I want to describe accurately and interestingly events that took place in the Black community where I lived and worked from 1968 through 1973. I hope that it will be possible for people from other areas across this country to see how similar these problems and these people's reactions are to their own lives. Finally I want to help the reader to look beyond the description of events to an analysis of why these events occur and reoccur. The reader will quickly discern that the project, from which this report evolved, was not a project undertaken to determine whether or not Black people in the United States are oppressed. We had made this determination to our own satisfaction long before this study was begun. Our purpose was to live in an oppressed community in order to determine and understand the forces that contribute to continued inequality. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).