While debates have long raged about the reasons for a decline in marriage among the black poor, Is Marriage for White People? makes clear that marriage is also becoming less common among the black middle class. This compelling book explains why there has been a decline in marriage among middle-class blacks since the 1970s. Based on extensive interviews with middle-class black women, it weaves together structural, economic, and cultural explanations for the move away from marriage and offers powerful testimony about how black middle-class women are adjusting to a new reality where many will never marry.

—Renne Romano, Director, Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, Associate Professor  of History, Oberlin College