Before affirmative action, blacks were already entering middle-class professions at unprecedented rates

See Michelle Obama Is Racially Insensitive? She and Pete Buttigieg come under attack from progressives for expressing common-sense views by Jason L. Riley.

"Today, such talk is derided by many on the left, but a focus on self-regard and self-respect was once seen as essential to economic progress, and the results speak for themselves. Census data show that in the 1940s and ’50s black poverty rates plummeted, black incomes grew at a faster rate than white incomes, and the racial gap in years of schooling narrowed from four years to less than two. It’s worth noting that all of this was achieved prior to passage of the landmark civil-rights bills of the 1960s that so often receive exclusive credit for black advancement. And as more blacks became more educated, they qualified for better jobs. Which helps explain why in the decades before affirmative action policies were implemented in the 1970s, blacks were already entering middle-class professions at unprecedented rates."