Action Research and Minority Problems

Mr. Baldau presents in a very clear way the challenge of the person who is trying to improve group relations. Although he is able to paint a relatively friendly picture about the situation in Cleveland, he is eager to stress that he is not at all certain whether his report mirrors more than the surface. Mr. Baldau can enumerate important progresses made by various minority groups in the last decade, but he is not certain whether they will last or create counterpressure strong enough to reverse the trend. He is quite in doubt about the effectiveness of the techniques used for the betterment of intergroup relations, without being able to offer suggestions for techniques which haye been proved to be effective. H e asks, therefore, for action-research, for research which will help the practitioner. In the last year and a half I have had occasion to have contact with a great variety of organizations, institutions, and individuals who came for help in the field of group relations. They included representatives of communities, school systems, single schools, minority organizations of a variety of backgrounds and objectives ; they included labor and management representatives, departments of the national and state governments, and so on.