56%

According to Gallup, fifty six percent of Americans now "believe that a solution to America's race-relations problem will eventually be worked out--a figure that is roughly the same as those Gallup found in the years prior to last fall's historic election of Barack Obama as president." Interestingly, in 1963 the same percentage of Americans shared that view. "In short," Gallup says, "despite all that has happened in the intervening decades, there is scarcely more hope now than there was those many years ago that the nation's race-relations situation will be solved."

And the number of African Americans optimistic about a solution has fallen since last summer, from 50% to 42%.