When I was in the navy, I served with a guy named Grady Jackson, a senior chief, black as you could be. You would never mistake him for some one heavily tanned, he was jet black. I got along really well with him and he kinda took me under his wing. He one night when nothing was going on told me some stories from when he was just a youngun in the navy, back in the 60s. You did not go to the head by yourself, you took 2 frinds, because trouble making groups of whites and blacks would jump people of the other race if they where alone. Blacks always tended to do worse on evals unless they where really exceptionally good, which made advancement harder. There where riots and near riots. The painfully weak command structure of the time could or would do nothing to stop it.
Whenever any one talks about how little we have come, or that we are no beter than we were, I think back to Senior Jackson's stories, and think, you know, maybe we are improving, maybe we have gotten better. I think we just see how far there is to go, and lose sight of how much has been done.