Gordon Allport's contact hypothesis is one of the most useful concepts for studying and understanding race relations. (Pettigrew. 1998). While at Harvard, Allport became interested in the contact hypothesis. It states that, under certain conditions, contact between whites and blacks can reduce the racial prejudice of whites. (Purcell. 2004) For the most part, past research on the contact hypothesis looked at interracial contact in residential, occupational, or military settings. Allport believed that prejudice, although hard to change, …showed first 75 words of 454 total…

…showed last 75 words of 454 total…along. In the case of segregation, blacks and whites eventually learned to get along. This did not happen immediately but through time. The more they were together, the more tolerant they learned to be with one another. References Pettigrew, T. (1998) Retrieved February 15, 2005 from http://puki.org/socialpsyc/pettigrew3.html. Purcell, D. (2004) Retrieved February 15, 2005 from http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?acc_num=ucin1077843541. Taylor, M. (1998) Retrieved February 15, 2005 from http://puki.org/socialpsyc/taylor2.html.