POLL: Spike in number who see "race relations" as "most important problem"

• Highest percentage of Americans in 52 years, 19%, says "race relations" is the most important problem facing the nation.
• However, that number is nowhere near the high in the 1960s of 52%.

In the latest Gallup survey where Americans were asked "to name, off the top of their head, the most important problem facing the nation," 19% named race relations.

The survey was taken between May 28 and June 4.

Gallup reports this it, by one point, the highest percentage giving that answer since July of 1968.

However, the highest measure on record is 52% who saw race relations as the biggest problem in the 1960s. The 19% figure is the fourth highest spike on Gallup's record.

The first recorded mention of race in response to Gallup's most important problem question came in 1948 when 9% of Americans named it as the top problem. That year saw President Harry Truman issue executive orders which prohibited discrimination in civilian agencies and which segregated the nation's armed forces -- the nation's first significant federal civil rights actions since the years after the Civil War.

Gallup

The May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the subsequent news coverage of protests and riots reportedly had an impact on the recent number.

Gallup has asked the same question since 1939.

Read more by clicking the link below:

https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/312875/race-relations-nation-important-problem.aspx

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