<p>The thing is, the "liberation" of which you speak has happened decades ago.
Yes, the civil rights took place in the 60's, but you cannot blame the education gap solely on the discrimination. The Blacks have had generations upon generations to close the gap - just as the Jews did! </p>
<p>I hereby repost my explanation from above:</p>
<p>"Take the Blacks and the Jews. Both groups suffered horrific discrimination for centuries upon centuries. The Jews, while they did not suffer as much as the Blacks in America, (they did suffer quite a bit, and that cannot be denied - read my above posts), suffered immensely in Europe. They endured expulsions after expulsions, pogroms, massacres, legal discrimination, etc, which are no less horrific than slavery and apartheid. And yet, through the pogroms, Jews retained their literacy. We underwent firey hell and managed to educate ourselves nonetheless. </p>
<p>Tell me, was it illegal for Blacks to learn how to read in the post Civil War period? No. It is true that for countless decades thereafter they were deprived of equal state-sponsored education, but did the Jews receive a state-sponsored education from the Khazacks? No. Then how come illiteracy among Jews is almost non-existent while the latter is a serious problem for the Black community in America today?</p>
<p>The Jews and the Blacks historically underwent very similar plights, as you can see, and the social performance of the two groups is essentially on the two oppostie sides of the spectrum... Jews are way way way way overrepresented in industry, politics, the economy, and academia (25% of HYP!). How is this so?</p>
<p>The answer is, as APDoolittle astutely pointed out, culture. The Jews had the terrific advantage of having an education-oriented culture; since our very origins nearly 4,000 years ago this has been so. This accounts for the huge gap between African Americans and American Jews, (in fact, frankly, Jews all over the world). Education just happened to be a central prerequisite for success in modern Western civilization, and thus the Jews rose to the top and the Blacks lagged behind."</p>
<p>So, anagarcia, the reasons for the education problem among blacks and other under-priviliged groups are not as simple as you make them seem.</p>