You are a little off on your details. Let me throw a few important items and dates at you. Check on them when you get the chance. And remember that season 2 ends in 1962 (it's the date on the Easter Sunday flyer peggy was holding in church).

Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1963 march on Washington for jobs and freedom.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964.
THe Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Nigelq, I'm not sure what you mean when you suggest dmarie was off on the details. She is only suggesting that there was a black middle class by the early 1960's. You seem to imply that there wasn't because there was no legislation until 1964, which is incorrect. The legislation was introduced to remove artificial barriers to equal rights w/r/to jobs, voting rights, etc. The black middle class didn't all of a sudden begin with the legislation--it was already there.

Shelia made it clear she was from a middle class neighborhood.

However, I think when the writers skipped over the true problems Paul and Shelia would have faced as an interacial couple it is disrespectful to those that fought long and hard for change. By glossing over where we came from we can never truely appricate how far we have come.

I think the problem here is a matter of the fiction being logical and consistent as compared to the time period being realistic. Yes, of course there were middle class blacks; there have been for almost as long as there've been African Americans, and of course we'd like to see them. BUT Sterling Cooper comes across as a very, very old boy company. They have no Jews working any higher than in the back room of the art department (season 1), and it's far more likely, in those days, that if a company was going to be liberal minded they'd have Jews rather than blacks. I mean, come on! They just got their first woman among those ad boys.

So it's logical and consistent that THEY (Sterling Cooper) would only have black janitors and elevator men, not a black secretary, or even a black person working at the lowest corporate levels like the one Jewish guy they dug up in that first episode to appease their Jewish client.

Let's remember, there was no law at that time against companies discriminating. And Joan is a bigot, as we saw with Sheila. She would be doing the hiring of a new secretary. So while it's perfectly real and true to the time that your mother was a secretary, it is also perfectly real and true and consistent to Sterling-Cooper that, if such a company had existed, they probably wouldn't have hired your mom.

Likewise, Paul isn't going to want any black woman who doesn't give him a story to tell. Sheila may work in a grocery store, but I believe she was working there in order to go to school. She is educated. What matters is, PAUL wouldn't go after a middle class girl. He wants to be that sort of Bohemian intellectual who hangs with the lower class, the working class. So, once again, it is entirely logical and consistent for Paul to be with a girl working at a grocery store rather than a middle class girl--black or white.

Hence, while it might not be entirely realistic for the show to imply that the world was this segregated and there were no middle class blacks--especially in Manhattan--it is, nevertheless, logical and consistent given the fiction that's been created, and not that far from historical reality given the type of characters we're seeing--characters who are earning a lot of money and living the high life. Characters more likely to interact with blacks who are waiters, elevator men, and maids than school teachers.

Thanks Lord Bottletop for understanding and response.
To Nigelq: You are correct on these dates. However I was only commenting on my life and experience. I grew up in Chicago, where, of course, neighborhoods were mostly segregated, rather de facto than de jurie. But it didn't mean you were not allowed to go to college if your parents were willing sacrifice for you. Also by 1962 government student loans were available--and to blacks as well.
I understand how far we have come, but I thought I explained that in my original post.
dmarie

In 1955, I started working ffor a local government and at the time, we blacks were only sent to certain departments, such as Health. They were never (until later) assigned to the better locations, such as Police Department, Art Museum, Vital Statistics, Personnel. Many of these same employees either had degrees or were working on them. We even have a current Judge who worked in the Emergency Room. I did not find it strange that there were no blacks at the corporate level.
Matt Weiner can't cover it all, but he sure does a fine job of giving you a slice of it. KUDOS!!!!!

I agree with dmarie. I grew up in NY in the 60's, a black woman. My mother, a college graduate, moved from Louisiana to NY in 1942 and was one of the first blacks to work for Internal Revenue when it was in the Bronx as a statistician. She told me that one part of the reason she got the job was that she scored very high in an entrance exam, the other reason was that she was very light skin colored and was told that it wouldn't 'intimidate' the other workers so much. Yes, it was backward thinking, for sure. But there was a significant group of educated, middle class blacks in NY. So I wish the charater Sheila would have been the one chosen to reflect that group-instead of her as a worker in a supermarket. Yet another black person in MadMen with a non-office job. It wasn't roses for educated blacks-my mother was still subject to the ill manners of office bigots- but we were there as a middle class. I must also add that when my Mom first came to NY in 42' she applied to Macy's and was told that they only hired blacks to wrap packages and that she was over-educated for that position!

giggirl.
I rememeber my dad's friend had a wife that had to be hosptialized. They had no other family around so his daughter stayed with us. Her dad said "she wont be any trouble she can pass" meaning she would be able to pass for white.
I believe she was the first black girl to swim in out country club pool.

Matt Weiner has commented several times that he is telling stories from a place that he knows, which is "being white". He has said several times that his show is mostly about white people, and there are other people who can tell the stories of blacks (and other minorities) better than he can.

None of which means that in the coming season they can't introduce a black secretary or black person in the creative or accounts part of the business.

SC is not about to break ground in any area but the ground's already been broken (two years after Roger tells Don that another agency has hired "a colored kid.")

They probably won't hire a black secretary unless she's either a) cheaper - SC does pay less for vaguely similar jobs - witness Ken's salary vs. Harry's. Or b) exceptionally well qualified - Don wants someone who's happy working at his desk.

A black junior executive would come about if SC decides it wants to penetrate the black market for one of its clients. They might be outsourcing the work to a black advertising agency in 1962 and decide to bring it back inside the house. This might come as the return of Freddy to the series. A black man says something Freddy figures is innovative and in turn, Freddy contacts Don.

GerryFromToledo

I don't think anyone is saying that MadMen should be 'telling the stories of blacks'. I feel Matt Weiner is smarter than to just write a show about 'being white'. I feel MadMen is about an era he knows- and like it or not that era had people of color- that is why Matt HAS to put in Blacks and Asians because they were part of the reality of New York in 1960.
My post was just an acknowledgent of dmarie's post...that there was a significant black middle class. Mr. Weiner did a great job of showing an upper Jewish class and also a Catholic middle class. I don't think he can simultanteously be both religions so he shows he is capable of telling the stories of many people. And yes, the future of MadMen may have expanded story lines that included integration within the SC office.
This is not a diss at Mr.Weiner. On the contrary, I am awed by his story telling- it is so rich and engrossing. I watch almost breathlessly each new episode. It is so modern yet so real in capturing the time in is reflecting-which I am old enough to remember. I am thrilled by so much of tyhe detail. He must sweat each line, each camera angle, each piece of music chosen. Just brilliant.

I forget which episode, but earlier in this season Roger mentioned to Don that one of the other firms had hired a black man. Don replied that he felt sorry for him. This statement reflects the good job the writers are doing with making this work of fiction as historically accurate as possible.

Yes people. There WERE middle-class blacks in 1962, many of them descendants of the mulatto elite, but blacks and whites really were this segregated. That was a big reason why these laws were enacted. Change wasn't happening. It had to be forced.