Yes, it would be interesting to see if they could still make it without government assistance and affirmative action.
I remember as a kid, before the war on poverty started, the black communities seemed to be better off than they are today. Yes there were issues regarding segregation and civil rights, but many things (poverty, violence, and education) were gradually improving. Those things seemed to have regressed over the last 50 years, not improved.
That is my recollection, as well.
Under Jim Crow, the black communities seem to have developed a functional middle class composed of independent businessmen and professionals. But they were largely wiped-out by the upheavals of the civil rights era.
Whereupon the War on Poverty began its depredations against the black family.