A Crisis of Leadership and the Role of Citizens in Black America by Stephen C. W. Graves

Author:Stephen C. W. Graves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2012-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Results of Black Leadership in the 1980s

The Black leadership of the 1980s was faced with the difficult task of confronting the increased need of providing assistance to its impoverished majority with less aid and assistance from the national legislature. Economically, the median household income for Blacks grew in the 1980s, although it remained well below the American population overall. Nationally, the median household income was $31,435 for Whites and $19,758 for Blacks. Black households typically brought in 63 cents for every $1 that went to a White household; it was 62 cents for every $1 a decade earlier.[80] The percentage of Blacks in poverty increased from the previous decade to 31 percent, peaking at 36 percent between 1983 and 1985.[81] Blacks earning above $100,000 increased 3 percentage points to 6.4 percent during the 1980s, while those Blacks earning less than $35,000 declined from 62 to 56 percent.[82] Educational attainment in the Black community continued to improve during the 1980s as the high school dropout rate continued to decline from 19.1 percent the previous decade to 13.2 percent by the end of the 1980s. Black men enjoyed a 9 percent drop in high school drop-outs alone.[83] Overall high school attainment rose from 51 percent to 66 percent, and college attainment rose 3 percent. The educational achievement gap in high school between Blacks and Whites closed to 13 percent, but again increased by 2 percent for college graduates. Finally, the 1980s saw the amount of Black homicide offenders decline from 51 percent to 46 percent (see table 3.2).[84]

On the other hand, the unemployment rate for Blacks during the 1980s remained twice the national average, peaking between the years 1983–1985 at 17 percent.[85] Despite an increasing number of Blacks graduating high school, they continued to comprise 50 percent of those convicted of crimes.[86] The number of Blacks in prison or otherwise under the supervision of the justice system increased by the end of the decade to 1,148,702, and the Black male homicide rate increased from 28 to 65 per 100,000 (1/29 for Black men compared to 1/186 for White men).[87] A decrease in social programs and access to adequate social services put increased pressure on Black families. Consequently, the number of single-parent Black households with children increased to 31 percent for Blacks compared to just 10 percent for Whites and the level of divorce and separation of Black families rose at twice the rate of Whites.[88] Additionally, Black life expectancy remained six years shorter than the national average. Overall, a similar pattern in behavior was present in the 1980s as in the previous decade: Blacks continued to earn just over half the proportion of wealth as Whites, their poverty was 3.5 times higher, and unemployment in the Black community was twice as high as the national average (see table 3.2).

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