Census: Black Families Making Gains

By GENARO C. ARMAS
The Associated Press

April 28, 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) - More black families are headed by married couples and more are living in homes they own, the Census Bureau reported Friday.

The bureau's most detailed report on the nation's 8.8 million black families since the 2000 census showed blacks continue to make gains in several socio-economic and educational areas, but still trail whites by a wide margin in many categories.

Data shows a slow but steady increase in the number of black families headed by married couples - 47.9 percent in 2002, up from 47.8 in 2000 and 46.1 percent in 1996. The six-year increase equals about 520,000 families.

That gain came after the percentage had decreased from 47.5 percent in 1995, the earliest year for which data was available online.

Meanwhile, the portion of families headed by single women continued to decline. It was 43 percent last year, 1 percentage point lower than 2000 and 4 points lower than in 1996.

The changes coincide with the massive welfare overhaul of 1996, which allowed states to impose tough new rules for recipients and helped lead to a huge reduction in public assistance rolls. The welfare plan is up for renewal in Congress this year and President Bush has proposed hundreds of millions of dollars to promote marriage and sexual abstinence.

Avis Jones-DeWeever of the Institute for Women's Policy Research said the surging economy of the late 1990s probably had more to do with the improvement for black families than welfare reform.

"We all know during this time period that we had a huge economic boom, and people do better and have a better quality of life and are more likely to move to these life-changing life issues like marriage," she said.

Supporters of pro-marriage initiatives in welfare reform point to research showing that children who grow up with married parents are less likely to live in poverty.

About 48 percent of blacks owned their homes in 2002, up from 47 percent in 2000 and 42 percent in 1990.

The increase came though black income has fallen recently. The bureau reported last year that the median household income for blacks was more than $29,000 in 2001, the latest data available, down from nearly $31,000 the previous year, though still up from over $24,000 in 1990.

"It is reflecting the consolidation of a stable kind of black middle class, which has grown because of the economy of the 1990s," said Roderick Harrison, a demographer with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which studies issues of concern to minorities.

"It's not like there no poor married couples who are struggling, but it's pretty much that the chance of avoiding poverty and owning a home on the other end are considerably improved if you are married," he said.

Nationally, 76 percent of all families were headed by a married couple last year, down from 77 percent six years earlier, while the percentage of female-headed homes stayed unchanged at 18 percent.

About two-thirds of all American families owned homes in 2002.

Previous Census Bureau reports found the percentage of blacks 25 and older with a bachelor's degree was at a record high of 17 percent in 2002, up from just under 14 percent in 1996. Black women are slightly more likely than black men to have graduated from college, 18 percent to 16 percent.

Nearly 10 percent of blacks worked in executive or managerial jobs in 2002, down slightly from 10.5 percent the previous year, but still nearly twice as high than during the early 1980s. Among all U.S. residents, 15.2 percent are in management, up slightly from 15.1 percent.

Black managers tend to be in low- to midlevel positions that might be more likely to be cut if a company's budget is in crisis, Harrison said.

Bill Spriggs, director of research and public policy for the National Urban League in Washington, said he's concerned that the struggling economy could roll back some of the socio-economic gains by blacks. If incomes fall, more black families may not be able to afford to send their kids to college or buy a home.

Census director Louis Kincannon released the latest data at a meeting Friday in Houston of the Conference of Black Mayors.

The mayors group will use the information to lobby for better transportation, educational opportunities and housing in black communities, said conference president Marilyn Murrell, mayor of Arcadia, Okla.