the negro family

7/30/2019 The Negro Family

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Photograph of a Black Family During the

Great Depression


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Moynihan, D. P. (1965). The negro family: The case for national action. U.S. Department

of Labor. Retrieved October 17, 2002 fromhttp://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htm.
http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htmhttp://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/afam/index.htmlhttp://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htmhttp://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htmhttp://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htm


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Moynihan, D. P. (1965). The negro family: The case for national action. U.S. Department

of Labor. Retrieved October 17, 2002 fromhttp://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htm.
http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htmhttp://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htmhttp://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htmhttp://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htm


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Source: Moynihan, D. P. (1965). The negro family: The case for national action. U.S.

Department of Labor. Retrieved October 17, 2002 fromhtt ://www.dol. ov/as / ro rams/histor /webid-me nihan.htm.


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Source: Moynihan, D. P. (1965). The negro family: The case for national action. U.S.

Department of Labor. Retrieved October 17, 2002 fromhtt ://www.dol. ov/as / ro rams/histor /webid-me nihan.htm.

Photograph of a Black FamilyDuring the Great Depression


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Patrick Moynihan, The Negro Family(1965)

Main Points:

1. The role of the family is central to shaping the character of

people, and [a]t the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of NegroSociety is the deterioration of the Negro family.

The role of the family in shaping character and ability is so

pervasive as to be easily overlooked. The family is the basic

social unit of American life; it is the basic socializing unit.But there is one truly great discontinuity in family structure in

the United States at the present time: that between the white

world in general and that of the Negro American.

the family structure of lower class Negroes is highly

unstable, and in many urban centers is approaching completebreakdown.

There is considerable evidence that the Negro community is

in fact dividing between a stable middle-class group that is

steadily growing stronger and more successful, and an

increasingly disorganized and disadvantaged lower-class

group.


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2. A long history of discrimination and segregation has worked

against the emergence of a strong father figure in the African

American family.

The Negro was given liberty, but not equality. Life remained

hazardous and marginal. Of the greatest importance, the Negro male,

particularly in the South, became an object of intense hostility, an

attitude unquestionably based in some measure on fear.

When Jim Crow made its appearance toward the end of the

19th century, it may be speculated that it was the Negro male who

was most humiliated thereby.

Unquestionably, [Jim Crow humiliation of the Negro male]

worked against the emergence of a strong father figure. The very

essence of the male animal, from the bantam rooster to the four-star

general, is to strut. Indeed, in 19th century America, a particular type

of exaggerated male boastfulness became almost a national style.

Not for the Negro male. The sassy nigger was lynched.


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We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the

man who embodies victorious effort; the man who never

wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but

who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the

stern strife of actual life.--Theodore Roosevelt, The Strenuous Life

White mobs murdered some 500 blacks between 1870 and

1900, and more than 100 black people between 1900 and

1910.

White prejudice included animosity toward black troops in

the U.S. Army. Brownsville whites, for example, objectedto the stationing of the all-black Twenty-fifth Infantry at

Fort Brown. In anger, they charged that the troops had

raided the city in 1906 in protest of discriminatory

practices. Later evidence demonstrated the unfairness of

the charges, but at that time President Theodore

Roosevelt had dishonorably discharged 160 of the troops.

(The History of Texas, 189, 261-262)


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THE DECLINE IN AMERICAN MORALS?

The general failure of prohibition enforcement brought home

to many Texas what they defined as a decline in American

morals. The rapidly increasing urbanization seemed to blurwhat were once clear moral and community values. Migration

to the city disrupted the neighborhoods of rural America and,

coupled with more and better transportation facilities, broke

up the extended family. Historians have cited the urban

growth of the United States as creating tensions betweenrural and urban Americans. The anxiety emanated not only

from the countryside, but also from developing southern cities

filled with recent foreign immigrants. The anti-city focus of

rural Texans resulted from their perception of urban areas as

hotbeds of disloyal foreigners, religious modernism, illegal

speakeasies, organized crime, morally suspicious New

Women, and corrupting modern music. These tensions were

further abetted by the post-World War I Red Scare and

reinforced by the progressive drive for social control. (The

History of Texas, p. 310)


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Percentage of

Texans living in

metropolitan

areas:

1900: 17.1%

1939: 41%


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The Ku Klux KlanThe Klan professed as its goals the preservation of patriotism, the

purity of women, white supremacy, and law and order. It opposed

radicals, Catholics, Jews, blacks, Mexicans, the wearing by women of

short skirts, the consumption of demon rum, and continued foreign

immigration. By 1922, the organization had 700,000 members and by

1925, possibly as many as 5 million. (p. 311)


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A group of men dressed in full Klan regalia march down the street at

night with torches, crosses and flags. A crowd of people line the street to

watch. Source:http://www.texasrecord.org/results_single.asp?co=US&ci=Breckenridge


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3. Unemployment of the African-American male has largely contributed to the present

crisis of the African-American family, which has been forced into a matriarchal

structure.

The impact of unemployment on the Negro family, and particularly on the Negro male,

is the least understood of all the developments that have contributed to the presentcrisis. The fundamental, overwhelming fact is that Negro unemployment, with the

exception of a few years during World War II and the Korean War, has continued at

disaster levels for 35 years. As jobs became more and more difficult to find, the

stability of the family became more and more difficult to maintain.

[The African-American community has

paid a fearful price] for the incredible

mistreatment to which it has been

subjected over the past three centuries.

In essence, the Negro community

has been forced into a matriarchal

structure which, because it is so out of

line with the rest of the American society,

seriously retards the progress of the

group as a whole, and imposes a crushing

burden on the Negro male and, in

consequence, on a great many Negro

women as well.

Picture by King, Edward, 1848-1896

Source of picture:http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/king/king.html


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4. A national effort should be made to help the problems faced by the

African-American family.

It was by destroying the Negro family under slavery that whiteAmerica broke the will of the Negro people. Although that will has

reasserted itself in our time, it is a resurgence doomed to

frustration unless the viability of the Negro family is restored.

[A] national effort towards the problems of Negro Americans

must be directed towards the question of family structure. Theobject should be to strengthen the Negro family so as to enable it

to raise and support its members as do other families. After that,

how this group of Americans chooses to run its affairs is none of

the nations business.

Questions:

What is wrong with having female heads of households?

What are the origins of the tangle of pathology in the black community?

How can the government alter familial relations?


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Single parents account for 27 percent of family households with children under 18.

More than two million fathers are the primary caregivers of children under 18,

a 62 percent increase since 1990.

One in two children will live in a single-parent family at some point in childhood.

One in three children is born to unmarried parents.

Between 1978 and 1996, the number of babies born to unmarried women per yearquadrupled from 500,000 to more than two million.

The number of single mothers increased from three million to 10 million between

1970 and 2000.

Nearly half of all marriages end in divorce.

More than one million children have parents who separate or divorce each year.

More than half of Americans today have been, are or will be in one or more stepfamily

situations.


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Poverty Rates of Single Mother Families by Race (based on cash income)

Children represent a disproportionate share of the poor in the United States; they are 25


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CategoryNumber (in

thousands)Percent

All children under

1813,027 17.8

White only, non-

Hispanic

4,507 10.5

Black 4,049 33.2

Hispanic 4,102 28.9

Asian 334 9.8

Children represent a disproportionate share of the poor in the United States; they are 25

percent of the total population, but 35 percent of the poor population. In 2004, 13 million

children, or 17.8 percent, were poor. The poverty rate for children also varies

substantially by race and Hispanic origin, as shown in the table below.


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http://www.epinet.org/images/figure11.gif


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http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/ETI/image/afam951.gif


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Darryll Vann is in a shrinking minority group--African-American men who teach

youngsters. Only 11 percent of elementary school teachers are male and a

much smaller percentage of them are African-American.

Photo by David Snider

http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF1901/McCarthy/McCarthy.html


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Construction of a new Texas Prison


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Texas' June 2003 incarceration rate also was the highest in the

nation, with 692 inmates per 100,000 population. Mississippi

ran a close second with an incarceration rate of 688 per 100,000residents.....Overall, the report said the nation's federal, state

and local prisons and jails were holding more than 2 million

people on June 30, 2003, the largest number in four years.

A federal study released Thursday shows that Texas led the

nation in the number of inmates incarcerated in state prisons and

county jails in June 2003.

Texas had 164,222 inmates on the last day of that month. The

Texas inmate population was up by 4.2 percent, or 6,578 inmates,

from June 2002, according to the study by the U.S. Bureau of

Justice Statistics.

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