Fleming looked back over the last century at the legislative process and programs that were created to help impoverished Americans and how benefits were administered. During the 1930s under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal a federal program was created to assist single mothers raising children in poverty. Fleming asserts that Black mothers were excluded from receiving those benefits.
Thirty years later under President John F. Kennedy, single Black mothers were finally able to apply for and receive relief through that program. But by then the decline of the Black nuclear family was already underway. Fleming states that after WWII ended Black men were able to obtain decent jobs as American industries were surging.
If a fellow has a job that will allow him to support a family, buy a car, own a home, then that man is more likely to get married and have a family. By 1950 the marriage rate among Black women peaked at almost 70%. It has been declining ever since. Why is that? The author explains employment opportunities evaporated as those good jobs were lost to cheap labor overseas.
If women cannot find men with good jobs, then who will they marry? As marriage rates among Black women declined, their out-of-wedlock births were rising. Another surging figure relates to incarceration rates among Black men. If a child’s father is in prison, then who is going to support that child’s family?
By 1980, politics were shifting. Poor mothers lacked advocates in the White House. President Ronald Reagan uttered nasty slurs about “welfare mothers?” By 1996 Republicans won the majority in Congress, House Speaker Newt Gingrich advocated a “Contract with America” and welfare reform.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs, interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit e years, assistance recipients became ineligible. Meanwhile, according to, the author, by “2015, 77.3% of Black live births were to single mothers.”
Is it any wonder that many Black children are trapped in cycles of unrelenting poverty? In an interview the author pointed out the example of Detroit with an overwhelmingly Black population and inner city public schools struggling to educate children. Their test scores there are abysmal.
The author taught at Central State University-she recalled the invigorating challenge of teaching there. Still, she sees glimmers of hope, birth rates are declining, she is cautiously optimistic things will improve.
Vick Mickunas, of Yellow Springs, interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
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