Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

lacks are better off, but we must
ask, better off in relation to what?
Are they better off in relation to
their previous situation, in relation
to low-income blacks or in relation
to whites in the same areas in which
they live?
Some limited data from Cleveland
provide us with some tentative
answers to what may be happening
to black people in various parts
of the large cities of the nation .
While most of Cleveland's black
population is generally found in
nine neighborhoods, some black
people live outside of these areas .
In 1960, some 8 .9 percent of the
black people in Cleveland lived outside
of the black community area ;
and in 1965, 15 .0 percent of the
black people lived outside of this
area . If we assume that, in general,
those living away from the black
community are middle-income people,
and those within the community
low-income blacks, we can compare
some of the characteristics of
these two groups of blacks, and
then compare them to middle-income
whites in Cleveland . The
table lists some of the social and
economic characteristics of these
three groups in Cleveland for 1960
and 1965 .
In 1960, middle-income black
people had a fertility ratio (the
number of children under five for
every 1,000 women aged 15-49 )
much lower than that of low-income
blacks, indicating that poor
blacks had more children to care
for and less money with which to
NEGRO DIGEST March 1968
do so than their more prosperous
brothers . The proportion of children
under 18 living with both parents
gives some indication of family
"stability," and here the middleincome
blacks were also better off
for a higher percentage of their
children live in "stable" families .
Furthermore, middle-income blacks
had a full year more of completed
school than did those in low-income
areas .
Although middle-income blacks
have an employment rate lower
than that of low-income blacks,
both groups have high levels of employment
. The difference between
the two groups is most clearly seen
in the income statistics . Middleincome
blacks have a much lower
proportion of families and the very
low income category, and a higher
proportion in the category of those
families making from eight to fifteen
thousand dollars per year .
Therefore, the median income of
the poor black families was only 86
percent as much as the median income
of the black families living
outside of the black community .
We can confidently say that in
Cleveland in 1960 middle-income
blacks were better off than lowincome
blacks .
By 1965, the fertility ratio for
all black families had dec~ined considerably,
but the middle-income
blacks still had much lower fertility
than low-income blacks . The
proportion of "stable" families in
two communities went in opposite
directions ; it got worse for tire low-
s~