The 1960’s were unquestionably a tumultuous time in our nation’s history. The Civil Rights movement achieved stunning success with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Act put an end to the era of public segregation by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. President John F. Kennedy had first proposed comprehensive civil rights legislation in 1963, following widespread protests throughout the South. Nonviolent protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King in Birmingham, Alabama were particularly historic. Birmingham police responded to these peaceful demonstrations by attacked protesters with dogs, clubs, and high pressure water hoses. In the face of such ugly injustice, Kennedy proclaimed that the United States, “will not be fully free until all of its citizens are free.” The nation was horrified when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Nevertheless, new President Lyndon B. Johnson pressed forward and the Civil Rights Act became the law of the land on July 2, 1964. No longer could blacks be treated as second-class citizens at restaurants, theaters, parks, or any other place of public accommodation. No longer could employers reject black job applicants based on the color of their skin. Congress would go on to pass the Voting Rights Act in 1965, ensuring blacks the right to vote without facing discriminatory poll taxes or literacy tests. These crucial pieces of legislation essentially ended legal racism in the United States.
It’s well worth knowing a little more about the history of the Civil Right Act on 1964. Although the legislation enjoyed strong support – especially from Republicans – it was bitterly opposed by southern Democrats. When the bill reached the Senate, these southern Democrats managed to stage a 75 day filibuster, one of the longest in history! This came at at time when the filibuster literally required Senators to give endless speeches in order to prevent legislation from advancing. The Democrats were led by Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia – previously a member of the Klu Klux Klan. (To be fair, later in his career Byrd repeatedly apologized for his involvement in the Klan.) Happily, supporters were able to overcome this determined resistance and force a vote. The Senate approved the Civil Rights Act with a final vote of 73-27, and President Johnson signed the bill into law. The Civil Rights Act was hailed as a great victory by the leaders of the Civil Rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King praised it as a “second emancipation.” Although due credit must be given to President Lyndon Johnson, his motives were not as pure as might be hoped. Johnson no doubt believed that supporting the Civil Rights Act was the right thing to do, but like all politicians, he was perhaps just as keen to acquire black votes. Johnson was famously noted to have said that because of his support for the Civil Rights Act, “I’ll have them niggers voting democrat for 200 years.”
While all this was transpiring, a little known sociologist named Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1965 published a report entitled, “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action.” At the time, Moynihan was working as an assistant secretary at the Labor Department. His report was an unvarnished examination of the conditions of the black community in America. Moynihan described a tangled web of pathology which afflicted black Americans – crime, poverty, poor education and unemployment. The report concluded that the root cause of these maladies was the breakdown of marriage in the black community. “The fundamental problem,” Moynihan concluded, “is that of family structure.” Specifically, in 1965, 7.7% of all children in the US were born to unwed mothers. However, there was a wide disparity between black and whites. While only 4% of white babies came into the world without married parents, 26% of all black children had unmarried mothers.
Moynihan correctly recognized the significance of this startling statistic. For all human beings, family is largely destiny. In other words, for better or worse, the quality and stability of our family upbringing has a huge bearing on the future course of our lives. For instance, children raised in single parent homes are five times more likely to end up in poverty compared to children with married parents. They are much less likely to graduate from high school. Tragically, children raised without a father are far more likely engage in crime and serve time in prison. In a landmark 2002 study, researchers at the University of California-Santa Barbara concluded, “the most critical factor affecting the prospect that a male youth will encounter the criminal justice system is the presence of his father in the home.” Additionally, single parent kids are at greater risk of abusing drugs and alcohol, more likely to suffer from depression and/or anxiety, and more likely to attempt or commit suicide.
The simple truth is that children coming from homes with married parents – Dad and Mom – have a much greater opportunity to succeed in life. Daniel Patrick Moynihan firmly grasped this truth and urged the government to do all it could to strengthen and support black marriages and families. And he warned that further deterioration of the black family would bring about social and national calamity. Sadly, liberals openly attacked Moynihan. As author Jason Riley observes, “For his troubles, Moynihan was denounced as a victim-blaming racist bent on underming the civil rights movement.” Far worse, Moynihan’s prescient report was completely ignored by the liberal policy makers who were just then designing President Johnson’s “Great Society” programs. Rather than strengthening and encouraging marriage, the federal government penalized marriage and subsidized single mothers. Riley writes, “In effect, the government paid mothers to keep fathers out of the home – and paid them well.” Specifically, economists estimate that by 1975, households would need to earn roughly $90,000 in today’s money to exceed potential government benefits. In other words, it became financially advantageous for single mothers to wed the government, rather than having working father in the home.
Let’s now fast forward to the present day and ask ourselves the same questions Daniel Patrick Moynihan asked himself in 1965: “What are the most significant problems facing the black community, and how can they be fixed?” Today’s liberals have a quick and certain answer: racism. They continue to blame the disorders of the black community on systemic racism, white supremacy, “voter suppression” and police brutality. Yet the narrative of widespread racism is utterly false. Thanks to the great achievements of the civil rights movement, legalized discrimination has been banned for over 50 years. Blacks have greater educational and employment opportunity than ever before. In fact, there is not a university or a major corporation which wouldn’t jump at the chance to enroll or hire a qualified black applicant. Black voters, especially throughout the South, turn out in droves to support the political candidates of their choice. In 1965, who would have thought that by 2008 Americans of all colors would enthusiastically sweep Barack Obama into the White House, and then re-elect him four years later?
Yet despite the dismantling of structural and, to a large extent, societal racism, the black community in America continues to face the dreadful problems of poverty and crime. Blacks persistently lag behind in educational and employment outcomes as well as other key metrics. The explanation for this dark reality is quite simple. Just as it was in 1965, the greatest menace to the black community – by far -is the breakdown of marriage and the nuclear family. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was exactly right then and his diagnosis is even more pertinent today. As writer Kay Hymowitz says, “Entrenched, multigenerational poverty is largely black, and is intricately intertwined with the collapse of the nuclear family in the inner city.” As we noted above, Moynihan sounded the alarm over the deterioration of the black family in 1965, when the rate of black children born to unmarried parents reached 26%. Yet over the last 50+ years, the problem of unwed pregnancies has grown far, far worse. By 2010, a staggering 72% of black babies greeted the world without married parents. In some urban areas, black unwed birth rates have reached a staggering 80 to 90%. The vast majority of these children will be raised by a single mother and will have little or no contact with their biological father. Few will have any semblance of positive male role model. And inevitably the cycle of poverty, educational failure, crime and unemployment will repeat itself.
Although the scourge of family breakdown is most acute among blacks, this issue affects American families of all races. Whereas in 1965, only 7.7% of all American children were born to unwed mothers, today that figure has reached 40%. Even for white children, the rate of unwed pregnancies has risen from a quaint 4% in 1965 to about 30% today. Make no mistake, the maladies of family breakdown care nothing for the color of your skin. Yet despite the dire situation, the blessings of healthy family structure remain readily available. Unwed birth rates remain quite low for Asians, explaining why Asian Americans have vanishingly low crime rates, achieve remarkable educational success and enjoy exceptional prosperity. In 2019, whereas median US household income was $68,703, Asian American households boasted a median income of $98,174, while black households lagged behind at $45,438. Once again, family is destiny.
There are so many voices in our public discourse today who loudly claim that the greatest threat to the black community today is racism. Especially notable are the constant accusations of racism hurled against our police forces. But the repeated clashes between young black men – often armed criminals – and the police are only a symptom of the true menace: the utterly collapse of the black family. Until the black family is restored, generations of blacks will continue to languish in poverty and endure high rates of crime and incarceration. Moreover, our society will continue to convulse itself each and every time a young fatherless black man – most often committing a crime and/or brandishing a weapon – is shot by the police. Precisely how the black family can be restored must be the subject of a future blog.
This should come as no surprise to us. The wise God who created all things designed the family to ensure human flourishing. Jesus once challenged his hearers to remember the foundational wisdom of God found in the book of Genesis: “Haven’t you read that at the beginning the Creator ‘made the male and female’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” God’s formula for flourishing is not necessarily easy, but it is simple. One man and one woman, brought together in the binding covenant of marriage, holding fast to one another through all of the vicissitudes of life, teaching their children to know right from wrong, and helping them to choose the right.
