January 26, 1987:
A study, reported in the New York Times by Richard P Nathan, professor of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, presented facts and figures on what Professor Nathan called ‘the real urban crisis’. He collected data in the 50 biggest US cities. Concentrated black poverty has become a central concern of many political scientists, who see increasing isolation of the poor as perpetuating the cycle of unemployment, broken families, teen-age pregnancy, crime and drug use. They also see it as the prime cause of deteriorating race relations. Whites, many of them living in all-white enclaves, fear that black poverty may spread into their areas, and they react in irrational ways, the experts say. As a result, black militance has increased until, in some communities, it is said to be the highest since the black urban riots of the 1960's and early 1970's. The Census Bureau considers extreme poverty those areas where 40 percent or more of the people are living below the poverty line. In 1980 the Government's official poverty line for a family of four was 8 414 dollars. In 1980 the combined population of the 50 biggest US cities was 37 815 907, a decline of 5 percent over a 10-year period. But the overall population for the 50 cities with income below the poverty level increased in the decade despite the overall population loss. It rose 11.7 percent to 6 708 464.
The number of poor whites, however, declined by 18 percent, while the number of poor blacks rose by 18 percent over the same 10 years. Cities became both blacker and poorer, with the blacks falling deeper into poverty while whites rose from poverty at the same rate, Professor Nathan's study showed. The Census Bureau showed an even sharper contrast in areas of extreme poverty, where it counted 1 124 344 blacks and only 260 884 whites. Therefore, it is largely the poor blacks in America whose numbers are increasing. Middle-class blacks have joined whites in many areas in moving to the suburbs, as several studies have shown.
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