Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

income blacks and better for the
middle-income blacks . While both
groups improved in their educational
levels, the middle-income
blacks improved so much more rapidly
that by 1965 they had over one
and a half years more 'of compl-eted
education than did low-income
blacks .
The unemployment picture in
1965 was most interesting, for the
relationship of the males to each
other did not change even though
the general rates were lower for
both groups . The low-income black
women had a higher level of unemployment
in 1965 while the unemployment
rate for middle-income
black women plummeted to below
4 percent . The effect of these diverging
trends in female employrnent
is seen in the income data . In
the lowest income category there
has been virtually no change for
low-income blacks and a dramatic
improvement for middle-income
blacks . While both groups saw improvements
in the upper income
categories, there were twice as
many middle-income black families
making from eight to $15,000 per
year as there were low-income
blacks . Consequently, the poor
black families had a median income
only 78 percent as high as that of
their more prosperous brothers, a
decline from the 1960-situation . In
1960, the median income for middle-income
black families was
$836 more than it was for lowincome
black families, and by 1965
it was $1,562 more. The evidence
NEGRO DIGEST 'Mach Y9L8
sugg.^sts that not only were m :ddleincome
black people in Cleveland
better off than low-income black
people in 1965, in the period since
1960 the middle-income blacks
were moving further away from
low-income blacks in terms of family
organization, education, employment,
and income . The black
population in one of America's
major cities is moving in two different
directions, it appears .
Given the comparative standing
of middle- and low-income black
families to each other in Cleveland
in 1960 and 1965, how do the
middle-income black families compare
to the white families who live
in the same area as they do? Here
we are unable to obtain all the
data necessary for comparison like
that above, and the available data
are not as satisfactory as we would
wish, for there were significant
changes in the number of black
and white families in the area under
consideration . While the number
of black families living outside of
the black community doubled in
the five year period (an increase
of 100 percent), the number of
white families declined by 10 percent,
apparently as whites moved
further away from middle-income
black families.
In 1960, black families in middle-income
areas of Cleveland had
a much higher level of fertility than
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