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The Augusta News - Review January 5,1985 Georgia ’s Black state senators get committee seats Georgia’s - six Black state senators won important committee positions for the 1985-86 legislative session. The six—all Democrats—in clude two newly elected Senators who defeated veteran white lawmakers to win their seats, and four veterans who successfully won re-election. Senator Julian Bond will retain his chairmanship of the Consumer Affairs Committee, and is still the only Senator from Fulton County who heads a standing Senate committee. Bond is also a member of the committees on Children and Youth, Governmental Operations and Human Resources, and was recently elected the first Black chairman of the Fulton County Senate Delegation. Newly elected Senator Arthur Langford will begin his legislative career as a member of the Commit tees on Children and Youth and Retirement. In addition, Langford, a former Atlanta City councilmember, will serve as secretary so the Consumer Affairs Committee and as vice-chairman of the Offender Rehabilitation Committee. Savannah Senator Albert J. Scott, the outgoing chairman of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, will serve as the new chairman of the Committee on Children and Youth, vice chair man of the Public Utilities Com mittee, and amember of the powerful committees on Rules and Appropiations. Atlanta’s David Scott will con tinue his membership on the Con sumer Affairs Committee. Scott will also be vice chairman of the Higher Education Committee, and a member of the committees on Economic Development and Tourism and Federal, State and Community Affairs. Veteran Senator Horace Tate will join Albert Scott on Rules and Approipitions and will be vice chairman of the Retirment Com mittee and chairman of the sub committee on Primary and Secon dary Education of the Education Committee. DeKalb County’s newly elected Eugene Walker will be a member of the committees on Federal State and Community Affairs and Judiciary and Constitutional Law. Walker, an educator, will also be secretary of the Banking and Finance Committee and Secretary of the Governmental Operations Committee. Famed Battaßon to hold reunion The Famed (First all Black Tank Battalion) 758th/64th Tank Bat talion, is planning a reunion of its members who served with the Bat talion from its organization in 1941 to the present. The reunion will be held in Cherry Hill, New Jersey July 11 thru 14, 1985. Members are urged to write or call SCM (Ret) Clarence Kimbrough, 4801 Simpson Drive, Louisville, Ky. 40218(502-458-4714) ? -i 1® v-' • John W. Lewis Lewis graduates from Air Force Airman John W. Lewis, son of John W. Fuzz of 61 Chandler, Worcester, Mass., and Annie M. Fuzz of 2420 Belgrade Court, has graduated from Air Force basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. During the six weeks of training the airman studied the Air Force mission, organization and customs and received special training in human relations. In addition, airmen who com plete basic training earn credits toward an associate degree through the Community College o the Air Force. Page 6 ti I 1 w H JI 3 J w 31 J A Nanni—“* i • M Ilf r TP y M ’ - * UNCF TELEPHONE VOLUNTEERS CSRA residents pledge $25,000 to UNCF We wish to thank WRDW TV -12 for the time donated to the United Negro College Fund December 29. While there was a cost for the time, it does not start to compare with what WRDW could have gained in advertising from its normally scheduled adver tising. There ae few causes more wor thy of support than the United Negro College Fund. More than two-thirds of the leadership of the national Black community At* 111 S. i fi Tony Hall Willie Kelly Augusta duo lead Wildcat scoring threat The Fort Valley State College basketball team is currently one game under .500 at 3 wins and 4 losses. This represents the best start for the team in recent years. This success is due primarily to the play of Augusta natives Willie Kelly and Tony Hall. Kelly is currently leading the team and possibly the nation in scoring with 209 points and a 29.8 average. The current national leader has an average of 26.0 poin ts per game according to the most recent NCAA Division II report. The number two spot is held by Tony Hall who is averaging 23.0 Gregory shares health secrets The life expectancy for a Black person is 68 while a White person is expected to live to 78 years of age. Black women are two and a half more likely to die from diabetes than White women. Unhealthy diets and fat in the diet have been blamed for these horrifying statistics. One expert also singled out medical care which focuses on “during illness, not preventing it.” Comedian and social activist Dick Gregory, nationally renowned for his work in health and nutrition, says the culprit of most health problems is diet. On the upcoming edition of TONY BROWN’S JOURNAL, “The Health Prophet,” Gregory outlines away to make the Black community healthier and wealther. Gregory, the author of books on health, is now Gregory the en trepreneur of health. And his best example of health is himself. The former 300 pound overweight, graduated from United Negro College Fund colleges. And these colleges, most of which are more than a hundred years old, continue to inspire, challenge, and educate Black students better than anyone else. We commend equally those per sons who gave of their time and money to insure that the minds that go to waste for lack of oppor tunity will ultimately be eliminated. points per game with a total of 161 through seven games. Tony also holds down the number one position in rebounding with a team leading 61 and is the team’s field goal percentage leader hitting 52.2 percent of his shots. While Hall follows Kelly in points scored, the two change places percentage wise with Kelly hitting 41.5 percent of his shots from the field. At the free throw line, Kelly is second behind Walter Atkins of Atlanta with 69.4 per cent of his shots made while Hall is hitting 67.7 percent. whisxy drinking, heavy-cigarette smoking comedian transfor med himself into a medically certified phenomenon of health. On the program Gregory talks about his multi-million dollar deal with Cernatin, an Ohio company, to manufacture “Dick Gregory’s Bahamian Diet.” A student of nutrition for nearly 20 years, Gregory says that one of the problems in losing weight is the amount of potassium that is lost. “You don’t lose weight on this formula at the expense of losing nutrition,” he tells Tony Brown. “You lose weight and you gain nutrition.” Gregory also shares his insights into the relationship between health and nutrition and the foible plaguing the medical profession. In addition, he discusses his plans to share his success with the Black community. Organizations such as the NAACP, PUSH, SCLC, Ur ban League and the Salvation Ar my are targeted to receive millions of dollars. Moynihan Report - From Pagel standard of living? Indeed it does. In general, it takes about 1.3 wage earners per four-person family to achieve the Bureau of Labor Statistics lower-level standards of living ($15,323 in 1981 prices—later figures have not yet been published), 1.7 for the moderate level ($24,407) and two wage earners for the higher level ($38,060). The femlae-headed family is clearly at a serious disad vantage with limited opportunities for moving up th economic ladder. The data on the family charac teristics of those in poverty are even more compelling. In 1982, only eight percent of two-parent families were poor compared to 36 percent of female-headed families. Among intact families iwth two wage earners, only five percent of white families, nine per cent of Black families, and 12 per cent of Hispanic families were poor. During the 19605, the Black/white income ratio im proved—from 54 percent in 1959 to 63 percent in 1968—though the differential remained substantial. But the differential widened again in the 19705. According to an analysis published in 1981, “a fundamental reason for the deterioration of the Black/white income ratio between 1970 and 1976 is the substantially faster rate of growth of female-headed families among Blacks than among whites. In fact, if the patterns of family composisiton taht existed in 1970 had been present in 1978, the Black/white income gap would have been narrowed in that period by five percentage points. If one went back to 1960, the gain would have been greater.” And it was Dr. Robert Hill of the National Urban League who pointed out that the number of poor Black families rose by 19 percent between 1969 and 1975 due to the sharp rise of Black families headed by women. While the number of poor Black families headed by men fell by 34 percent—the number of poor Black families headed by women soared by 64 percent, accounting for all the increase in the number of poor Black families. Perhaps the most vulnerable of ithe female-headed families are headed by a teenager or a mother who was a teenager when she had her first child. A study published by the Urban Institute found that women who were teenagers at the birth of their first child account for more than half of total AFDC ex penditures in the country and comprise an astounding 71 per cent of all AFDC mothers under 30 years of age. Teenage mothers under 16 incur the most long-term disadvantages. They exhibit a high dropout rate from school, have larger families, less oportunity for employment and lower earnings when they do work. Further, they are more likely to find themselves and their children trapped in long-term poverty with its harmful con sequences for health, housing, learning, and social development. Reviewing trends from 1940 to 1960, Moynihan already expressed concern about the fact that Black women were having babies at younger ages but the problem then was still of modest dimension. It was not until the 60s and 70s that teenage pregnancy grew to enor mous proportins and became the single most important cause of long-term poverty. A few figures are necessary to delineate the growth and size of the problem, as well as its impact on the well-being of the major ethnic communities. The number of teenage out-of-wedlock births rose from 91,700 in 1960 to 262,500 in 1979; if one counts only those un der 17, the increase is from 48,300 to 129,500. While out-of-wedlock teenage births have increased more rapidly among whites than among Blacks, the rate of 15 births to un married teenagers per 1,000 white births is still far below the rate of 87 for Blacks. In 1971, of all females 15-19 years, old with per cent conceived a child; by 1979 the figure had risen to 12 percent, or one out of nine teenagers. Births have also increased among children 13-15 years old. Some 1.3 million children in this country live with teenage mothers; an ad ditional 1.6 million children under five years of age live with mothers who were teenagers when they gave birth. Perhaps even more revealing than the data on births of teenagers are the trends in teenage sexual ac tivity and its outcome. Between 1971 and 1979, while the number of teenagers 15 to 19 rose by six percent, the number who were sexually active almost doubled; from 2.5 to 4.7 million. Among whites the figure went from 41 per- 20 years later cent to 65 percent; among Blacks, from 78 percent to 89 percent. Further, the number of teenagers who conceived a child was about double the number who gave birth out-of-wedlock. In other words, about half the conceptions ter minated in an abortion or miscarriage, mainly the former. The acceleration of family breakup and teenage pregnancy were reflected not only in a tripling of the welfare caseload during the 1960 s and further substantial in creases until the mid-19705, but in the increase in crime, juvenille delinquency, and drug use, with the youngsters on welfare, disproportionately represented in all those areas as well as among school dropouts. The “tangle of pathology” has become ever more tangled. One cannot put all the blame for this dismaying picture on. unem ployment, or even on discrimination, though racial discrimination has not yet been eliminated from our society. Moynihan traced a positive correlation between Black unem ployment rates and family in stability for the two decades he studied but he noted that this con nection appeared to have broken in 1962-3; at that time he could only wonder whether it was the beginning of a trend. It was. From the early 60’s to the early 70’s unemployment declined from an overall rate of about six percent to three to four percent and though unemployment for Blacks remained higher than that for whites, it too declined. We were in fact in a tight labor market. And yet, these wsere the very years of the explosion in the welfare case load and the in creasing evidence of social pathology. What was overlooked during this period of turbulen ce—when there was concern about the continued existence of poverty within the country; evidence of continuing though diminishing discrimination against Blacks and other minorities; and violent reaction, as reflected in riots in many cities, to what per ceived as past and current in justices—was the enormous growth in female-headed families because of family break-up mainly as a result of teenage child bearing. For more than two decades, the problem was largely ignored by the Black community. In A Statistical Overview of Black America published by the National Urban League in December, 1982, the family structure explantion of the economic disorder which had befallen Blacks was discounted with the statement that “People are not poor because they are female and household heads; they are poor because they do not have jobs or adequate income.” And the subject of Black family struc ture was taboo among a significant section of the white community as well. Only recently has this changed. At first only individual Black voices were heard —William Rasberry in the Washington Post, Robert Curvin in the New York Times, William Haskins of the National Urban League among others. They were saying publicly that in effect the Black family and particularly with teenage pregnan cy. The major breakthrough came with the publication of a pamphlet in June, 1983 entitled A Policy Framework for Racial Justice, issued by 30 liberal Black leaders and members of the Black leader ship Forum. These leaders list the following as the most urgent problems to be tackled to bring poor Blacks into the mainstream: progress in the economy, the con dition of the Black family (my emphasis) and educational oppor tunity. They add that unless major efforts are made quickly •• 1 ne condition of a large portion of the Black population will deteriorate beyond the point where any program of action can be ef fective.” On the subject of teenagers they say “Teenagers and young men and women need to be encouraged to pursue training, work, and personal development while they delay pregnancy and family formation” and further that “For young people, there is a special need for sex education and education about the importance of delaying sex, pregnancy and marriage (my emphasis)”. The issuance of A Policy Framework for Fracial Justice ser ved to galvanize the Black com munity to action on a national scale. It was followed within a year by a Black Family Summit Con ference called by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League. The news release issued at the end of the con- ference, May 5, 1984, contains language not heard for many years; for example John Jacobs, | President of NUL warned that “some of our problems may be self-inflicted, that we my have allowed our just anger at what America has done to obscure our own need for self-discipline and strengthened community values”. If one reads through the sum mary recommendations of each of the ten task forces established at the conference, it is not difficult to be critical of its laundry list aspect or the lack of specificity of many of the recommendations. What is more important, however, is the recognition of the nature of the problem and the beginning ef fort to outline a strategy for dealing with it, a strategy which clerly must stress the economic and social advantages of family stability and the behavior necessary to achieve it and not rest solely on an appeal to morality. The public recognition by Black leaders of the responsibility of the Black family and for persuading teenagers and young people, boys and girls alike, to postpone sexual activity and pregnancy has also made it easier for the white sponsored foundations and other philanthropic organizations to assist in developing and funding necessary programs, and also to evaluate the effectiveness of dif ferenct approaches. Hitherto, the foundations approached these J issues very cautiously, concerned that they might be considered racist. The importance of evaluation of the effectiveness of programs can not be overemphasized. The belated recogniton of the caused of pover ty among Blacks in the 1960’s and onward—not to be condused with the causes of poverty in the 1930’s or earilier—have resulted in a problem of enormous size and complexity. No one knows exac tly how to promote family stability and persuade teenage boys and girls to postpone sexual activity after two decades of permissiveness and the erosion of earlier held values Efforts to develop programs of any major scope are no more than two years old and some remain statements of inten tion rather than programs which can be implemented beginning neart month. One of the early ones—Teaching Teens to Say No—begun on a demonstration basis in Cleveland and Atlanta aqnd now being carried out on a large scale in the schools in Atlan ta, is being evaluated by the Ford Foundation. Governor Mario Cuomo of New York has initiated a program on adolescent pregnan cy which is, however, still largely on the drawing board and the New York City public school system has within recent months initiated an updated sex education curriculum dealing with teenage pregnancy among other issues. Other efforts are underway in various cities sponsored by various foundations. What is needed is a national cen tral repository of information on what programs are being tried, and which show promise of success un der what circumstances, so that scarce resources are not wasted on reinventing the wheel, espeically wheels that don’t turn. Government at all levels should join in the effort to strenghten the Black family in appropriate ways. The federal government might well fund the national depository of in formation suggested above Washington and the states should focus more attention and resources on advancing the educational achievement of the children in welfare families since there is a positive correlation between progress in schools and delaying sexual activity. The names and addresses of the roughly 8 million children in the nation on welfare are know to local welfare depar tments. But little is done to provide extra assistance to them in the early years of schooling though it is know that they are dispropor tionately represented among school dropouts. If effort is not made in the early grades we will continue to face a costly remediation effort —as we are now—in the high schools and even the colleges, as we seek with only limited success to prepare them for the existing opportunities in the world of work. It is urgent that the effort to postpone teenage sexual activity su cceed if we are to avoid the heavy cowsts to society of teenage child bearing and the even heavier costs to the teenager, her child, and the Black community, as well as the costs of continuing conflict bet ween Blacks, whites and other ethnic groups over the distribution of the nation’s product. Moynihan was right.