Black Lag

Through the decade of urban riots, civil rights marches and the Great Society, the material lot of America's blacks improved substantially. Yet, in nearly every category measured in a new report by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, blacks still lag far behind the white population.

While the median black family income rose by 50%, from $4,001 in 1960 to $6,191 in 1969, for example, the median white income increased from $7,252 to $9,794. More blacks than ever finished college during the '60s, but the high school dropout rate for black males in 1970 was 15.9% v. 6.7% for whites. A white with an eighth-grade education earned more in 1969 ($7,018) than a black with a high school diploma ($6,192). Unemployment for nonwhites in 1970 was 8.2% compared with 4.5% for whites, although for the first time since the early 1950s the black rate was less than double the white rate.

There were some encouraging signs; housing for blacks improved considerably during the decade, for example. But the number of Americans-- blacks and whites, Indians and Chicanos--living in poverty (defined as an income below $3,968 for a nonfarm family of four) amounted to 25.5 million, one-eighth of the population.

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