The American Civil Rights Movement: Personal Resonsibility--Unwed Mothers

Figure 1.--The percentage of children born outside of marriage has skyrocketed in recent years. There has been a six-fold increase since 1960. Notably this ws precisely when the Civil Rights Bills were passed (1964 and 65) and President Johnson launched the War on Poverty (1964). It is also when Federal and State Governments guided by liberal elected officials began to signifcantly increase transfer payments to low-income Americans. The rate among Blacks is astronomical (over 72 percent). This is not, however, juct a Black problem. The rate of increase is highest among whites and Hispanics. Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, National Center for Health Statistics, 2011.

The percentage of children born outside of marriage has skyrocketed in recent years. There has been a six-fold increase since 1960. Notably this ws precisely when the Civil Rights Bills were passed (1964 and 65) and President Johnson launched the War on Poverty (1964). It is also when Federal and State Governments guided by liberal elected officials began to signifcantly increase transfer payments to low-income Americans. The rate among Blacks is astronomical (over 72 percent). This is not, however, juct a Black problem. The rate of increase is highest among whites and Hispanics. Some are uncomfortable discusing this issue because it puts the innus among often young women in difficult circumstances. Others do not like the idea of making a moral judgement. Here we are not sure a moral argument hould not be made, but our primary argument is simply outcomes. Raisinga child is not an easy undertaking. Teen agers are still children themselves and most do not have the life skills to do, especialky to do it along without a male paerner-especially important in rasising boys. There is also the economic outcome. When a teenager has a child, this makesit very difficult for her to complete her eduction and become a self-supporing adult. The outcome for many of the children imvolved is not bright. Large numbers of these children are being condemned to a life of poverty and depndency on Government programs. We keep hearing that poverty is the result of an unjust social system and institutional racism. But how is having babies before marriage not a simple act of irresponsible behavior and why has the incidence risen so dramativally after the initiation of liberal welfare prigrams? Although these statistics are very clear. Academocs anf journlists have avoided the topic. This is not a new phenomenon. Some of our older readers may remember a moted sociologist and New York senator who authored a 1965 report on the shocking deterioration in the condition of the black American family. [Moynihan] It aroused a firestorm of denunciation and outrage among theauthor's liberal colleagues and the Civil Rights Movement that the topic was rendered radioactive--carrying the charge of racism leveled against those who dared mention it or raise the issue. The continuing deterioration reached such massive proportions that the subject was omce againse raised by prominent liberals (1980s). Even so it is charges of white privlige and institutional racism that has dominated the narative iprojected by the Civil Rights movement and echoed in academia, jourlism, and Hollywood. >br>

Sources

Moynihan, Daniel Patrick. The Negro Family: The Case For National Action (1965). The work is commonly referred to as The Moynihan Report.

Created: 7:36 AM 7/26/2010
Last updated: 8:12 PM 8/19/2017