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Did you know that in the African American community only 46 percent of preschool-age children are in organized child care facilities? The majority of the preschoolers (54 percent) are cared for by relatives, primarily grandparents, who provide more than 20 percent of the child care arrangements. This information indicates that there are significant numbers of preschool-age children that are not participating in many of the special programs currently being funded by governments and targeted at this age group.
This is an issue that needs to be addressed, particularly since most experts agree that ages 0 to 3 may be the most important educational and nurturing years in a child's development.
On Oct. 1, 1996, the population of African Americans in the United States was 33.7 million or 12.7 percent of the population, and their median age was 29.4 years. Of that number, 74 percent of those over the age of 25 had at least a high school diploma (compared with only 51 percent in 1980) and 13 percent had at least a bachelor's degree (an increase of five percent since 1980).
The high school drop-out rates for African American students and white students is statistically the same at five percent. In 1980, 45 percent of all African American women over 15 years old were married, but by 1995 this figure had decreased to 38 percent.
For African American males in 1980, 49 percent of those over the age of 15 were married and that figure decreased to 43 percent by 1995. This information supports the contention that fewer African American women are finding marriageable mates in this country. It also demonstrates that African American males may be marrying other than African American women.
The median income for African American households rose three percent between 1994 and 1995 to $22,292, while white households increased 2.2 percent, and the income of Asian and Pacific Islander households remained largely the same. The percentage of the African American population that lived below the poverty level declined from 30.6 percent to 29.3 percent between 1994 and 1995.
Statistics show that African American businesses are prospering. The number of black-owned businesses increased from 424,165 in 1987 to 620,912 in 1992; a growth rate of 46 percent and an average of 20 percent more than U.S. businesses grew in the county as a whole.
The majority of them (39,404) were in the New York City metropolitan area. Following closely were the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, which includes the suburban counties of Maryland and Virginia (37,988), and the Los Angeles County, Calif. metropolitan area (32,645).
The data used in this report was garnered from various press releases from the U.S. Census Bureau during the past year.
(Research News was written by Jacqueline Byers, director of research.)
1. What African American was a vice presidential candidate at the 1968 Democratic National Convention?
a. Julian Bond
b. Jesse Jackson
c. Stokely Carmichael
2. Who is known as the "Father of Negro History?"
a. Carter G. Woodson
b. Langston Hughes
c. Richard Wright
3. Who was the first African American actor to win an Oscar?
a. Hattie McDaniel
b. Sidney Poitier
c. Dorothy Dandridge
4. What was the first black school to establish undergraduate, graduate and professional schools?
a. Morehouse College
b. Fisk University
c. Howard University
5. In what year was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated?
a. 1965
b. 1968
c. 1972
Answers: 1) a 2) a 3) a 4) c and 5) b.