Half of Black Children Bern to
Unmarried Women
More than half the black children born in the United
Stales during 1976 were born to unmarried women, ac
cording a recent report by the National Center for
ll was the first vear nffii-iali V.i kui, u;,.u.
out of wedlock exceeded fifty per fcm of all black bir
ths, although the number has been rising steadily for
nlorf..an.a,.cHa.de' JuM fourtfo years ago, 26 per cent
of all black children were born out of wedlock.
This recent statistic is the lastest indicator suggesting
significant changes in the structure of black -families,
and researchers in the field are more certain of i he im
portance of the changes ilian the reason for them.
"The real changes that arc taking place during the
1970s are just enormous," said Kristin Moore, a resear
cher at Urban Institute. "The changes are so rapid that
they've caught us all out. No brie can jay definitely why
its happening."
Today, forty per cent of alt black children live in
BAKKE GUIDELINES: The Department of Health
and Social Services (HSS) has Issued guidelines on how
the nation's 3,000 colleges and universities can use affir
mative action principles in admission polices without
violating the ban on strict racial or ethnic quotas in the
U.S- Supreme Court's Bakkc decision.
They encourage: consideration of race, color or na
tional origin as a positive factor, like geographic origin
or economic circumstances; increased recruiting in
minority communities; modifying admission criteria for
minority applicants; offering tutoring and other special
services; or pursuing numerical "goals" to achieve the
racial and oihcr ethnic composition required.
VOTING OFFENDER: A study of bilingual elections
by the Federal Election Commission shows that Texas is
a major voting rights "offender." . '
It says that even though the state is "most seriously
affected" by the bilingual requirements adopted in
1975. Texas is less adequately prepared to put them into
effect than California, Corlorado, New Mexico, and
Oklahoma.
ROUNDUP ILLEGAL: It's illegal for Immigration
and Naturalization Sen ice agents to raid a business
establishment to arrest undocumented workers unless
they have a search warrant specifying identities of the
workers, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington,
D.C., has ruled.
BOMB PLOT: Two brothers liavc been charged with
plotting to bomb a Columbus, Ohio elementary school
while classes were in session.
One of the school's students is the daughter of Judge
Robert Duncan of the U.S. District Court, who ordered
the desegregation of the city's school this fall;
HANIGANS INDICTED: Patrick and Thomas
Hanigan. who-in, 1976 were found not guilty of 21
counts of1dnapping, robbery, and assault on three un
documented Mexican workers who were walking across
the Hanigan ranch, have been indicted by a Federal
grand jury in Tuscon, Arizona on three counts of
obstruction of commerce and robbery of the same three
men.
In the original case, the Hanigans were alleged to
have tied the men up, taken their clothes and money,
beat, stabbed, and burned them before sending them
naked back across the border harried by gunshot pellets.
That case was heard by an all-white jury in an area near
ly one-half Mexican-American.
The Federal action follows the intense pressure the
SAT.
Happiness Through Health
By Otto McClarrin
-.-
fhs per ! ,000 unmarried Wack worn xdntpvfet H
Teenage mothers accounted for about ha J j J ,
of-wedlock children born to both blacl h4L W.t if
1 976, and they are the only age f roup fof an $j fi ,
of out-of-wedlock birth has increased- -JC-Lv?::;'V..
In addition, fewer single teenagers who f-fx
married before ih en' m
saidAriTui77. ampbcirr?ptay &eaXJ$Mtrl?&
families headed by women, compared with about twelve v
per cent. of white children. Some six years ago the
figure for blacks was thirty per cent. .
Almost one-third of all black children now receive
benefits from Aid to Families with" Dependent Children,
the $1 1 billion-a-year federal welfare program for
broken families.
The recent report says, that 258,000 children were
born to unmarried black women in 1976, aboul 9.200
more than in 1975, and accounted for 50.3 per cent of
all black births. .
Out-of-wedlock births among whites have risen, t he .
report said, to 197,100 or 7.7 per cent of all white births
in 1976. The proportion of white births that were out of
wedlock was four per cent in 1965.
Tlie birthrate for unmarried black women aged 15-44
(the years of female fertility, according to health statisti
cians) dropped by thirteen per cent between 1970-1976.
However, the number of unmarried black women in
that age soared b 38 per cent as divorces surged, the
average age at marriage rose, and the children of the
1950s baby boom reached maturity.
According to the.recent report, married black women
in the United States now have a slightly lower birthrate
than married whites for the first time since such
statistics have been compiled,
- Among unmarried women, however, differences bet
ween the races are still wide. In 1976 there were 8312 bir-
Civil Rights Update
November 1979
justice department recewed trom a national coalition
of lawyers and tfispahlcWganiza'tibhs'.0' r'r ,n,m
NEWSENTEttCEA' U.S. DifctStfrffidae in
f ludste
Houston has again ignored prosecution and civil rights
organizations appeals to impose substantial prison
sentences on three ex-policemen in the bayou-drowning
death of Joe Campos Torres.
In March 1978, Judge Ross Sterling sentenced the
men to a ten-year suspended sentence, and five years
probation for felony conspiracy resulting in death. He
was then ordered by a Federal Court of Appeals to
resentence the men because the law provides that in
cases of civil rights violation where death occurs, some
time must be served. The maximum penalty for the
-crime is life imprisonment.
He resentenced each man to one year and a day in
jail, but ordered the lime to be served concurrently with
a separate one-year sentence he imposed in 1978 for
misdemeanor assault.
Willi time off for good behavior, the three men can
be free in nine months.
CHICANO ARREST - An American in Dallas,
Gerado Rivera, is suing the city of Grand Prairie for
$5.4 million because he alleges that when he was ar
rested last year for a traffic violation, he was held in jail
for almost two days until he could prove his citizenship.
This suit is drawing national attention from civil
rights groups who claim that such abuse of Americans
frequently happen.
ERA SUIT: A Federal judge in Idaho who is an of
ficer of the Mormon Church accepted ..t case that will
decide whether states have a right to rescind ratification
of the Equal Rights Amendment and whether Congress
had the right to extend the, ratification period last year.
Judge Marion Callister, Jr. says he can rule impartial
ly because the real issues are the procedures used in
amending the Constitution, not the merits of ERA,
which his church opposes.
The Justice Department had asked him to disqualify
himself.
HISPANIC HOUSING - Increased Hispanic par
ticipation in housing and community development will
be the focus of a conference cosponsored by the Na
tional Hispanic Housing Coalition and four other
organizations December 16-19 in San Antonio, Texas.
Some 1,500 persons are expected to participate in this
first national effort to mobilize housing and community
development resources for Hispanics.
HISPANIC PUPILS - The Puerto Rican Legal
Defense and Education Fund has filed a class action suit
against New York city and state education officials for
allegedly denying "an appropriate education" to
thousands of physicially and mentally handicapped
Hispanic children. 1
. ,.: The '.Plaint if Is charge -that 'these-, children need both
iv.Mlir&Uftl and city
arc not complying with Federal faw or a 1975 consent
decree under which bilingual education programs were
started in the city school system.
FLIGHT ATTENDANT - Federal Judge Albert
Bryan, Jr., of Alexandria, . Virginia has approved a
$1.25 million settlement in a discrimination suit filed
against American airlines by two women on behalf of
themsevles and 1,502 other flight attendants.
The 1977 suit charged that the airline forced the
women to leave work without pay when they became
pregnant.
ft
wm
'J
lip!
If It f i ' ,i t i. V -
hi $" J t; ft t t cL I
(A nor1
J?
Li N'"T7 VVl UiJ -
I I Hi? Vl II IJU I ICWUIVW
the gifts that'll have
everyone taiiong.
0ili Disnry Productions
Deck the halls, the bedrooms and the den with
phones from your GTE Phone Mart. And you'll
hear about it all year long.
A phone is the perfect gift because it's practical
(they'll use it every day), yet a luxury, wtiat could be more
luxurious than an elegant Cradiephone in the boudoir?
Or a sleek styieiine pnone next to the living room
sofa?
Put Mickey Mouse under the tree, and just watch
the reaction. Or see what happens when you give
an old friend an old-fashioned Candlestick Dhone
-NQ You'll find enough phone styles and colors to wish
- -fi ' W everyone a merry Christmas, at the GTE
jr im k ivkiri.
And it's a lot closer than the North Pole.
Put a new Phone
in your life.
New location in Northgate Mall near Seari
Louise Milotes was awarded $5,321 and Linda
Timberlake $9,155. The remainder of the money will be
put into a fund for flight attendants who can prove they
were also victims of the airline policy.
PUBLIC HOUSING - The Department of Justice
has entered into consent decrees with Helena and West
Helena, Arkansas to desegregate their low-rent housing
projects.
The two housing authorities had been assigning
blacks to all-black buildings and whites to all-white or
virtually all-white buildings in violation of the Fair
Housing Act of 1968.
CHAINED ALIENS - A Marion, Louisiana farmer
has been indicted by a Federal grand jury for allegedly
concealing nine undocumented workers from Mexico
and chaining two of them to force debt payments
through their labor.
GROUP ACTIVITIES - Ku Klux Klan cases handl
ed by the Department of Justice's Community Relations
Service increased from eight in Fiscal Year '78 to 44 dur
ing FY '79.
AGENTS INDICTED - A Federal grand jury in San
Diego has iffdictcd our border Immigration and
Naturalization Service agents on six counts of beating
and mistreating undocumented workers.
RACIST CLUBS Financial institutions have been
asked by the Federal government to stop paying their
executives' membership dues to racist clubs and to stop
using those facilities for social and business functions.
A survey of savings and loan associations revealed
thai 65 per cent of them have no policy against such
payments? and 17 per cent said they would still pay even
if there were proof of discrimination. Two-thirds of the
commercial banks surveyed indicated they had no policy
and 44 per cent said they'd continue to pay dues to pay
dues to discriminatory clubs.
Issuing the statement discouraging such practices was
the Federal Financial Examination Council.
PRISON ALTERNATIVES - The Edna McConnell
Clark Foundation, with, assets of almost $200 million,
has announced that $l,259,000tin grants is available fot
fnr Pi inula inn Research ai the Nation lltstkme.
Health. It is still more prevalent for p-fnai wM
leenagers to marry before the child is bliro Irian fa
blacks.- '
One puzzling aspeel about the increase hi out-of-wedlock
births, according to John KarKitcr, chalrh .
of the Department of Population DynOita at v
Hopkins University, is that it has occured despite
legaliaiton of abortion.
From 1970 to 1972, the first yean when kpft-V-v-lions
were widely available white out-of-wedL
ilis did rail by nine per cent. But they have ikuHu
every year since then. Among blacks otH-of-w Ttwk
births have risen every year since 1965. r
the development of alternatives to iropWrifOf tb .
nation's criminal justice system. i
Organizations receiving funds writ be asked loocttc
and test models for reducing unnecessary cofin
in order to cut down on prison populations and i
For further information, contact the Fourv it.fl'a
250 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017.
CHURCH LEADER: Patricio Fernanda Flue
who as a boy helped his father pick cotipn. has baxy:v
the preeminent Mexican-American in fN natkn
Roman Catholic Church through his ejevation io A
chbishop. In this position, the fifty-year old prelate will
spiritual leader of 650,000 Catholics, in south Tc.
where there is a high concentration of Hispanics.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Attorney June Zeitlin of
the Health and Social Services Department (HSS) has
been appointed the director of its sew Office
Domestic Violence.
She will be responsible for the coordination and
strengthening of the group's research, dcmortttrati.ui
and service activities on violence.
HANDICAPPED RIGHTS The Department of
Justice is inviting public participation in the develop
ment of proposed regulations to eliminate discrimina
tion against the handicapped as outlined in ibe
Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
It has scheduled a public hearing on November 27 at
the HSS Auditorium, 330 Independence Avenue, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. and invited comments, to be sent
before December 21 to Robert Dcmpsey, LEAA, 633
Indiana Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC. 20551.
Copies of the proposed regulations are available by
writing to Dempsey.
WARD CHARGED - Montgomery Ward & Com
pany has been charged by the Equal Eroploymer t Op
portunity Commission with violating the Equal PaV Act
at its Glendale, Ariz., store by paying some women
employees, including department managers, less taan
their male counterparts.
The suit is asking for a nationwide injunction to stop
such practices in all Montgomery Ward stores.
ADULTS ONLY The California Court of Appeal
has ruled in Los Angeles that refusing to rent to couple
with children "is a purely private and unregualled act of
discrimination for which the law offers no redress,"
It acted on a 1975 case in which a couple living til
"no children" apartment building had a child and wa
evicted by the owner. , .
lillllfl
5
mm
0
Si
1 fi
.vP.'.y.-:
AJLi ocsjvascs; yASAXJ
i t. f li t i i , .
if QmAmZ.
Jt-
W
1 -, K .... ,
t
J
1