Black children in poverty hits record numbers

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May 2003

African American children in "extreme poverty" hits record numbers
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African American children in "extreme poverty" hits record numbers
The number of African American children living in extreme poverty is at its highest level in 23 years, according to an analysis released on April 30 by the Children's Defense Fund. Despite several years of a booming economy, nearly one million African American children in 2001 lived in a family with an annual income of less than half the federal poverty level (disposable income below $7,064 for a family of three). In early 2000, only 686,000 African American children were that poor, the study said, indicating that the economic circumstances of the United States' poorest black families deteriorated sharply from 2000 to 2001.

The CDF charges that the Bush administration plans to dismantle Head Start, block grant Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, and slash and freeze crucial services designed to help these poorest children.

The Children's Defense Fund has been a consistent critic of the vast overhaul of the American welfare system carried out during the 1990's.

"The study shows that in the first recession since the welfare law took effect, black children who have the fewest protections are falling into extreme poverty in record numbers," Deborah Weinstein, the director of the division of the Children's Defense Fund, who oversaw the research that produced the study, told the New York Times. "So as we consider our federal policies, are we going to help children who need help the most, or rich people who don't need help at all?"

While recent studies show overall poverty has declined among African American children, they fail to show the record-breaking increase in extreme poverty among these children. According to the CDF, further analysis shows that safety nets for the worst-off families are being eroded by Bush Administration policies, which cause fewer extremely poor children of all races to receive cash and in-kind assistance that could help out.

Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman said the numbers are clear indicators that the U.S. must invest in children now instead of passing "irresponsible" tax breaks for the rich.

"It is shameful that one million black children are left behind in extreme poverty,"said Edelman. “It is hard to be poor. It is harder to be an extremely poor black child in America when our President, who says we should leave no child behind, is proposing massive new tax breaks for the richest Americans.”

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