Title: African Americans and Black Community - Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood
Headings: African Americans and Black Community
African Americans and Black Community
Overview and Background of the African American Community
Marriage in the African American Community
Marriage and divorce rates:
Resources for Practitioners
Further Resources:
Links to Other Relevant Information

Content: With higher college graduation rates among African American women, the median income fell 12% for Black men while rising 75% for the women from 1974 to 2004. A high-earning woman has little incentive to marry a low-earning man. • Black women divorce at a rate nearly double of either white or Hispanic women. • Between 1970 and 2000 the percent of African Americans who have ever married declined from 64% to 55% among men and from 72% to 58% among women (2003 census). • Higher mortality rates due to poor health care, violent crime, and ever growing incarceration rates, have been shown to decrease the African American male population. This may be linked to the increasing numbers of Black women struggling to raise children and manage families alone. • According to www.blackdemographics.com the low rate of marriage and high divorce rate in the African American community are decreasing the African American middle class, built on a two-earner paycheck. See these additional National Healthy Marriage Resource Center Reports written by Paul R. Amato, Ph.D.: Marital Quality in African American Marriages and Divorce Among African Americans. Resources for Practitioners
The National Healthy Marriage Resource Center (NHMRC) has numerous on-line resources to enhance healthy marriage curricula and family strengthening programs that are serving African Americans.