bill james.org - Politics for the 21st CenturyBill James.org - Charlotte's home for Conservative Republican Political Information

Updated January 8, 2005 

For about a week now, folks have said "So, Bill - you identified the problem. "What's your plan?"

 
Below is the framework of my "plan". It is not intended to be all inclusive nor is it intended to be the final answer. It is intended to outline my vision for how to solve the serious moral crisis within Charlotte's urban core. It is a starting point.

I have no doubt that folks will find lots to love and hate about each of the 14 points but at least I am doing SOMETHING which is more that most of Charlotte's past and current politicians can say. For 40 years the illegitimate birth rate in the Black community has gone from 25% to 69%. Black's now comprise about 3/4's of the prison population in the Mecklenburg County jail and about 60% of the urban black high school students flunk or dropout or graduate late. Clearly there is a problem and it is centered in the Urban Black community and clearly our current policies (based on the statistics) have failed.

 James appearing on Fox News Channel's "Hannity and Colmes" (Tuesday, January 11th, 2005) to discuss the "problem".

 

 

Past links and web page information are as follows:

 

In the book (Department of Labor document from the Johnson Administration) called "The Negro Family - A Call for National Action" Daniel Patrick Moynihan said:

 

"there is one unmistakable lesson in American history: a community that allows large numbers of young men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future--that community asks for and gets chaos. Crime, violence, unrest, disorder. . .are not only to be expected, they are very near to inevitable. And they are richly deserved." "the real cause of the American Negro's troubles is not so much segregation, or a lack of voting power, but the circumstance that the structure of the Negro family is highly "unstable and in many urban centers. . .approaching complete breakdown." This is so, stated Moynihan, because of the increasingly matriarchal character of American Negro society, a society in which a husband is absent from nearly 2 million of the nation's 5 million Negro families and in which, too, some 25 per cent of all births are illegitimate. Moreover, Moynihan pointed out, children, especially boys, who grow up in fatherless homes tend not to adjust to this country's essentially patriarchal society, particularly when their problems are complicated by poverty and racial prejudice."

 

Walter Williams (Nationally Syndicated columnist) said in a 2002 article in the Observer:

 

"The black illegitimacy rate is close to 70 percent. Less than 40 percent of black children live in two-parent families. This produces devastating socioeconomic consequences, but is it caused by racial discrimination? Or, might it be a legacy of slavery? In the early 1900s, black illegitimacy was a tiny fraction of today's rate. Roughly 75 percent, and in New York City 85 percent, of black children lived in two-parent households. The fact of lower illegitimacy and more intact families, at a time when blacks were much closer to slavery and faced greater discrimination, suggests that today's unprecedented illegitimacy and weak family structure has nothing to do with discrimination and slavery. It's explained better by promiscuity and irresponsibility, and as such it's not a civil rights problem. "

Click here for entire Article

From the Charlotte Observer - cover of their "Perspectives" section - 12/26/2004

 

"Lingering Disparities" article chart (edited for space)

From the Charlotte Observer - 12-14-2004 (page 1A)

Many African Americans still lag behind whites in income, education, health care and other areas. Here's a look.

Area

Mecklenburg

 North Carolina
White Black White Black
Population 64% 27.9% 72.1% 21.6%
Poverty 12% 51% 25% 56%
Children on Welfare 14% 61.6% NA NA
Food Stamps 14,5% 76% NA NA
Jail Population 31.3% * 67.8% NA NA
CMS Enrollment 39.7% 43% NA NA
CMS Dropout rate 11.72% 21.76% NA NA
2003 Illegitimate births (% of each group) 22% 61.6% NA NA
2003 Teen-age births (19 and under) 3% 14.5% NA NA
Medicaid Recipients 19% 66% NA NA

other Stats not in Observer article

        
2001-2002 Percentage of Black males flunking (or graduating late) from CMS NA 66% ** NA NA
2002-2003 CMS Felons (total 971) NA 750 *** NA NA
2002-2003 CMS Suspensions (total 31,000) 23%* 77% NA NA
   

* Total represents "Non-Black" (e.g. White, Asian and Hispanic combined)

** Based on the Schott Report reported on the Swann Fellowship web site (100% less 34% urban black male pass rate = 66% flunk/delayed graduation rate)

*** Extrapolated using the known percentage of suspensions rate of 77% for the same year.

-- SOURCES for Charlotte Observer article (per their web site): MECKLENBURG COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES; N.C. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES; MECKLENBURG COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT; MECKLENBURG COUNTY JAIL; CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG SCHOOLS; U.S. CENSUS.

Black male graduation rates estimated at 40%

From the Swann Fellowship web site in Charlotte, NC (http://educateclt.org)

The Schott Foundation looked nationwide at the percentage of ninth-graders who graduate on time four years later. Nationwide in 2001-02, only 41% of black males did so. In North Carolina, the rate was 40%, in CMS, 34%. More observations from "Public Education and Black Male Students: A State Report Card":

"We isolated Black male students for study because as a group, the cumulative consequences of school failure are most severe for this group of students. It is also our belief that all vulnerable students will benefit when the school experience and environment has been optimized for Black male students....

"Among large North Carolina public school districts, Charlotte-Mecklenburg has the largest gap between White and Black male graduation rates, a gap only slightly more than the district’s Black male graduation rate: Two-thirds of this group do not graduate with their class, while two-thirds of their White peers do graduate with their cohort.

"The state as a whole has low graduation rates for both White and Black students. Among the state’s counties enrolling 10,000 or more African-American males, only Wake County reaches the national average for White male graduation rates and it, too, is below the national average for Black male graduations.

"Cumberland County – which like the other three counties shown here is racially balanced – has the state’s smallest achievement gap, has the highest graduation rate among this group for Black males and the lowest for White males.

Inequities in Discipline and Special Education

"In Charlotte, North Carolina, non-Hispanic Black students accounted for 43% of public school enrollments in 2000-2001 and non- Hispanic White students accounted for 45%. Black students received 72% of the out of school suspensions, while White students received 22%.

"Black students accounted for 78% of "Total Mental Retardation" classifications, while White students accounted for 17%. Black students accounted for 77% of classifications for "Emotional Disturbance" and 57% of "Specific learning disabilities" while White contributions to these categories were significantly lower than enrollment ratios for both White females and males.

"Taking these three categories together, they account for 2% of White Female enrollments, 7% of Black Female enrollments, 7% of White Male enrollments and 15% of Black Male enrollments."

– "Public Education and Black Male Students: A State Report Card," published by The Schott Foundation for Public Education. Download the report from www.schottfoundation.org/serv01.htm

2001-02 graduation rates (Males, in percent)

                     Blacks    Whites     Gap

N.C.              40         62         22

CMS             34         67         33

Cumberland49         56           7

Guilford        39        68          28

Wake            40         70          29