The Fragility of Middle-Class Status for African Americans

A disturbing new study by researchers for the Brookings Institution finds that nearly one half of all African Americans who were born into middle-class families in the late 1960s fell into poverty status as adults.

The study, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, has tracked the economic status of more than 2,300 people, including 730 African Americans, over the past 40 years. The results show that 45 percent of black children in middle-class families in 1968 are now in the lowest one fifth of the nation’s earners. Only 16 percent of white children who were middle class in 1968 are now in the lowest one fifth of all earners.

The results show that only 31 percent of blacks who were in the middle quintile of family earners in 1968 have a higher income today (adjusted for inflation) than their parents had in 1968.

One reason that many middle-class black parents in 1968 were unable to transfer their economic status to their children is there was almost no accumulated wealth in middle-class black families at that time. Therefore, most middle-class black parents in 1968 did not have money to get their children started in a business, to loan them money to buy a home, or to pay tuition at a private college or university. Middle-class white families with more accumulated wealth were more able to pass on their economic status to their children.

Copyright © 2007. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.