[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 40 (Thursday, April 14, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 14, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
    NURTURING THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN FAMILY: A CONGRESSIONAL RESPONSE

                                 ______


                       HON. BARBARA-ROSE COLLINS

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 14, 1994

  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, the structure of the American 
family varies greatly today. Indeed, many question whether there is in 
fact one model of ``the American family.''
  No one can question the fact, however, that American families of all 
colors have undergone many changes in recent decades. We have seen 
lower marriage rates, higher divorce rates, earlier sexual activity, 
and higher proportions of births to unmarried mothers. These changes 
have been more pronounced, however, for African-American families. The 
August 30, 1993, Newsweek magazine went so far as to call the African-
American family ``endangered.''
  A brief historical view offers perspective. Many historians have 
documented the importance, the strength and the varied forms of the 
African-American family throughout our Nation's history. For example, 
during slavery, the family was a powerful, cohesive force. Gerald D. 
Jaynes and Robin M. Williams put it this way:

       Blacks evinced a remarkable loyalty to the family unit in 
     the face of the disruptive treatment of their families by 
     many slaveowners. When families were not broken apart by the 
     slavery system, nuclear family units of two parents and their 
     children were common. Some families were headed by females 
     and many kinship units were extended, often including 
     grandparents and grandchildren. Other relatives and their 
     young children could be part of a single household. Near-
     dwelling relatives formed networks of mutual aid and social 
     support. For enslaved Blacks, the family was important since 
     it was the primary Black institution to which they could 
     openly be committed.

  African-American families, whatever form they take--nuclear, single-
parent, extended or otherwise, face unprecedented threats today. Held 
hostage are innocent victims, African-American children. The African-
American male, faced with an uphill struggle, has become increasingly 
invisible, particularly in African-American family life. Female-headed, 
single-parent households, are becoming the norm in many communities. 
Here are a few telling statistics:
  Ninety-four percent of those single mothers are unmarried teenagers;
  Nearly half of the children in single-parent homes live in poverty;
  Only 1 African-American child in 5 will be raised in a traditional 
two-parent home;
  An American child is 15 times more likely to die from gunfire as a 
child in Northern Ireland, a country engaged in civil war for at least 
26 years; and
  The number of African-Americans in their twenties who had completed 
college dropped 6 percent between 1982 and 1991.
  The challenges confronting our children are becoming increasingly 
difficult to address. Violence and drug and alcohol abuse are rampant. 
Liquor stores sit on virtually every corner where there should be 
schools, recreation centers and parks. Gang life is replacing family 
life. For African-American boys, firearm homicide is the leading cause 
of death. Our children are having sex earlier without taking the 
necessary precautions.

  I know firsthand the conditions that have brought despair and 
paralysis to many African-American families. As a single parent, I 
raised my son and daughter in the face of many obstacles. At times, I 
worked three jobs to provide for my children, and I had no family 
health insurance. Exhaustion was a close companion. But I still found 
time and energy to love my children. I still found time and energy to 
help them with their homework, and I found the time to teach them right 
from wrong. That was my responsibility as their parent. I was very 
lucky. Unfortunately, as a female single-parent, I could teach my 
daughter how to be a woman, but I could not teach my son how to be a 
man.
  I am thankful that I was not totally alone. I knew I could turn to my 
family, my friends, my neighbors and my church for support. In my 
neighborhood, my children had surrogate mothers on every block that 
took responsibility not only for their own children, but the other 
children in the neighborhood. When I was at my wits end, I could depend 
on them. When I needed guidance, they were there. This is a real 
strength in so many American communities, black, white or whatever.
  The problems facing African-Americans today are not solely the 
problems of African-Americans. In one form or another, we are all 
touched by them. We all ultimately pay.
  It is time for Americans to discuss these issues openly. Government 
has the responsibility to ensure that every American has equal 
opportunity to achieve the American dream. While there is no question 
that no level of government can legislate family values, as 
policymakers, we must promote policies that support families as the 
basic units of our country.
  To enhance what Government can do, yesterday I introduced five bills, 
a first step of a coordinated effort to bring hope and opportunity to 
African-American families and restore their strength. To do otherwise 
would be irresponsible and deny future generations of African-Americans 
hope and opportunity.


                          Providing Good Jobs

  Jobs are critical to holding families together. In the words of 
Robert Griswold, a historian and author of ``Fatherhood in America,'' 
``When men lose their ability to earn bread, their sense of self 
declines dramatically. They lose rapport with their children.''
  One of the most destructive forces a family can face is joblessness. 
Joblessness has been linked to divorce, crime, drugs, poverty, and 
family violence. It is hard to head a family if one lacks self-respect. 
One cannot pass on the values of hard work, self-discipline and 
perseverance if one has no work.
  In my home of Detroit, over one-third of the population lives in 
poverty, while 26 percent receive public assistance. Not 
coincidentally, 19.3 percent of African-Americans are without jobs.
  Americans want jobs. Last October, over 20,000 men and women showed 
up to register for U.S. Postal Service jobs that will not even be 
available until 1996. Later, 10,000 Detroiters showed up to apply for 
4,500 jobs in a casino, jobs that do not yet exist.
  I introduced the Infrastructure Jobs Act, a bill that would authorize 
three types of grants for local public works projects. The first are 
direct grants to State and local governments to complete ``ready-to-
go'' public works projects where architectural design or preliminary 
engineering has already begun. The second are supplemental grants to 
increase to 100 percent the Federal share for a project for which 
Federal financial assistance is already authorized. The third are 
grants for all or any portion of a State and local share on projects 
authorized by State or local laws. The bill would give priorities to 
areas of long-term, hardcore unemployment. In this way, money will go 
to areas with the direst needs.
  We know from experience that this type of legislation will work 
quickly to create jobs and reduce local unemployment rates. During the 
1970's, a $6 billion local public works program created more than 
340,000 full-time direct and indirect jobs.


                   providing meaningful job training

  As companies become leaner in an effort to compete globally, many 
low-skill jobs vanish or are replaced by new high-tech, high-skills 
jobs. As a result, many families are headed by Americans trapped in a 
cycle of joblessness, poverty, and out-of-date work skills. These 
Americans have not only lost hope in their ability to find a job, but 
in their ability to acquire skills needed to hold down a job.
  Many folks don't even look for a job because they know they are 
considered unqualified. They know that the workplace is changing. They 
have seen firsthand the results of the loss of about 1.5 million jobs 
in basic manufacturing.
  Studies of the Job Training Partnership Act found that the program 
largely ignores the needs of the most disadvantaged. The Labor 
Department acknowledged this problem when it issued new regulations to 
address concerns that the program benefits white males almost 
exclusively.
  My second bill, the Full Employment Opportunity and Infrastructure 
Improvement Act of 1993, would give hard-to-employ Americans a chance 
at a job and, more than that, a chance at a career. This legislation 
would enable unemployed Americans in economically distressed areas to 
learn a trade by working side-by-side with skilled craftsmen, artisans 
and other professionals.
  This is accomplished by providing assistance to service delivery 
areas under JTPA to set up new public works and public services 
training programs as part of public works and public services projects 
that would not otherwise be undertaken.
  Participants would receive wages and benefits through the program as 
well as invaluable on-the-job training while working alongside 
professionals. Infrastructure would be rebuilt and services would be 
performed in those areas most desperate for revitalization, because the 
bill gives priority to areas of high unemployment and targets the hard-
to-employ in an effort to give a chance to those who have been ignored 
by these types of programs in the past.
  In the public works training programs, participants would get a 
chance to learn a trade on the job. Private contractors, for their 
effort in training participants, would get public works business. 
Cities and municipalities would get infrastructure.

  In the public services training programs, participants would receive 
on-the-job training in fields such as environmental quality, health 
care, education, public safety, prison rehabilitation, maintenance of 
public parks, pollution control, and other fields of human betterment 
and community improvement. Communities would receive services they 
could not otherwise afford, and America would get individuals trained 
in the types of jobs that will become very important as we head into 
the 21st century.
  A strength of my bill is that it would provide training while on the 
job. Studies show that training with specific ties to the job market is 
the most effective type of job training. The Full Employment 
Opportunity Act would offer the kinds of skills and knowledge that will 
help millions become productive members of our economy. It will give 
them the chance to be better mothers and fathers, by bringing long-term 
economic security to their homes.


                  helping communities help themselves

  Our urban communities must help themselves. No government official or 
agency knows more about the problems confronting a community more than 
the people who live and work in that community. An effective government 
recognizes this point and seeks to provide assistance to those people 
on the front lines. I introduced the Community Safety and Empowerment 
Act so that individuals, rather than government, can identify and solve 
their own problems while at the same time promoting their own 
strengths. Specifically, a new interagency council would award grants 
to public and non-profit private entities for projects to improve the 
health, education, and safety of the residents in economically 
distressed communities.
  The Federal Coordinating Council on Community Safety and Empowerment 
would be composed of the Attorney General, the Secretaries of the 
Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban 
Development, and Labor, and would award grants for projects: First, to 
prevent gangs and juvenile delinquency, including drug and alcohol 
abuse; second, to preserve or reunite families, particularly projects 
that emphasize fatherhood; and third, to help youth enjoy and 
appreciate learning.
  At present, Federal agencies make grants to States and localities 
with little to no coordination with other agencies. Under my bill, 
problems can be addressed from many perspectives, not from the 
compartmentalized mission of one department.
  This legislation is an affirmation of the belief that government 
cannot legislate individual responsibility, but government can lay the 
groundwork for people to take charge of their own lives. We owe our 
citizens no less.


                    providing role models for youth

  I also introduced a mentoring bill which is modeled on the Growth and 
Afrocentric Program in the Saginaw, MI school district. It emphasizes 
the African proverb, ``It takes a whole village to raise a child.'' 
Specifically, this legislation authorizes the Secretary of Education to 
award demonstration grants to local government agencies and community-
based organizations for mentoring programs for minority youth.

  American media glamorizes, as African-American role models, athletes 
and entertainers. But the real role models in our community, like any 
other community, are the men and women who interact with children on a 
daily basis, whether they be clergy, teachers, coaches, family friends 
or parents. My bill would connect these role models with the children 
in their communities and provide loving and nurturing relationships.
  Many of our most troubled youth lack self-esteem, which is reinforced 
daily as the media bombards them with images of African-American crime 
and delinquency. The mentoring process can offer and reinforce positive 
images of adulthood in children. This legislation builds on the 
strengths of our communities by involving everyone in the process.


                       Keeping Families Together

  My fifth bill addresses the need to keep children with their parents, 
to prevent children's placement in foster care and to help those 
children who must for their own welfare be placed in foster care.
  Since the 1980's, an increasing number of children have been entering 
foster care and experts predict that over 500,000 children may be in 
out-of-home care by 1995. With joblessness, drugs and violence 
unabating, the number of children in foster care rises. Sadly, some 
call them discarded children. As the need for foster placements has 
grown, the supply of licensed foster homes has declined. Many 
authorities say the system is in crisis.
  Joblessness, stress, and poverty can have a devastating effect on 
family life. In the poorest inner-city neighborhoods, more than 1 out 
of every 10 infants will be placed in foster care. The national 
placement rate is 6 per 1,000 children.
  Foster care has never promised a good life outcome and I am sure no 
parent wants to turn his or her child over to someone else. 
Nevertheless, foster care has a place in our society and in the 
interest of our children, we should make it as good as we can.
  My bill has two thrusts: First, it would provide assistance for 
training parents in parenting, child development, conflict resolution 
and stress reduction, in an effort to help families avoid placing their 
children in foster care; and second, it would provide assistance for 
community-based programs to train foster parents and the people who 
work with them in parenting, conflict resolution and coping with 
stress. Rather than targeting the child only, my bill focuses on the 
family as a functioning unit, providing local trained personnel to help 
preserve families and provide good ``second'' homes for children that 
must leave their own home.


                               conclusion

  Children learn the value of family and community from family and 
community. In the words of writer Marilyn French, ``To nourish children 
and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable 
than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.'' As a society, to 
this goal--to nourish children--we must all rededicate ourselves.

                          ____________________