• Madison County Record
    • Madison Living
    • Living 50 Plus
    • Explore
    • Classifieds
    • Public Notices
      • Public Notices
      • Alabama Public Notices
    • E-editions
    • Contact Us
    • Services
      • About Us
      • List of Locations
      • Subscribe
      • Policies
      • Terms of use
      • Submit a news tip
      • Submit a photo
      • Birth announcement
      • Engagement announcement
      • Wedding announcement
      • Submit a Classified Ad
      • Letter to the Editor
    • Madison County Record
    • Madison Living
    • Living 50 Plus
    • Explore
    • Classifieds
    • Public Notices
      • Public Notices
      • Alabama Public Notices
    • E-editions
    • Contact Us
    • Services
      • About Us
      • List of Locations
      • Subscribe
      • Policies
      • Terms of use
      • Submit a news tip
      • Submit a photo
      • Birth announcement
      • Engagement announcement
      • Wedding announcement
      • Submit a Classified Ad
      • Letter to the Editor

Hartselle Enquirer
  • Home
  • News
  • Sports
  • Obits
  • Opinion
  • Public Records
  • Madison County Record
  • Madison Living Magazine
  • Classifieds
  • Public Notices
  • Contact Us
  • Services
  • About Us
  • List of Locations
  • Subscribe
  • Policies
  • Terms of use
  • Submit a News Tip
  • Submit a Photo
  • Birth Announcement
  • Engagement Announcement
  • Wedding Announcement
  • Submit a Classified Ad
  • Letter to the Editor
    Hartselle Enquirer
      • Site logo
      • Home
      • News
      • Sports
      • Schools
      • Opinion
      • Events
      • Lifestyles
      • Business
      • Records
      • Special Sections
      • Site logo
      • Home
      • News
      • Sports
      • Schools
      • Opinion
      • Events
      • Lifestyles
      • Business
      • Records
      • Special Sections
    Columnists, Opinion
     By  Staff Reports news Published 
    9:06 am Friday, May 21, 2010

    The continuing family breakdown

    How often does the Office of Policy Planning and Research, United States Department of Labor produce anything worth reading, let alone a report that reverberates 45 years later?
    Such was the brilliance of Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan that it happened once, when he wrote his prescient 1965 report, “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action.” He wrote it on a typewriter over a few weeks and had the publications office in the basement of the Labor Department print 100 of them, marked “For Official Use Only.”
    The report sparked a furor of continuing relevance, as James T. Patterson recounts in his new book, “Freedom Is Not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America’s Struggle Over Black Families From LBJ to Obama.”
    The late Moynihan, whose father abandoned his family, believed that “the richest inheritance any child can have is a stable, loving, disciplined family life.” He wanted to create a sense of urgency about the fact that black children were disproportionately denied this inheritance.
    Black out-of-wedlock births had increased from 18 percent in 1950 to 23.6 percent in 1963. (The figure for whites was still just 3.07 percent). In central Harlem, 43 percent of births to nonwhite women were out of wedlock. In the inner city, Moynihan wrote, “the center of the tangle of pathology is the weakness of the family structure.”
    In what became known as “Moynihan’s scissors,” he noted that illegitimate births had stopped tracking with the unemployment rate; instead, as unemployment fell, out-of-wedlock births continued to rise. Illegitimacy had developed a dynamic all its own.
    Moynihan had written from an unassailably liberal perspective, hoping to spur a new chapter in government activism. No matter. He had run up against a new liberal taboo. At a White House-organized civil-rights conference, Moynihan’s report disappeared down the memory hole. As an administration official told Moynihan, “The family is not an action topic for a can-do conference.”
    Eventually elected to the Senate from New York, Moynihan became a voice in the wilderness on the most important social trend in our time. By 1970, the out-of-wedlock birthrate had climbed to 38 percent among blacks, and was rising across all groups. “Young, lower-class black women in the 1960s,” Patterson writes, “had formed the leading edge of broad-based, long-term changes in family formation.”
    By 2008, the situation circa 1963 looked positively Cleaver-esque. The black out-of-wedlock birthrate hit 72.3 percent; for everyone, it was 40.6 percent. This is a slow-moving social catastrophe. According to Brookings Institution scholars Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill, the poverty rate of married-couple families is five times lower than for female-headed families with children.
    “There is one unmistakable lesson in American history,” Moynihan wrote, “a community that allows a large number of men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring rational expectations about the future — that community asks for and gets chaos.” It’s a statement just as true and nearly as unwelcome as it was four decades ago.

    Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review.

    Also on The Madison Record
    Madison girls planning annual Lemonade for St. Jude on July 12
    A: Main, Events, Lifestyles, ...
    Lemonade Stand for St. Jude
    Madison girls planning annual Lemonade for St. Jude on July 12
    KADIE VICK kadie@themadisonrecord.com 
    July 10, 2025
    MADISON - Two local girls in fifth and sixth grade are selflessly using time during their summer break to raise money for a great cause. Landri Kruse ...
    {"epopulate_editorials_prism":"epopulate_editorials_prism", "madison-record":"Madison Record"}{"madison-record":"Madison Record"}
    Sparkman track star qualifies for AAU Junior Olympic Games
    A: Main, Madison County Record, News, ...
    Sparkman track star qualifies for AAU Junior Olympic Games
    Bob Labbe 
    July 9, 2025
    HARVEST - With his sights set on attending college within weeks, Joe Quez Keith has a major event he has prepped for that has occupied his entire summ...
    {"epopulate_editorials_prism":"epopulate_editorials_prism", "madison-record":"Madison Record"}{"madison-record":"Madison Record"}
    Little Booths Market Day will debut at The Grove Church July 12
    A: Main, Events, Lifestyles, ...
    Little Booths Market Day will debut at The Grove Church July 12
    Gregg Parker 
    July 9, 2025
    MADISON – A special event for young, aspiring entrepreneurs and vendors will debut this Saturday in Madison with Little Booths Market Day. Little Boot...
    {"epopulate_editorials_prism":"epopulate_editorials_prism", "madison-record":"Madison Record"}{"madison-record":"Madison Record"}
    Discovery recognizes Quamae Jackson as ‘Staff Member of the Year’
    Madison County Record, News, Schools, ...
    Discovery recognizes Quamae Jackson as ‘Staff Member of the Year’
    Gregg Parker 
    July 9, 2025
    MADISON – Quamae Jackson’s job carries personal importance in his life. Teachers and staff at Discovery Middle School selected Jackson as “Staff Membe...
    {"epopulate_editorials_prism":"epopulate_editorials_prism", "madison-record":"Madison Record"}{"madison-record":"Madison Record"}
    Mill Creek archers qualify for World Archery Tournament
    Madison County Record, News, Schools, ...
    Mill Creek archers qualify for World Archery Tournament
    Gregg Parker 
    July 9, 2025
    MADISON – Mill Creek Elementary School is home to numerous toxophilites . . . but there’s no cause for alarm. In fact, the campus is fortunate to have...
    {"epopulate_editorials_prism":"epopulate_editorials_prism", "madison-record":"Madison Record"}{"madison-record":"Madison Record"}
    Madison City Chess League youth augment skills at summer meets
    Madison County Record, News, Schools, ...
    Madison City Chess League youth augment skills at summer meets
    Gregg Parker 
    July 9, 2025
    MADISON – Chess players can avoid the ‘summer slide’ and keep their skills sharpened with numerous tournaments across Alabama and in other states. “Ar...
    {"epopulate_editorials_prism":"epopulate_editorials_prism", "madison-record":"Madison Record"}{"madison-record":"Madison Record"}
    Shakespeare in the Garden returns to Huntsville Botanical Garden
    Events, Lifestyles, Madison County Record, ...
    Shakespeare in the Garden returns to Huntsville Botanical Garden
    Annual tradition making Shakespeare’s plays accessible
    Maria Rakoczy 
    July 9, 2025
    HUNTSVILLE - A midsummer night’s dream becomes reality with Huntsville Shakespeare. Set to a backdrop of golden hour at the amphitheater at the Huntsv...
    {"epopulate_editorials_prism":"epopulate_editorials_prism", "madison-record":"Madison Record"}{"madison-record":"Madison Record"}
    Hallman, Auffenorde, Bartley and therapeutic art set for Blue Apple Books in July
    Events, Madison County Record, News, ...
    Hallman, Auffenorde, Bartley and therapeutic art set for Blue Apple Books in July
    Gregg Parker 
    July 9, 2025
    MADISON – Nail-biting literary drama, self-help and healthy relaxation are on the July schedule at Blue Apple Books. Alabama author Jennifer Hallman o...
    {"epopulate_editorials_prism":"epopulate_editorials_prism", "madison-record":"Madison Record"}{"madison-record":"Madison Record"}

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    ❮ ❯
    Get Legals or Public Notices Published
    Latest Local News
    Madison girls planning annual Lemonade for St. Jude on July 12
    Madison girls planning annual Lemonade for St. Jude on July 12
    MADISON - Two local girls in fifth and sixth grade are selflessly using time during their summer break to raise money for a great cause. Landri Kruse ...
    July 10, 2025
    Sparkman track star qualifies for AAU Junior Olympic Games
    Sparkman track star qualifies for AAU Junior Olympic Games
    HARVEST - With his sights set on attending college within weeks, Joe Quez Keith has a major event he has prepped for that has occupied his entire summ...
    July 9, 2025
    Little Booths Market Day will debut at The Grove Church July 12
    Little Booths Market Day will debut at The Grove Church July 12
    MADISON – A special event for young, aspiring entrepreneurs and vendors will debut this Saturday in Madison with Little Booths Market Day. Little Boot...
    July 9, 2025
    Discovery recognizes Quamae Jackson as ‘Staff Member of the Year’
    Discovery recognizes Quamae Jackson as ‘Staff Member of the Year’
    MADISON – Quamae Jackson’s job carries personal importance in his life. Teachers and staff at Discovery Middle School selected Jackson as “Staff Membe...
    July 9, 2025
    Mill Creek archers qualify for World Archery Tournament
    Mill Creek archers qualify for World Archery Tournament
    MADISON – Mill Creek Elementary School is home to numerous toxophilites . . . but there’s no cause for alarm. In fact, the campus is fortunate to have...
    July 9, 2025

    More Local News

    Our Latest E-edition
    Read the most recent edition
    Latest Stories
    Flow&Grow hosts second Flow Jam on July 26
    Flow&Grow hosts second Flow Jam on July 26
    HUNTSVILLE - Huntsville Flow&Grow provides a community for locals who practice flow arts with weekly meetings and an upcoming Flow Jam. “I was rea...
    July 9, 2025
    USTA U16 Girls Clay Court Nationals set for Huntsville
    USTA U16 Girls Clay Court Nationals set for Huntsville
    HUNTSVILLE - For eight consecutive days, the top under 16 girls tennis players in the United States will spring to action at the Athletic Club of Alab...
    July 9, 2025
    Declining gas prices buck annual trend and earlier expectations
    Declining gas prices buck annual trend and earlier expectations
    MADISON - Bucking earlier expectations for mid-summer, gas prices have continued to decline. Even though the cost for gas locally has risen some since...
    July 8, 2025
    Limestone Co. Sheriff’s Office: Violent felon arrested with weapon, stolen identities in multi-state fraud case
    Limestone Co. Sheriff’s Office: Violent felon arrested with weapon, stolen identities in multi-state fraud case
    LIMESTONE COUNTY - According to the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office, a Birmingham man with a violent criminal history was arrested after detectives ...
    July 8, 2025
    Exclusive: Movie planned on life of baseball’s Jose Canseco
    Exclusive: Movie planned on life of baseball’s Jose Canseco
    Editor’s note: Former Major League Baseball superstar Jose Canseco spoke exclusively with Bob Labbe of the Madison Record about the former All-Star’s ...
    July 2, 2025
    poll
    Latest Sports
    Sparkman track star qualifies for AAU Junior Olympic Games
    Sparkman track star qualifies for AAU Junior Olympic Games
    HARVEST - With his sights set on attending college within weeks, Joe Quez Keith has a major event he has prepped for that has occupied his entire summ...
    July 9, 2025
    USTA U16 Girls Clay Court Nationals set for Huntsville
    USTA U16 Girls Clay Court Nationals set for Huntsville
    HUNTSVILLE - For eight consecutive days, the top under 16 girls tennis players in the United States will spring to action at the Athletic Club of Alab...
    July 9, 2025
    Exclusive: Movie planned on life of baseball’s Jose Canseco
    Exclusive: Movie planned on life of baseball’s Jose Canseco
    Editor’s note: Former Major League Baseball superstar Jose Canseco spoke exclusively with Bob Labbe of the Madison Record about the former All-Star’s ...
    July 2, 2025
    Mitch Daly on the move: Former Bob Jones standout moving from Trash Pandas to 66ers
    Mitch Daly on the move: Former Bob Jones standout moving from Trash Pandas to 66ers
    MADISON- The Rocket City Trash Pandas has made a series of player moves including Mitch Daly. The Bob Jones High graduate and only local player to sui...
    June 18, 2025
    Daly returns home to play for Trash Pandas
    Daly returns home to play for Trash Pandas
    MADISON - Since birth, Mitch Daly has always been on the move as his father, Ed, is a four-star general in the U.S. Army causing him to pack up his wi...
    May 26, 2025

    More Sports Stories

    x

    Sections

    • Home
    • News
    • Sports
    • Opinion
    • Lifestyles
    • Obits
    • Business
    • Sponsored Content
      • Home
      • News
      • Sports
      • Opinion
      • Lifestyles
      • Obits
      • Business
      • Sponsored Content

    Other Publications

    Madison Living Logo Living 50 Plus Logo

    Services

    • About Us
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise With Us
    • Policies
    • Terms of use
    • Submit a news tip
    • Submit a photo
    • Birth announcement
    • Birthday announcement
    • Engagement announcement
    • Wedding announcement
    • Sign Up For Our Free Newsletter
      • About Us
      • Subscribe
      • Advertise With Us
      • Policies
      • Terms of use
      • Submit a news tip
      • Submit a photo
      • Birth announcement
      • Birthday announcement
      • Engagement announcement
      • Wedding announcement
      • Sign Up For Our Free Newsletter

    Follow Us

    Copyright

    © , The Madison Record