The document discusses the history and challenges facing African American families in the United States. It describes how slavery made it difficult for African American slaves to form family units and the high mortality rates further complicated family formation. Over time, African American families developed their own system of kinship that emphasized extended family and community. However, policies in the 20th century disproportionately impacted African American families and removed children from their homes at higher rates due to biases in the system. Research shows African American children are overrepresented in the child welfare system today.

1. African Tribes
Afar Anlo-Ewe Amhara
Ashanti Bakongo Bambara
Bemba Berber Bobo
Bushmen/San Chewa Dogon
Fang Fon Fulani Ibos Kikuyu
Maasai Mandinka Pygmies
Samburu Senufo Tuareg
Wolof Yoruba Zulu

2. The African Family
♦ Collectively Thinking People:
Village, Amass, Accumulative,
Concentrate, Congregate,
Assemble, Flock, Gather
It takes a village to raise a
child.
Blended Families made one
family.
Unity

3. The African Family
♦ Our families consist of
Grandmother,
Grandfather, Uncle (if
single), Auntie (if
single), Mother,
Father, children, and
community. That was
the collectively
thinking we shared in
times pass. That was
the nucleus of the
African family.

4. The African American Family
the Creation of Separatism
♦ During the seventeenth century,
slaves had little opportunity to
establish family units. Newly
imported African slaves were often
kept in sex-segregated quarters. In
the Chesapeake colonies and the
Carolinas, most slaves lived on
plantations with fewer than ten
slaves. These units were so small
and so widely dispersed, and the
sex ratio was so skewed (two
women for three men) that it was
difficult for slave men and women
to find spouse of roughly the same
age.

5. The African American Family
the Creation of Separatism
♦ A high death rate
compounded the
difficulties slaves
faced in forming
families, since many
slaves did not live
long enough to marry
or, if they did, their
marriages were brief

6. The African American Family
the Creation of Separatism
♦ By the 1770s, slaves had
succeeded in creating a
distinctive African American
system of family and kinship.
To sustain a sense of family
identity, slave children were
often named from parent or
other blood kin or given a
traditional African name.
♦ The major reasons why slaves
fled their masters’ plantations
was to visit spouses, children,
siblings, aunts, uncles, and
grandparents.

7. The African American Family
the Creation of Separatism
♦ 1950s, African American
culture places greater emphasis
on ties to a network of kin that
can extend over more than one
household. Extended kin such
as the grandparents, parents,
and children who provide and
to receive more help from each
other. They also live together
more often about half of all
middle-aged African American
women, live in a threegeneration household at some
point.

8. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
The Negro Family: The Case For National Action (1965)
♦ Produced as part of LBJ’s war
on poverty
♦ “At the heart of the deterioration
of the fabric of Negro society is
the deterioration of the Negro
family”
♦ Argued patterns observed by
Frazier were growing and would
not stop without intervention
♦ Advocated coordinated government
programs to strengthen black
family

9. Moynihan Report Controversies
Moynihan had it backwards:
♦ single parenthood was the
consequence of poverty, not the
cause of it.
♦ Moynihan ignored the strength
and resilience of the black
family, and denigrated black
culture
♦ Dozens of historical studies
argued that black families in the
nineteenth century were maleheaded, nuclear, just like white
families

10. No marriage boom for black men
♦ After the war, blacks were forced
off southern farms by
mechanization and consolidation of
sharecropping farms.
♦ This resulted in massive dislocation
and a rise of young men with no
occupation.
♦ Without the shift from farming into
no occupation, there would have
been a substantial black post-war
marriage boom.
♦ There was no marriage boom for
blacks because there was no
economic boom for blacks.

11. The African American Family the
Creation of Separatism
Shifts in the approach to societal
problems during the twentieth century
helped to shape child welfare policies.
Roberts explains in Shattered Bonds,
“by the early twentieth century,
rescuing children from maltreatment
by removing them from their homes
was part of a broader campaign to
remedy social ills, including poverty.
This movement created the juvenile
courts, opposed child labor, lobbied
for mandatory school attendance laws,
and established pensions for widows
and single mothers to reduce the need
for child removal. It judged poor
families by an elitist standard and
ignored black children altogether Roberts
(2002b:14).

12. The African American Family
the Creation of Separatism
Roberts goes on to explain that the
“early reformers tied children’s
welfare to social conditions that could
only be improved through societal
reforms. This movement ended in the
1970s, with the emergence of a new
emphasis on disassociating unpopular
poverty programs from the problem of
child abuse. The intent was to show
that abuse was a problem for all of
America, not just for those in poverty
Roberts (2002b:14).

13. The African American Family
the Creation of Separatism
This change created a focus on saving the
child, while the family was de-emphasized
as a factor in helping children. The rules
governing the administration of welfare
programs became more restrictive, with
regulations designed to change behavior.
Systemic and individual bias inherent in
policies and procedures ensured the
removal of children from their families
instead of offering supports for children
while they remained with their own
families. At the same time, the visibility
of the impoverished and specifically
minority families became more
pronounced Roberts (2002b:14).

14. The African American Family the Creation of Separatism
The investigation and substantiation processes utilize certain
assessment protocols, investigative requirements an
procedures, and methodologies to confirm the actions taken
or rationale for the exclusions. There is evidence suggesting
that race plays a role at the investigation decision point. As
reported by Hill, Sedlak and Shultz’s 2001 reanalysis of
National Institutes Health (NIH-3) data found “higher rates of
investigations for Africa Americans than Caucasians:
(a) among children who were emotionally maltreated or,
physically neglected;
(b) among children who suffered serious or
fatal injuries;
(c) when reports came from mental health or
social service professionals; and
(d) when the parents were
substance abusers Hill (2001: 5).

15. The African American Family the Creation of
Separatism
Also, even though data from the National Incidence Studies (NIS) of Child Abuse
and Neglect have consistently indicated that there is no significant racial
difference in the overall incidence of abuse and neglect between minority and
white children, the data do indicate disparities in investigations of child
abuse and neglect:
♦ African American children who were emotionally maltreated or physically neglected
were much more likely to be investigated than white children similarly maltreated.
♦
African American children who suffered fatal or serious injury were much more likely to
receive CPS[Child Protective Services] investigation than white children with
comparable severe injuries.
♦
African American children whose maltreatment was recognized by mental health or
social service professionals were more likely to be investigated than comparable white
children.
♦
African American children whose perpetrator was involved with alcohol or drugs were
much more likely to receive CPS investigation Sedlak and Schultz (2005: 114 -115) .

16. I believe that every African American child has a purpose, a “gift to offer
the world.” However, in America’s society the dangerous outcomes of
childbirth are insufficient or imaginary health care, poverty, lack of proper
food or education for nourishment. In addition, poor housing conditions,
juvenile systems, and the most dangerous “The Child Welfare System.”
While African American children make up about one-fifth of the children in
this country, research indicates that they make up two-fifths of the children
in the child welfare system (Roberts 2002a: 3). Children of color are more
likely to be detached from their parents, the family unit and the community
they are familiar, placed in out-of-home, institutions group homes and outof- state care. They also are more likely to remain in care for longer periods
than Caucasian children are. In addition, to all the other affiliations of being
an African American child the chances of the survival during the early years
makes the child turn against his/her self.

17. Public Policies and Practices in Child
Welfare Systems that Affect Life Options
for Children of Color
ERNESTINE F. JONES

18. Micro-Mezzo, Macro Intervention
♦ The Wraparound approach
♦ Realize that African Americans have different
communication styles.
♦ Appreciate the diversity of family types among African
Americans
♦ Encourage political advocacy/Community Organizing

19. References
♦
Dhooper S. and Moore S. (2001: 99-103) Social Work Practice with Cuturally Diverse People. Sage
Publication, Inc.
♦
Hill, R. 2001. Disproportionality of Minorities in Child Welfare: Synthesis
of Research Findings. Paper prepared for Race Matters Consortium.
http://www.racemattersconsortium.org/docs/whopaper4.pdf.
♦
Roberts, D. E. 2002a. Racial Disproportionality in the U. S. Child
Welfare System (Working Paper #4): Documentation, Research on Causes,
and Promising Practices. Northwestern University School of Law,
Institute for Policy Research (August).
♦
Roberts, D. E. 2002b. Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare.
New York: Basic Books/Civitas.
♦
Sedlak, A., and D. Schultz. 2005. Race Matters in Child Welfare: Race
Differences in Child Protective Services Investigation of Abused and Neglected
Children. CWLA Press.
♦
University of Minnesota Population Center African-American Families
http://ipums.org