7 Ways the War on Poverty Destroyed Black Fatherhood

The growing absence of fathers in American households — particularly in the African-American community — has been studied by academicians for decades, with liberal and conservative writers and policymakers squaring off and pointing fingers in different directions. But there's very little argument that many of the regulations instituted during President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty, such as the welfare, food stamp and Medicaid programs, act as disincentives for mothers and fathers to stay together. A Mother's Calculation: A Man Will Reduce Her Income Welfare programs created disincentives for couples to get married because benefits are reduced as a family’s income rises. A mother will receive far more from welfare if she is single than if she has an employed husband in the home. For many low-income couples, marriage means a reduction in government assistance and an overall decline in the couple’s joint income — a reduction of benefits by an average of 10 percent to 20 percent of their total income. Because so many of the other programs low-income women rely on — such as food stamps, public housing, Medicaid and public day care — also carry a means test, single mothers are cut off from a wide range of government services if they decide to marry and subsequently raise their income. Over time, for many Black women in low-income neighborhoods, they see the father of their child(ren) as a less reliable breadwinner and partner than the federal government. Myth: Fathers Don't Earn Enough to Contribute Significantly to the Support of Mother and Child This is not true in most cases. Eight out of 10 unmarried fathers were employed at the time of their child’s birth, according to Robert Rector, senior research fellow in the Domestic Policy Studies Department at The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank. Rector claims that despite the fact that the earnings capacity of non-married fathers is generally maligned, these men actually earn more than the mothers in the period prior to the child’s birth. Over 60 percent of fathers who have children outside of marriage earned enough at the time of their child’s birth to support their potential family with an income above the poverty level even if the mother did not work at all. Black Fathers Treated as Marginal Figures Opinion leaders and policy makers tend to treat Black unwed fathers as socially marginal deadbeats — an unmarriageable residue of little social or economic significance. To the extent that the fathers are remembered at all, they are seen as largely useless, capable of little more than modest child-support payments. This does little to encourage them to become more involved in their children's lives. After Onset of War on Poverty, Black Out-of-Wedlock Birth Rate Skyrocketed The rate went from 24.5 percent in 1964 to 50.3 percent in 1976. It continued to rise rapidly, reaching 70.7 percent in 1994. Over the next decade, it declined slightly but then began to rise again, reaching 72.4 percent in 2008. Some sociologists say that once mothers received government support, the link between marriage and having children was severed in their minds. Fathers were no longer necessary. During the course of the 50 years beginning in 1964, the stereotype of the missing and negligent Black father took hold — in and out of the Black community. To Receive Public Assistance, Mothers Must Turn the Fathers In When mothers receive public assistance, they must report the identity of the child's father — so the government can claim the money as reimbursement for the public assistance payments. The structure of child support has kept a legion of poor men from stepping up and being fathers to their children — and keeps them underground and away from the courts, thus depriving the mother and child from any real support anyway, financial or otherwise. In most cases, if the mother refuses to report the father's name, the amount of her public assistance payments will be reduced. So this sets up an oppositional relationship between mother and father of the child from which many couples never recover. Fathers Met With Suspicion at Public Institutions Black fathers are perceived as such a rare presence in many communities that they report being met with suspicion in places like hospitals and schools. Joseph Jones, founder and executive director of the Center for Urban Families in Baltimore, which works with urban fathers and families, said young fathers are put through so many hoops when they visit their child's school — sometimes the school won't let them see their child unless school administrators can reach the mothers on the phone — that many of them give up and stop visiting the school altogether. Men Got the Message: Their Contribution Not Needed As sociologists and mental health professionals would attest, for at least two generations these government policies have sent to Black men a loud and clear message in Black communities: Their contributions to the household aren't needed. They know the mother, having become accustomed by the system to judge the value of a partner based on financial contributions to the household, will often be less interested in their assistance in raising the children. In millions of cases, this has sapped their willingness and desire to make a strong case to be in their children's lives, even after they no longer have a romantic relationship with the mother. Ironically, a recent study revealed that Black fathers are actually more involved in their children's lives than white and Hispanic fathers when given the chance. But the rules of the system have made it increasingly unlikely in poor communities that this involvement will come as a married member of the same household as the child.

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