Note:
Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
Therefore, this work is protected by copyright,
restricting your legal rights to reproduce it.
However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now.
Read more about copyright.
Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 15. The Negro in the Public Economy - 10. Assistance to Special Groups
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
Chapter 15. The Negro in the Public Economy 359
of age or older, according to the 1940 Census, only 7 per cent were
NegroesJ^ Thus, the proportion of Negroes among recipients of old age
assistance is much higher than among aged people in general. The differ-
ence is particularly pronounced in the North. In the South it is less marked.
Mississippi and Oklahoma differed from the other states in the South ;
in
these states Negroes, in spite of their greater poverty, were actually less
represented among the old age assistance recipients than among all aged
people.*^^ It is quite possible that similar flagrant cases of discrimination
occurred in the rural areas of some of the other states; but no data exist
which would allow us to test this assumption.
The average benefits are much lower in the South than elsewhere.*^^
All the Southern states paid lower benefits to Negroes than to whites. The
largest race differential appeared in Mississippi, where the average was $7
for Negroes and $ii for whites.
The two other categorical relief programs, aid to the blind and aid to
dependent children, are quantitatively much less important than is old age
assistance. The need of such relief, however, is particularly urgent among
Negroes. It has been estimated, for instance, that the incidence of blindness
is twice as high for Negroes as for whites. This means that about one-fifth
of all blind persons in the United States are Negroes. It is obvious that
Negroes constitute an even higher proportion of those blind persons who
are in need of cash assistance. From this viewpoint, Negroes were certainly
discriminated against, even though they constituted 20 to 23 per cent of
all recipients accepted for aid to the blind during the years 193 7- 1940.
The average benefit in 1939-1940 was $12 for Negroes and $22 for
whites. This difference was due, mainly, to the fact that grants tended to
be much lower in the South than they were elsewhere. In addition, many
of the Southern states paid lower benefits to Negroes than they did to
whites.^®
Aid to dependent children is intended, primarily, for broken families
with children. In view of the great number of widows and widowers in
the Negro population, and its high divorce, separation, and illegitimacy
rates, it is quite apparent that Negroes need this assistance much more
than do whites. In 1937-1940 from 14 to 17 per cent of all recipients
accepted for such aid were Negroes. In 7 of the Southern states, however,
the proportion of Negroes among those accepted for aid to dependent
children was smaller even than the proportion of Negroes among all
children under 16 years of age. The discrimination was particularly pro-
nounced in Georgia where, in 1940, 38 per cent of all children under 15
were Negroes, where as the proportion of Negroes among those accepted
for aid to dependent children during 1937-1940 was but 1 1 to 12 per cent.^^
Why is it that, in some Southern states, discrimination can go to such
extremes in the case of aid to dependent children.^ It is quite possible that
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
