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The number of Negroes in schools of higher learning has
almost doubled in 15 years. The number of nonwhite profes–
sional workers has more than doubled in 10 years. The me–
dian income of Negro college women exceeds that of white
college women. And there are also the enormous accom–
plishments of distinguished individual Negroes-many of
them graduates of this institution, and one of them the first
lady ambassador in the history of the United States.
These are proud and impressive achievements. But they
tell only the story of a growing middle class minority, steadily
narrowing the gap between them and their white counter–
parts.
A WIDENING GULF
But for the great majority of Negro Americans-the poor,
the unemployed, the uprooted and the dispossessed-there
is a much grimmer story. They still are another nation. De–
spite the court orders and the laws, despite the legislative
victories and the speeches, for them the walls are rising and
the gulf
is
widening.
Here are some of the facts of this American failure.
Thirty-five years ago the rate of unemployment for Ne–
groes and whites was about the same. Today the Negro rate
is twice as high.
In
1948 the 8 percent unemployment rate for Negro teen–
age boys was actually less than that of whites. By last year
that rate had grown to 23 percent, as against 13 percent for
whites.
Between 1949 and 1959, the income of Negro men rela–
tive to white men declined in every section of this country.
From 1952 to 1963 the median income of Negro families
compared to white actually dropped from 57 percent to 53
percent.
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