Courier Eco Latino | Opinion

What Really Happened to the Black Family?

Deindustrialization, Disinvestment, and a History We Must Tell Honestly**

For centuries, the strength of the Black family served as the backbone of our community. In the face of slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow, we still chose each other. We still married. We still jumped the broom — sometimes in the dark of night, sometimes under threat of violence — because covenant, commitment, and community were non-negotiable parts of who we were.

Contrary to the myths often repeated, the erosion of Black family structure did not begin in slavery. It did not begin in segregation. It did not begin during the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, Black marriage rates remained remarkably strong well into the 1960s.

The question that continues to echo in our community is simple:
If slavery didn’t destroy the Black family, what did?

To answer that, we must look closely and honestly at what changed — and when.

The Real Turning Point: 1970

By 1970, just two years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Black America began to see the first dramatic rise in single-parent households. The shift was jarring. It was rapid. And it was unmistakable.

Some have argued that it was part of a deliberate plan to “neutralize the Black power base.” The truth is more complicated than a single theory, but the impact of economic policies and social decisions made during that era is undeniable.

The Disappearance of Work — A Slow Collapse With Fast Consequences

For decades, factories were the economic anchor of Black communities across the country. In cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Birmingham, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Newark, and New York, Black workers held stable industrial jobs that paid a living wage.

You could raise a family on those jobs. Buy a home on those jobs. Retire with dignity on those jobs. And you didn’t need a college degree to earn a decent life.

Then came the 1970s.

• Factories closed or relocated overseas.
• Manufacturing centers collapsed.
• Stable union jobs evaporated.
• Black neighborhoods — heavily dependent on industrial employment — were hit first, hardest, and longest.

This wasn’t described as an attack on Black families. It was part of a larger national economic shift. But the devastating impact on Black men — and therefore Black households — is undeniable.

You cannot pull the economic floor out from under a people and expect the family structure to remain unchanged.

Vocational Pathways Removed From Urban Schools

A lesser-known but equally damaging shift happened inside urban high schools.

Before the 1970s, students could graduate certified in skilled trades:

• plumbing
• electrical work
• carpentry
• machining
• auto mechanics
• welding

These certifications weren’t electives — they were lifelines. They provided immediate access to stable work and middle-class wages.

But as educational priorities changed and budget cuts swept through urban districts, vocational programs were slowly dismantled. Not instantly. Not through one bill or one government decree. But little by little, year after year.

The result? Young Black men lost one of the most direct pathways to economic independence.

The Backbone of Our Movements: Black Women

It is historically accurate — and necessary — to acknowledge that Black women were essential to the financing, organizing, and sustainability of major freedom movements:

• the Garvey movement
• the Nation of Islam
• the Civil Rights Movement
• SNCC
• CORE
• the Freedom Riders

No Black movement has survived without the labor, money, and moral leadership of Black women. But it is equally important to note that they did not shoulder that burden alone — entire communities, churches, benevolent societies, and grassroots networks helped fuel these movements.

Still, the point remains: the Black family was never fragile. It was powerful. Powerful enough that the loss of economic stability affected the entire structure.

Was There a Coordinated Plan? History Says Not Exactly — But the Impact Speaks Loudly

There is no verified historical document showing a federal policy designed explicitly to “destroy the Black family” in 1970.

However, here is what the historical record does show:

• Housing discrimination locked Black families out of generational wealth.
• Redlining drained investment from Black neighborhoods.
• Welfare policies sometimes penalized two-parent households.
• Mass incarceration swept through Black communities starting in the 1970s.
• Deindustrialization removed the economic foundation from urban centers.
• Urban schools were stripped of vocational programs that once created stable careers.

No single policy broke the Black family. It was the accumulation of policies, economic shifts, and structural inequalities that weakened the very institutions that had sustained us for generations.

The Consequence We Still Live With

The rise in single-parent households was not the result of slavery. It was the result of economic devastation — a slow-burning, far-reaching transformation that gutted Black neighborhoods in the 1970s and reshaped American life.

A people cannot prosper without opportunity.
A family cannot thrive without stability.
A community cannot stand without economic roots.

The Black family survived slavery, survived Reconstruction, survived Jim Crow — but the economic disinvestment of the 1970s struck at the core of our communal infrastructure.

Where Do We Go From Here?

We cannot rebuild what we refuse to confront. Understanding the truth of what happened is not about blame — it is about power.

If economic disinvestment weakened the Black family, economic reinvestment can strengthen it. If employment pathways once lifted our communities, then job creation, entrepreneurship, vocational education, and access to capital must be central to our future.

We have endured much and survived even more. But now is the time to rebuild with intention — not nostalgia, not myth, but truth.

Because the truth, even when inconvenient, is the only foundation strong enough to build a new future.