The Negro Family: The Case For National Action - Background

Background

At the time of writing this report, Moynihan was employed at the U.S. Department of Labor. While analyzing various statistics concerning black poverty he noticed something unusual:

  • Instead of rates of black male unemployment and welfare enrollment running parallel as they always had, in 1962 they started to diverge in a way that would come to be called “Moynihan’s scissors.”

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