Cutbacks 'Crushing' Blacks: Blacks' Economic State Reported as Disastrous
Black America, with a 17.8 percent unemployment rate in December and 35.6 percent of its people below the poverty line, remains ÛÏburied in a depression of crushing proportions,Û and the Reagan administration bears substantial blame, National Urban League President John E. Jacob charged yesterday.</br></br>ÛÏThe state of black America is disastrous,Û said Jacob in releasing his organizationÛªs annual report on the status of the nationÛªs 28 million blacks.</br></br>He was especially critical of administration cuts in social programs over the last three years, its opposition to affirmative action in civil rights and the recent report of the PresidentÛªs Task Force on Food Assistance that ÛÏplayed downÛ the ÛÏserious problem of hunger in America.Û ÛÏThe black poor have been relegated to an out-of-sight, out-of-mind status in American life,Û said Jacob.</br></br>To obtain relief, Jacob said, blacks must turn out heavily enough in the coming election to force the president and Congress to heed black demands for jobs, restoration of social services and strengthening of civil rights enforcement.</br></br>Û¢ Economic status. The black unemployment rate was 17.8 percent in December, compared with 8.1 percent for the nation as a whole; for black males aged 18 and 19, the rate hit 42.7 percent last fall. These official figures leave out workers too discouraged even to look for jobs.