Giving African-American Men their Rightful Place

The implementation of adult male education programs that adopt the pedagogical strategies developed by the Freedom Schools could serve to address the unemployment crisis of American inner-cities. I believe that chronic male unemployment lies at the core of the development in the postCivil Rights era of an inner-city population that must depend on welfare to survive. Often identified as America’s underclass, they suffer "long-term deprivation from low education, low employability, low income, and eventually, low self-esteem,” (Gilbert, & Kahl, 1987). During the 1950s, inner-city residents although poor were employed (Wilson, 1999). In the early 1970s, structural changes in the national and global economy altered labor market demands. By the 1980s, the impact of those changes, and a growing influx of manual labor immigrants, created a surplus of unskilled workers among which black inner-city residents are overrepresented (Shulman, 2003). Inner-city chronic unemployment has a negative impact on the area’s residents beyond its obvious economic implications. Work is a pivotal institution in society. Time and activities are regulated by the demands of work, “in the absence of regular employment, life, including family life, becomes less coherent,” (Wilson, 1999, pp. 480). Work is, therefore, more than a means to earn a living. The socialization of children is geared by the society’s expectations of the jobs that they will grow to fulfill. Children internalize those expectations. In poor African-American neighborhoods, in which female-headed households that rely on welfare for their existence are the norm, the disciplining influence of a work regulated environment is absent. Missing are also the male role models that boys need to emulate. (Popenoe, 1996). The economic and social cost of this crisis goes far beyond its impact to the affected population. Economic costs are reflected in the utilization of tax dollars that are channeled through a multitude of relief programs, but which are not enough to provide beyond the minimum basic needs for the recipients, nor does the aid contribute to economic development of the area or provide recipients with the necessary marketable skills. Billions of tax dollars are also spent in law enforcement, corrections, and legal services budgets. Male juvenile delinquency increases when the father is absent (Thomas, Farrell and Barnes, 1996; Blankenhorn, 1995). The loss of human capital is staggering for the entire society. Children raised in poverty lag behind in physical and cognitive development, which added to their lack of academic, work skills, and positive social capital, renders them eventually as unemployable adults (Corcoran 1995). Thus, the fate of the parents may be replicated every generation. In the words of Roback Morse (2003) “Think how much the state would save for every young person who can go on to create a life of its own” (p. 59). The plight of inner-city residents became unequivocally evident to the entire nation in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It is clear that the goals of the Civil Rights Movement were only partially attained, inasmuch as political enfranchisement was not concomitant with economic progress. The images of the devastation left by the hurricane throughout Mississippi, Alabama,