Because they are concentrated in the lowest paying jobs, it is generally necessary for both the black parents to work. Although some blacks have entered skilled or better paying jobs, the income of the Negro family is still twenty-five per cent lower than that of white workers. This probably helps to explain the fact that more than 95 per cent of Missouri's black population compared to 67.7 per cent whites live in urban communities. Better employment opportunities and services are the urban magnetic forces. Still the unemployment rate for black men is almost three times as high as for white males, 8.3 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively.
Housing is still a problem as are health services, legal protection and education for the blacks.
Re-segregation caused by housing restrictions still handicaps the Negro worker and renders him unfit, or handicaps him, for higher paying jobs. Relatively few blacks are able to move to the suburbs as the whites flee the inner city, leaving behind problems of burglary, dope peddling, drug addiction, assault, murder and other crimes. Educationally the picture is not bright for black Missourians. Nearly 20 years have passed since the United States Supreme Court handed down its historic decision declaring segregation in public education in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Yet for black youth the situation has changed little in the inner cities where more than 86 per cent of black Missourians live.