Melvin E. Walker, Jr., J. S. Holik and I. W. Sanders**

Agricultural Research Station, Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, GA 31030-3298

Recently there have been numerous reports concerning the economic progress of Blacks in the United States and in selected areas of the United States relative to that of Whites (1, 2, 3). While some writers seem to think that Blacks are "better off" now than they were some years ago, the majority feel that Blacks have made little progress when compared with the gains of their White counterparts. For example, a recent census report (3) contains the following:

A. . . (Blacks) who have historically been at the bottom of the American totem pole are still there, despite gains in education as measured by high school and college diplomas and in citizenship as measured by the number of Blacks elected to public office ... they continue to be paid less than other Americans, to do less desirable or prestigious work, to be out of a job more frequently, to lose more of their children in infancy, to dwell in poorer neighborhoods and in general to enjoy less of tile tangible fruits of what Is sometimes called "the American dream."

While it is true that the nation's Black population at large has never had it so good - as measured by median family income - this segment of the population has actually lost some ground relative to the progress of the White majority."

The conclusion of this report clearly indicates that Blacks at tile national level have not fared as well economically as Whites. A more important question, however, that might be of interest to Peach Countians is: How well have Blacks fared locally in Peach County, Georgia? In an attempt to provide insight relative to this question, the present report examines the economic progress of Black families relative to White families for Peach County during the period 1960 to 1970.1 Since income and occupation play important roles in determining tile economic status of an individual or a family, data oil family income and occupation from the 1960 and 1970 U. S. Census Reports are used for this analysis.

As is true nationally, Black families in Peach County have made considerable progress in terms of family income since 1960.1 Despite this progress, the income levels of Black families do not compare favorably with those of Whites. For example, data presented in Table I indicate that in 1960 about 42 percent of all Black families received annual incomes of less than $2,000 compared with only about 12 percent of all White families. By 1970, the proportion of Black families receiving less than $2,000 had declined to approximately 17 percent while only 3 percent of all White families had similar incomes. On the other end of the income scale, only about 1.53 percent of all Black families received income of $10,000 or more in 1960 compared to about 12.81 percent of all White families. By 1970 the number of Black families receiving $10,000 or more had increased to about 16 percent (a remarkable percentage increase - more than ten-fold) while the number of White families receiving similar incomes had increased to approximately 51 percent (only about a three-fold increase). The percent of all Black families moving from lower income categories into the $ 10,000 or more category was almost three times that for Whites between 1960 and 1970.

This data seems to indicate considerable progress for Black families in Peach County during the period 1960-1970. Further study of the data in Table 1, however, shows that over one-half (56.32 percent) of all black families had incomes of less than $6,000 in 1970, while during the same year more than one-half (50.77 percent) of all White families had incomes of more than $10,000. Furthermore, the fact that only eleven Black families in the county, approximately 0.69 percent of all Black families, received annual incomes of $25,000 or more in 1970 compared to 59 White families or 3.06 percent of all White families is a striking indicator of the continuing variance between Black and White family incomes.³

Another way to examine the relative income status of Black and White families in Peach county is to compare the percent of Black and White families in each income category with the percent of Black and White families in the county, respectively. If Black and White families are equal income-wise, the percent of Black and White families in each income category should equal respectively, the percent of Black and White families in peach County. Data presented in Table I (last two columns) clearly show that this is not the case. For example, in 1960 approximately 50 percent of all families in Peach County were Black while about 77 percent of all families receiving incomes of less than $2,000 were Black. This disparity was even greater In 1970, when approximately 80 percent of all families receiving less than $2,000 incomes were Black⁴, while only 45 percent of all families in Peach County were Black.' Disparity exists for all income categories, with the percent of Black families being higher than the percent of White families in the lower income categories and lower in the upper income categories.

The data presented have clearly indicated that Blacks are unequal to Whites with respect to income. Questions of more importance, however, are: What will have to occur in order for Black and White families to be equal on an income basis? How long will it take at the present rate (rate experienced during 1960 - 1970 decade) of progress for this equalization to occur? In order to gain insights relative to these questions, indexes of dissimilarity were computed.' The index of dissimilarity between the distribution of Black and White families among the various categories of income was 43.3 in 1960 and 39.8 In 1970 (see Table 2). The 1970 index value of 39.8 means that 39.8 percent of the Black families in the income categories of less than $8,000 would have to shift to higher income categories in order to approach an equal distribution of Black and White families by income categories. The shifting of Black and White families among the various income categories between 1960 and 1970 resulted in a 3.50 percentage point reduction in dissimilarity. At this rate of change, it would take approximately 11 decades or 114 years for Black families in Peach County, Georgia, to achieve income levels equal to those of White families.

Now that data presented have shown that Blacks in Peach County have made some progress in terms of family income during the period 1960 to 1970, logical questions that come to mind are: What was their occupation? How do the occupations held by Blacks compare with those held by Whites? Was job mobility for Blacks upward during the 1960 - 1970 decade? Table 3 contains data on the occupations of employed persons for Peach County for the period 1960 to 1970. These data indicate that while Blacks in Peach county have made some progress - in terms of job mobility - during the 1960 - 1970 decade, the majority of them continue to hold a large share of the low-paying, less prestigious jobs. For example, in 1960 about 32.2 percent of all employed Whites held occupations in Groups 1 compared with only 11.5 percent of employed Blacks. By 1970 these conditions had improved slightly with about 28.9 percent of employed Whites and 15.1 percent of employed Blacks holding occupations in Group 1. Blacks have also gained some ground in occupational Groups 2 and 3, with most of the gains being in the area of clerical workers. Despite these gains, the fact remains that seven of every ten persons employed as laborers in 1970 were Black, while about 61 percent of all Blacks employed were classified as laborers. This, however, was a slight improvement over 1960, when eight of every ten persons employed as laborers were- Black, and about 77 percent of all employed Blacks were classified as laborers.

This brief examination of the data seems to indicate considerable progress in terms of job mobility for Blacks in Peach County during the 1960 - 1970 decade. How significant is this change? How fast are Blacks really progressing relative to Whites in terms of job mobility? How soon can Blacks expect to obtain equality with Whites occupation -wise? In order to provide insight relative to these questions, indexes of dissimilarity of occupational change were computed. The index of dissimilarity between the distribution of Blacks and Whites among various occupational categories was 55.32 in 1960 and 36.90 in 1970 (see Table 4). The 1970 index value of 36.90 means that 36.90 percent of all Blacks having occupations in category IV would have to shift to occupational categories 1, 11, and III in order to approach equal distributions of Blacks and Whites among the various occupational categories. The shifting of Blacks and Whites among the various occupational categories between 1960 and 1970 resulted in a 18.42 percentage point reduction in dissimilarity, At this rate of change it would take approximately 2 decades or 20 years for Blacks in Peach County, Georgia to achieve occupations similar to those of Whites.

Data presented in this report clearly point out the relative position, past (1960) and present (1970), of Blacks in Peach County, Georgia. These data indicate that Blacks in Peach County are still unequal to Whites - with respect to both income and occupation - despite the tremendous amount of progress made since the passage of major Civil Rights Legislation. It appears that Blacks in Peach County are on a treadmill, i. e., they must run at an ever increasing pace just to maintain their relative position. Comparisons in this report show that even at the rate of progress experienced during the 1960 to 1970 decade (the greatest recorded for Blacks), it will take approximately 114 years for Blacks to "catch-up to" Whites in Peach County income wise and about 20 years to "catch-up" occupation-wise. Some possible explanations for these relatively slow rates of progress are: (1) Major Civil Rights Legislation also benefitted Whites during this period, and (2) Whites, observing the progress of Blacks, may have been inspired to move at a greater pace.

Finally, the data indicate that considerably more progress was made in terms of job mobility (1.84 percentage points reduction in the dissimilarity index per annum) for Blacks than in terms of income (0.33 percentage points reduction in the dissimilarity index per annum) during the 1960 - 1970 decade. This may suggest that Blacks are being paid less than Whites for performing similar jobs or that Blacks have been given new job titles with little or no change in wages and/or salaries.⁷

(1) Hines, William, "Black Economic Growth Still Slow Despite Progress Survey Shows," Columbia (MO) Missourian, July 12,1974, p. 10.

(2) Jordon, Vernon, E., Jr., "The Truth About the Black Middle Class," Newsweek, July 8, 1974, p. 11.

(3) U. S. Census Bureau, The Social and Economic Status of the Black Population in the United States, 1973.

(4) U. S. Census Bureau, General Social and Economic Characteristics: 19 70 Census of Population, PC (1) -C 12, Ga., March 1972.

*This research was supported by CSRS Project No. 216-15-70, "Poverty Isolation and Alleviation In Nineteen Middle Georgia Counties."

**Melvin E. Walker, Jr. is Assistant Professor of' Agricultural Economics and Project Leader, John S. Holik is visiting Associate Professor of Rural Sociology, and Isaac W. Sanders is Research Assistant, Rural Sociology, Fort Valley State College.

Fort Valley State University