There is no more challenging or immediate crisis that faces African Americans in this country, and specifically in New Jersey than the crisis that faces African American families. Name almost any problem that African Americans face and it is connected to the crisis we face with family. Family is the most important unit we have in this nation and state. Yet, among African Americans this most important unit is almost becoming obsolete as we used to know it.

For most of us who are fifty or over, we think of family as two parents and children living under one roof where love, nurture, protection and provision are found. Unfortunately, this is becoming less and less common among African American families. Today, in New Jersey 70 percent of African American families are headed by a single parent, almost 30 percent of African American children are being raised in poverty, over 60 percent of children in state care are African American.

Abuse and fatalities at the hands of parents is increasing. Gang membership, particularly among middle and high school students, is growing. These children say “the gang is my family.” Seventy percent of the prisons population are African Americans and on and on.

Added to this is the disparity in health among African Americans, where the only access to health care for many African Americans is a hospital emergency room. Many serious conditions have higher rates of occurrence among African Americans than any other race or group in the country or state. Among them are heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and diabetes, which often run in the family from generation to generation. The most tragic statistics about African American health in New Jersey is that 63 percent of persons with AIDS in New Jersey are Black women between the ages of 24 to 35 and that every week two children die of AIDS because of a parent’s drug use.

Most African American families in New Jersey are in financial bondage. Single income, unemployed or underemployed families are struggling to get out of debt, pay bills and provide for the needs of the family, and New Jersey is a very expensive state in which to reside. It is the wealthiest state based on per capita income and at the same time the poor are among the poorest in the country and African Americans are the majority of the poor.

The crisis facing African American families demands and requires our attention. We can no longer be in denial and continue to act as if everything is all right. Most importantly, we must deal with solutions. We know the symptoms; they are evident. Therefore, as a doctor would, we must diagnose the problem and prescribe a cure.

On November 10 and 11, the Black Ministers’ Council of New Jersey will have its Annual State Conference at the Sheraton Newark Airport Hotel. The theme for the conference is “S.O.S—Strengthening, Organizing, Saving Our Families.” The goal of the conference is to offer solutions and begin the process of strengthening, organizing and saving our families. Our families did not begin the decline overnight and the problem will not be solved overnight. But, we are beginning…and that’s the good news.

Our families did not begin the decline overnight and the problem
will not be solved overnight. But, we are beginning… and that’s
the good news.