Poverty In African American Communities

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Poverty is rampant in African American communities. High poverty areas can have a big effect on African American education. A vast majority of African Americans receive public assistance, and since most blacks haven't graduated high school, they are forced to work jobs that pay minimum wage or less, or they are unemployed. Among racial and ethnic groups, African Americans have the highest destitution rate, 27.4 percent. While 23 percent of all African Americans live 100 percent below the poverty level. During the 1990s while the U.S was undergoing an economic boom the poverty level dropped from 29 percent in 1990 to 19 percent in 2000. The economic downturn in 2000 to 2010 caused the increase of the black family impoverishment rate to 24 percent.

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