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While upper-income black households rise, many are left behind
10:01 PM CDT on Saturday, June 25, 2005
Despite gains in the ranks of upper-income households, many black
residents remain on the lower economic rung.
The Dallas Morning News spent several months examining the
dynamics of affluent black households in the Dallas-Fort Worth
metropolitan region. The News analyzed U.S. census data from 1990
to 2000, comparing the growth in upper-income black households locally
and nationally. Reporters interviewed families, demographers, economists
and educators, as well as civic, business and religious leaders about
the status of black residents in the region.
And the gap between those on the top and bottom is widening – for all
households, including black residents, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Moreover, the difference in the median income for black households
versus all other households nationwide has remained constant for two
decades.
Those statistics serve as a stark contrast to the growing number of
black households that are making at least six-figure incomes.
According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, the number of D-FW black
households earning at least $100,000 tripled during the 1990s, mirroring
similar growth in several other metropolitan areas.
While some black leaders applaud the gains, they also point out that
black incomes continue to lag overall incomes.
While we see a consistent national trend of rising black affluence, said
Roderick Harrison, a demographer with the Joint Center for Political and
Economic Studies, "that does contrast with the people often left behind
in great numbers and great percentages – often in the central city and
older inner-ring suburbs."
Here and nationally, blacks appear in the highest income bracket at half
the rate of all households but in the lowest-income categories at double
the rate for all households.
So how can the black community see such gains in the upper ranks and
still face large numbers of low-income households?
Although more black households are doing better, their gains are from a
lower base, making any increase seem more dramatic. And as more blacks
households move into the upper ranks, the income gap among black
households widens.
Some area suburbs where affluent African-Americans live also are home to
residents left behind by the expansion.
At first glance, Forest Hill, a suburb of about 3,700 households
southeast of Fort Worth, does not appear to be a hot spot for the
affluent. Its parks are desolate and overgrown. The streets are riddled
with potholes.
Yet, it has the highest proportion of $100,000-plus households that are
black – 84 percent in that category – in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Charlotte Hogan-Price said the numbers do not surprise her. Ms.
Hogan-Price, 56, moved to Forest Hill from Fort Worth in 1977 to rear
her children in a small community.
Today, her daughter and three sons, all adults, live with her, including
a son who recently returned from serving in Iraq.
Ms. Hogan-Price recently celebrated 25 years working in Tarrant County
probate court.
Bouncing along the pitted roads of Forest Hills in her black Montero
Sport one Friday evening in May, she pointed to homes of retired doctors
and businessmen, many of whom are black. She drove past several large
homes that were recently built. A few of them are as large as 3,600
square feet and sell for around $400,000.
Other streets, where rows of plain brick houses sat behind dried-up
lawns, made it clear that not everyone there is doing well.
Further down the street, a group of Hispanic and African-American
children played basketball in the street.
"They play in the street because there is no place for them to go," Ms.
Hogan-Price said.
But she hopes that will change after a new library is built there.
The city received a land donation of 5 acres and has approved the
library and plans to start building next year, said Ms. Hogan-Price, the
city's library board treasurer. "The library would be essential for kids
who don't have computers at home."
For every black D-FW-area household earning more than $100,000, there
are six households earning less than $25,000 a year. In the central
cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, that ratio is higher.
The ability of families to move up the income scale is different today,
Dr. Harrison said.
"The kind of jobs where you could end schooling with high school and
still earn middle income have been declining," he said.
For this population, the outlook is more dismal, Dr. Harrison said.
E-mail jlafleur@dallasnews.com
