Black Pennsylvanians Make ‘Surprisingly Positive’ Progress Over Decade: Report

Pennsylvania state Sen. Art Haywood unveils his report, "The State of Black Pennsylvania," at the Pennsylvania Capitol building in Harrisburg on Feb. 28, 2023. (Screenshot/The Epoch Times)

Black Pennsylvanians have made strides in income, health care, and education over the last decade, but there is still room for improvement, according to a report titled “The State of Black Pennsylvania.”

Released this week by Pennsylvania Democrat state Sen. Art Haywood, the report covers the period from 2010 to 2021 (pdf). It does not compare Pennsylvania’s black and white populations but focuses solely on changes for the state’s black population.

“I was talking to my wife about these, what she called ‘surprisingly positive’ features of the report,” Haywood said in a Tuesday press conference. “Surprisingly positive, because most of what we hear about in the media is the victim story for African Americans.”

“This is a report of overcoming adversity,” Haywood said. “This is a report of what a group of people have been able to overcome over time, and therefore the spirit of Black History Month is most appropriate.”

Earnings

Compared to 2010, the report shows the median income of black households has increased more than $10,000.

The number of black households earning $100,000 or more climbed from 38,626 in 2010, to 92,576 in 2021.

More black workers are earning wages above poverty level than in previous years, with 51,225 households elevating out of poverty, the report says. But the poverty rate among Pennsylvania’s black community remained at nearly 25 percent in 2021.

Health Care

More black Pennsylvanians have acquired health insurance since 2010, and the number of black Pennsylvanians without a personal doctor fell by 11 percent. Black medical school graduates rose from 48 to 75 people from 2010 to 2021.

Smoking is down 11 percent, and reported cardiovascular disease and mental health concerns dropped slightly. However, diabetes is on the rise in the community, from 13 percent of the population in 2013 to 16 percent in 2021.

Black women and girls between the ages of 15 and 50 years old had 31,000 fewer babies between 2010 and 2021, the report said.

Another report shows abortions are up in the black community. The Pennsylvania Department of Health publishes an annual report with abortion statistics. According to that report, abortions of black children have climbed year over year. In 2016 there were 12,984 abortions performed on black women, but by 2021, black women underwent 14,620 abortions.

Education

In 2010, there were 76,766 black women aged 25 or older who attained a bachelor’s degree or higher. By 2021, that number climbed to 114,885.

For black men, the number of bachelor’s degree holders jumped from 45,965 in 2010, to 80,402 in 2021.

State Sen. Vincent Hughes used the press conference to call for better school funding.

Crime

The number of incarcerated black individuals in state prisons has fallen by 32 percent, from 25,357 inmates in 2010 to 17,173 inmates in 2021, the report says.

The black prison population fell from 49.4 percent of the total state prison inmate population in 2010 to 46 percent in 2021.

“Over 1,000 people are lifers in Pennsylvania prisons who never actually took a life because of the rules around felony murder,” state Sen. Sharif Street said during the press conference. “And there are people who are incarcerated because of expensive court fines and fees and their inability to pay, which is basically the criminalization of poverty. If we address these things, we can make even greater strides in reducing our rate of incarceration.”

Fewer people in prison means more money could go to education, Street said.

Anti-Black Hate Crimes

The report cites the Southern Poverty Law Center as the source reporting that Pennsylvania hate groups are down from 36 to 30 groups in the same decade. But the report also says that “the number of hate crimes motivated by anti-Black biases went up a staggering 323 [percent] when comparing 2010 and 2021 data available through the Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System.”

The report does not offer more detail on hate crimes.

Shaping Policy, Shaping Lives

Several people spoke from Pennsylvania’s Black Caucus and said this report will help form policies going forward, and one person specifically mentioned “anti-racist legislation.”

“What this report tells us is that we have advanced policies and legislation that improved the lives of Pennsylvanians,” state Rep. Donna Bullock said. “And when we do that, those policies, if applied fairly across the board, will benefit black folks, where we have historically had our communities disproportionately impacted by inequitable or racist policies in the past. Our communities have the most ground to gain when we right size or correct those policies.”

Government policy is not the only thing that helps people get ahead. It starts with what we teach young people, the speakers said.

Schools are failing to instill value within students, said Frank Allen, president of the Greater Harrisburg Area NAACP.

“We must then, revisit and reiterate human value,” Allen said. “I’m going to say something that you may not like: parents are responsible for guiding children. There is a decline, a decline in America, of substantial parental guidance in the home, and therefore communities all over the United States, especially in Pennsylvania. Our children are denied the opportunity to grow and to be gifted in that community, and grow through high school and colleges all over this state, because they don’t know, because parents are not instilling in them true values within themselves, and it affects everything in life.”

Allen said the community must get back to the basics.

“The basics are parents doing what their responsibilities require: to grow children. And the three most important things ... are not Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which is good, but it is air, water, and nutrition. And without our children having those three, they will not grow to respond to the American dream, as they should.”