A Portrait of Black Men

Posted by on June 03, 2006

The suicide rate among young black men has doubled since 1980. One in four black men has not worked for more than a year, twice the proportion of male whites or Latinos. And trends suggest a third of black males born today will spend time in prison.

Yet, eight in 10 said they are satisfied with their lives, and six in 10 reported that it is a "good time" to be a black man in the United States. Eight in 10 said they have a better life than their parentd, and about as many feel optimistic about their futures.

That, according to a new survey by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University of 2,864 people, including a sample of 1,328 black men, "to capture the experiences and perceptions of black men at a time marked by increasing debate about how to build on their achievements and address the failures that endure decades after the civil rights movement."

This is the first in a year-long series planned by the paper.