1. Photo from The Harlem Book of the Dead (1978) by James Van Der Zee
JAZZ
TONI MORRISON, 1992
Photo from The Harlem Book of the Dead (1978) by James Van Der Zee

4. 369th Regiment march down 5th Avenue, NYC, 1919

6. Chapter II “The Negro American Family”
At the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro family […] The white family has achieved a high degree of stability and is maintaining that stability. By contrast, the family structure of lower class Negroes is highly unstable, and in many urban centers is approaching complete breakdown. […] In essence, the Negro community has been forced into a matriarchal structure which, because it is to out of line with the rest of the American society, seriously retards the progress of the group as a whole, and imposes a crushing burden on the Negro male and, in consequence, on a great many Negro women as well. […]
Chapter IV “The Tangle of Pathology”
In 1 out of 4 Negro families where the husband is present, is an earner, and someone else in the family works, the husband is not the principal earner. More important, it is clear that Negro females have established a strong position for themselves in white collar and professional employment, precisely the areas of the economy which are growing most rapidly, and to which the highest prestige is accorded. […] Negro youth grow up with little knowledge of their fathers, less of their fathers' occupations, still less of family occupational traditions.
Negro children without fathers flounder -- and fail.
-The Negro Family: The Case for National Action
(aka the Moynihan Report 1965)