By Velma McBride Murry and Na Liu Vanderbilt University In 1963, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington, the momentous demonstration that helped spur passage of the Civil Rights Act the following year. He described African Americans as living “on a lonely island […]
Topics of Expertise: African American Families / Economic Inequality / Race, Ethnicity & Culture
By Raha Forooz Sabet University of Miami When the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, racial differences in the United States were almost literally black and white. In the early 1960s, 85 percent of the population was white and 11 percent was black. Less than four percent of the population was Latino and less […]
Topics of Expertise: African American Families / Asian & Asian American Families / Immigrant, Mixed Status & Transnational Families / Latino Families / Race, Ethnicity & Culture
By Kimberlyn Fong Mount Holyoke College In the past 50 years there has been a true revolution in American attitudes toward interracial marriage. In the years when the Civil Rights Act was being debated, only four percent of Americans said they approved of marriages between white and blacks. Today 77 percent of the public approves, […]
Topics of Expertise: Biracial/ Multicultural Children and Interracial/ Multicultural Families / Race, Ethnicity & Culture
By Rogelio Sáenz University of Texas at San Antonio Latinos are increasingly driving the demographic fortunes of the United States. Between 2000 and 2011, the number of white children in the country declined by 4.9 million, a decrease of 11 percent. Blacks and American Indians and Alaska Natives also saw their child populations decline. The […]
Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare / Childcare (Providers & Systems) / Economic Inequality / Latino Families / Race, Ethnicity & Culture
The Council on Contemporary Families asked a dozen researchers to discuss what has changed in the past half century for each of the populations affected by the law – religious groups, racial and ethnic minorities, and women. Today, February 4, the Council is releasing an update on the changing religious landscape of America.
Topics of Expertise: Race, Ethnicity & Culture
David McClendon from the University of Texas-Austin, traces the increase in the proportion of marriages contracted between couples from different religious traditions. Even more dramatic has been the increase in the number of marriages where both partners maintain their separate beliefs and practices, rather than one or both changing so that their religions match. The proportion of mixed-religion marriages has doubled since the 1960s.
Topics of Expertise: Race, Ethnicity & CultureIn 1964 the provisions outlawing discrimination on the basis of religion were less controversial than those against discrimination on the basis of race and sex, even though blatant bigotry and outright violence against Catholics and Jews had been pervasive in American history right up through World War II. Prejudices had begun to ease by the early 1960s, but the Civil Rights Act remains an important safeguard for religious (and non-religious) minorities, according to Jerry Z. Park, Joshua Tom and Brita Andercheck, of Baylor University.
Topics of Expertise: Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce / Race, Ethnicity & Culture
Has “hooking up” become the defining feature of college life? Does everyone do it? Does everyone want to? Most research on hooking up has examined college students who live on campus, or nearby, and hook up after alcohol-fueled parties. For example, the Online College Social Life Survey (OCSLS) of 21 colleges and universities shows that more than 70 percent of students, overall, hook up at some point in their college career. Even so, new research from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a diverse urban, public university with more commuters than on-campus residents, suggests that college sex is something quite different for the typical commuting student.
Topics of Expertise: Race, Ethnicity & Culture / Singles & Dating
Fifty years ago this week, on June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, amending the earlier Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, to “prohibit discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers.” So, how’s that going?
Topics of Expertise: Economic Inequality / Gender & Sexuality / Labor & Workforce / Race, Ethnicity & Culture / Work & Family
On average, white women earn 81 percent of what white men make. At first glance it may appear that there is more gender equality among minority men and women than among whites. Hispanic or Latina women make 88 percent of what Latinos do and African American women make 90 percent of what their male counterparts make. But when we add race to gender, these pay gaps become a veritable chasm. Read more to find out.
Topics of Expertise: Economic Inequality / Gender & Sexuality / Race, Ethnicity & Culture
Samuel F. and Rose B. Gingold Professor of Human Development and Social Policy, Director, Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy/ The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University
Assistant Professor of Family, Health, and Policy in the Department of Family and Consumer Studies at the University of Utah
Scholar in Residence, American University
Professor of Human and Organizational Development, Society for Research on Adolescence, Society for Prevention Research, American Psy Association, Society for Research on Child Development
Professor, Department of Sociology & Population Studies Center, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Boston University Medical School; Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology, Boston Medical Center; American Family Therapy Academy; Boston Center for Culturally Affirming Practices
Deputy Program Area Director, Child Trends
