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of segregation upon his personality than the form the segregation takes—legal or informal, Southern or Northern.⁵²

A Yale University study of youth in the lowest socioeconomic class in New Haven in 1950 whose behavior was followed through their 18th year revealed that among the delinquents in the group, 38 percent came from broken homes, compared with 24 percent of nondelinquents.⁵³

The President's Task Force on Manpower Conservation in 1963 found that of young men rejected for the draft for failure to pass the mental tests, 42 percent of those with a court record came from broken homes, compared with 30 percent of those without a court record. Half of all the nonwhite rejectees in the study with a court record came from broken homes.

An examination of the family background of 44,448 delinquency cases in Philadelphia between 1949 and 1954 documents the frequency of broken homes among delinquents. Sixty-two percent of the Negro delinquents and 36 percent of white delinquents were not living with both parents, In 1950, 33 per cent of nonwhite children and 7 percent of white children in Philadelphia were living in homes without both parents. Repeaters were even more likely to be from broken homes than first offenders.⁵⁴

 

The Armed Forces

The ultimate mark of inadequate preparation for life is the failure rate on the Armed Forces mental test, The Armed Forces Qualification Test is not quite a mental test, nor yet an education test, It is a test of ability to perform at an acceptable level of competence. It roughly measures ability that ought to be found in an average 7th or 8th grade student. A grown young man who cannot pass this test is in trouble.

Fifty-six percent of Negroes fail it.

This is a rate almost four times that of the whites.

The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines conduct by far the largest and most important education and training activities of the Federal Government, as well as provide the largest single source of employment in the nation.

White

Negro

All Court
cases

First
Offenders

Recidivists

All Court
cases

First
Offenders

Recidivists

Number of Cases

20,691

13,220

4,612

22,695

11,442

6,641

Number not living with both parents

07,422

04,125

2,047

13,960

06,586

4,298

Percent not living with both parents

35.9

31.2

44.4

61.6

57.6

64.7

Source:

Adapted from table 1, p. 255, "Family Status and the Delinquent Child," Thomas P. Monahan, Social Forces, March 1957.

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