Daniel Patrick Moynihan

1
Daniel Patrick Moynihan

• Background
• Born March 16, 1927 Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Died March 26, 2003 (aged 76)New York City
• Nationality American
• Political party Democratic
• Spouse Liza Moynihan
• Alma mater Tufts University
• Religion Roman Catholic

2
Background Contd.

• United States Senator from New York
• In officeJanuary 3, 1977  January 3, 2001
• Preceded by James L. Buckley
• Succeeded by Hillary Rodham Clinton

3
Political Career

• He was a Kennedy delegate at the 1960 Democratic
  National Convention.
• Moynihan was an Assistant Secretary of Labor for
  policy in the Kennedy Administration and in the
  early part of the Johnson Administration.
• In that capacity, he did not have operational
  responsibilities, allowing him to devote all of
  his time to trying to formulate national policy
  for what would become the War on Poverty. He had
  a small staff including Paul Barton, Ellen
  Broderick, and Ralph Nader (who at 29 years of
  age, hitchhiked to Washington, D.C. and got a job
  working for Moynihan in 1963).

4

• THE NEGRO FAMILY 1965
• (Moynihan Report)
• Main Points
• Family is the heart of the deterioration of the
  fabric of Negro society-the basic social unit of
  American life basic socializing unit.
• The role of the family in shaping character and
  ability is so pervasive as to be easily
  overlooked causes instability. Negro families
  are headed by females.
• In essence, the Negro community has been forced
  into a matriarchal structureretarding the
  progress of the group as a whole, and imposing a
  crushing burden on the Negro maleand the Negro
  women as well.

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Main Points Contd.

• There was a long history of discrimination that
  worked against the emergence of a strong father
  figure in the Negro family
• With the emancipation of the slaves, the Negro
  American family was formed in the U.S. as apposed
  to the white American family.
• The Negro was given liberty, but not equalitythe
  most effected was the Negro male.
• With Jim Crow-mandated "separate but equal"
  status for black Americans-keeping the Negro in
  his place making it much harder for the Negro
  family.

• These events worked against the emergence of a
  strong father figure

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Main Points Contd.

• The Unemployment on the African-American male has
  largely contributed to the present crisis of the
  Negro family which has been forced into a
  matriarchal structure
• The impact of unemployment on the Negro male, is
  the least understood of all of the developments
  that have contributed to the present crisisThe
  fundamental, overwhelming fact is that Negro
  unemployment, with the exception of a few years
  during WWII and the Korean War, has continued at
  disaster levels for 35 yearsAs jobs became more
  and more difficult to find, the stability of the
  family became more and more difficult to
  maintain
• In essence, the Negro community has been forced
  into a matriarchal structure which, because it is
  so 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.

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Conclusion

• A national effort towards the problems of Negro
  Americans must be directed towards the question
  of family structure. The object should be to
  strengthen the Negro family so as to enable it to
  raise and support its members as do other
  families

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Questions

• What is wrong with having female heads of
  households?
• What are the origins of the tangle of pathology
  in the black community?
• How can the government alter familial relations?