THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, September 16, 1994             TAG: 9409160528
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A12  EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Short :   30 lines

BLACK FAMILIES NOW EARN EVEN LESS THAN WHITES, CENSUS SAYS

The income gap between black and white families has grown over the past two decades, the Census Bureau says.

In a statistical report prepared for Congress, the agency said this week that median income among black families was 54 percent of the median income for white families in 1992, compared with 61 percent in 1969.

The widening of the gap was due largely to the increase in black female-headed families, where poverty rates are high.

However, black married couples earned 80 percent as much as white married couples in 1992, up from 72 percent in 1969.

The report, ``Black Children in America - 1993,'' said the proportion of black children living with two parents dropped from 59 percent in 1970 to 36 percent in 1993.

Black children were almost three times more likely than non-Hispanic white children to have a parent absent, and nine times more likely to live with a parent who had never been married, the report said. by CNB