Why Don't American Cities Burn?. Michael B. Katz

For much of American history, black women worked out of necessity.²¹ As slaves, they were forced to labor; after slavery, and in the North, they worked to supplement men’s meager wages or because they were more often widowed.²² In post–World War II cities, disincentives built into public assistance kept many of them from employment until after 1996, when new welfare legislation forced them into the labor force—for some a welcome opportunity, for others a chance to join the ranks of the working poor.²³ At the same time, better education, the impact of the civil rights movement, and the expansion of jobs in government, health care, and the social services opened more attractive work opportunities to black women. By contrast, for many black men in the late twentieth century, just a job in the regular labor market itself often proved elusive, a situation highlighted by social scientists who lamented black men’s chronic detachment from the labor force.²⁴ The eminent social scientist William Julius Wilson titled his 1996 book When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor.