Indicators of Racial Inequality in Huntsville: A Statistical Report

At the December 2006 meeting of One Huntsville, the 2007 Race Relations Initiative was launched to “revisit and re-vision race relations in our community,” said Rev. Frank Broyles, Chair.

The Indicators Committee was charged with gathering data on the nature and extent of racial inequality in Huntsville. This report is the end-product of the Committee’s work. Its intent is to provide a starting point for open discussions about ending disadvantage and racial inequities in Huntsville,

The indicators presented herein are limited by accessible public data by race for comparing blacks and whites.

2005 Population

In the population of Huntsville reporting one race, 64.3% or 101,915 were white. 29.4% or 46,581 were black ; and 4,285 or 2.7% were Asian. Other racial groups comprise the remainder.

Household Income

The median household income in the U.S. in 2005 was $46,318.

In 2000, the most recent year of income data by race, the median household income in Huntsville was $48,401 for whites and $25,073 for blacks.

Business Ownership

In 2002, there were 14,886 businesses in the City of Huntsville. Although 88% were white-owned, they generated 98% of the business receipts, $17.6M. The remaining 1,802 or 12% were black-owned businesses that generated a meager $303,904, less than 2% of business receipts.

Homeownership provides a foundation for financial security and is an important engine for wealth accumulation. Nationally, black homeownership rates are still more than 25 percentage points below those of whites.

In 2000, there were 41,121 owner-occupied housing units in Huntsville. Of this number, 82% were owned by whites and 18% by blacks. Black homeownership was 64 percentage points below whites.

Property Values

In 2000, the median value of owner-occupied housing in the U.S. was $119,600.

In Zip Codes 35802 and 35803 where the majority of residents are white, the median property values were $137,000 and $120,000, respectively.

In Zip Codes 35810 and 35816 where blacks are the majority, the median property values were $65,00 and $70,000.

Public Housing

In 2005, only 29% of Huntsville residents were black, yet 84% of public housing residents are black.

Poverty

Nationally, 13.3% of Americans were below the poverty level in 2005.The percent in Alabama was 13.7. The percent in Huntsville was 13% or 20,685 persons. However, 7.3% were white and 26% were black.

Children in Poverty. Nationally, 18.5% of children under age 18 were below poverty, and 21.3% of children under age 5 were below poverty. In Huntsville, 4,595 or 73% of black children were below the poverty level, compared to 27% or 1,677 white children.

Families in Poverty. Ten percent (10%) of all families in Huntsville were below poverty. Female heads of households with children under 18 had the highest poverty level at 37.4%, and for those with related children under 5 years only, the percentage was a staggering 61% in 2005.

There were significant gaps in Reading and Math proficiency between black and white students in the Huntsville City Schools during the 2005-06 school year.

Black high school students scored 1.21 in Reading, and 10.18 in Math. White high school students scored 13.85 in Reading and 24.04 in Math. Similar disparities were reported for Grades 3-5 and Grades 6-8.

Educational Attainment

In the population over 25 years of age, 14,983 have not completed high school; 3.8% of whites have less than 9th grade, compared with 6.7% of blacks

Voter Participation

In the 2004 election, a total of 179,412 individuals voted in Madison County. Only 17.5% of the active voters were black.

Crime

In 2005, there were 8,773 crimes in Madison County, including homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, simple assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft. Of these crimes, 58% were committed by blacks and 42% were by whites.

Media

The 2005 Knight Foundation Newsroom Diversity Report for The Huntsville Times indicates that only 5.5% of the newsroom staff was non-white, a drop from 11.5%; an all-time high in 1994.

Health Indicators

Prenatal Care.  The total births in Madison County in 2004 were 3,678. Of this number, 11.5% of white mothers and 16.8% of black mothers had less than adequate prenatal care.

Teen Births.  In 2004, there 403 births to girls 10-19 years of age. Births to blacks were 46%, disproportionate to their representation in the population of Madison County.

Infant Deaths.  The death rate per 1,000 births to whites was 7.2 in 2004, and 10.1 for blacks. For babies born to mothers 10-19 years, the death is 13.9 for whites and 16.0 for blacks.