ABSTRACT
The words of Jeremiah 8:20 can be used to describe the plight of African Americans in the United States. Specifically, the failure of the educational and legal systems to provide Black children with a quality education perpetuates the pedagogy of poverty (Bell, 1987; Haberman, 1991; Knapp, 1995). In 2002, 32.3% of all Black children lived in poverty (Proctor & Dalaker, 2003). While this figure is down from 44% in 1993, the jobless rate for Black youth between the ages of 16 and 19 hit a historic high of 78.3% in July of 2003 (Children’s Defense Fund, 2003). Thus, roughly a third of Black children were poor, and more than three-quarters of Black youth were unemployed in 2003.
