ABSTRACT
Black Americans are a large, diverse, and still rapidly growing racial minority group. In separate analyses of the changing demographics of U.S. Blacks since the early 1970s, O’Hare (1987) and Jackson (1988) called attention not only to the rapid growth of the Black population but also to the rapid aging of the U.S. Black population. Concerning population size increases, the U.S. Census Bureau in 1986 estimated the Black population at 29.4 million persons, or 12.2% of the total U.S. population. This compared to the 26.8 million, or 11.8%, who were counted in 1980, and the 22.5 million, or 11.1 %, who were counted in 1970 (O’Hare, 1987).
