Sorry, couldn't resist.Your questions from your previous post are in quotes. "It is my understanding based on your posts that up until the point in which the civil rights efforts finally realized success the Black familial unit was much stronger, and according to some evidence (which I'll assume you've done your research on) the educational gap was narrowing (despite "separate" schools)." As the statistics both chill and I have shown, it's obvious that two-parent families had been increasing for both blacks and whites all the way up until the 1960s. Two-parent families correlate to education and to income. The time from the 1860s until the 1960s was an intellectual triumph for the blacks. This, despite separation. Educated two-parent black households outside the South made as much money as educated two-parent white households outside the South. (Now, educated two-parent black households everywhere make MORE than educated two-parent white households.) Some all-black schools outperformed all-white schools. They were separate and they were better. (Again, I'm not advocating separateness. What I'm saying is that I'd rather send my white kid to that all-black school. Why? Because it was better. Some whites just refuse to give blacks credit, though.) "What in your opinion, then has caused this "weakening" of the Black familial unit and and as a result, the educational opportunities afforded to Blacks?" I'll say it, though I've been exhaustive on this subject. The black family (like the white family, like any colored family) has weakened to the extent that single-parent households have increased. Why? Single-parent homes highly relate to crime, poverty, and a lack of education. This is happening across many cultures, not just white and black. It's a much deeper issue: values. Values are important in every culture; they determine behavior. A young woman who values her education and not having children as a teenager is going to be less likely to have children as a teenager than a girl who doesn't value an education and who doesn't care about getting pregnant. (This is a whole other issue. Not only are young blacks having more babies, they've having more miscarriages and abortions. They're getting pregnant at a much greater rate. That's what this whole mess comes down to. Young girls getting pregnant. Blame it on the white man if you want, but it doesn't make much sense.)