Aged Blacks: A Potpourri in the Direction of the Reduction of Inequities

Abstract

AMONG THE EARLIEST GERONTOLOGICAL PAPERS on black aged were probably three first appearing in Phylon.l Since then such papers have multiplied, but this proliferation has failed to produce sufficient interest in improving the objective social conditions (e.g., income, housing, and transportation) of black aged, nor has it aided those experiencing involuntary relocation in the onslaught of urban renewal and highway programs. These are serious problems. This paper focuses specifically upon (a) grandparental roles in a contemporary urban Southern setting and certain implications of those roles relative to sociocultural conditions of aged blacks; (b) the National Caucus on the Black Aged, a group recently developed to focus attention and action upon significant service, training, and research gaps relative to black aged; and (c) a specific proposal to reduce the minimum age-eligibility requirements for Old-Age, Survivors, Disability, and Health Insurance (OASDHI) for blacks, so as to reflect the racial disparities in life-expectancy rates. These three facts, interfaced in highlighting racial inequities, are set forth below.