Economist and assistant secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan's The Negro Family: The Case for National Action (1965) stirred controversy.

Moynihan detailed African American familial disorganization. Too many children, mostly born out of wedlock, forced their parents to quit school. Parents’ low educational levels, in turn, meant inadequate income, thus depriving children of opportunities. Women headed 25 percent of households, where girls often became pregnant and boys rarely learned “appropriate” male roles. To disrupt this cycle of family poverty, Moynihan prescribed remedies of education, job training, and military service for young men. Higher rates of employment were essential. More and better jobs would “strengthen the Negro family so as to enable it to raise and support its members as do other families” (Shinkin and Frate, 1978, p. 174).

Many black leaders and scholars roundly criticized the report. Their basic critique was that it over-blamed the victims. They urged measures to end racial discrimination and educate blacks and the poor.