Although incomes for African Americans have improved significantly since the Civil Rights era, they are still lower then the average Americans. For example the median income for Black families is $20 thousand a year less than the American median income. These charts also prove that there is a substantial benefit for those in a married-couple family no matter what race or ethnicity.
Welfare/Other Income
5.5% of African Americans receive public cash assistance which is twice that of the national share. But even more startling, is the fact that 26% of Blacks receive some sort of food stamp assistance. SOURCE:US Census Bureau 2010 American Community Survey
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African American Income

African American Income
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  • $29,328 Black Median Household income (all races $35,856) 2010 4th QT Wage and salary workers, excluding incorporated self employed - Bureau of Labor Statistics
  • $614: weekly earnings for the 11,658,000 Black Annual Workers  (all races total: 100,102,000 at $752) - 2010 Bureau of Labor Statistics - 16 Years or Older
AFRICAN AMERICAN INCOME                                    
Income in the Black or African American Median Income may have lowered due to the increase in unemployment in 2010.  Another indication is the correlation between education and race.  There are many educated African Americans in the work force, however, the numbers begin to lower from High School educated persons to Masters educated persons. There is less compensation overall amongst African Americans which, of course, affects the median income. 
Poverty has always been a challenge for the Black community. Although poverty conditions for Black America have improved, the rates are still staggering when compared to that of all Americans.  43.5% of single mother Black families are living in poverty compared to only 9.3% percent of married-couple Black families.
POVERTY RATES .
PERCENTAGE IN POVERTYBlacks   all races
All families      
With related children under 18 years
Married-couple families     
With related children under 18 years
Families with female householder,
    no husband present
With related children under 18 years
All people (individuals)
People in families
Unrelated individuals,
   15 years and over

*US Census Bureau 2010 American Community Survey
What is Poverty
(by Shandira Pavelcik)

As of 2009, 43.6 million Americans are living in poverty. The official poverty threshold is $21,756 annually for families having two adults and two children (family of 4). That threshold increases based on a family paying for food, clothing, shelter, utilities and medical expenditures, in which it is raised to a threshold rate of $29,602.(2009). For African Americans, the poverty rate increased in 2009 to 25.8%, 9.9 million Blacks. The unemployment rate for Blacks in America is at 2.9 million and is 16% of the total unemployment statistics. However, only persons that are actively seeking employment are counted in that rate.

According to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that supplies data to the U.S. Census Bureau: If a family's total income is less than the family's threshold, then that family and every individual in it is considered in poverty.   People and families are classified as being in poverty if their income is less than their poverty threshold. If their income is less than half their poverty threshold, they are below 50% of poverty; less than the threshold itself, they are in poverty (below 100% of poverty); less than 1.25 times the threshold, below 125% of poverty, and so on. The greater the ratio of income to poverty, the more people fall under the category, because higher ratios include more people with higher incomes.

11.3%
17.9%
5.6%
8.4%

30.3%
39.6%
15.3%
12.8%

26.2%

23.2%
31.7%
8.3%
11.0%

37.0%
45.4%
27.1%
25.3%

35.0%

During the 1990s African American income grew tremendously. By 2000, 57.9% of African American households had an annual income of $35K or more compared to just 38.2% in 1970. However due to the recession that number dropped to just 46.8% by 2010 reversing much of these gains. The most dramatic change during this same period is the percentage of Black households making under $15K (from 14.5% in 2000 to 25.6% in 2010) which is well below the poverty line.
Wages By Education
AFRICAN AMERICAN POVERTY                                    
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2010 UPDATED
35.8%
33%
34.6%
28.9%
31.4%
30.6%
27.3%
46.9%
29.1%
27.7%
14.5%
44.3%
15.6%
25.6%
27.2%
37.1%
37.2%
29.2%
0.2%
5.9%
9.3%
9.4%
8.4%
0.1%
0.5%
1.7%
1.6%
1.2%
1970   1980   1990    2000   2005   2010
African American Earnings: 1970-2010
Household Income in 2010 CPI-U-RS adjusted dollars
2.2%
3.3%