CENSUS . . . BLACKS STILL MISS THE ECONOMIC BOAT

The good news: more black Americans are finishing school and moving into good jobs. The bad news: most continue to earn less than whites. Worse, African-American children are nearly three times as likely to be poor as whites. The Census Bureau delivered the verdicts today through a pair of comprehensive studies of the U.S. black population, underscoring long-held concerns that poverty and other economic stumbling blocks continue to disproportionately affect African-Americans. At a press conference, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown focused on one galling finding: that 46 percent of black children lived in poverty in 1993, compared with 17 percent of white children. "This information provides further evidence that we are in danger of becoming a society of haves and have-nots," Brown said. "This is unacceptable." TIME national correspondent Jack E. White says the nonpartisan reports will "reinforce the belief that black interests have been put on the political back burner," and will jolt major black groups like the NAACP to take stronger stands on economic issues. "This is confirmation that 30 years after the Civil Rights acts were passed, blacks don't enjoy anything like equality," White says.