The Vanishing Black Family: How Welfare and Feminism Made Marriage Optional and Children Vulnerable

by Delano Squires

From one of the most trusted commentators on the issues facing black Americans today, The Vanishing Black Family exposes the real force holding back black Americans—and it’s closer to home than you think.

Since 2020, there’s been a sustained effort to narrow the divide between black and white Americans. Most of these efforts focus on the systemic racism that discriminate against black Americans, yet one of the starkest differences between white and black children starts at seventy percent of black children are born to unmarried parents, compared to only twenty-five percent of white children. In The Vanishing Black Family Delano Squires argues that this marriage inequality goes a long way to explaining the disparities in education, employment, and criminal justice for black and white Americans. The best way to improve socioeconomic outcomes for black Americans? Reaffirming the sanctity of marriage.

Taking the reader on a journey from slavery and through our modern age, Squires describes the “sinister six” forces that are insinuating their way into our policies and culture, heralding themselves as harbingers of progress while dismantling the traditional family structure that is the true foundation of socioeconomic equality. Squires gives a wide-reaching prescription for starting a “marriage before carriage” revolution that spares no punches while taking on the ills of popular culture, the modern-day church, historically black colleges and universities, the accepted roles of husbands and wives, and even the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Vanishing Black Family is a call to action for black Americans everywhere who understand that the struggle to rebuild the black family is a mission to protect society’s most vulnerable our children.

256 pages, Hardcover

Published June 16, 2026

Reviews

[Nicole Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

The end of a thing (this book) is better than the beginning. A more apt title for this could be "The Vanishing Black Family: How Perpetual Male Adolescent Mindsets and a Changing Cultural Landscape Contributed to Put Black American Marriage in Decline. At times it felt like Squires was punching down on Black women. Why does the fate of marriage depend so much on the perceived progressive mentalities of women? For me, this book raises more questions than answers, especially given the cursory mention of white violence and oppression as responses to black advancement following Reconstruction, some of which, arguably, we still see today. The author completely lost me when he referred to Bill Cosby and Kevin Samuels as thought leaders. May they continue to rest in peace and or the bin of obscurity where their ideas belong. Some salient points: trap/drill/ratchet music can contribute to youth degeneracy. Furthermore, it would be great to have a revival of flourishing Black marriages, but 51% of black men have never been married. That deserves more explanation in this book. All in all "The Vanishing Black Family" is well-researched and written although I disagree with many of its premises. Who is the audience anyway? Read at your own risk.

[Jennifer Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful nonfiction full of statistics on how the devolution of the family in America has contributed to so many other social issues: poverty, incarceration, etc.

[Harmonie Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delano Squires examines fatherlessness and low marriage rates in the black family and argues that social welfare and feminism have made it happen. He begins with slavery, then highlights the 1960s "second wave feminism," he references The Feminine Mystique; and moves to the 1980s and 1990s with welfare reform and pop culture, particularly rap music, up to the present day. Squires focuses exclusively on black people in major American cities. He writes nothing about black families in suburbs or small towns. He uses broad strokes and equates feminism with women who dismiss men. He makes stark assumptions about sex, male and female relationships, abortion, and marriage. He wants men and women to marry each other and raise their biological children together. Squires understands the critical role husbands and fathers play in the family, but he does not unpack the reasons why so many black men are unwilling or unable to be husbands and fathers and lead a traditional nuclear family.

[kenneth wiley · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best that I’ve read