§ 74-8101 — Legislative findings and declarations.

A. The Oklahoma State Legislature hereby finds and declares that: 1. Statistical studies chronicling the status of African- American males in American society reveal startling and disturbing conditions and trends; 2. By every indicia measuring achievement, success and quality of life in American society, African-American males are facing a prodigious struggle for survival while fighting formidable opponents; 3. African-American males make up only three and two-tenths percent (3.2%) of the population of Oklahoma, but are victims of twenty-one and eight-tenths percent (21.8%) of the state's homicides and comprise twenty-one and five-tenths percent (21.5%) of all persons under the control of the State Department of Corrections; 4. National statistics indicate that one of every twenty-two African-American males will die as a result of homicide and that one of every six African-American males will be arrested by the age of nineteen years; 5. African-American males make up only three percent (3%) of Oklahoma's total college and university enrollment; 6. African-American males suffer from more debilitating health problems, a higher death rate and a lower life expectancy than males in other ethnic and racial groups; 7. Between the years 1973 and 1988, the average real annual income for African-American males in the United States between the ages of twenty and twenty-four years fell by more than fifty percent (50%); and 8. There is no statewide repository of data available on the status of African-American males.

Legislative History

Added by Laws 1993, c. 96, § 1, emerg. eff. April 18, 1993.